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How to Store Shrooms: Best Practices

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Knowing how to store shrooms is just as vital as the growing process. Psilocybin mushrooms are a finicky product to store with no room for error. This can be frustrating when they require meticulous care to grow and are not always readily available. This can leave many enthusiasts no choice but to acquire shrooms whenever possible with the intent of storing them for later use. There are a handful of options for storing shrooms to ensure the product lasts until it is time to enjoy all the psychedelic beauty they have to offer. This article will explain how to store psychedelic mushrooms to keep their maximum potency and why proper storage is important.

Like any organic matter, entheogenic mushrooms need to be fully dried of all moisture to maximize shelf life. For more information on how to properly dry your shrooms, check out the Reality Sandwich article How to Dry Shrooms. When properly dried, shroom stems should snap easily in half when bent, and caps should crumble from pressure. Once properly dried, how you choose to store your shrooms can affect how long they will remain good. This includes the potency of the shroom’s psychedelic properties.

Why Proper Shroom Storage Matters

Following a proper method for storage is important when keeping shrooms to ensure potency and prevent decomposition. Fungus molds and breaks down very easily once moisture of any kind is reintroduced to the shrooms or if the shrooms were not properly dried before storing. Bad shrooms are a bummer. They will not only lose their entheogenic properties but can also make you sick, so it is vital to know how to store these palm-sized treasures.

Long-Term Shroom Storage

On average, dried magic mushrooms, stored in a cool dark place, have a shelf life of about 8-12 months. It is important to note that even when properly stored, the psychedelic potency of shrooms deteriorates over time, so it is always best to eat your shrooms as fresh as possible.

Freezing dried mushrooms, without any events that might compromise the product, could keep the mushroom’s integrity indefinitely. Freezing mushrooms not only prevents mold and decomposition but it preserves the mushroom’s psilocybin, which holds the psychedelic properties sought after when consuming magic mushrooms.

Short-Term Shroom Storage

For short-term storage, mushrooms don’t need to be dried. For optimal strength and bioavailability of all entheogenic properties, try storing shrooms in lemon juice. Place shrooms, ideally fresh and undried, into a jug and fill to the brim with pure lemon juice, covering the mushrooms completely. Keep the jug frozen until ready for consumption. When ready to consume, allow the jug to defrost while shaking the contents periodically to mix the elements and break down the mushrooms into a smoothy-like pulp. The citric acid from the lemon juice preserves both psilocybin and psilocin. Psilocin is mostly lost when drying mushrooms. Because both compounds are preserved from this method, the result is a much higher strength product that needs to be used with caution and small increments.

Mushroom chocolates are another great option for storage up to around six months, mainly until the chocolate expires. Chocolate can be kept in the fridge or a dark, cool place. It is important to store chocolates properly to avoid critters getting into the chocolate. It is also imperative to properly label or hide your chocolate to avoid confusion.

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Best Ways to Store Dried Shrooms

Although any airtight container or jar will keep your shrooms for up to a year, freezing dried mushrooms can preserve your stash indefinitely and is by far the best way to store mushrooms for long periods. Vacuum-sealed bags are the best form of storage for freezing.

Mason Jars

The airtight seal of a Mason jar is a great way to store dried shrooms. It is recommended to add a silica pack per jar to eliminate the possibility of moisture. Silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs water vapor and can absorb 40 percent of its weight in moisture, making it ideal for shroom storage. Silica packets can help remove any leftover moisture from the shrooms and absorb moisture that may sneak in every time the jar is opened. They can be purchased but it is likely you will find one in a food container or jar in your kitchen that can be reused. Mason jars filled with dried shrooms should be stored out of sunlight and away from heat, such as a cabinet or closet.

Vacuum Seal Bags

Vacuum-sealed bags are an ideal form of storage, and the machines can easily be found online and at most home goods stores. The machines are easy to operate, and sucking out all the air removes the many issues that may come up with other forms of storage. It is ideal to keep vacuum-sealed bags in the freezer. Remember, it may be difficult to reseal the bag when removing small amounts of shrooms at a time, so depending on how much you are storing, it might be in your best interest to break the stash into a few separate vacuum-sealed bags.

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shrum mushrooms 970x90 grow today

How Long Can You Store Shrooms?

Shrooms aren’t likely to be effective after a year if not frozen in a vacuum-seal bag. If sealed and frozen properly, shrooms have an indefinite life span and have been known to last with no less potency, four or more years after freezing.

There is nothing worse than choking down a handful of mushrooms and anticipating a night of fractals and fun only to have nothing happen, so take our advice and properly preserve your shrooms and all the magic they have to offer.

RS CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR: PIMIENTA FANTASMA

Pimienta Fantasma is a nature enthusiast and parent of two beautiful children and some amazing animals. Pimienta’s desire to give back to the earth and dive deeper into the beautiful weirdness that is being alive has proven to be nothing short of a wild ride filled with irreplaceable experiences, through snow-peaked mountains, lush valleys, colorful coral reefs (that need our help), dolphin-filled waters, and the epic wonder of Pimienta’s hummingbird-filled garden.  Expand your mind and your heart, dance, laugh, explore, learn, speak up and ask questions, is Pimienta’s advice to readers. Pimienta can be found protecting the innocent and trying to live the best life possible. 

Mushroom Resources

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11 thoughts on “How to Store Shrooms: Best Practices”

  1. I have been using NEW Si Gel packs along with O2 Absorbers in mylar bags sealed with an impulse sealer. I haven’t yet tried any stored this way past 6 months but will be interested in how long they can be preserved. I store the bags at room temp. To get an idea of potency I take a larger than normal microdose (400 mg) and hopefully can get a rough idea of potency. I also use an Erlich test. On occasion, I test with a 1 g dose.

  2. Hmm.. While I don’t doubt that freezing dried mushrooms in vacuum sealed bags is the best practice for guarding against potency loss, I’ve personally stored cracker dry mushrooms in a cool dark place inside mason jars with O2 absorbers and desiccant packs for 2+ years with no real discernible loss of potency. Basically, I challenge the notion that “Shrooms aren’t likely to be effective after a year if not frozen in a vacuum-seal bag.” as stated in this piece.

  3. I agree with rm extorming I’ll say it foodsaver bag in the dark room temperature over a year no lots of potency

  4. I kept 3 grams of ‘cracker dry’ semilancatea (liberty caps) in a pinch seal baggie inside a mason jar with some silica gel packs, for a year (at least, could’ve actually been two years, can’t remember when I actually picked them). Earlier this week, I ground them into powder and made tea with it – didn’t appear to be any loss of potency – pretty solid level 3.5ish trip. Similar experience with 6 month old ‘crack dry’ liberty caps – made tea with about 3-3.5 grams and was a solid level 4 trip. I’m skeptical that there’s some kind of one year expiry on dried shrooms.

  5. Just parroting everyone else really.
    Saying they aren’t likely to be effective after a year is potentially dangerous information, considering someone could then decide maybe they should just eat everything they have left if the potency is assumed to be so low.

  6. RoscoePColetrain

    I dried my first flush or two, then stashed in a glass jar with desiccant. That was approximately a month ago, today I opened the jar to examine and found that some are not as dry as they should be. No visible mold or discoloration, but my question is have I lost any/all the potency? I have put them back on my heatless dehydrator to dry more.

  7. I don’t know the full answer to your question, but I would be very wary of potential mold as it can make you really sick. It would be particularly unpleasant to experience that while tripping.

  8. I’ve also read that you can grind mushroom into powder and mid in with honey and store indefinitely!

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