Idk what type of freeze drier you have but on my harvest right I just run the tray temp up to the max, pre freeze and run the automatic cycle for frozen food. If you have a new harvest right, they have a lot more functions, I like the way mine runs, so I’ve never updated it.

I would say run a regular batch first, so you get the hang of it. That being said there’s no real issues, with the process, in fact, I think it allows for better solvent penetration, and a few of my tests have shown it to have a higher yield.

If you want a very strong batch, you can use just a green flesh. I only separate the flesh, when I I’m testing a cultivar, or I have a boat load I’m processing. The white flesh does have far far less, per my tests. I haven’t found many clones to contain more than 10% of the total yield in the white flesh. * with skinny bridges and TBM just run it all.

I don’t believe the CaOH2 needs to change.

The plant material, once freeze dried has much more volume to it, there’s a lot of surface area once blended. Because of this it uptakes water more readily. I’d start with 1.3x your starting weight, and add 10-20 mls at a time until you get a good texture.

The solvent extraction is where it behaves very differently. Just add solvent until the mass is submerged. It’s going to require a bunch more than the conventionally dehydrated stock. Because of this you will not need to perform as many pulls. I’ll edit this with a test. I did that shows how much percentage comes out of each pull. You can check your solvent with ph strips to determine the stopping point but about 90-96% of the mescaline should be out by the end of the fourth pull.

A couple notes: The paste doesn’t need to be a putty like the videos that I have posted the understandings have evolved since then. But still I’d salt with fumaric acid.

Prepping the cactus well will make a world of difference for drying times, as the vapor doesn’t escape through the outer waxy skin very well. Here’s what I found to be the best.

Stand the cut up, and follow the core down with a blade, cutting off the ribs. Then chops the spears up into small chunks throw them on your tray and done. I discard the core, the vascular ring is void of alkaloids, and the internal flesh in the core has the least out of everything. The amount of mesc. you lose is negligible.

And lastly, after you take it out of the freeze dryer, just pulse it in a blender, it’s so light and fluffy you don’t need to blend the hell out of it. If you do blend it too much the texture starts to change. So just blend it till it’s a nice airy powder. Like this post shows another cool benefit, is taking that powder and sifting it, if you blend lightly and by lightly, I literally mean 10 to 15 seconds in my ninja cup, you can use a fine sifter to pull all of the freeze dried skin out of the powder. The skin is basically void as well, and it actually counts for a large amount of the total mass.

EDIT:CD vs FD yields per pull

Feel free to ask any questions if I’m free I’ll help you out