Drying Fruits And why you're a dummy if you don't do it right

You spent months researching and growing. You cared for the myc and it's eventual pins. Now the big day is here. Harvest time! But you did zero prep for drying and storing. Now you are posting to reddit, "Help! I don't know how to dry!" Don't be that guy. Spend the couple minutes of reading and $40 bucks on supplies and save all the precious psilocybin you spent so long creating.

As soon as you harvest your mushrooms they begin to decay. As they decay, the active compounds degrade. To prevent this we dry the mushrooms (fruiting bodies) as quickly as possible.

Airflow is critical. Without airflow to remove the moisture, the fruits will rot. Heat is beneficial. We know that heat is okay to use when drying at low temperatures such as those produced by a food dehydrator but there is also some discussion about that level of heat denaturing some enzymes found in the mushrooms that will contribute to the degradation of the active compounds. I don't have any data to support this claim but it is mentioned multiple times by several trusted cultivators.

You want your mushrooms to be cracker dry for long term storage. This means that there is zero moisture left in the mushroom and when you attempt to bend it the mushrooms snaps instead of flexing at all. Test this on your thickest stipe (stem). They will be the last to completely dry out. Caps will dry very quickly.

Drying Methods from Best to Worst

1. Freeze dryer
2. Food dehydrator
3. Poor man's food dehydrator (toaster oven on low with the door open and a fan blowing in)
4. Fan dried

After your mushrooms are cracker dry store them in a sealed container with a large amount of fresh desiccant. Those descriptive words I used like cracker/sealed/large are very important.

You want to store your fruits cracker dry because moisture is the enemy. Your storage container should be completely devoid of moisture and the less you start with, the better. A sealed container is important because the outside world is a crazy place with lots of environmental changes and fluctuating humidity. A proper seal will prevent outside moisture from coming in and degrading your fruits. Acceptable containers are things like mason jars or containers of glass or thick plastic with a gasket and latch. A large amount of desiccant means more than a single old silica gel pack you found in a jerky pouch that your mother-in-law gave you for christmas. Use fresh desiccant out of the package and don't let it touch the mushrooms. A guy posted here around a year ago who went blind in one eye temporarily because he was sold a chunk of desiccant with his mushrooms and ate it.

What you should NOT do

• Don't let them sit out and "air dry" with no air flow unless you are in an extremely low humidity environment. Even then, airflow will still help.
• Do not use a goddamn closed oven to dry. I don't know where this came from but it will only accelerate the decay and you will ruin your harvest. I'm pretty sure closed oven drying is where the "heat kills the psilocybin bruh" stupidity came from.
• A ceiling fan is not suitable airflow. It's better than nothing but when I talk about fan drying I mean put the mushrooms ON the fan. Grab yourself a mesh bag, load the mushrooms in it, and sit it directly on the guard of the fan. Direct air flow is critical. Good mesh bags are sold as paint strainers at every home improvement store and cost about $1 each.
• Please don't put fresh fruits in a "desiccant chamber". Many grow kit companies recommend, and sell, these chambers but they are shit for drying fresh fruits. Anytime a grow kit company tells you to do something, do the opposite.

Don't be a dummy. Have a plan. Get your supplies before harvest.