Thread: Growing Calea Z.....

I have noticed that the home grown leaves are not nearly as bitter as the leaves bought online. Also have a much better experience smoking the leaves rather than drinking it. I smoke 1 teaspoon out of an apple. If I decide to drink it I usually use about 2 table spoons worth......and I don't get the same desired affect. In my opinion drinking it is a waste......A.) Tastes worse. B.) Use more. C.) Less effective.

I tried growing this from seed. Exactly how it says on every site etc. Not a single fucking seed sprouted! Apparently they are VERY unreliable in regards to germination rates. Like 1 in a 100 sprout or something. Plus they get root rot easily when young.
I'm gonna order a plant though. I live in Australia too since you asked. Good climate for it.

YES I got a plant! So happy right now!

How big do you reckon I should let it grow before I harvest some leaves?
And also how many leaves to take?

You will need a stout hand full of leaves. This is the traditional way to dose the plant. More than likely you will need to let it grow 2 feet or so too harvest a significant dose. Or you can pull off two leaves every couple of weeks untill you have a dose, if you can't wait any longer ... that is what I did when I got my first plants.

cool, thanks for that!

Ok guys it seems my plant does not like the weather atm lol
It is Autumn here but it feels like Winter.
My plant grew pretty fast after I pruned it a bit. But then the weather got terrible and it's basically not growing. Or obviously just very slowly.

The stems are also very woody, if I look at other pictures the stems are green and soft looking.
Is this just due to the extremely cold weather? Would it be alright to bring it inside? I don't really wanna screw with the cycle of the plant by suddenly bringing it in to a warm climate. I feel like I should let it stay dormant throughout the winter.

Can someone tell me about his plant please? It intrigues me, and when I googled it nothing of interest came up. Is it like a drug like marijuana or what is it?

Originally Posted by Captain Sleepalot

How much Calea do you use to make one cup of tea, and how many cups do you drink before you see results?

Also, what results do you get?

I got one of those things:

I'd just fill it up, and leave it in the tea for a while.

Originally Posted by Hijo de la Luna

The leaves are enough if you are clear & sincere with your intent. A clear and unwavering intent is sufficient. I have used the extracts & not had as good as success with the plant as I have had with smoking the leaves.

I also experience good results without ingesting the plant at all. You might ask the spirit, inteligence or power of the plant for assistance.

Ive been wanting to try Calea but im a newbie yet, wont this be bad for me? I mean I only had two Lucid Dreams and im having a bad time remembering my dreams, even using a Dream Journal.

I wouldn't turn to any external help yet, besides advice of course.
It won't directly be bad for you, but if you don't get at least a few LD's by yourself, you won't have enough dedication. Dedication is key to lucid dreaming on a regular basis.
After you learn more about how LD'ing works, then you should try some different herbs etc.

That's my opinion anyway.

I heard that you have to soak the seeds before you harvest it, I live in dorms at my college and I want to grow it, but I think that my room is too small and I don't have enough space by my window to grow. I think what I am going to do is buy an ounce for a site that i found and they said that there will be quite a few seeds in an ounce so i'll smoke off that ounce until the plants are ready to start harvesting leaves. I am going to wait until next fall when I have my own apartment though. I already had some trouble with my RA here thinking that I smoke weed so I don't want to give her any more reason to search my room (such as a plant growing in my window thats a couple feet tall). I know that buying the leaves online is pretty cheap though, at least where I was looking. I don't remember the name of the site but it seemed pretty legit.

Good luck getting the plant to grow from seed.

ethan_hines hey I'm from england and my calea zacatechichi seems to be bullet proof at the moment. I read the same aricle you mentioned which prompted me to buy a cutting already in alittle soil. Iv had it now a few months and it doing excelent! Minimal water and lots of light. I switch between natural and led grow lights to compensate for dull days.

Originally Posted by purpleprincess1

ethan_hines hey I'm from england and my calea zacatechichi seems to be bullet proof at the moment. I read the same aricle you mentioned which prompted me to buy a cutting already in alittle soil. Iv had it now a few months and it doing excelent! Minimal water and lots of light. I switch between natural and led grow lights to compensate for dull days.

Don't take this the wrong way but I am glad for you that the worst tasting plant know to our species is growing and doing well for you

Originally Posted by Motley

Can someone tell me about his plant please? It intrigues me, and when I googled it nothing of interest came up. Is it like a drug like marijuana or what is it?

Apparently it has a mild stoning effect but is no canabis substitute. It's used mainly as a aid to lucid dreaming increasing the vividness of dreams and dream recall.

Chontal medicine men refer to this plant as thle-pela-kano, meaning "leaf of God". They use dreams induced by calea zacatechichi to determine the cause of illnesses and to determine the location of lost or distant people. It is also used to stimulate the appetite and as a medicinal herb



Here's a "beginners guide" from erowid Erowid Experience Vaults: Calea zacatechichi - The Beginner's Guide - 12224 (a great place for info on entheogens herbs if unfamiliar).

I havn't tried it yet so can't say anything from personnal experience have got some on the way though, will be interesting to see any improvements.

I'm a Kraut and I grow the Calea-Kraut.

The most important thing is to get a seller you trust. I ordered one plant at ebay and grew it for 2 years. Finally I had to find out that it is no calea but fake-calea which resembles the real herb.
There is one famous ethnobotanical supply in germany I trust and I ordered a plant (I was very lucky as the calea is most of the time out of stock).

During the summer times I have the plant in front of my house, in the winter I have it inside my house.

If you have spidermites, don't hesitate to use something like methiocarb. After 30 days you may consume the plant again.

I tried growing from seeds once, it didn't work but I heared from someone who succeeded. It seems to depend on the quality of the seeds, maybe they have to be very fresh?

Spreading from cuttings is quite easy, just cut a 3-4 inch long cutting, place it in water and wait until roots appear. Set it into soil.

I was just thinking about growing some Calea Z, to be honest. I can bring them indoors where it's a pretty steady 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I live in Northeast Ohio so the outdoors is not an option, coming Winter, anyways. Thanks for the links.