Storing - Do mushrooms get weaker with time?

[Dankster24]

How well do dried psilocybe mushrooms keep? Do they lose some of their potency as you keep them longer?

[terrapinzflyer]

Short answer: yes, but by how much depends on how they were dried and how they are stored. (next answer: should be dry- not soft or pliable really but not so brittle it powders with light pressure, store dry, dark, cool, airtight)

[Powerup]

Originally Posted by Dankster24

How well do dried psilocybe mushrooms keep? Do they lose some of their potency as you keep them longer?

SWIM has known mushrooms who were kept in a refigerated state under air-tight seal for several years without losing any noticeable degree of potency (the same, coincidentally, goes for cannabis buds). There are several important factors when storing mushrooms for the long-haul. First, SWIY is going to want his mushrooms to be dried (but not desert-ified -- they should still be sturdy). Second, they should be wrapped in a material such as plastic wrap or tin foil, and then placed within an airtight container. Third and finally, this container needs to be kept in a cool area, preferably refigerated. Generally speaking, the colder the storage the longer SWIY can expect his shrooms to last; however, it is important that the shrooms in question be free of any excess moisture if they are to be stored below freezing (to avoid the formation of ice crystals within the mushroom flesh, which result in depurification, tearing, and rot).

[CrookedEye]

If dried, quickly, and completely (cracker dry) without heat, as soon as they are picked, then stored away from heat, light, moisture, and oxygen, mushrooms can retain their potency for years and years. Some were found in a few hundred year old tomb (not even fully sealed from the enviornment) and still had some of the psychoactive chemicals present..

[Greenport]

Originally Posted by CrookedEye

Some were found in a few hundred year old tomb (not even fully sealed from the enviornment) and still had some of the psychoactive chemicals present..

Are you sure about this? swiM remembers hearing the same thing about if ecstasy were stored in a tomb. From Shulgin if swiM remembers right.

[CrookedEye]

I read an article where the shrooms were found and analyzed and found to still have some active alkaloids in a few hundred year old tomb, so I am about as sure as I can be from an article.. I take everything with a grain of salt, though..

[jaffacake]

I thought it was peyote they'd found in the tomb not mushrooms.