San Pedro Var. Users Guide v1.2

San Pedro Var. Users Guide v1.2

Let us first begin by identifying the varieties (var) that we are going to be discussing. There are 3 var. in particular of the San Pedro Cactus that we will be discussing. Trichocereus Pacahanoi, Peruvian, Bridgesii. So far these are the ones reported to have entheogenic psychactivity and the ones in which we will be discussing. The techniques described apply to all 3 var.

San Pedro is interpreted into St. Peter who is keeper of the gates of heaven. So the cacti is the key to enter in through the gates or veil to the eternal awareness of the never ending spirit world moment.

Step 1. Growing a Cutting.

This is by far the easiest step. The thing about the cutting is that it can remain alive for a long time as a cutting out of soil. I have not tested a cutting to suffer a long death for the data, but I do know it will start growing pups even out of soil.

The best place to start is an online vendor otherwise you will have to harvest a cutting from a neighboring yard. The average price for a cutting is about $25 per foot. I know the pachanoi var grows in many neighborhoods of the southern california region. I seldomnly come across pervian or bridgesii, but I have. And when the day comes that I can grow the sacred cacti in my own yard I will. For now I wait and allow them to grow free. On a journey through phoenix Az. I did happen to spot more peruvian var then the other two.

A 1ft cutting is standard to start growing and using sacred cacti. Simply plant the cutting directly into common potting soil or cactus potting soil and start watering. You should start with a 3-5g plastic pot. Plastic pots work the best due to the fact that they retain moisture longer then clay. I've noticed that the San Pedro var. cacti grow best in indirect sun with plenty of watering, but they can handle full sun as long as they get plenty of water. Lack of water seems to make them prune up and in full sun they become yellow. The most potent samples you are going to want to use for brewing/extracting are going to be the darkest green and very juicy.

Every cutting that was less then a foot that I had planted always grew pups on the top and the cutting only remained a base. Once any cutting has established roots it will begin to grow pups out the base. For cuttings that are not tops there is a way of cloning from these that I have observed. What you want to do is cut the cutting into 2-3in long chunks and plant them half deep on their sides in 1g plastic pots. The pups always grow out the side that would have been the top end of the cutting. For example if you layed a 5ft cutting on the ground and let it sprout a pup. It would grow out the part of the cutting that was its most top part and the remaining 5ft of cacti will not sprout any pups. Whereas if you cut 5ft into 30x2in chunks you could sprout 30 pups. The rule is confirmed that the cacti grow about 1ft+ a year once the roots are established and have plenty of room and watering.

 

To grow from seeds you are going to need to practice patience. If you want to breed the cacti to produce viable seeds you are going to need to grow cacti from seed and grow them only to produce seeds. For single seed growth I recommend those cactus growing kits from your local home improvement center. If you want to grow alot at once take a 1ftx1ft garden flat fill it with cactus soil mix or potting soil, pre water, sprinkle your seeds throughout and keep in a warm and well lit space out of direct sunlight.. Make sure they get a good dose of partial sun. Full sun will be way to intense. I would also wait till spring before planting so there is no chance of cold killing em off during the sprouting cycle.

Allow the cacti to grow to a decent size before transplanting them to larger pots. If you are growing to produce seed stock for the future you are going to want to use organic gardening techniques to optimize growth to produce healthy, potent viable seeds. Once your seed sprout cacti transplants have grown to 3in-6in, Its time to plant them into mother earth. Your are going to want to dig a 4ft-5ftx4ft-5ft hole in the ground and fill the hole with your soil mixture. 1part manure/compost 1part soil of the earth which you removed from the hole. This ensures that the roots will have plenty of room to grow without any fighting to establish. And the soil will be sure to have plenty of nutrients and nitrogen to produce very dark green, healthy stocks. Use a drip system to water them every evening and a little each morning. Make sure they don't get too much water and not enough of it. You need to find a perfect balance.

Make a cover with screening used to reduce UV to provide optimum partial shade in full sun. They way alot of nurseries do it. Once the cacti reach 3ft-4ft they will begin to flower. The flower begins as a grey fuzzy pod. As long as the cacti recieve ample amount of H2o, the cacti will flower. If you are farming anything for seeds you will need to do some research into raising your own bees in a designated spot near your farm. As long as there are plenty of bees to pollinate you will produce seeds. You can do it by hand with a q-tip but that is for small amounts of flowering cacti and no ample bee supply.

The flowers only last 3 days. If they do not get pollinated the whole flower will fall off. If there was pollination then the flower will fall leaving the base behind which is a seed pod to be left on the cacti until the pod begins to break open. At this point remove the pod and open it to remove the seeds. The seeds are very small and black similar to poppy seeds and they are kept in a white slimy bed within the pod. Just use the tip of a knife to remove them from the bed.

 

When harvesting your cacti you will always want to cut as close to the base as possible to ensure strong new growth from the roots. The top 1ft of the harvested column should always be planted out of respect for the cacti to ensure its survival and to sow for a future harvest. But do what thou wilt.

The nest step is to despine the harvested cactus. This is done by cutting two tiny 45 degree cuts on underneath the spine so that the cuts meet underneath the spine to remove it. The harvested and despined columns are then washed in cold water.

When using pachanoi var. there is no need to bother removing the spines since they are relatively so small. Also tin snips or sharp shears should be able to cut the larger spines on peruvian/bridgesii var. If the dried skins are used for extraction purposes having spines with the skins is fine except that it may throw off the weight of valuable product by a minute fraction and the pricks can hurt.

What you are going to need to do is cut off all the spines first. Wash the cactus and begin to cut up the cactus into 3in sections. Then begin to cut off the outer dark green layers of the sections.

Lay out a large cardboard or plywood and place all the skins skin side down with the dark green flesh up in full sun for 5-7days. You can use a conventional oven on the lowest setting using baking sheets skinside down. This takes a long while and makes your place reek of cacti!

Shred the dried skins in a blender, then powder them in a coffee grinder. You get like 50g powder to the 1foot of SP var. so 40ftx50gs = 2000g or 4.5lbs. Thats about 20g-40gs alkaloids. pachanoi-peruvian/bridgesii.

 

For a large cook I would advise cooking out the alkaloids using 1tbsp vitamin c powder or citric acid per 1liter of water. Use the blender shredded skins for this cook. It is alot easier to strain out the pulp in the shredded form. In a large stainless steel cooking pot add your SP powder and vitamin c water until it becomes very soupy.

Simmer the soupy mixture for 20min with frequent stirring. Use the lid to help pour off the cooked water without getting any cactus matter into the solution. Pour into a seperate container and refresh the pot with fresh vitamin c water. Cook powder 3x to extract all water soluble alkaloids.

Filter extract solution and use 1 gallon ziplock baggies to seperate sediment out of solution. Hang baggie up by one corner and allow sediment to settle overnite. Next day snip a small hole in the bottom corner and gently massage sediment through the hole with your fingers.

Reduce your solution on a low simmer then evaporate the reduced solution on a large glass baking dish in oven at lowest setting to a wet solid. Allow wet solid to dry at room temp. Scrape and consume as is or make into a purified salt form using the a/b tek below.

1/2lb (224gs) of San Pedro var. Cactus powder is added to a clean 2 quart plastic HDPE2 ammonia bottle.

1500ml of tap water is added to the bottle and shaken.

6tbsps of NaOH(lye) is added using a funnel 1tbsp at a time. Cap and shake bottle after each tbsp to distribute NaOH(lye) evenly and to avoid melting the bottle.

500ml d-limonene or xylene solvant is added to bottle using a funnel which will fill the bottle to maximum capacity. Make sure to leave a little air bubble at the top to help with the mixing process. Cap and shake bottle as much as you can the first day and let sit over night.

The strong alkaline cactus solution will shrink a bit over night so you will need to add a little more solvant the next day, shake again and let seperate.

Drill a hole in a spare cap and feed a 3ft long piece of 3/8in clear vinyl tubbing at 8 and 1/4cm long from the bottom of the cap to siphon off the solvant.

Cap and siphon solvant into a pint glass Ball mason jar. Make sure to only get solvant and no cacti solution. Some solvant will be left behind in the solution bottle. 300ml to 400ml of solvant is perfect for salting.

Add 1tbsp NaOH(lye) to the cactus solution using a funnel, cap and shake.

Add 2oz of distilled water to the jar of siphoned solvant and 2 drops of hardware store brand 31.45% muratic acid(HCl) using a tincture dropper and shake for 5min. Seperate layers in a quart ziplock freezer baggie or freeze hcl extract layer solid by putting jar in the freezer.

Hang baggie up by one corner and carefully snip a small hole in the bottom corner to slowly drain the bottom clear to foamy layer into a clean ball mason jar.

Drain the solvant layer back into the solution bottle, cap and shake for 5min then let seperate. At this point the solution will seperate in a few minutes.

Shake and let seperate a few times to maximize extraction yields.

Extract the cactus solution 4x. One right after the other. Do not wait another day. All extractions after the first day of seperation need to be perfomed back to back to ensure the highest purity from cactus fats and oils. After a few days of sitting and seperating, the solvant layer absorbs fatty oils that make the 2oz hcl water layers foamy instead of clear.

All 4 hcl water extraction layers are collected together in a jar of 200ml fresh solvant and shaken repeatedly to wash the hcl extract solution. This will help remove any solvant soluble materials that may have polluted the hcl extract solution layer. The mixture is seperated with freezing.

Make sure to remove the frozen hcl layer to evaporation(evap) dish before it melts or you will be scraping excess crystals off the inner jar.

The hcl extract solution is evaporated on a large glass baking dish, using a fan or 150F oven. Fan evaporation will ensure that you do not damage the product. The oven is great for testing to see if alkaloids will crystal from the material being used or if the extractors are in a hurry.

Pack into '0' gelatin capsules.

Refer to ekstanza's tek for more regarding this method.

Use a 1 gallon Carlos Rossi wine jug and double the ingredients to make twice as much extract per extraction. You will have to use quart jars instead of pint when doubling it up with the wine jug.

 

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Is the final product mescaline HCl?

As an alternative procedure how do you feel about using a French coffee coffee press to extract the solvent from the cactus mash?

Finally, if one is lucky enough to own a Sep Funnel, i presume it is preferable to a ziploc . . .

 

The final product is the complete alkaloid mixture. 69ron does say that MEK washes will seperate the mescaline from the other alkaloids. The tek has been very good. the best I have used so far for san pedro powder.

The use of clear plastic tubing to syphon off the solvant for me is much easier than the turkey baster method.

The use of a ziplock freezer baggie is a very easy and effective substitute for a sep funnel.

you know what too. those hdpe2 ammonia bottles are very good for extracting with lye. milk jugs are hdpe2 but i havent tested them yet. I know carlo rossi wine glass jugs hold 1 gallon.

You have to have the french coffee press to perform the 69ron dlimonene. i was waiting to get one before i test that tek again.

Didnt you perform that tek with success?

A ziplock baggie is a very decent sub for a sep funnel. Especially if you need to keep it extra low profile.

Im sure there are more improvements to be made. but for now it works.

I still want to use your norman tek method for mhrb.

anyways peace.

 

you know i still believe in the 69ron foodsafe d limonene method. if i would have used a french coffee press and seperated with ziplock baggie. i might of had something. but i know for sure dlimonene get good results.

syphon seperted solvant layers with clear 3/8 vinyl tubing. you dont always have to get all the solvant out of the extraction mixture. Just a good portion of it.

always 1 drop muratic acid per 1oz distilled water or of course straight vinegar or 1.5gs vitamin c per 100ml distilled water. to salt out the alkaloids.