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The Corroboree

hookahhead

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Posts posted by hookahhead


  1. 9! MrDoRight (no extras picked... +2)
    14! Señor Jefferson (Juuls Giant x Kimnach and Nicotiana rustica)

    15! doxneed2c-me (Heirloom Spinach + 1)

    10! Herbalist (Nicotina rustica and C. annum "Medusa")
    2! djmattz0r (Heirloom Spinach + 1)

    Choices remaining:

    Nicotina rustica (1)

    Heirloom Lettuce (3)

    Heirloom Spinach (1)

    Cherry Tomato (3)

    C. annum "Medusa" (1)

    Pm me your address and I will get them mailed out this week :)

    • Like 3

  2. Sonnet # 17

    Who will believe my verse in time to come,
    If it were filled with your most high deserts?
    Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
    Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
    If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
    And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
    The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
    Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'
    So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
    Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
    And your true rights be termed a poet's rage
    And stretched metre of an antique song:
    But were some child of yours alive that time,
    You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.
    Flowers # 17 & 18

    IMG 1242

    IMG 1247

    IMG 1249

    IMG 1250

    IMG 1253

    IMG 1256

    IMG 1260

    IMG 1262

    Sonnet # 18

     

    Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
    And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
    And every fair from fair sometime declines,
    By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
    But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
    Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
    Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
    When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
    So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

    http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/18

    • Like 1

  3. Damn djmatt, I had heard of this but hadn't remembered about it until your post. Last year I found like 15 large elderberry bushes, when I went back to collect them for jam/wine the birds ate them all! This is a state game land, so I can't put netting over the trees. However, I could probably strategically place 1 or 2 of these :devil:

    • Like 1

  4. Things are starting to "pick" up a little bit :wink:

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Almost missed some Ninja Ovoids hiding amongst the invaders ! :shroomer:

    Ninja Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Ninja Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Ninja Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Todays haul :lol:

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Some more king stropharia :)

    IMG 1214

    IMG 1215

    This thing fruits like this every year, it's awesome!

    Random Fungi

    Random Fungi

    Random Fungi

    Coexisting fungi...

    Coexisting Fungi

    Coexisting Fungi

    Coexisting Fungi

    Coexisting Fungi

    Coexisting Fungi


  5. Assuming that zircon6 is the owner of sacredcactus.com...I want my '15 minutes to complain" as well!

    Admittedly I'm a bit of a soil snob, thus I'd like to point out another discrepancy.

    http://www.sacredcactus.com/san_pedro_cactus_potting_soil.htm

    * Real compost is technically humus. It is black, smells sweet and holds moisture. If it does not smell sweet & clean like a forest floor do not use it. Cow manure is not compost and has urine in it. "Redwood compost" is actually mulch and will rob nitrogen from your soil mix. Only an experienced organic gardener can set you on the right path with compost. Why is it so important? Because it contains humus--the substance that mediates ion exchange with plant roots. It also contains beneficial organisms that symbiotically live with and feed your plants. Badly made compost (anaerobic decomposition) can be harmful as it is full of pathogenic organisms.

    Or the alternative explanation?

    http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/organic/2002121127011493.html

    What is the real difference between Compost and Humus?

    This discussion has come up many times on this site on the Soil/Compost and Organic Gardening forums. When is organic matter "compost and when is it humus? Here are some of the responses by some of our OG experts and friends on this site. The following are just a few resonses in a recent discussion:

    BILL_G:

    "Humus is the stable, long lasting remnant of decaying organic material. It improves soil structure and increases water retention. It's nutritive qualities include trace elements and several important organic acids but do not include nitrogen or phosphorus"

    IANN:

    "Mature compost is still organic matter and can be used when your planting instructions request it. Organic matter that hasn't decayed as far as compost shouldn't normally be used directly on plants because the nutrient balance and pH can get all out of whack as it decays (too much nitrogen in fresh manure, or nitrogen depletion as woodchips decompose) and because it may still contain toxic substances (fungal diseases, weed seeds, or toxic bacteria).

    You are right, humus has no nutritive value. It's also impossible to get hold of since it can't be manufactured. It also can't be produced from decaying organic matter in a reasonably pure form on any sensible timescale. Lastly, we don't know exactly what humus is chemically so while you may find stuff sold as "humus" or "humates" or something similar, its buyer beware, you really have no guarantees about what is in the bag.

    Humus is good because it has extremely high absorption abilities. It can hold and release water and nutrients as needed. It also improves the physical structure of soil so that it is crumbly and aerated instead of a nasty clay mess or an arid beach."

    KELLY_CASSIDY:

    "A lot of confusion is created by different uses of the words "organic" and "humus." To a scientist, an organic molecule is a molecule that contains carbon. All life is based on carbon compounds, so living and dead cells are loosely refered to as organic material, even though they also contain inorganic molecules like water. Leaves, mushrooms, trees, live rats, dead rats, fish, etc. are "organic material." "Organic gardening" is a vague term that means many things to many people. The source of the term is probably that "organic gardeners" tend to avoid adding nutrients in their inorganic form.

    To a soil scientist, "humus" is the organic, non-cellular, long-lasting component of soil. It is organic because it is composed of chemicals containing carbon. It is mostly extremely stable carbon compounds with no phosphorus or nitrogen. Their stable form makes them difficult to break down by microorganisms. If humic compounds had N or P, micro-oragnisms would try harder to attack them, but since they don't, they aren't worth the effort. Humus is non-cellular because everything else in the cell breaks down and gets recycled into other organisms, leaving the humus in the soil but no longer within a cell. The term "humus" gets tossed around loosely by gardeners to mean the organic material that makes soil brownish, not all of which is humus. In nature, humus accumulates in soil because it lasts for hundreds or thousands of years. (Trivia: In a typical northern deciduous forest, most of the organic material in the forest is in the soil NOT the living trees and most of the organic material in soil is humus. That's because humus hangs around for so long.) Humus often lasts in soil until a hot fire burns through the soil. "Compost" is a matter of location and planning. Anything living starts decomposing when it dies. You call it compost when you put it in a pile and WATCH it decompose. "

    LYCOPUS:

    "Compost can contain humus at any stage. Humus does not occur alone in soil. I put the following together to the best of my ability to explain the distinction...corrections welcome

    In the strictest sense humus is made up of humic substances composed of Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen. These include humic acids, fulvic acids, and humins. Some Nitrogen may be present but not in any significant quantity. Plants obtain those first three elements by means other than soil so "pure" humus has no significant nutritive value. Mature compost is not pure humus, it also contains carbohydrates, lipids, and amino acids, not to mention living organisms feeding on the remaining undecomposed or partially decomposed material (can't expect them to eat it all at once!). Many of these contain Nitrogen that is released gradually over time. Not all organic matter in compost will be at the same stage of decomposition at any given time.

    Humus or even soil organic matter in general isn't perfect soil. There is no such thing as the perfect soil because needs of plants vary. Generally a good soil contains a combination of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. For the purposes of gardening,

    \agriculture, and even some soil science humus is considered to be synonymous with soil organic matter. This is the non-mineral portion of soil. So when a gardener talks about adding humus to soil they mean leaf mold or compost. When scientists talk about humus they have big numbers and formulas in their heads."

    deusexmachina:

    "The definitional problem here is actually quite easy to resolve. It is the standard distinction between colloquial usage and scientific usage. Colloquially, if you add mature compost, or even immature compost, to soil, the resulting mix is humus. The same can be said of adding lemon juice to crushed sesame seeds, but that is a different story. When actually studying soil, however, it is important to make sure that everyone is on the same page with their definintions, and that those definitions offer enough destinctions with other terms to provide a useful purpose, or else why use them.

    To this end, soil scientists break up the components of soil into categories. The portion that is the stable organic component is then refered to as humus, the portion that it is sand, clay, and related particles is silicates, the OM that is still decaying is, surprisingly, decaying organic matter. A simple way to look at this from the scientists perspective is to think of potting mix made from 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 sand or perlite. Peat is pretty much in its final state. It may have been that way for thousands of years, and may continue to be. Peat is humus. The compost, even if mature, is still breaking down and supplying nutrients. It is the decaying OM. The sand is the silicates.

    Normal soil has these fractions mixed together to differing degrees, and to make up for local deficiencies in one or another based on the types of plants you are growing, you ammend your soil. The benefit of compost is thus two-fold. First, it has the immediate effect of adding nutrients and bacterial components that aid in soil conditioning. Second, as the seasons progress, it eventually converts to humus and increases your humus count. Thus compost, over several seasons, can often be used by itself for growing, but there are some exceptions. Cacti, for instance, will not appreciate a soil made exclusively from compost and its humic derivatives. Without significant silicates or their equivalent, they will die.

    The distincion mentioned by Kelly between "organic" as used by science and "organic" as used by gardeners is another story, and a pet peeve of mine. The distinction stemmed from a long-ago disproven belief called vitalism that maintained that organic molecules, carbon compounded with other elements (just having carbon is NOT the sole criterion, else diamond would be considered organic and it is not, and so would CO2, which also isn't) HAD per se to be manufactured by living things, that organic molecules were somehow different from other chemicals by virtue of possessing a force vitae. This belief was utterly overthrown in 1828 when Friedrich Woehler published a brief paper describing the synthesis of the organic compound urea, formerly isolated from urine, from ammonium cyanate via: (NH4+)(-OHN) ---> O=C(NH2)2. This laid the ground work for the dismantling of the concept of vitalism in chemistry, but not in the popular mind, and the idea still permeates modern society and gardening lore. Chemisty then split into two branches, biochemistry, which studied the actual chemistry of life, and organic chemistry, which studied the properties and interactions of carbon compounds. When many people say "organic" they really mean "biologic". This sloppiness is important, as many highly toxic substances are "organic," and mistaken beliefs that organic compounds are safe, just because they are biological, is a natural by-product of clinging to vitalism.

    So, all that being said, here is a quick primer:

    Organic matter - stuff that came from biological sources (should be biological matter. Diamonds and graphite don't decompose!) This includes humus, mature compost, immature compost, freshly cut plants, live plants, etc.

    Humus - (soil science) that portion of the soil that has fully broken down and is thus stable. This stability is important because it allows you to remove it from consideration in a lot of investigations, and this is why soil sciences define it this way. This, incidentally, is also why its constituents have not been subjected to rigorous scientific investigation. It is not that it is somehow mysterious or has magical properties that elude investigation, it is just that it is only recently that anyone has really bothered to think about applying modern analytical techniques to this fraction of the soil. Contrary to common belief, a large number of its constituents ARE known. Their relative proportions vary from implementation to implementation, however, and thus no simple answer is really forthcoming as to "what humus is," as it is a dynamic mix of substances. humus - (colloquially) The organic portion of the soil (you can see how this definition has use for the gardener, but is too impercise for much usefulness in an investigation of soil properties.)

    Compost - organic matter in a purposeful state of partial decomposition. The purposeful part is important. Dead stuff on the ground is NOT compost, just decaying orgainc matter. It is the controlled, or semi-controlled conditions that make it compost.

    Immature Compost - compost that has not undergone enough decomposition to be of maximal benefit. This definition is thus use-specific, but usually implies insufficient pathogen destruction, lack of friability, poor moisture retention, active generation of metabolic gasses. Primarily still in bacterial stage of decomposition.

    Mature Compost - compost that has decomposed to the point of maximal usefulness. Usually in the fungal/actinomycete stage.

    So all mature compost is organic matter, but not all organic matter is mature compost. If what you are after is soil conditinoing alone, then the terms humus and mature compost are all but interchangeable."

    FIELD:

    "One more important attribute of humus should be listed, in addition to improving soil structure (or texture) and water retention. Humus also has a high cation exchange capacity, which means it acts as a veritable storehouse for plant nutrients, something that can be especially important for those with sandy soils."

    ******************************************************

    So what do you think? (LOL)

    Happy Gardening!


  6. @Billy, Have you ever tried contacting the seller(s) about your interest in a larger cutting? If your willing to pay, I doubt they will care what size you want as long as they have it available. in the US 1ft is just kind of the "standard", but the rest of the world uses 30.48cm :P . Also instead of searching for "peruviana", try searching for named clones? I'm pretty sure IcarosDNA is still considered a true peru, but could be wrong. I have a 2ft rooted specimen that is very beautiful... I got it as a 1ft unrooted cutting last year :wink: . Finally, you have to remember that anyone selling anything on ebay is looking for money. Hopefully in the past two years you've built a bit of a good rep and made friends with a few other growers? These boards are great for getting what your looking for; the members tend to care more about plants than profit. I can't tell you how much free shit I've received over the years, though many collectors will still gladly accept cash :lol:

    Aside from a member here from TAS, there was another Cactus Kate in the US... Kate Jackson. This is from the sellers site I think? (http://www.sacredcactus.com/landscaping.htm)

    Kate Jackson lived in Watsonville, California where she had ran Desert Theatre selling cactus & succulents. She propagated cuttings brought back from Peru by a botanist in the 1960's. When I met her in 1986 she already had a huge stand of plants from which she took cuttings. The photos above show an old plant that had been growing for decades. That is a single plant in the front of her nursery, I didn't photograph the larger group in the middle of the 1-acre property. Kate sold me my first San Pedro cuttings in 1986, teaching me how to propagate them.

    14footer_2006.jpg

    In October, 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake toppled the Oakland Freeway, a portion of the SF Bay Bridge, and destroyed apartments in the Marina district of San Francisco. That was 50 north. Kate's nursery was tens of miles closer; the ground shaking snapped off dozens of tall tips. She called me to drive down and load up my car. Today I have thousands of plants directly descended from this great "mother plant."

    Kate died in 2003. I rescued many of her dying specimens in 2006. By then her plant nursery was a weed choked ghost town.

    Under a workbench, in the ghost town like nursery Desert Theatre had become, lay a string of brass bells from Tibet. These once chimed, when Kate lived. Today they hang from my deck with a prism crystal attached to the end of the bunch. Every time I go by them I swing the crystal so the bells make their music. And I thank Kate's spirit for the enduring gift she left to all of us.


  7. We have a ton of deer ticks in my area (carry lyme). I even had to pull an engorged bastard off my left asscheek last fall :blush: . After my bite I was doing some reading, and read about "paralysis ticks" in AUS? I guess they're not joking when they say that everything is trying to kill you over there! Ticks & Mosquitos are the only two organisms I can think of that I truly despise, and would be happy to see go extinct :angry: . Damn blood-suckers.

    Anyhow, I now liberally apply an organic eucalyptus/lemongrass bugspray. I damn near bathe in it, which I certainly wouldn't do with DEET or permethrin. It has proven to be effective (for me) so far. I don't mind being covered in the stuff either, because as part of my routine I undress/check myself throughly/shower as soon as I get home. Sometimes I will plug the drain so that I can check if any ticks are floating in the water. I have found several briers/seeds this way, but not ticks yet :)

    Though it may take a LOT of lemongrass to produce enough oil that will cover a herd of cows?

    • Like 1

  8. I noticed in the auction it doesn't make any mention of it being a cross or a hybrid (actually doesn't make any reference to the plant at all!). I agree with hostilis, I think he listed it that way because there is a similarity.

    gary%20TA.jpg

    • Like 1

  9. Dont order anything from Thailand or any Asian country ESPECIALLY if you found it online or on ebay.

    I dont know about you guys down under but in america we have customs agents, and anything live plant or seed based from Thailand is taken and never seen again.

    I'd like to see your basis for this? I know of several people elsewhere who have received lots of plants from Thailand. Crested lophs, and other interesting astros, arios, etc....

    • Like 3

  10. Thanks for some more help bud!

    Some old finds... See how similar they look?

    2013

    ovoid2013

    ovoid2013 9

    ovoid2013 8

    ovoid2013 7

    ovoid2013 6

    ovoid2013 5

    ovoid2013 4

    ovoid2013 3

    2012

    ovoid2013 2

    ovoid2012=3

    ovoid2012

    ovoid2012 2

    The fungi is Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata and the insect is Apheloria virginiensis, which is a millipede that secretes cyanide compounds as a defense. They definitely looked poisonous so I didn't handle them.

    pede1

    pede2

    pede3

    Fall 2012

    fall2012ovoid

    fall2012ovoid 3

    fall2012ovoid 2

    fall2012ovoid 4

    Edit: It just started raining again :wink:

    • Like 2

  11. Reishi (G. lucidum) from the same tree for the 3rd year :)

    Ganoderma lucidum pin

    2013

    reishi2013

    2012

    reishi2012 1

    reishi

    Some old edible finds...
    Russula sp.

    russula

    russula2

    Shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus)

    Coprinus comatus

    Horse mushroom (Agaricus arvensis)

    A arvensis2

    A arvensis3

    A arvensis4

    A arvensis5

    Agaricus arvensis

    Puffball (Lycoperdon sp.)

    Lycoperdon Sp

    *I fried the horse mushroom + puffballs with some onions and garlic. Served with some butterfly venison loin for a completely wild meal.

    loinmush

    Megacollybia rodmani (not edible, but still cool :o )

    Megacollybia rodmani1

    Megacollybia rodmani2

    Megacollybia rodmani3

    • Like 2

  12. This is my #1 favorite plant to sprout from these seeds, my TPQC x TPM "B1/Cactapillar". It is just my luck that this has also been the hardest one to propagate.

    IMG 1182

    Tonight, I happened to notice a strange "absent areole".

    IMG 1167

    IMG 1170

    At first I thought it had been knocked off, but it appears that it's mutated. There is another one missing to the on the column to the right.

    IMG 1172

    IMG 1173

    I'll do a proper update soon :lol:

    • Like 11

  13. Well it looks like the forest inhabitants are just slow to wake up this year. We got some rain last night, and it brought a couple more P. ovoid pins with it :)

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata

    However, I am a bit worried... This patch was recently re-mulched and with it came these invaders that look very similar. I can't stress enough how important it is to positively identify anything you pick. If there is any doubt, toss it out! I know I am not the only one who gathers in this area, and I can see someone less experienced collecting these. I even had to check a few myself to make sure there weren't ovoids mixed in. Luckily, they are easy to tell apart by touch and closer inspection. Please let this be a reminder to forage safety.

    Unknown Invader

    Unknown Invader

    Unknown Invader

    Unknown Invader

    Unknown Invader

    Unknown Invader

     

    Unknown Invader

    Found my first Stropharia rugosoannulata!

    Stropharia rugosoannulata

    Stropharia rugosoannulata

    Stropharia rugosoannulata

    What I think is Trametes versicolor? (I would like any input)

    Trametes versicolor?

    Trametes versicolor?

    Trametes versicolor?

    Trametes versicolor?

    Just a random photogenic fungi. (Possibly Mycena sp.?)

    Random Fungi

    Random Fungi

    I thought these might be morels from a distance, but it wasn't a fungi at all! I should have known better, the parasitic plant Conopholis americana is pretty common in the area. I expect to see some Monotropa uniflora soon too.

    Conopholis americana

     

    Conopholis americana

    • Like 3

  14. Cleaned up the formatting a bit, and added 4 more articles. :)

    • Repellency of Essential Oils to Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) as Affected by Type of Oil and Polymer Release.pdf
    • Toxicity of essential oil vapours to two greenhouse pests, Tetranychus urticae Koch and Bemisia tabaci Genn.pdf
    • Insecticidal and acaricidal effect of three Lamiaceae plant essential oils against Tetranychus urticae Koch and Bemisia tabaci Genn.pdf
    • Effects of plant essential oils on immature and adult sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci biotype B.pdf

  15. “Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
    Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
    Who steer the plough but cannot steer their feet
    Clear of the grave.”

    More flowers = more smiles! :lol:

     

    IMG 1021

    IMG 1022

    IMG 1027

    IMG 1028

    IMG 1038

    This plant must be camera shy, the flower was trying to close during the photo session.

    IMG 1042

    IMG 1044

    IMG 1046

    IMG 1049

    IMG 1050

    Last night, I was able to get some better pictures of the first flower.

    IMG 1003

    IMG 1004

    This plant obviously doesn't want to give up the spotlight. Fueled by jealousy, she has managed to squeeze in 2 more buds.

    IMG 1051

    IMG 1052

    30DrSeuss_quotes.jpg

    • Like 1

  16. Yup, I will send them to any member!

    @Myelo, the way the drawling will work is the first number generated will be the first "winner", then second, etc. If someone happens to win, but their selection has already been taken, they will be able to choose from anything that is remaining. If djmattz0r is drawn before you but you're drawn later, he would get that packet. However, if you were drawn first, you would get the packet.

    • Like 1
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