Problem about drying my shrooms

[corridors of my cells]

I have yielded my mushrooms like few days ago. I put them infront of a fan for drying.. after 2 days they were nearly cracker dry. But today i dont know why i just wanted to leave windows open, and when i check my mushrooms that were nearly cracker dry are more softer now. I live in a humid area. Here i have few questions below:

-I wanna ask what can be the possible problems that can occur if they dont get dried good ?

-I just ordered a small vaccum machine with baggies today but it will take time to arrive.. so until it arrives what is your suggestion for storing my dried or lets say half dried mushrooms ?

-I checked home for desiccants (silica gel) but i couldnt fin any, is it good if i wrap some toilet paper with salt and put it in a nylon baggie that i wanna store my shrooms in ?

-How long does it takes the hot weather and humidity to degrade my dried mushrooms considering room temperature ~28C ?

Please give me some suggestions im really worried about my harvest.
Thanks.

 

[ragabr]

You can use dried rice as a 2nd rate dryrite/silica gel.

I had some mushies for two years double-bagged in ziplocks and they made it through a couple of hot, wet summers fine.

SWIM lost about 4g of her first crop to mold after not drying thoroughly. Be safe!

 

[dragon-n]

after drying thoroughly, i always just put mine in a sealed baggie in the freezer, making sure they never got moist on the inside.
i had batches for well over a year and never lost any potency when they were in the freezer.

 

[corridors of my cells]

I asked around a bit in chatroom also.. and figured out shrooms can get softer after being cracker dry.. I dont know how accurate this info is... but i just put mine in the freezer now double bagged with zip baggies and tried to leave as less air as i can.. Im hoping they will be fine.

 

[Entheojen]

-I wanna ask what can be the possible problems that can occur if they dont get dried good ?

The problem arises when you try to weigh them out. Dosages are commonly listed for dry or fresh mushrooms. So if they're not completely fresh (no drying process conducted) and they're not dried, then you could easily take the wrong dose. Remember that dried mushrooms are around 1/10 the weight of fresh mushrooms.

So for example if you have 10g of what you believe is only half dried out shrooms, this would probably be equivalent to around 2g dried. But if it turned out the mushrooms were actually 75% dried, then it would be equivalent to around 4g dried mushrooms.

Don't quote me on that example, but I'm just trying to convey how you might overcompensate when you are measuring your dosage because the mushrooms aren't completely fresh or completely dry.

 

[corridors of my cells]

The problem arises when you try to weigh them out. Dosages are commonly listed for dry or fresh mushrooms. So if they're not completely fresh (no drying process conducted) and they're not dried, then you could easily take the wrong dose. Remember that dried mushrooms are around 1/10 the weight of fresh mushrooms.

So for example if you have 10g of what you believe is only half dried out shrooms, this would probably be equivalent to around 2g dried. But if it turned out the mushrooms were actually 75% dried, then it would be equivalent to around 4g dried mushrooms.

Don't quote me on that example, but I'm just trying to convey how you might overcompensate when you are measuring your dosage because the mushrooms aren't completely fresh or completely dry.

Ok thank you now i understand that the problems can occur is not so big at least.. other than molding as someone else mentioned.

And gud news coz i tried freezing them then i took them out today and they are just the same dried mushrooms didnt turn into mud.. so everyting is fine.. thanks u friends for all the help
Peace

 

[Observant]

I suspect the Actives will degrade much faster (turn very blue) if you dont dry them out completely.
Atleast if theyre not kept in the freezer.

 

[corridors of my cells]

I suspect the Actives will degrade much faster (turn very blue) if you dont dry them out completely.
Atleast if theyre not kept in the freezer.

Yea actually the problem is i made my harvest in few different days.. so i gave some extra time for the totally dried stand together with half dried, so i can all put them in fridge together..

 

[mumbles]

Air dry with fans. Turn over every 10hrs or so. Store in sealed container with silica gel/dehydrated epsom salts. Put in the freezer if you like.

 

[Phantastica]

-I just ordered a small vaccum machine with baggies today but it will take time to arrive.. so until it arrives what is your suggestion for storing my dried or lets say half dried mushrooms ?

in the meanwhile, besides storing in the freezer, you should buy some desiccant from a hardware store, and store it in an airtight box with the desiccant. i've read that fresh shroom's potency can decrease if kept for longer than a week in the freezer..but yours is dry, so it should last

-I checked home for desiccants (silica gel) but i couldnt fin any, is it good if i wrap some toilet paper with salt and put it in a nylon baggie that i wanna store my shrooms in ?

if u can't get any desiccant, then this sounds like it could work, in addition to the dry rice, like ragabr mentioned.

-How long does it takes the hot weather and humidity to degrade my dried mushrooms considering room temperature ~28C ?

heat+humidity=bad
so make sure you store it in airtight container, in a cool place.
I've also read at topia that drying for over a 24hr. period results in a decrease in potency. longer exposure to oxygen results in the oxidation of the actives, so this should be avoided, and kept to a minimum. when u do dry, check out some of the archives at topia in the drying section for some good ideas on how to go about that plan:Mycotopia Drying Archives Also, don't use heat when drying. best of luck!:d
edit* here's the old archives: Drying Old Archives
corr, can you link me to the vacuum device you purchased? or something similar? i currently have a food dehydrator, but out of curiosity, would like to know the alternatives available.

 

[corridors of my cells]

-I just ordered a small vaccum machine with baggies today but it will take time to arrive.. so until it arrives what is your suggestion for storing my dried or lets say half dried mushrooms ?

in the meanwhile, besides storing in the freezer, you should buy some desiccant from a hardware store, and store it in an airtight box with the desiccant. i've read that fresh shroom's potency can decrease if kept for longer than a week in the freezer..but yours is dry, so it should last

-I checked home for desiccants (silica gel) but i couldnt fin any, is it good if i wrap some toilet paper with salt and put it in a nylon baggie that i wanna store my shrooms in ?

if u can't get any desiccant, then this sounds like it could work, in addition to the dry rice, like ragabr mentioned.

-How long does it takes the hot weather and humidity to degrade my dried mushrooms considering room temperature ~28C ?

heat+humidity=bad
so make sure you store it in airtight container, in a cool place.
I've also read at topia that drying for over a 24hr. period results in a decrease in potency. longer exposure to oxygen results in the oxidation of the actives, so this should be avoided, and kept to a minimum. when u do dry, check out some of the archives at topia in the drying section for some good ideas on how to go about that plan:Mycotopia Drying Archives Also, don't use heat when drying. best of luck!:d
edit* here's the old archives: Drying Old Archives
corr, can you link me to the vacuum device you purchased? or something similar? i currently have a food dehydrator, but out of curiosity, would like to know the alternatives available.

Thank you soo much man.. I have been drying them since like 6 days but they are all in freezer now... I used some rice and double ziplock baggies..

here is the link for the vaccum device i ordered:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370426888664&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT