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The Corroboree

Darklight

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Posts posted by Darklight

  2. Posted

    That's so good to hear re the costings, about half of everything I've tried ends up costing me money rather than saving it

     

    Coupla decades ago I was raising them for meat from the spares.Like pigeons, you can dry pluck them, so they're pretty much an instant meal

     

    Is not for everyone, I understand, but it's so little extra work and quicker than picking up pizza from town

     

    I definitely now have quail envy

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    The eggs are really nice in a salad with avo, maccas, greens and a bit of chilli in the dressing

     

    Yeah was thinking about the bug eating aspect. If I ever get around to building another fort knox for some I'll be putting oyster mushroom buckets on bricks, hopefully the quail will eat any of the tiny flies that the mushroom buckets attract

     

    Are they financially efficient? Reckon you get your moneys worth out in eggs? And are you planning on raising more from the eggs?

  5. Posted

    I'd go if I was in Melbs for sure :D

     

    Look, if you've ever been to a mushroom tek and feel like you haven't learned enough to be as productive as you like, go to another one!

     

    Mycology's quite the thing to wrap your head around- even with years of plant growing and plant biotech experience it took me a coupla years work to get the gist of the different schedulings and life cycles, spawn implications etc.

     

    Luckily the teks taught these days are way simpler than they were back in my day, and we know which strains are better suited to local conditions and substrates.

     

    But it never hurts to do a basics workshop again if you're struggling ( ID workshops I always always learn new things, I try not to miss those ever )

  7. Posted

    15 hours ago, Solipsis said:

    Whatever it is, I would consider it serious.. and in my experience it is not good to just start randomly applying solutions especially ones that are mainly meant to maintain and control problems.

     

    Focus such a treatment on a decent systemic product and don't start putting peroxide on the roots or combine 5 different things meant for prevention, hoping that it will work because you stacked them..

     

    This. Exactly.

     

    Do not throw more than one treatment on any sick plant at a time unless you have experience with that combination and that species.

     

    Give the treatment time to work ( or fail ) before throwing anything else at it

     

    You might lose your plant anyhow, but you're giving it a better chance in the meantime. And if it fails, you can tell people that specific tek didn't work- for your species and pathogen, in your area. Which will help others

     

    My suggestion of Trichoderma has only worked for me thus far, for pathogens in my area, on cactus I've previously had problems with. I've not yet enquired if the protocol has been tried on cactus in other regions by other people. I'd expect anyone throwing Trichoderma as a new treatment for a sick cactus in another bio-region would regard it as an experimental treatment.

     

    My extensive experience in people telling me what works for them has shown that about 80% of people throw a bunch of random stuff at their sick plants, in an entirely undocumented and cavalier way contrary to any instructions, then pick one thing from the bunch and blame it for the success or failure. It makes for unreliable data.

     

     

     

    15 hours ago, Solipsis said:

     

    Tricky cause while you want to get em out of that soil asap which has *way* too much organic soil in it

     

     

    Yup. Lophs here in NNSW can stand being pulled out of the ground over winter to dry out then repotting, but not sure if I'd recommend that til yours has at least started to heal- or even fully healed

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    18 hours ago, woopwoop said:

    So you apply it to the actual plant?

     

    Yup, as a foliar spray

     

    18 hours ago, woopwoop said:

    Do you use a mostly mineral mix for your lophs (especially if your in a tropical location)?

     

    It's a coarse sharp sand blend, I think it was commercial. Planted it in that pot about 15 years ago

     

    18 hours ago, woopwoop said:

    if so, do you still use Trichoderma in the soil of it as well?

     

    Yup. Mostly via what falls on the soil from the foliar spray. Ideally I apply it once every 1-2 weeks when I foliar spray everything here

  9. Posted

    Dunno if it'll work in your climate but I throw a commercial Trichoderma solution over anything that looks wounded, mouldy or is prone to it.

     

    Early morning, so it has a chance to dry, absorb, multiply before the cool evening sets in.

     

    I've never been able to grow Lophs outside, nor Mammillaria until I started doing this about 18 months ago. They both always got orange rot 100%.

     

    Last growing season was my first ever successful button cactus year. Even late and cool in the season, when a bird pecked a massive hole in the big Loph it healed fully within 48 hrs, callusing started after 12hr after application. No further damage, no pathogens moved in

     

    IME Trich regular applications also stop larvae if you always respray within the breeding cycle

     

    But that's just me, here. Don't use it as a magic bullet for everything without testing on a few of your babies over a season or two.

     

    Was gunna make up a commercial mix and sell it, but my marketing skills suck. Get yours from a hydro shop. Have also posted on other threads here on Trichoderma

  10. Posted

    Niggles and I have been looking at microscopy, learning more about it. Um, there's a lot more to it than we thought...

     

    What's become obvious early on in the piece is that my cheapo $50 ebay scope isn't up to the job of looking at stomates and spores. It's not just the magnification, it's the crap optics.

     

    Need a compound scope with illumination, pref LED. Pref with coarse and fine focusing. Magnification to 1000x or more if there's an immersion lens involved ( never used one, no idea how that works ). I wanna see stomates, chromosomes, spores.

     

    Good optics are essential. We'll be attaching a camera to it too. Zeiss. Leica or Olympus lens or similar quality.

     

    If you have a good compound scope at home just sitting round and you'd love to see it get used regularly, gimme a hoi and we'll find a suitable trade for you.

  11. Posted

    On 23/06/2019 at 12:29 AM, Freakosystem said:

    Oh no! Somebody didn't learn their kingdoms of life...

     

    I'm lichen that one more and more

     

    On 23/06/2019 at 12:29 AM, Freakosystem said:

     

    Has anybody successfully fruited Omohalotus nidiformis? A friend had a good culture going and innoculated many logs as well as filter patch bags as per the morphologically similar Pluerotus species and whilst the mycelium was very aggressive, they never fruited.

     

    Same same.

     

    Though there might be one here trying to fruit on the agar plate ( could also be contam, discolouration from inoculation point tho and never seen this particular effect before )

     

    Will post if it does fruit

  12. Posted

    How did the microscopy workshop go? Wish I'd been there.

     

    Starting an informal microscopy study run today with another forum member to try and get some basic teks in hand to add to current research. Is way more daunting than I thought. Microscopy, like tissue culture and TLC, is an entire field of knowledge of it's own

     

    First lesson is cleaning our microscopes. It's mouldy in NNSW and even the best stored scopes cop it

     

    We're starting with the cheap-arsed compound scopes we've had for years ( USB camera, ebay ) to see how far we can push their utility before we look at the worth of saving for upgrades.

     

    Tho good optics and lens' are important- I once used the USB camera on a 1920s microscope with immaculate optics and the results were absolutely brilliant- way better than the cheap arsed ebay one I was comparing it to

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    Yeah nah, I wouldn't. Says it's a vertical flow cabinet- so clean air is pushed from the top of the cabinet to the bottom

     

    Best flow cabinets for general contamination free cultures IMO are horizontal flow. Clean air is pushed from the back of the cabinet towards you, so if any contaminants are inadvertently transferred during work they will be blown away from the work surface towards the user

     

    Anyone here ever used a vertical flow cabinet for routine sterile culture  transfer work? This link says it's possible, but I've not seen it in practice ever

     

    https://www.thermofisher.com/nl/en/home/references/gibco-cell-culture-basics/cell-culture-equipment/laminar-flow-hood.html

     

     

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    8 hours ago, Glaukus said:

    As long as there's food for the mycelium to consume the patch will continue, it will spread outwards.

     

    And as long as there are no competitor organisms and the humidity and temps remain in the Goldilocks zone for that species etc etc

     

    Actually that's a pretty cool question Zool and I don't think the answer has ever been found for all species. Some form underground storage organs like sclerotia which are basically compressed hyphae and hang there til conditions are right to keep growing, some species are always present as mycelia when they grow in symbiosis with trees, and whatever it is with the pseudosclerotia that some fungus form I do not know at all.

     

     

    • Like 4

  17. Posted

    On 05/06/2019 at 11:32 PM, Pedro99 said:

    I will leave it be and hope it works itself out.

     

     

    It will. Is it still happening?

     

    On 05/06/2019 at 11:32 PM, Pedro99 said:

    In the meantime I will give the worms a proper burial, I always hated impaling them on hooks when I used to fish. :(

     

     

    Relax and let the fungus do it's work, burying them is overkill and just means you work so different fungus can get them, only you don't have to see it

     

    The fungus will take us all one day, as will the bacteria and all the other little critters. Is how it's sposed to be

  18. Posted

    16 hours ago, Humbolt said:

    Recently Ive had discussions with a dishwasher tablet company ( Natures Organics who market themselves as environmentally prudent) and was hoping someone with a grasp on the chemistry could advise me before i reply.

    They individually wrap each tablet with polyvinyl alcohol which they claim is " a type of polymer that is fully water soluble; the component ingredients then being fully biodegradable".  I left a wrapper in a glass for a week and noticed no further degradation beyond a silicone coloured liquid suspended in water.  So i wondered how do naturally occuring enzymes finish the job?  Under what circumstances are they present, ie is the packaging likely to come into contact with these enzymes during its journey.

     

    Came across comments from a polymer chemist who says PVA "is water soluable but not sure of the effects on marine life or water based ecological systems" He goes on to suggest there is an issue with "degradation of the aliphatic polymer backbone.  No naturally occuring enzymes or bacteria are currently known to be able to degrade this structure".

     

    The company claims its 'Earth choice' tabs are individually wrapped because 'they can cause irritation in some people'.

     

     

     

    That's depressing, but an excellent point. I switched to individually wrapped dishwashing tabs in my lab dishwasher cos the unwrapped ones would physically degrade over time, but I'm also aware of any potential impact ( less likely on the actual glassware cos after washing it's rinsed twice before drying ) of both detergent and packaging.

     

    All a manufacturer has to do is show best practice for the recognised and available technologies under legislation. Whether the govt or industry should monitor all degradation products/impact is a non-issue, because they're simply not going to for every product til it crops up in the news. It's finally up to consumers to trust that standards are continuous, transparent and honest

     

    Look, seriously the only way to work this stuff out is to do it ourselves. And even then the best experiment design won't replicate the infinitely complex soil and other environmental co-factors. There's not only bacteria, and enzymes, but also microfauna, fungi, slime moulds and things we probably haven't discovered and can't consider as cofactors yet

     

    If you're passionate about this and related issues it'd be worthwhile to consider degradation products, and set up a working protocol to analyse and share results

     

    A basic ( ie facile, simple, thorough but somewhat incomplete ) experiment design would be trivial, funds for a thorough chemical/ microbial analysis of each sample could be more of an issue, but the biggest issue is the logging over time, the synchronisation of standards so that others could repeat the experiment, data integrity, centralisation and multiply redundant ( ie backed up safely ) storage  and finally publicising results so they can be understood and critiqued by a wider audience

     

    It's also a possible backbone plan for a Roundup ( glyphosate ) experiment

     

    Citizen science. It's something everyone can do. And it means you really give a fuck, not just an FB like

  19. Posted

    Nice question!

     

    Could it be that the cow poo came from cows that had recently been drenched and it mightn't be the fungus directly killing the worms but the cow poo instead?

     

    Personally I wouldn't worry about a garden fungus, the weather changes to favour whatever appropriate species is around and I find that single species generally don't predominate for long before they're replaced

     

    When I find garden mycoflora that appears to be damaging my plants long term I hit the area with a soil probiotic spray and do the plants as a foliar spray as well. Repeat apply for a few weeks to see if there's results. They're organic inspired, most contain a blend of beneficial bacterial and fungal starter colonies so there's always something in there to reclaim the ground, roots and plants from pathogens

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    I so wish I could go to both these workshops, they're both critical skills I'm missing and a colleague was telling me how great Bioquisitive is when I was at Garden States last weekend

     

    Alas, I live nowhere near Melbs

    • Like 2

  21. Posted · Edited by Darklight

    On 30/09/2015 at 3:02 PM, etherealdrifter said:

    this lovable, intelligent rogue would be busy setting up his own parameters and control groups to compare in this -his greatest experiment ever.

    r.i.p bloke

     

     

    He so would. It'd be logged by some old unit he got off ebay and hacked into workable with fencing wire.

     

    Was gunna say 'baling twine' instead, but Ed would never hack anything with flimsy, and he'd organise proper documentation :D

     

    It was his birthday the other day, I didn't miss it but was too gutted to post

     

    Fuck he woulda loved the last EGA, then we woulda taken the troopy somewhere steep and stupidly unsafe so he could show me a plant and then we'd drink whiskey or whisky

     

    So many lovely new people, so many lovely old people, and still there is an Ed-shaped hole in the universe

     

    May we all be his greatest experiment ever <3

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    EGA Plant Swap was lovely chaos in the best kind of way! So many people, everyone was respectful of the social bond around the sharing, people without things to swap were respectful and many of these people walked away laden with plants and with all parties happy.

     

    A few very generous people ( I have no idea who, so shout out if it was you ) turned up with HEAPS of plants to share, which got shared, and I hope they found some of the species which needed them too

     

    People milled, plants vanished, moar plants appeared, it was a whirl

     

    Did not get enough time to be properly helpful or even see who was around and what was moving, I got to talk to a few lovely individuals about mycocultures I bought with me and got sidetracked, sorry Amz and team

     

    Many thanks to @Amazonian for co-ordinating this and also for keeping the vibe cool and stopping entropy in the face of utter chaos

     

    Many thanks to lovely EGA crew for allowing the space to happen

    • Like 2

  24. Posted

    Sorrow at the destruction of plants, population, association and habitat

     

    Thanks for your hard work, and for those who help with it

     

    Joy that you are continuing, that somebody cares and does the work so well

     

    Wishing you more power for your species and for your eagle eye data

  25. Posted · Edited by Darklight

    I want to write a great big EGA love letter. Just got back last night after stopping in SYD to see fam and I still have the EGA glow :D

     

    The EGA team yet again excelled themselves on this one, there wasn't a minute in those days I wasn't enjoying myself and wishing there were 3 more of me so I didn't miss anything. The whole weekend was a highlight, but among the highlights some of the highest were:

     

    • Meeting @Yeti101 who is not only bloody awesome but saved the front of house crew with a coffee run, endless thanks mate
    • Hanging out at the Plant Swap with @Amazonian except we didn't get to chat much
    • Seeing Aunt Frances and having a chat with her, the woman is a knife and a multidisciplinary legend, I am in awe and want to have her babies. Loved her presentation
    • Meeting Charly Bedrossian from Cannabis College who is a complete darling
    • Catching up with a bazillion SABbers for about 3 minutes each and wishing time would bend sufficiently to have more time
    • Being gobsmacked by how beautifully the EGA team pulls these events together from the air- it was like watching a symphony unfold. Special thanks to Sophie
    • Working with @obtuse, mate you are lovely, insightful and organised and a total blessing to the myco community and the community in general
    • Wondering when @RonnySimulacrum was gunna crack the next joke that would leave me in stitches, while he simultaneously performed miracles
    • Brief moments with Adele cracking up laughing at ourselves
    • Seeing ppl I only see at EGAs because time is precious an I'm getting old

     

    If you regret not making this one, you should :p Go to the next one

     

    Love your work EGA ppl, and thank you <3

     

    • Like 3
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