For use later on down the road, you should store your cuttings somewhere dark, dry and cool for at least a growing season (spring, summer) to bring about the best results. This is neglect in its purest
It seems mean and callous, but you're simply just giving it a helping hand on its path to secreting its life potion. Prepearing mescaline is the Trich's lot in life. It knows its fate and accepts it. And Loves you for it
As for storing tea, I've heard freezing is the only way to go. It will go bad eventually otherwise. Though the mescaline will not, so even if your tea rots, you could still perform an extraction.
My advice: if you're going to make a very large batch, do an extraction. Like ANC says, tea is 90% of an extraction.