It is thought that plants produce some compounds to protect themselves against predation, some of these compounds happen to attract us, instead of detering us from eating them, psychoactives being an obvious example.

Under stressful circumstances (predation for example) plants ramp up their production of defensive chemicals. If you want to learn more, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH7cp1nqHLc + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrSAc-vjG4

If psychedelic compounds are the defensive chemicals against predation of plants, then perhaps we can simulate controlled predation (pruning for example) or what came to my mind was: "UV light is not only damaging to humans, but to plants also." Could exposure of the plants for few hours of UV-B light everyday act as a mild stressor, which hopefully would cause a spike in the production/content of Salvinorin-A in Salvia for example, or any other plant for that matter.

(That's how it works for cannabis and it has been proven effective to my knowledge)

Low production scale, hobbyst cannabis growers sometimes use UV-B and to a lesser extent UV-A light to increase cannabinoids content (increase in potency, higher amounts of THC, CBD, CBN etc.)

Any thoughts on my thoughts?
Thank you for your attention!

I do mimic predation with my cannabis plants but have not done any controlled experiments to see if potency increases. I have noticed that resin output is greater when harvesting tops and the bottoms of plants staggered weeks apart.

I did not know that UVB was definitely proven for cannabis so thank you a ton for the knowledge

There are various large scale grows in Colorado have implemented LED lights beneath the canopy in order to increase yields. There seem to be some grows in California, and probably Colorado too that implement UVB lights as well, under the impression it will enhance trichome and cannabinoid production in plants (I say under the impression because I haven't researched that much relative efficacy).

The idea makes a lot of sense to me. Kind of the idea "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," but it regards to the plants lol.

One love

Ps @seeingisbelieving, where you been!?! Lol it's good to see you

Yees! If i recollect correctly, specifically resin production is significantly increased when UV-B light is applied. Resin production in !cannabis! can be increased with other methods aswell.
THC concentration % might not significantly increase, although i think it does actually, because its a chemical defense mechanism, animals and insects dont like to get high because that makes them vulnerable to predators. (I want to see this tried on plants like Mimosa/Acacia because hypothetically it could increase DMT content)

Increasing light intensity (meaning PPFD - Photosynthetic photon flux density), which describes the number of photons (light) that land on a square meter (m2) area every second. Umol/m2/s1
- This works because intense light will act as stressor (although cannabis have high light requirements, it still has its saturation point, which of course can be elevated with supplemental CO2 but thats other topic and i wouldn't recommend it). Anyway, intense light 800-900 PPFD will almost "burn" the plants and their primary goal is to reproduce, so in order to ensure that, they will ramp up resin production to reflect some of the intense light in order to protect the seeed bract and to avoid damage and proper seed development, even if they are not pollinated they will still do that because they evolved like that. Thats why good growers increase light intensity during flower (PPFD), that can be done with a light dimmer, switching to more powerfull lights during flower or shortening the distance between the plant canopy tops (which have to be even) and the light soure, of course latter method will reduce the illuminated area but will increase intensity, especially in the center which with low quality light is not very good, because that can/will create hotspot which in combination with uneven canopy will result in "light burn" and poor plant structure because the PPFD between the center and the edges of the illuminated area can be drastically different!

Increasing environmental temperature and lowering (relative) humidity would also work.
I dont recommend increasing temperature tho, as that comes with its own down sides that i wont go into because the reply will be even longer. Lowering humidity however again acts as a stressor and again will increase resin production because the plant is now trying to conserve its water supply. Resin secretion will ramp up to reflect some light to lower the rate of photosynthesis and reduce the demands for water.

UV-B is a good low stress stimulator that apparently works for cannabis, but my interest is if its going to work with DMT containing plants, and if it doesn't it would be a good starting point to find a method that could trigger mechanisms that will lead to higher DMT % in plant materials, whatever that method would be, UV-B/pruning/introducing pests/hot or cold/humid or dry. Whatever!

Sorry for the long reply, but its really a lot more complicated than that, its science and i cant lay down all the info i know because it would be a lot longer, i may have written something confusing, im in kind of a rush now. Its all so complex and so fascinating it cant be all explained in a single post!

Kind regards, Th Entity

Exactly, and i think if we want to increase DMT yields, we should focus on improving the cultivation of the DMT containing plants and how to increase the alkaloid content, cannabis back in the day had low THC levels, nowadays its significantly higher, thanks to science and cultivation!
The same mindset should be applied to psychedelic plants, i think.

I've seen this idea thrown around in the cactus sub forum.

What about lsa containing plants? The endophytic fungus is responsible for alkaloid production but I do know that alkaloids are concentrated in the plants leaves, roots and stems and the symbiotic relationship involves the fungus providing protection from insects using said alkaloids. I'm curious if the plants alkaloid content would be higher in environments that were more infested with insects. I have enough plants and land to do a few different experiments. Thanks again for the thoughts!

I do not have a greenhouse (yet) but when I do I'll be sure to try it out on some mimosa and acacia. Selective breeding plants is something I've yet to do but I am incredibly interested.