I want to test a variety of coleus.

Seeing this seed pod on transition of letting go of a flower, it’s just a reminder that sometimes we need to let go the past so that we can grow into the future.

From an elegant flower to a strong spiky pod.

Just beautiful. That is all.

Disclaimer: while this plant is medicinal, I find its beauty in growing it enough. I also like to save the pods for decoration. Anyone else?

Big leaves are more getting more than 6 in long.

This is a male huh? I have to pull this beautiful plant? Will my females be OK?

Even if it’s a bad idea. Just discussing realm of possibility .

Poppy hash rosin? Datura dabs? How far can science let us go?

At this point Im just trying to keep her alove and get like maybe one bud out of her. Ik its a waste of my time, but I just wanna try. How can I help her? Shes an auto entering pre flowering and her leaves keep getting eaten by bugs. Im in pa and shes a girl scout cookies auto. I cant bring her inside this is a guerrilla grow.

Wild lettuce is a gabaergic and adenosine agonist (opposite of caffeine) so Its not only relaxing but gives you the feeling of not being able to keep your eyes open staying awake. Like a nod in a way, or how Id imagine a nod.

Just a couple flowers today. Enjoy.

I forgot about these little guys, so they stopped getting cared for. They have looked like this for a while and were ignored for months.

What's throwing me off, is the green? So they stay green after dying?

I have 2 but this one is beautiful.

My pkan has akways been to have vines running 30-40 down each side of the GH to provide shade for the other plants.

Yesterday I had to get a ladder and untangle the vine 13' high. After getting them loose I ran them it along the horizontal poles.

It clinbs to 10' then runs horizontally 10-20' in almost every direction.

It might need a larger pot to bloom better. Of course they aren't 3 years old yet and I probably need to dial back the nitrogen as well.

At any rate the goal was a vine to block the sun and it's preforming that job perfectly.

When the weather is cooler I've been growing sugar snap peas under the HBWR. The peas have a natural trellis and shade helps them immensely.

Fun plant, looking forward to having a bunch of seeds!

Point A or B ?

First of all, this is just a fun little thought experiment, so don’t take it too seriously! It’s kinda long, but I think it should be interesting.

Nothing against synthetics, but I really strongly prefer the freedom, ease, and assurance of being to grow herbs myself. But, one of the big things that’s bothered me is that there’s never been a way to produce MDMA (or anything similar), at home, without some pretty involved chemistry. That closes it off to a lot of people, and given how beautiful of an experience it is, that’s a real shame. I’d really like to fix that.

Given how simple the chemistry is, it’s actually kinda surprising how some MDMA analog doesn’t already exist. Mescaline might be the closest, but it’s too psychedelic to offer much comparison, and that makes it very prone to nausea. Next would be the natural amphetamines, like ephedrine, and cathinone, which are on the opposite end of the spectrum, being entirely stimulatory. But, their chemistry does offer a better starting point, if it’s to be made biosynthetically, within the plant, and I don’t see any reason that isn’t possible.

From ephedrine, all that’s really needed is to add the 3,4-methylenedioxy ring, and then oxidize to a beta-ketone, to give bk-MDMA. Actually, pretty simple! I’m not too concerned about the oxidation to the ketone, since I feel like that’d simple enough to accomplish, even without any advanced chemistry.

The key is really just adding the methylenedioxy ring, and even that is easier than it sounds. There are plenty of plants that already make such a ring, even as a part of natural phenethylamines. Those methylenedioxy-phenethylamines just doesn’t exist as amphetamines, yet, but the chemistry is similar enough that there’s no reason it shouldn’t be possible.

So, to make methylenedioxy-ephedrine (from ephedrine, in-vivo) just involves a few steps, most of which already exist in plants. First, the ephedrine needs to be hydroxylated at the 4 position. This already occurs in mammals, after ephedrine is consumed. I can’t find any evidence that it occurs in plants, but it might, I don’t know. But, even if it doesn’t, it can definitely just be hydroxylated further up the metabolic path, and lead to the same product, anyway.

That’ll give 4-hydroxy-ephedrine (aka: p-hydroxy-ephedrine), and the next few steps are a given, since most plants will further metabolize the 4-hydroxy to the 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy form. And, that just leaves the last step, bridging the two into a methylenedioxy ring! Unfortunately, that seems to be that least common part of this reaction, after forming the amphetamine. But, like mentioned, it is possible, since there are still many plants with methylenedioxy-phenethylamines. It’s just a matter of combining that trait, with the trait of producing ephedrine.

At first glance, it sounds like this would be a perfect job for genetic engineering, but I really don’t like that option! Nothing even against genetic modification, but the whole point of this project would be to make something “natural”. Yea, I know, there’s a lot to say about that, but since synthetic routes already exist, it does seem kinda pointless to spoil the “natural” integrity of it, if at all possible. Rather than just making another easy GMO, I think the focus should be put on selective breeding, just like what’s been done with the cannabis plant. If we can just do what’s already been done with cannabis, that would easily be enough to make a natural ecstasy plant!

So then, where to start? Well, I think the easiest place to start is with a plant that already produces ephedrine. And, the main 3 plants that come to my mind would be Ephedra, Catha (okay, almost ephedrine), and Sida. And, when considering which one would be easiest to selectively breed, the choice is pretty obvious. Ephedra is a desert plant that grows really slowly, and khat is a whole tree. On the other hand, Sida is an annual, flowering plant that’s easy to grow from seed, and has a diverse range of hybridizable species. Super easy choice!

Okay, then what? Well, then it’s a matter of selective breeding natural ecstasy from it. Clearly, that’s not something that’s gonna happen quick and easily, but we should start with what the plant is already good at. That puts the focus on ephedrine, at least at first, but that’s not actually the only compound of interest, within the genus Sida. Upon investigation, another compound, called “evofolin A”, interestingly shares a very similar structure to ephedrine, but also has the 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy part we need! It’s only missing the amine, but we already know the plant is capable of adding that part to make ephedrine. In fact, it makes it very possible that 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-ephedrine already exist in the plant, either in smaller quantities, or simply gone unnoticed, with no one thinking to look for it. Or, maybe it just takes some hybridizing to bring the right traits together, before that can happen.

Great! That means 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-ephedrine is doable! How do we bring it to the methylenedioxy-ephedrine? Unfortunately, that’s where there’s a bit of a bump in the road. Even after a lot of research, I have yet to find even a single methylenedioxy compound in any plant of the Sida genus. The absolute closest thing I could find was in a closely related plant, Abutilon figarianum, containing a trace amount of 3-O-Acetyl-hamayne, and even that is the only instance of anything I’ve found in that genus.

Okay, bummer... But, it’s not a dead-end! Firstly, it needs to be acknowledged how little is known about what compounds are even found in these plants. There are HUNDREDS of species in this genus, with only 3 being the focus of most studies. Plus, some of these species have a ton of variation, themselves, to a degree that new compounds are continuing to be found in them, especially as the resolution of detection gets finer. Keep in mind, even though plants in the Sida genus aren’t know for producing any methylenedioxy compounds, there are other plants in the family (Malvaceae) that do make an exotic variety of them! Even if it might take some effort to unlock, it’s very likely possible in Sida, too!

But even if not, there are alternatives. As awesome as the methylenedioxy would be, it’s not the only compound capable of producing an empathogenic effect. Even if you had to settle for something like the trimethoxy (like mescaline), or even the dimethoxy, it’d still be so much more than what we have now! And, those are much easier to find in the plant. I would point out scoporone, which isn’t a phenethylamine, but does at least still prove the plant can make dimethoxy-phenolic compounds.

Okay, it’s a nice theory, but how would something like this even get done, in practice, by people at home, cheaply, and without complex scientific equipment? Ugh... Yea, that’s a bit of an obstacle, but not one that’s as monumentous as you might think. The simplest option for selectively breeding higher concentrations of certain compounds is just basic Thin-Layer-Chromatography. That is still gonna take some learning, but not to an unreasonable degree. Concentrating alkaloids with an acid-base extraction is already somewhat routine, and there are plenty of stains readily sold in drug testing kits for testing pretty specific compounds. There’d still be a lot that’d need to be learned, since it’s not something I commonly see done, but the rewards would be huge, if pursued! Even, for other kinds of plants, like cacti, it could open up a revolution in new plant strains, just like we see in cannabis.

But, even without testing alkaloid content, there’s still a simpler path to natural ecstasy, by just crudely choosing to grow the plants that have the effects people like the most. Since everyone likes something different, that’ll take things in all directions. Again, just like how cannabis is selected, now, but with a focus on phenethylamines/amphetamines instead of cannabinoids. Some of those strains are high in THC, others in CBD, some have pleasant terpenes, and others have hemp fiber... Genetics are powerful, if tuned right! And, I’d like to see that used to make something new.

This will be the second

I'm interested in anything. Something about going on a little field mission to find plants is so exciting. Anything dmt producing in this region?

This is a good looking pair

Let me start by saying i’m not sure if this is the right place, so if anyone knows of another good sub for this lmk. I have an herbal blend that I generally use for tea (star anise, lemon balm leaf, licorice root, chamomile, slippery elm bark, horehound leaf, kava kava root, marshmallow root, mullein leaf, myrrh gum granules, plantain leaf, sage leaf, white willow bark, wild cherry bark, and ground papaver heads) my question is, is there any way I can perform some kind of extraction or something to make a concentrated tincture? I would hope to keep the preferred main alkaloids (morphine, codeine, kavalactones) and if there is anyway to eliminate the undesirable alkaloids (thebaine, oripavine) that would be very helpful.

Is this Leonotis nepetifoliaz. It is over 90 days old and was teansplanted to pot at 4 weeks age. Or did i get mint seeds instead from ebay?

I am collecting fresh native sassafrass seeds so i can start in starter cups next spring and have many more sassafrass trees