The Vespiary

The Hive => Chemicals & Equipment => Topic started by: nutlin on July 22, 2003, 09:02:00 AM

Title: Growing sassy containing plants.
Post by: nutlin on July 22, 2003, 09:02:00 AM
Hello im interesting in growing some safrole containing plant so in years if sassy becomes hard to get ill have a source. But sassy plants dont grow in my area, and neither will alot of the exotic plants that contain saftole im guessing. I live in the western cordillera region of north america. B.C. canada specifically.

can anyone suggest a species of safrole containing plant that would be good to grow in my area?


thank.
Title: are trees plants?
Post by: nipcook on July 22, 2003, 10:05:00 PM
The place where SWIM lives is bountiful in american Sassafrass trees. This person once had fun digging up the roots and steam distilling, but realized that the ratio of root mass to oil mls is pathetic. Search "dilaudid"  So plant some tress, you can find them on the appalacians. 
The tea is good, but has been shown carcinagenic. Yeah well.
One good sass oil purchase stowed proper will last awhile esepcially if you not running 22 liter size reactions as some have dreamed.
Ultimitaly how much mdma would one person want to consume in their life time?
Title: Umm unless your growing something that piper...
Post by: sYnThOmAtIc on July 24, 2003, 02:57:00 AM
Umm unless your growing something that piper hispenervum* spelling. Your not going to see much fruit from effort. Sassafras trees take a long time to grow and establish a root system that can provide enough bark to be useful and not be at danger of being killed. Even once you have semi-mature trees you will need to have multiple lots of them to rotate harvesting so as to give each lot time to regenerate. Then comes the back breaking labour of carefuly digging up the root and harvesting them and covering. then the drying and grinding and extraction to have a few piddly ounces of oil if you found a few kg of of root bark. You'd be better off ordering 1-4oz bottles off the net or from the grocery store. Since you won't get any BS from the DEA about such small quantities anyway.

I'd suggest you look into other plants like vanilla or clove or something. Or rather just in their purchase. Vanilla can result in many wonderful things Like piperonal, 345-TMB, 245-TMB, 3,4 dimethoxybenzaldehyde. Being able to make mescaline, desoxy, 2,4,6 dom, tma-2, mda, and mdma all from vanilla.. So order you a couple gallons of extract before it's illegal also.

Title: Yes I know its alot of work for a small amount
Post by: nutlin on July 24, 2003, 11:18:00 PM
Yes I know its alot of work for a small amount of product. I already have a online source of sassy and i buy 1kg amounts but in 5 or 10 years if its impossible to get sass where i live, i'd like to know i'll have a constant supply of oil for my personal use.

Cuz if i were to grow sass containing plants, extract the oil, then make mdma for sale i may as wll get a real job right? Too much work! But atleast i'd have enough for myself.

So does anyone know what i should attempt to grow in my area? My area is no where near the natural habitat zone for sass, so i dont know if if sassafras trees will live here.
Title: hairy root disease
Post by: ragnaroekk on July 25, 2003, 06:05:00 AM
search for this here at the HIVE.

Perhaps gets your interest as you told not to be in a hurry. The basic techniques involved are by no way a secret, it is a traditional japanese way of growing some stuff. And it applies in special for roots. Sassy plantage in a bucket..... 8)

Title: I don't what lattitude you live in but it is...
Post by: karl on July 25, 2003, 08:58:00 PM
I don't what lattitude you live in but it is possible to grow Sassafras Albidum from seed in the UK - some of the plants seemed to suffer from the climate while others didn't. The most difficult thing is getting the little buggers to germinate due to their dormancy, maybe it was my inexperienced technique but I only managed to get about 7 survivors out of several hundred seeds. Two problems encountered which were significant was that they did not like calcium in the soil and earwigs eating the leaves - and I thought earwigs were more of a problem to flowers and not leaves.
Title: acidity
Post by: methyl_ethyl on July 25, 2003, 10:08:00 PM
It seems to me that sasafrass albidum prefers an acidic soil, which confirms your problem about calcium, I assume the calcium brought the pH of the soil up to intolerable levels for the sassy.  I have never grown them from seed, however they are a very competitive species once they germinate and surface.  Where I currently live they are actually outcompeting the grass in my lawn.  My lawn has about 10-15 young sassy trees about 1/2 meter in height, that have sprung up in the last six weeks.  I wish I had a digi cam, I would post pictures, along with about 75 trees anywhere from 1-7 meters in height, growing in a narrow wooded area.  Sassy is what I call an edge species.  They do the best growing on the edge, of thickly wooded areas.  I assume this is because they need good amounts of light, which is probably why they grow so quickly at first (to outcompete everything else for sunlight).

     I will try to get a camera this weekend to show you how fast said species grows in comparison to the grass in my yard.  This also gives me an excuse not to cut my grass, until I get a camera.  ;)  I miss my bo..  :(

Post Script: Knowing that sassy trees grow very well in my area, I would assume the results of a soil analysis would help those who wanted to start them from seed.  I will look into this.

Title: Grows well in France
Post by: Prince_Charles on July 26, 2003, 01:56:00 AM
and they have colder winters than Old Blighty. Would be nice to bequeath a stand to one's grandchildren but in the meantimes Canada is good.

Title: could you not sprout the seeds using the paper
Post by: nutlin on July 30, 2003, 08:39:00 PM
could you not sprout the seeds using the paper towel method and then transplant them into soil when the tap root was 1/4"-1/2"?

That should inscrese survival rate..
Title: I have never done it however...........
Post by: methyl_ethyl on July 31, 2003, 04:27:00 AM
I have never had to do it. however, as competitive, and hardy as these plants seem, at least in my area, I think it should work.  It would be an interesting experiment, none the less.  I have however, seen very hardy species, that just can not tolerate, transplantation..  There are many factors I believe that are not documented.  The more information we can gather now, the further ahead we will be when it is impossible to obtain sassy oil.  I am sure this is documented somewhere, however , my recent thoughts are concerning the amount of oil found in  the root bark, as it pertains to the season and size of tree.  This reminds me, of maple syrup.  There is a certain time of year that the syrup is moving, "vasculary" throughout the tree.  I wonder if this pertains to the concentration of sassy oil, at different times of the year.  Again I have not even searched this topic, just something I have been thinking about lately.  If there is no information available, it sure would make a nice addition to the hive.  

     Sassafrass albidum a comparison, of said species pertaining to safrole content, at specified times of year and height of tree.  Samples would be taken once a month for twelve months.  Three groups would be evaluated, trees under two meters, from two meters - four meters, and taller than four meters.  This would take into consideration, age of the tree and time of year.  I dunno, just something I have been tossing around.  I figure I could start the experiment in th fall, and collect a Kg of root bark, from each specified height.  Write up a procedure, for the distillation of safrole, just so we have, consistancy, in the results, and whoooooolaaaa.  Maybe we find out that smaller trees have a higer safrole content, during  the fall than, taller trees, in spring.   I have no idea, this is just random thoughts.  

mcuh_love

methyl_ethyl

Title: Growing sassy containing plants.
Post by: mellow on August 01, 2003, 08:23:00 PM
I tried growing Piper auritum. They will grow outside in England during summer but they will not survive the winter; a mild frost and damp killed them. They can live through the winter indoors by a south-facing window but will not grow due to lack of light. Piper auritum can be cloned easily. So, if you started with 4 plants in March you ought to have over 100 by September. You can get several cuttings from each plant and cuttings from the cuttings. The plants can be harvested at the end of the year (November?). I think these plants will also produce seed – they made small seed pods.  I think you would need at least 100 plants by November to make it worthwhile but it is a possible route. Plants would need at distance of 45cm to 60cm between them. There used to be a several places in Germany that sold these plants. Use the first year to build up a number of plants and take cutting at the year end in preparation for next season. You might even be able to get seeds.

Unfortunately, due to going away for 2 weeks, most of the plants died during a hot dry spell in August and my few remaining plants died in winter because I foolishly thought they’d be able to live through the winter in an unheated greenhouse.

These plants can also be grown in climates where frost is not a problem. They are an invasive species in Hawaii.

S. albidum. - I agree these things are a bugger to germinate. I've not been able to germinate one seed from the 40 or so I've tried. My next lot of 24 seeds are in the fridge. Is there anything special I can do after they've been in there for 3 months at 4C?

This entire thread has an air of pathos about it. Surely if sassy runs out we could resort to demethylation of Eugenol?

PS: Mr Webmaster, whoever you are, is the posting window kept deliberately small to encourage people to edit their work in an outside editor where grammar/spell-checking is easier?