Drying Leaves (4 Methods)

[Paradoxic]

There are many ways you can dry out Salvia Divinorum leaves so they can be stored. Leaves will loose about 80% of their weight after they are dried. Below four of the easiest and most practical drying methods are explained:

Natural Method:
Gather fallen or dead leaves from your plant and set them out on a plate in low humidity. Wait for them to dry, which will take anywhere from a few days to over a week depending on humidity.

Oven Method:
Place leaves evenly on an oven-ready tray and bake at no more than 150˚F (100˚F is best). Leave them in for around 15-20 minutes or until the leaves and stems are crispy.

Food Dehydrator Method:
Put your leaves in a food dehydrator, any kind will do. If it has a temperature setting set it to medium (around 150˚F) and dry until leaves and stems are crispy (should take about 3 hours).

CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) Method:
You can use Calcium Chloride to dry out your leaves, we recommend using Damp-rid. Make a good layer in the bottom of a sealable plastic Tupperware container (with a lid) and place foil or cloth over the CaCl2. Place your leaves on the foil or cloth and make sure they don't touch the CaCl2. Close up the Tupperware container and within about 2 days your leaves should be throughly dried and ready for storage.

Once the leaves are dried they can be stored for long periods of time without losing a significant amount of Salvinorin A. They should be kept somewhere cool, dry, and dark in an airtight container (preferably glass).

[MstryShovel]

I would reccomned against any heat methods for drying the leaves, 1) you could burn the leaves and 2) as seen with other *ahem* leafy things that need drying, the heat from an oven/microwave will successfully release and burn off _that_which_you_are_going_for_

My prefered method, would have to be something simmilar to the plate on a window method, accept I use a cardboard box, with a paper towel over the bottom, the paper towel is just for contrast and also to hope i dont loose too much dried leaf. the box helps in when you have a large volume of leaves to dry at one time, you have to kind of shuffle, and "toss a salad" to make sure the wet dont rott at the bottom and whatnot, Ive also heard of stacking and tieing the stems of the leaves simmilar to tibaco, and hanging them up.

[Paradoxic]

Really, I dont notice any loss of potency from the oven method, but I guess I haven't really compared it with the natural method all that closely. Thanks for the cardboard box suggestion, good idea. If you can put that into 'guide' format I can add that as a method. Also the tobacco method seems cool, if you can sum that one up I'd be happy to add it as well.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming This is the beauty of a wiki-type community.

[MstryShovel]

yeah i assume from what ive read that Sally wouldnt have too much of a problem with it, especialy if you kept it low enough temperatures, especialy because sally's important particles vaporise at higher temperatures than ... uhh other things you want to dry (follow?)

anyways as per request:

Tabbaco method Explained:


Stack your leaves together, around 7-10 per stack, depending on your harvest, size of leaves ect. Be sure to leave around an inct, to an inch and a half of the leaf's stem when cutting from your plant, because this is what you are tieing together, Use any old peice of string, twist-tie, or other binding material (I would stay away from exposed(not plastic coated) wire as from experience it bruses the tender leaves, and could try to extract some un-wanted minerals from the wire while the leaf is "dieing" aka drying out.)

The next step would be to hang it from something, using the tied part as the anchor for the set, anything would work,old farmers had entire barns to dry the stuff, at harvest time you couldnt even see the walls, just something to hang it from is all you need though, I'd reccomend another string,  like a cloths line or somehting. You should keep it indoors though  


Box+Tabbaco Method Explained:
The basic idea is to have a small, contained area with which to dry your leaves using the tabbaco method mentioned above.



Step 1: Get a box!  
The size of said box is determined by how much you want/expect to dry at a time. At the most I expect to be drying around  leaves at a time and that would be around 2-3 "stacks" (7-10 leaves each stack) So with that in mind I found a box (actualy a double sized cereal box from Cosco) that measures around a foot tall x8in long x 5in deep
<img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/eshovel/captaincruch.jpg" border="0" height = "200" width ="180" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket">  
but of course anything will do, as long as it is big enough to hang your stack without it touching the walls of the box (this is important as it could invite rotting and imbalanced drying)

Step 2: Ventilation
You need air getting to the bottom of the box and circulating through the box, so your hanging leaves dont get rotten at the bottom,  So cut out some air holes in the shorter of the box's sides on both sides (as visualised by the light blue/hash marked areas). Be care full not to destroy the box's structual integrity (strength of its sides) because you need the thing to support some freakin weight and eventualy it will start to warp, with absorbing the humidity.

Step 3: String theory
poke holes on the  short sides where you cut the holes for ventilation and put strings through them secure them on the outside with big knotts so the string wont pull through when you are hanging. 1/8th to 1/4 inch dowels work pretty well here too, if you want to spend the 5-7 dollars on them, they are available at any local art supply/hardware store. and ur done! (eccept for of course for your harvest!)

:::other notes/room for improvement.:::
if you have the ingenuity and knowhow, Ive seen this done where a small 3inch computer fan was mounted to the bottom side to blow air through to speed up the drying (an ordinary table fan blowing in suffices aswell though). you could also make a plate of calcium-whatevermajiigger (the drying compound mentioned above) or something at the bottom. simmilar.

[Paradoxic]

Sweet guide I added to the Methods of Use section, thanks! When I get back home I'll change it so it says you submitted it. By the way would you like permission to add other articles to the knowledge section?