endorfinder

Awesome, been wanting to give propagation a try myself! How long have these babies been going?

So relieved for your friend, good news indeed.

Oh and you can get bell/mason jars online domestically for much much less than that, and they're not "collector's items"... 12 for about $30ish, half pint or pint (didn't look at prices on others).

Hehe it would also be nice to get a second opinion on the design. I've spent a lot of time in labs but I'm more macgyver than engineer with my own gear.

I was discussing my ghetto flow hood with another member, it probably cost me about $150 all up, you can do it for less if you have some things lying around. It's basically two storage tubs joined and sealed with silicone with a small HEPA filter that makes for a relatively portable desk-top unit. I never wanted to mess around with glove boxes, they're a pain to work with. How affordable does a $150 parts cost sound to people? If it's something a few would be interested, I'll write a tek up (although I don't have a lot of mid-construction pics). edit: in time for your comp of course, bigred

I've known quite a few kleptos and it can be VERY hard to deal with. Does your mother have any history of OCD type behaviour, gambling, drug abuse, risk taking behaviour? The urge can come from many places :/

Woolworths where I am are currently stocking some PP containers that are stronger than regular take aways but still cheaper than proper containers. I've used woollie's screw lid 250ml containers (3 for $5) with little breather holes made from pieces of filter patch. My experiments with take away containers have been inconclusive. Keeping them well sealed is very difficult but contamination doesn't seem to appear as fast as one would think... let me know how you go if you choose than route I guess they're probably more suited for agar than as half pint jar replacements since you can seal 'em up with parafilm etc...

thanks folias.

Don't get caught up on the whole "indoleamine" thing. Indole groups are found widely of substances in nature, mitragynine and others have them yes but they're a tiny portion of its structure. Compare the receptor binding insanity of the complex "indole" ibogaine with simple tryptamines. By the same logic cocaine is an atropine-related compound. You can argue it based on the structure but... When it comes to the crunch.

Measuring the ph of the fruit might be interesting. I'm sure there's an easy qualitative test for ascorbic acid but it escapes me right now :/

PMed, many thanks!

Some kratom alkaloids are opioids, acting on the ope receptors, but none are structurally related to opium alkaloids - opiates. This is really splitting hairs. The important point is that other alkaloids are present with other mechanisms of action and effects.

You don't state whether the jars are cracking before or after cooling - I suspect in your efforts to minimise damage you probably don't know. Can you tell if the cracked jars seem to have much more moisture inside than the successful ones? More or less droplets on the inside of the jars? Use a fluffy tea towel as well as the rack, as has been suggested. Since you're steaming not PCing, you have to keep a closer watch on the temperature. Keep the heat on medium until the water steams, then drop it to low and only turn it up as high as you need to maintain the flow of steam. If you keep it boiling on high heat for a full hour you WILL break a bunch of your vessels, even mason jars. The hour starts when you have the water steaming steadily. Big W have 6-7L electric PCs for $70, I've never lost so much as a jam jar let alone a nice canning jar, and you can literally set and forget them - just sayin'

Edit - New offer

Today, I sowed out all the seed I had that was vaguely appropriate for this time of year, much of it thanks to waterboy. I planted my last pituri seeds, silene capensis, a few calea, some safflower, marihuanilla, wormwood, 4 p. alba, probably more I've forgotten. I started a water plant pond in a plastic storage container and sowed one of the 5 sacred lotus seeds I scarified a few nights ago that are already growing ferociously. Everything got a feed of seasol today, including the cacti. Splendens "blaze of fire" seedlings are looking strong. Yesterday I made a desperate attempt to keep a catha cutting alive after finding it hadn't rooted at all after 3 weeks+ - I trimmed it down to 2" of healthy material, scarred the stem and covered in rooting powder, and stuck it in a baggy with sphagnum moss. If it dies, at this point I can feel comfortable I've done all that can be done.... I also turned a garden bed into a veggie garden, and sowed the first round including okra, riddichi, lettuce, carrots, capsicum, snow peas, etc. I also got a couple of trays of salvia splendens and lion's ear prepped for mum's garden at work, and some mullein and lion's ear for myself as well. In the last week, I've started training my desert rose, planted a dragonfruit into the garden (although he really needs to be where there's more sun), sowed out 60 odd ephedra nevadiosis seeds (two seedlings visible so far), planted some p. viridis, passiflora and hoodia from seed, started a tray of 25 or so loph seeds, transplanted a bunch of young plants into a herb bed to grow a bit more freely for the moment (iboga, viridis, caapi, mate, voacanga), started air layering my gooseberry. Sowed some rucola in pots too. Coming up... I bought some dripline I need to test for both the nursery and the gardens, 3 acacia species are waiting to germinate in glasses in the kitchen after a bit more scalding, kava plant and a few others due in the mail any day

Heh I'm sold PMing!

Never meet your heroes

Tonic, I would think that $75 sounds about right for a seed grown 5cm loph, which is about the same price as WT's grafts. It's not that I'm calling anything out as being overpriced - quite the opposite. Jox, I think you gave me my answer with the early seed production point, cheers. I don't know from personal experience, but 3 years is pushing the dogma on how long it's worth keeping loph's on pere - does this not matter if they are to be used as seed factories? i.e. propagation not growth is the idea from this point? Would the lophs still flower as vigorously if they were regrafted onto intermediate stock, say trichs?

So what makes grafted lophs more valuable sorry? Still can't find an answer on that one...

So bigred... A sprite and you'd be hanging for a coke still. A coffee and you'd be hanging for a coke still. What about a soft drink + no doz or soft drink + coffee?

Lots of interesting notes at this page. http://www.victoria-adventure.org/lotus/lotus_letters1.html Does anyone know if this is indeed the case, that you have to decide on your approximate water levels shortly fairly early on in life? I just prepped 5 seeds last night actually, they're germinating right now. After at least 5 mins/seed scarifying on sandpaper I soaked them in water and got the tannins pouring colour (well, brown) into the water. I've sin just a little patch on the side ce rins1ed it out a couple of times with filtered water. All seeds have swollen to twice their initial size - at first one didn't swell but a touch more scarification took care of it. Stillman were you planning on keeping 'em in pots or a pond?

@bigred, do you have the same reactions if you drink a non-caffeinated softdrink instead? That's the first question for me - how much of it is the sugar/oral fixation/etc vs the substance withdrawal? Stevia is pretty easy to get from nurseries but if you have no luck and are curious shoot me a PM and I can send you some. It's traditionally used as a sweetener for mate in Brazil, and is used a few other places in Europe and East Asia in particularl - Coke is actually flavoured with it in some areas (or a variant of coke?) So yeah, how much of it's the caffeine?

Literally when it rains it pours for us it would seem... gone from nothing more than an hour's downfall all summer to the edge of floods here! I had to leave work 2hrs early to make it home, even then a few bridges were 20cm from going under!

@C_T and others - artificial sweeteners are as bad if not worse for insulin resistance as sugar. None of the nutrition of sugar, taste like shit, and double your chances of diabetes.

PMed.