Ayahuasca: alkaloids, plants & analogs
Section 3 : Part 2 :
Phalaris : Optimum conditions for harvesting
Østrem recommended a 25 cm spacing
Using the first regrowth after cutting, taking only the upper third, harvesting in late summer to fall, early in the morning, using new growth following rains at the end of a prolonged dry spell and with ambient conditions of 70o F, or hotter, days and night-time temperatures in the 60s. [Ideal: Plants excessively fed with ammonium.] [The exact peak dates appear to vary not only from strain to strain but thus far seem to also vary from year to year. Still, what has been published suggests that, in the northern latitudes, the peak(s) will occur at some point during early August to November, with the most likely peak dates occurring during the latter part of August to the end of September.]
[While detailed studies on a day by day basis have never been performed, there appears to be an initial high peak on day 7 both in seedlings [Mulvena & Slaytor 1982, 1983] and in new growth after recutting [McComb et al. 1969] In Oram's studies it appeared that tryptamine concentrations showed huge spikes during early fall growth but none lasted more than a few days.
While it is best to attempt to get the best volume of growth and catch a peak level of tryptamines, it would be interesting to study the home production of Phalaris grown (and processed) like wheatgrass with harvests performed on day 7. (Feeding heavily with ammonium?) When using seedlings the DMT: 5-MeO-DMT profile favors DMT. [It would be worthwhile to conduct a study where small quantitative samplings were taken at hourly intervals for several days, 8 hour intervals for a week and 12 hour intervals as long as the original planting lasted and the medium could support them [if hydroponic (where perlite has been used by some as a media)] or for 4 to 6 weeks if outdoors in the ground. Reports of very high values in 4 week old regrowth do exist (during some but not all years).]
Some considerations: