Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Rooting Psychotria viridis (and alba) leaf cuttings.


 Psychotria viridis, or chacruna is from the same family of plants as coffee. It is often used as an admixture in ayahuasca. The leaves contain DMT. Seeds from both these bushes are difficult to procure and have a short viability, therefore making cuttings from the leaves is the best way of propagation. Here is a quick TEK to show you how.

 Like i said, its just a quick TEK, because rooting psychotria isnt too difficult. Snap the leaf upto 6 times across its spine (horizontally) but leave the leaf intact. Each snap point will push out new roots, so you can make plenty of cuttings per leaf.

Wrap your snapped leaf in kitchen towel, leaving about 1" of leaf sticking out of the top. Dampen the paper with a water mister.



Put the damp, wrapped, snapped leaf in a clear food bag and tie up with a wire tie or similar. Make sure the bag is full of air. Mist and fan once or twice a week.

Leave in a warm sunny place, like a windowsill, for 2-3 weeks, remembering to mist and fan.

By now, small roots will have appeared from the bottom of the leaf and also from the snap points.

The leaf can now be seperated into its sections and planted in moist but quite well draining compost/perlite/vermiculite mix.

Keep the cuttings in a propagator or humidity dome as psychotria loves humidity. Water and mist as necessary and soon shoots will appear from the base of the planted leaf section.

1 comment:

  1. Psychotria viridis chacruna is collected from special kind of leaf and traditionally it is used in healing from blood cancer. A disease which if not diagnosed before time can definitely cause death.

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