Hey everyone i recently decided to do a a/b extraction on san pedro cacti.
So heres what happened i made lye/wter then i added the lye water to the cactus powder.
Waited two hours then mixed in the xylene.So after that i had a lot of cactus/lye sludge that were stuck to the sides above the emerging xylene layer so i decided to add more lye/water to maybe wash the sludge away.Now i have a hdpe jug thats almost all full wit 7 inches left.So now my question is what do i do to remove this sludge on the top sides of the bottle.I think why the lye/cactus sludge is because i didnt add the the cactus to the lye/water.Such a simple mistake i shouldnt have smoked weed before trying to extract then maybe i wouldnt have forgot lol :sigh:.
Note the hdpe jug is 1 gallon.

Hey everyone i figured out the problem.I just have to give it time to settle.Sorry for such a dumb post.
especially for my first one.Well i will let everyone know how well my extract went.

Its all god mang. Ive been doing it all week, if you understand the process , you most likely know all the answers and you just got to be confisdent in your self. Keep going , and make sure to save everything until you are done

Thanks for the reply.
I read lots about a/b extractions but still this m first extracttion.
So update on my hdpe jugs this cactus/lye/water sludge is stuck to all the top insides of the jug.
So the xylene isnt separating.I tried letting it settle but it didnt.So what should i do to make all the cactus/lye/water sludge off the top insides of the jug.Im trying not to mess this up.

I think i know the coreect anwser to fix this.
Let me know if im wrong but,what i think the thing to do is add more water so the cactus sludge will be looser.
Then i think it wont stick to the top sides anymore.

Any advice?

I haven't done my first mesc. tek yet, but I read somewhere that excess sludge or "snot" is a result of not properly drying the powdered cacti beforehand. Try searching this issue. Also it is not that crucial to prevent any speck on the sides from encountering your solvent. You must simply further refine if you feel the solvent contains contams. with any jar based tek there will be residual aqueous solution on the jar above the solvent, but not so much its really getting in to the solvent. washes and recrystallization will clean your product.

hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply.
I came to a conclusion what the problem was i didn't pour the cactus into the lye/water.What i did was pour the lye/water into the cactus powder wich resulted in sticky sludge that stuck to the sides even after adding xylene.My other batch i made sure every thing was correct this time i added the cactus powder to the lye/water and shortly after xylene and i have nothing clinging to the sides and its already separating .I wait 24 hours though.
The other hdpe jugs,should be clear at the top sides,but its the color of the cactus sludge.Light brown but the xylene layer is still protruding through.
So i guess i have to be extra careful with siphoning off the xylene.

Again thanks for the replies.

Cactus extractions are prone to emulsions. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Whever I have an emulsion, I put the extraction vessle in a hot water bath until it clears.

Best to wait 48hrs before you pull the xylene. Cactus powder needs time to settle and your going to pull some junkie sanchez if you aren't patient. And don't add too much acid during the salting phase because it will pull out undesirables. Nothing a few washes with cold anhydrous acetone won't fix.