Hi Nexus people,

I'll admit something up front: I'm not really here for the DMT. I live somewhere (NW Europe) too cold to grow the traditional sources, and the reed grasses contain gramine which I don't want to mess with. And I'm a bit strange, I am much more interested in things I can grow myself locally, I am less interested in things that can only be imported. To be honest, I also don't like the idea of producing an entheogen that requires using things like hexane when I don't really know how to responsibly dispose of it.

No, for me I'm more interested in psilocybin. And there are other forums for Psilocybin, but to be honest DMT-Nexus seems to be a much better community spirit.
I like that it's about responsible, environmentally aware growing, and that the forum puts a clear focus on communicating and understanding. e.g. I like that there's a "No Conspiracy Theories" rule: it says a lot about where the Nexus puts its values.

I know the conversation here about Psilocybin is smaller, but I'm not really here for volume: the archives on other sites are huge and I can mostly lurk those without having to engage too much with the _abundant_ trolls.

I _am_ interested in other entheogenic psychoactives: I keep some small Salvias and I have a few cacti growing indoors, though I've never had the heart to consume the cacti and I only use small amounts of Salvia as a 'zen aid' for meditation. As a meditation aide, a leaf or two is great and it's great to keep the plant for its other medicinal properties just in case.

For me, Psilocybin is mostly for micro/mini dosing for mental health, and to help me see the world in detail again and appreciate the beauty in small things. It helped me reconnect with my kids and the good fortune I have in my life. I went onto a long plateau of good health and mindfulness and didn't need Psilocybin enough to bother growing more. But I started drifting again and I had lost my cultures.
So, now I'm back on my adventure of growing 'the medicine' and this time I'm working with cultures that are appropriate for quiet, stable, long-term production of personal volumes. Outdoor wood-lovers, and sclerotia-bearers.

Hoping to have some friendly discussion here and a better vibe.

Welcome to The Nexus!

Yeah it can be a bit frustrating the fact that in some (usually cold) places there are no known good DMT-containing local plants, and I totally applaud the desire to work more locally and sustainably!

There just might be some DMT-containing plants we are unaware about even in those cold climates. I think that is definitely an area to explore, and was one of the main reasons I started with the TLC kits, and one of the reasons why I'm at the moment developing a big database to share this sort of international phytochemical research data, so keep tuned.

Regarding extraction chemical, I generally also rather not use petrochemicals for the most part, even though I don't think it necessarily is a bad thing (just like sometimes we may use transport methods that use fossil fuels). Everything has its place within reasonable boundaries. Either case I do think it's a good idea to explore alternative methods, like alcohol-based methods or limonene-based methods (like BLAB with NaOH or Amorfati / Q21 with lime) .

Also, can you please share a bit about your experience with growing different kinds of mushrooms?

Be well!

I had seen the Limonene idea, I hadn't seen Alcohol. Will look those over, thanks.

I do also remember seeing a thread, probably here, about possible colder-climate plants, and the theory that DMT isn't rare at all if we just go looking. I had actually started growing some prairie bundleflower as a "just in case" experiment, because apparently the roots contain useful amounts of DMT, but they don't seem to like our climate at all. Oh well! Anyways, I've never actually seen reports of anyone using it successfully and people seem to think it's a myth.

For the mushrooms.. time will tell. I've grown cubies before and they're well-documented, but what I've read of Mexicana makes them sound easier still. In theory you don't have to fruit Mexicana, which could remove a lot of bother (but you can fruit them, without much difficulty). You can expand a culture horizontally into lots of jars, then just use individual jars as you need and leave the rest to mature for months at a time. And you can then isolate fresh culture from a mature sclerotium and grow out from that... though eventually the culture may get stale and need a fruit-spore-sprout cycle to restart. I have a small jar colonising and I'll try a grain-to-grain to expand out, we'll see. Main barrier to getting into Mexicana is the fact that spores are still hard to get.

I have a culture of woodlovers too which is also colonising, and I'll make an outdoor bed and hope for the best. I'll probably use those for microdosing too. But the woodlovers carry the threat of "Woodlover's Paralysis" and it's poorly documented or studied. I'd hold to the theory that it's an extra-methylated serotonin derivative and others who have experienced WLP have said that it's definitely dose-dependent, which makes sense. I've heard taking ginger should hit the same receptors blamed for the paralysis, so if I ever take woodlovers I'll probably throw them in Ginger tea. But I'm growing them mostly as a backup plan because beds can last years and expand easily. If I took a larger dose someday than a microdose regimen, I think I'd stick to sclerotia or non-woodlovers for safety.

I'd also love to get prints someday for classic liberty caps: there are people on the Shroomery cultivating them and they don't look at all as "impossible to culture" as people have always supposed. You just have to grow them outdoors to get fruits, and the yields are very low for the effort invested. But to a permaculturist that's usually not a reason to not bother. I'd like to have a patch in my garden anyways, and I'd just feed it some manure now and then and be grateful for the occasional flush. I've never found any lib caps though and I'm not in a position to go hunting anytime soon, so I'll focus on the shroom projects I've got going already. I've got some culinary species growing also so my hands are already full.

Welcome to the Nexus

yes the community here is great , you could try growing some DMT containing plants to see if they grow in your climate , it might not work but if it does