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[HampsterPlanter]

Hey everyone,

 I am an undergraduate student at Hampshire College in Amherst , MA.  I love plants, as well as clinical psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Sociology, and Antropology. I have a thirst for knowledge for both of these subject areas and i have since discovered numerous connections and relationships which continue to defy my expectations time and time again.  I have a close interest in the clinical application of botanical and alternative medicine as well as assisted psychotherapy.  I took an introductory course on ethnobotany and have taken a couple general horticulture classes in high school and take pleasure in discovering ways that allow me to  almost seamlessly integrate all of my passions in order to produce increasingly positive results and continued progress.  Recently i have been focusing on research guided by an organization called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Substances (MAPS) which involves intense review of a multitude of primary research articles examining the pyschopharmacology of various botanicals and chemical substances.  Ive been getting sort of stir crazy and decided to take my studies of plants back to the roots, if you can tolerate some lazy word play. 

Anyways,  I am excited to have learned of the existence of this community and hope i can absorb as much knowledge as possible. (and  possibly maybe down the road, teach, if others have questions i think i am knowledgeable enough to answer)

Sidenote : Right now i have some Mezcal beans, and some Syrian Rue seeds.  I intend to compile a personal seed bank of various plants to try and grow in the coming spring and would love if anyone could provide a brief,  semi-comprehensive, sort of list  of "starter plants" that have  generally easier processes and would be (as much as possible) better suited for my climate (Western Mass).

Thanks everybody

HampsterPlanter

2 Likes happyconcacti and PermieGing like this.

[Mandrake]

Hey HampsterPlanter,

thanks to you for joining us. You seem to have a quite impressive profile there, the research you're doing with MAPS sounds like the type many of us would do in our free time - if we were qualified enough.

I'm sure some members sharing your hardiness zone (is it 5a?) can give you suggestions, although that looks chilly. There's a thread with user reports you might find useful - Temperatures and Plants. How low can it go?

Looking forward to see you in the forums.

Welcome to STS,

Mandrake

[Seed Collector]

Hello HampsterPlanter, and welcome to ShareTheSeeds.

thanks for joining us. 

[fairdinkumseeds]

G'day HampsterPlanter!
Pleased to meet you,
I have to admit 90% of what you said there went straight over my head, but very cool to see a new member nonetheless.
If you see anything on my lists you like the look of be sure to let me know.
Sounds like your gonna be quite handy round here, especially with the more tech side of things!
Have a rocking day!!!

[Sunshine]

provide a brief,  semi-comprehensive, sort of list  of "starter plants" that have  generally easier processes and would be (as much as possible) better suited for my climate (Western Mass)

Salvia divinorum(grows relatively quickly, wont survive winter), acacia sp.(some sp are cold hardy enough to survive winter), passionflower sp.(most will survive winter), lions tail(annual), lions ear(annual), tobacco(annual), morning glory spp.(annual)

I am around the same latitude as you. A lot of ethnogens will not survive in the climate we are in. Most require zone 7-8 at the least to overwinter. There is a thread where some of us members have been testing the cold tolerances of common ethnogens. I'll see if I can get a link for you.

Be careful with mezcal beans. There is a reason native Americans replaced them with peyote as their drug of choice

2 Likes happyconcacti and fairdinkumseeds like this.

[PermieGing]

Hello hampsterplants!

You sound like you will be a great addition to this wonderful community


Just a few species off the top of my head that would likely do well in MA (zone would be helpful) are passiflora incarnata and albizzia julibrissin, as they are native to your general area (actually id say a bit more south, but maybe also a bit more north, as well!)

Hope to see you around, enjoy your stay
 

1 Like Sunshine likes this.

[HampsterPlanter]

provide a brief,  semi-comprehensive, sort of list  of "starter plants" that have  generally easier processes and would be (as much as possible) better suited for my climate (Western Mass)

Salvia divinorum(grows relatively quickly, wont survive winter), acacia sp.(some sp are cold hardy enough to survive winter), passionflower sp.(most will survive winter), lions tail(annual), lions ear(annual), tobacco(annual), morning glory spp.(annual)

I am around the same latitude as you. A lot of ethnogens will not survive in the climate we are in. Most require zone 7-8 at the least to overwinter. There is a thread where some of us members have been testing the cold tolerances of common ethnogens. I'll see if I can get a link for you.

Be careful with mezcal beans. There is a reason native Americans replaced them with peyote as their drug of choice

Thank you for the information on some different types of plants to grow in my area and i would love to try to grow all of them.  I received your private message and would love to contact you but i am still restricted in my ability to respond to private messages.  However, my email is wwm13@hampshire.edu and you can reach me through that.  I don't have Skype but I'm going to download it soon. 

[Mandrake]

I received your private message and would love to contact you but i am still restricted in my ability to respond to private messages.

Not anymore.

Kind regards,

Mandrake

2 Likes happyconcacti and fairdinkumseeds like this.

[Frog Pajamas]

Welcome to the forum. I look forward to sharing!

[gnosis]

Hola and welcome to a great place!