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The Corroboree

Darklight

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Posts posted by Darklight

  1. Posted

    I would be very interested in 'at home' tissue culture but I don't know where to begin.

    Do a search here for starters. Heaps of information, especially on threads Shonman has contributed to

    There are also home TC links listed on here which use readily available ingredients

    Would there be a database of what hormone/media works best for specific plants/genus? I cant find anything substantial. Or is it basically trial and error? and years of study:)

    There's a TC wiki, but it is small and not well populated.

    There is no database, sorry. Yes it's years of trial and error

    Try checking scientific publications on Google first by species name, then genus for closely related species

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    Ta for replies everyone. It's going to be a process.

    I just got a coupla quotes from ppl to remove a very large Euc that is going to continue to block out most of the solar access year round for at least another 100 years ( planted pre-internet on the advice of a mate who planted 2 and had them die in 10 years, I thought this one would too )

    Quote is gunna be about 2k minimum, so... um... by the time that happens technology may have advanced significantly.

    Tradeoff could be tho if I spend 2k removing tree, I will save 2k on power bills. Leave it with me a bit :)


    Some concluding advice - look very closely at your power usage (in Kwh/day) - see whether you can shift your energy intensive usage to the daytime when you are generating maximum output this is likely to make the investment in solar an economically sound one.... Whittle down your consumption as much as you can (e.g. energy efficient fridge, solar hotwater, LED lights)... and look toward lithium batteries in a few years, this way you escape being gouged for the goldplating charges of the massive ($37 billion) investment in poles and wires across NSW (and seemingly other eastern states)...

    Fucking gold plating bastards. My aircon for the lab was approved by energy provider and overloaded the transformer to the point that living here was like working in a strobe light factory. Power fluctuated between 90-240v by the millisecond and chewed out a lot of circuit boards. Then they stuck another 2 houses on the transformer. Def didn't get my money's worth on that deal, my power prices rose while my gear burned out

    If I reinstalled a more efficient lab aircon system it would run 24hr/ day but that would mean I could offset autoclave and flow hood use to middle of the day. Unsure how that would pan out over time re. billing

    A mate told me to get in the roof and install some led wiring and drop a few in the roof of each room of the house, then hijack the original power points with the wiring to turn them on and off. You'd have a little spot in the linen cupboard to swap over the cheap twelve volt batteries that you'd charge on good days for free from your solar panels.

    If I did this if want a few 12v power points etc to charge mobiles and laptops at night too.

    Yup. Solar charged LED lighting for regular power outages we get here is a priority

    Your last statement says it all. If you want to be able to divorce your self from the grid, you have to purchase a system outright & forget about leasing one from GEM Energy Australia.

    The website is unclear whether it is a lease/ buy arrangement or a straight out loan. I haven't followed it up due to large tree described at post beginning.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    Flowering like a bastard at my place this year in nnsw. I haven't seen it flower like this since 2007

    How many seed I get remains to be seen

    Not sure if it is because of a seasonal confluence, or the fact that I started fertilising it regularly with a foliar spray about eight months ago

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    Can anyone recommend a good, reliable, quality supplier of fruit trees in Darwin?

    I get Bunnings, with limited stock and range, and a couple of places which sell arids, and a bunch of empty links. Have contacted one or two places to see if I can find a pdf catalogue specifically for fruit

    Interested to hear of other's experiences buying fruit trees up there

  7. Posted

    bro, sorry. I just checked the shed, and ants have been into the seed and they don't look viable. I planted about 6 weeks ago, and gave the extra seedlings away yesterday... I'll have a look locally for you and get back to you. But if there's anyone else out there with seed....

    Hey it happens, don't worry about it, I appreciate the trouble you have already gone to.

    Would love it if you find more fresh seed tho :)

    Anyone else? I seem to have just missed the season

  9. Posted

    A mate is heading up to remote NT, his family lost a lot of stuff in the recent cyclone, including their gardens

    Not sure how big a priority their garden rebuild will be overall, but my mate wants to take up some fast growing basic stock, including a couple of favourites. A few NSW locals helping pack together something which will make it past whatever regional quarantine checks are encountered

    Have specifically been asked for tamarind ( Tamarindus indica ). I heard yesterday that there are Tamarind trees in Darwin already, but my mate won't be stopping there long enough to collect, check, package seed even if it's in season. He's a very basic home veg gardener in Vic and has family concerns uppermost on what will be a long trip with multiple priorities

    If anyone has any viable, clean Tamarind seed to donate/ trade/ sell, maybe 50 or so, please PM me. It'll be sent here to NSW first so I can ensure labelling and storage is 100% going to not be a hassle for him to travel with and that seed will be viable at the end of it

  11. Posted

    Ta Paradox, those did show up in searches but I was interested in hearing of experiences that were recent and current practices rather than research announcements. Or from installers, we had a few here a while back but they have gone quiet

    Did make me miss ReShroomEd terribly tho. Love that bloke. If you're reading this mate, thinking of you :)

    Am thinking I'd rather get a quote from Rainbow Power Company, looking at their price for a similar system seems a smidge less, plus they're local so if anything goes awry it will be quicker to get a techie out

  13. Posted

    Searched, but could only find one detailed thread covering solar installations in Bitches and Gripes

    Am connected to the grid. I'd love to swerve it, because I don't see an end to the price increases, and because the technology seems to be more efficient than it used to be. I run a shit ton of stuff, as you can imagine. Autoclaves, flow hood, power tools

    I do not understand my electricity bill, but I understand it's increased over 100% last few years. Not much provider competition in my area, am forced to pay highest prices for it and have had to scale back my business to accommodate that

    This company is offering a solar install package deal in my area

    http://www.gemenergy.com.au/northnsw/

    Does it look any good? There were some installer ppl here a while ago, I'd love to hear feedback

    Any system I put in would need to be able to leave the grid totally when battery technology improves. I have a love/hate relationship with the grid, I need to end it

    • Like 2

  14. Posted

    Bloody hippies are onto something ;)

    Forum member here put me onto water kefir and gave me a culture. I've been at them all summer. Even in my micro-organism rich environment ( aka the kitchen ) the grains are still wholesome, healthy, productive and strong

    Kaffir limes are harvesting now, so after full fermentation I strain the grains off and whack a small piece of the fresh peel in with the drink and let it sit another day. It's bloody marvellour and refreshing

    Wondering if it's comparable in calories to commercial soft drink? Does this explain the mild energy buzz I get?

    I suspected the brew could be mildly alcoholic but I tested it the other day, and no.

    Go for it. Easy.

  16. Posted

    This.

    Hot.

    http://www.facebook.com/flowhive

    We are very excited to introduce our new invention that allows you to enjoy fresh honey straight out of your beehive without opening it. It's far less stress for the bees and much, much easier for the beekeeper.

    Launches tomorrow 11am. Is getting good reviews.

    You can fit 2 Flow supers on top of a non-modified Langstroth brood box from the looks of things, as long as the frames are deep

    If it's as good as it looks it does have a couple of on-flow impacts of interest:

    If beekeeping becomes idiot-proof, more idiots will keep bees and not look after them, potentially providing a pool of pathogens and pests

    If European beehives proliferate they could potentially knock native bees back a way. European bees start foraging much earlier in the day than the locals.

    These are not negatives which would stop me from coveting and purchasing a Flow hive, any savings I make in time and money stuffing round with extractors etc I'll put into providing native hives for the locals

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    I have found Eden seed quality to be progressively worse over the last few years- germination rates decreasing. Have been a customer of theirs for 20+ years and I'm switching to our local seed network for all veggie seed

    This could be due to vendor storage for Eden seed at the retail end of course, more experimentation definitely needed, but I purchased from at least 3 different local stores

    Bought 2 packs Eden seed capsicum, subject to my usual germination in propagation mix semi shade. One germination. Minimal germination for 2 x carrot variety, and nil for of all things, radish

    Bought 2 packs random seed from local seed network the other week, 100% germination in one species, too many to count in the other

    It's not the money I resent losing on Eden so much as I miss the opportunity to harvest food which should have grown and has grown previously here

    Local seed networks are a safer bet for me

  18. Posted

    ^^

    you don't have a right to say who reproduces and who doesn't

    He said "please". Did you read that? Or are we back to that pathetic thread where anyone who said they were in favour of zero population growth was practically accused of wanting to break into houses and slaughter forum member's children. One of the low points in the intellectual life of this place IME

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    I have a bunch of Psychotria carthagenensis/ alba plants I'd like to put along a fenceline in NSW

    There's a small chance that cows could get to them when they're taller ( the plants, not the cows )

    Google has some loose insinuations that some Psychotria species could be potentially toxic to cattle, however most of the search results don't mention species and Psychotria is a large and varied genus

    B&T World Seed has a reference saying P. viridis is toxic to cattle, but I can't find the study reference for that. And I'm planting P. carth

    Has anyone here had P. carth within range of cattle reach? What were your experiences- cows OK?

    If cattle are known to be affected by it I'll plant them somewhere else

  23. Posted

    Personally I'm growing tired of all the sarcasm around here lately from multiple users. I know it can be funny, even poignant, I just think its lowering the standard of discussion which might be the opposite of its intention.

    Oh I love the sarcasm personally. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, so sarcasm harder people. Harder. Shit deserves to be made fun o

    it wasn't an analogy, it was a statement of fact. it's especially true with pharmaceutical companies and drug trials, where statistics are withheld or manipulated to get a product to market quicker. I don't agree that science is what you make of it. pure water boils at ~100°C @ 1ATM is science (open to variation due to a number of variables etc.) , it leaves no room for making anything of it, it's a simple statement of fact. this leads me to what i've been considering lately, and that is mathematics could be considered the only truly objective language, in that it doesn't leave room for the effects of qualia like simple human observations can. for example, you see a red square, i see a red square, how or or what type of red exactly is dependent on us the observers. but a photon detector can give us a precise measure of the red, let's say 450nm. this isn't open to interperetation or agenda, it's just a simple statement of fact.

    Yep you are right in one sense, and my analogy was shoddy. Yes, water boils at ~100°C @ 1ATM. But the uses to which empirical observation are put reflects our own input and relationships with each other. Are you testing BP forsurgical polymer manufacture or are you calculating gas use for pouring boiled H2O over the heads of political dissidents? Either way, the figure is a constant. The end use is not

    Did I get my point right yet? Science isn't privatised. A fuckload of what's funded has been privatised. Not too much of that is prohibited, or even out of range for many people. We've just embraced learned helplessness about chasing ideas rigorously for ourselves. There are valuable citizen science projects which combat this, and I love them

    That's pretty much it.

    Why bother play a game if you aren't enjoying it?

    And yet... here you are... still complaining. Where's that luscious info you're witholding?

    Don't take it personally, I've been caned for saying similar stuff years ago. But it was good advice. Don't whinge too long, fix it.

  24. Posted

    Also, a lot of people in the psychedelic community make their money by exploiting ignorance.

    McKenna, Hancock, Pinchbeck etc. If not for dumb people these men would have been working at a gas station.

    LIKE

    I don't object to Pinchbeck's poetic style, but fucked if I'd call him a researcher

    Have often wished I could make something up completely and say it sufficient credulity while charging bulk $ and selling books. I'd giggle and give the game away pretty early on

    Absolutely cannot believe that so many people are so willing to sacrifice independent thought in order to suck up such peurile crap and spout it back out without losing mass credibility. Oh. LNP. I guess it's just human nature. Years back I was surprised to find such a willingness to bow to the alpha-men spouting unproveable crap in the EB community- especially overseas-and that was back when the signal/noise ratio was lower. Now it just saddens me.

    Scratch any human being and you will find irrational beliefs not far below the epidermal layer. Even if it's just " She'll come back to me one day " or "If I stop smoking pot tonight I'll be right to drive tomorrow even if the cops are round". Irrationality is especially true of biologists and physicists IME :) I don't have a problem with that, it's fun. But it's when an irrational claim is aggresively argued as a proven, logical statement and gains momentum- that's when it shits me

    people should bare in mind that in the privatisation of science much evidence/data is either suppressed or manipulated to fit an agenda (profit), so just because thee's no evidence for a claim doesn't necessarily make it untrue :wink:

    Absence of evidence etc.

    Still, it's a bad example. Science is what we, the people make of it. Your analogy is like claiming private transport excludes the poor because cars exist. Untrue. Both cars and science exist as somewhat weighted social constructs- but they can be used in so many different ways

    Private science can be crap. So can public science. It's poor science and a tunelling of research focus driven by a short term market economy that's the enemy. The important thing about science- as opposed to religion, or fucken intergalactic space alien pyramid DVD selling schemes- is that once you find something is wrong, or different, you get to write it up and challenge or change the findings. I

    Im gonna keep lurking around but there is no point in sharing good information with a bunch of people who are incapable of collecting good information themselves.

    Not everyone. Just the vast majority.

    Really, you make that sound like you're gunna take your bat and ball and go home because you don't like the players. Gosh, who here is lucky enough to fall under the definition of 'everyone' above? Is this a statement designed to make us each secretly glad you don't mean us as individuals?

    If you gave a fuck you'd contribute all this good information you've just spruiked and get a decent discussion going

    • Like 3

  25. Posted

    If people make a claim they should have to verify that claim

    If they verify a claim it should be with something that can be verified independently by third parties

    It should be repeatable

    It should be consistent

    It should be something that can be further investigated if needed to understand the underlying mechanism

    If you can't do those things then you are essentially spouting complete and utter bullshit.

    Just because you don't agree with facts does not mean that the way the facts were gathered is wrong or manipulated by some other higher power.

    Just because you don't know what is going on in the world does not mean that it has to be sinister, nor does it mean its all beautiful and perfect.

    Back up your claims or don't claim them as factual.

    Where do you draw the line with this? I'm all in favour of isolating threads on chemtrails, antivaxxers and conspiracy theories ( for example )

    But some of the most interesting discussions here have started out with something like vague theory and get developed by subsequent posting types into a cross disciplinary discussion on formal research techniques and developments

    And most of the best threads here get hijacked one way or the other, which I really like as well

    • Like 5
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