y did my mushrooms stems turn black or blue pics up nowww!

[mushhed8055]

just before i picked them the big mushroom seemed to turn blackish on the stem and after i picked it and driet it the cap looks beautiful n nice and golden but the stem is black ive never seen this before. and what substances can be used to absorb moisture. i have a lot of thoes little baggies of whatever there called but its the clear crystal rock type stuff in small bags that usualy come in some packages we get at work. i cant remember the name tho sry. but thoes are by two questions. why did my stems turn black and what is the best and easiest substance used to absorbe moisture. if its the stuff i cant think of the name i have plenty of the small baggys so i can use that if thats right. they say poisinous do not eat on the packages they come in. little white baggys.

 

[user_1919]

First off, without a picture I cannot tell you what happen to your stems. If it is just a little black under the cap, then possibly the spores may have dropped upon your stem. If the entire stem is turning/turned black, then maybe your stems started to rot? But once again without a picture it is hard to tell what happen. With the drying issue, brand name I used was Damp Rid. It contains a chemical called Calcium Chloride.

http://shop.wmbarr.com/store/c-2-damprid-products.aspx

PEACE & LOVE

 

[GOD]

If your talking about the little white bags full of crystals that come in the boxes cameras and telescopes are packed in its Silica gel . Its a desicant and good for drying .

The blackness sounds bad to me . Maybe bacteria or maybe to wet .

 

[GOD]

Please read this :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silica_gel

 

[mushhed8055]

ahh yess thats the name lol. thankyou god. and yeh u want a picture here il post it now. the whole stem is like a bluish black. all of them. they were beautiful when picked. then i put em on a plate and kept them in a dry place. No absorbant but its only been one day that they have been drying and now there on a skreen above plenty of silica. they smell beautiful still just look weird. never came across black stems and the stems shrunk seriously small and quick from what they were. i know they loose a lot of weight when there dryed but wow dident think this much. give me a sec thell be up in a few minits..

they went from looking beautiful on this cake and these are the exact mushrooms picked from this cake. so they went from this being alive and healthy..

then once dried this is what they looked like after 24 hours of sitting on a plate in a dry area. no silica or anything was used when drying these. i dono if that comes into play or not. i wouldent think so in this case. they dont seem like there not edible. they just dont seem like they were picked or dryed correctly. i dono you tell me....

 

[GOD]

If they are blue black it could be because you have squeezed the stems to much .

With a desicant i think you need to put it in a heat resistent container and put that in the oven and heat it up untill all the water has evaporated from it . Then take it out of the ofen and put a cover on it so it cant suck water from the air again . Then when its cold put the mushrooms on a screen in the container , but with no contact between the mushrooms and the desicant and put a lid on it .

 

[mushhed8055]

do they look okay to eat??

 

[user_1919]

Yes. You never told us that they were dried. Mine did that too when they dried. As GOD said, you most likly handled them often causing a bluing reaction from the oxidation of psilocybin. And GOD, desicant do not need to be put into an oven. All you need is a sealed apparatus and your set. When your desicant starts to get wet, you can put it in the oven at low temperature to dry it out once again. I tried this, and put the temperature too high, and it all turned to mush, so make sure the temperature is low!

EDIT: I just read that you said you just left them on a plate to dry. Did you use a fan to push the air above the mushrooms to improve the drying process? Also they may be black because they started to rot. They proabably dried at a slow rate. I would recommond using a deciant from now on. Do you live in the USA or Canada? Go to the hardware store, you can find what you need for less than $10. I used Damp Rid.

PEACE & LOVE

 

[GOD]

We are saying the same thing . If its been in the open air for a time it has gathered water from the air and will work better if its dry .

Love GOD

 

[user_1919]

Oh I see. I thought you ment when it was already dry.

PEACE & LOVE