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Growing Phalaris is very easy - it is a grass that can tolerate floods and extreme drought. A plant dug out of the ground and leftwithout any water for 6 days suffers only minor wilting. Severewilting occurs after drought over 9 days in duration. Placing the
whole plant underwater doesn't kill the plant.
To achieve optimum alkaloid-level, however, takes some skill. Time never
stops, and everyone wants to get their phalaris as big and trypty in
as short time as possible. Parts you are after are leaves - leaves have
the highest alkaloid contents - so dont harvest anything else -
highest alkaloid concentrations are found in immature grass and leaf
blades, lowest in leaf sheaths, stems and roots.
Starting from seeds is easy. Get some shallow (10 cm/4"
pots. Tray
with edges will do, bucket is fine - anything that can hold some soil
together, something that doesn't rot or suck the water from the soil.
Regular plastic pots are fine. Dont use clay/unglazed ceramic pots, these
hold water.
Place soil in the container, wet it thoroughly, and place seeds on the
soil. You can soak the seeds for 24 or 12 or 6 hours before if you want
to - this will speed up the process a bit. Cover the seeds with thin layer
of soil (say like 3 mm). Spray the soil with water, and cover the container
with clear plastic so that humidity stays high. If you can raise the
temperature couple of degrees (23-25 C), seeds will germinate faster.
After couple of days first sprouts should be visible, remove the plastic.
Optimum temperature for vegetative growth would be about 20-22 C degrees.
_________
Alkaloids in phalarii can be increased with stressing. Stressing, on
the other hand, slows the growth and decreases the total yield. I will
refer to any action that increases the total alkaloid-yield by stressing.
These methods work for both P. arundinacea and aquatica.
There are three basic methods in stressing: clipping, shading and moisture-
control.
Clipping is relatively easy. Take clean scissors into your right hand,
hold the plant still with your left hand, and |SNIP|, your plant just got
stressed. But simply clipping the plants shorter will decrease your total
yield. Wait until the plant is about 10 or 20 cm (1/2 ' ) high. Cut right
above the leaf. Wait until you get another leaf, above which to cut, could
be two days or two weeks.
Clipping increases tryptamine content by 50 % to even 400%. The amount of
betacarbolines is _roughly_ doubled.
Shading is quite controversial issue. Shading slows the growth, and seems
to affect different strains different ways. I will try to shed some light
into shadows. First of all, you will probably grow your plants indoors,
and if these plants are not on the windowsill, they will not be receiving
anything near the light plants outdoors do, where all the studies are made.
Forget shading. If you grow yours outdoors/near good light source,
shading might be useful. Shade the plants for their last 1/4th or 1/5th of
the growing-period.
In practice, placing a sheet of glass/plexiglass or a thin net between the
plants and the light source should work. Glass eats anything from couple
to 20% (dirty) of the light.
Amount of shading is quite troublesome, too. General mean value would be
maybe 5 to 15%. Arundinacea responds to smaller shifts, halve the figures.
Shading increases the tryptamine content by 20 to 30%.
Moisture-stressing is also quite easy. You dont water for a week or so.
Interestingly, plants droughted for a long time, produce some unknown
alkaloid. Young plants respond better to drought, whereas older (+30)
may not show any response in respect to the alkaloid content. Regrowths
grown from droughted plants (which did not show response) had a higher
alkaloid content. If you wilt, wilt young plants. No water for a period
of 5 to 10 days. If any damage (brown leaf tips etc.) begins to show,
stop wilting. Note that although the plants cannot be rotted to death
with overwatering, it slows the growth. Let the soil dry out between
the waterings.
Moisture stress may as much as double the alkaloid content.
To get high leaf mass, your plant needs high amounts of water, light,
and nutrients. Nutrients, on the other hand, have been shown to have
a negative effect on the alkaloid content - adequate fertilization may
in fact lower the total alkaloid content. And stressing decreases the
leaf mass. So you must walk the fine line between these two.
Make a growing program, divided in 4 to 8 parts. During certain parts
you maximise the leaf mass. And during certain parts you maximise the
alkaloid content.
Example:
Simon Sez grows Phalaris aquatica. 1st period goes almost entirely
to germination, as the seeds dry out a bit, "Whatta dumb mistake,"
Simon thinks, as third of the seeds wont germinate anymore.
2nd and 3 rd period Simon has dedicated for growth. Simon gives
the plants nutrients; during 2nd period complete, well balanced
N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) and micronutrient (Zn,B,Cu,
Fe, Mn, etc.) fertilizer, and during 3rd only natural nitrogen.
Every now and then he snips the top off 'em.
4th period is about fasting - Simon gives plants no water.
During the 5th Simon begins to feel sorry for the plants and after
giving them adequate, but not too much!, watering, lets them grow.
And at the beginning of the 6th period, Simon thinks that its time
to chill out a bit, so he sneaks the plants into large fridge his
friend has (after giving it a dose of nitrogen fertilization).
Just for a night. Its always above 0 C, but below 6 C.
Last days the plants get to grow normally. Then Simon strips the
leaves, and lets the plants do their own thing for a while, as he tries
to put together the wheat grass juicer he got without any instructions.
That would theoretically make 200% for the clipping, 25% for the 4th,
10-200% for the 6th. But in reality the increase in tryptamines cannot
be calculated so easily. But lot anyhow. Simon smiles happily.
The period lenght is also important - alkaloid content rises steadily
as the plant grows, and is highest at 30 to 50 days. Simon had 7 day
periods =).
Fertilizers - problematic. Dont use good, rich soil - if the plants get
enough of micronutrients, alkaloid content is diminished. Mix regular
gradening soil with sand and rocks to get a good mix (for example 1/3rd
of each). When the plant is young, ensure adequate nutrition with
liquid fertilizers, then move to only nitrogen fertilization, and
finally give only water (for example first quarter, second quarter and
last half, resp.). This makes plants grow fast, big and finally tryptish.
Phalaris can use fairly large amounts of fertilizers, but stick to the
instructions of the manufacturer until you know what you are doing. Urine
is an excellent excellent nitrogen fertilizer - add about half an
desiliter (2 oz) per liter of water (1/5gallon?) - fully organic and
very soluable.
Cloning - an easy way to get more plants. First pick your best plant -
healthy, big and high in alkaloids. Wait till you harvest, and then cut
the whole stem off, place it underwater, glass or a bucket does fine,
cut in 3 cm pieces, add small amounts of seaweed/-extract/auxins and
wait couple of days. After that place pieces in pots, and keep humid.
It might take as long as 3 weeks for first signs of life, but try to
keep the soil relatively humid - not wet, humid. Excess water may
attract molds and fungi. You can also take part of the rhizome (root)
and do the same thing. Leaves are of no use here, they will only rot
away.
Harvesting the fruits of labor is very easy. Simply cut out the leaves.
If you like you can leave one leaf to speed up the process. Remove
parts of the stem above the leaf. Plant will continue growing for a
long time. Repotting the plant or dividing the rhizomes often gives
plant new vigour. Do this couple of times a year.
Time of the day has no effect on the tryptamine content if you are
growing indoors or in an greenhouse. Outside, morning harvest may rise
alkaloid content.
If you are producing seeds - dont clip, have at least four of such plants,
all from different sources, and of good strain. Let these grow, and when
the seed production has started, place a clear bag over the flower. Bags
made of loose nylon mesh are best. Plants produced from seed often
have more energy than plants that have been cloned from a clone (and so-on).
Produce seeds at least once in two years to ensure the vigour of your
plants.