Scarecrow

What's the current legal status of CBD oil in Australia? I read somewhere that it was fine until around October last year, but is now no longer legal. Is this true? Seems completely at odds with medicinal marijuana becoming a thing.

Hey folks, I've been learning mushroom cultivation lately and I'm looking to start growing medicinal mushrooms. That said, I'm having difficulty finding spores or cultures for what I'm after. Is anyone selling/able to point me in the direction of any of the following? - Ganoderma lucidum - Hericium erinaceus - Polyporus versicolor - Cordyceps militaris And this one's a long shot but if anybody has any leads on cordyceps sinensis (spores, cultures, cultivation techniques, anything) I'd love to know about it.

Awesome, ordered some reishi. Will get the turkey tail at some point in the future

Thanks, but I'm specifically after H. erinaceus

I love this community

Promptly shot down by both major parties. Gold star for effort

Reckon they'd ship that to Australia though? Hmm, figured as much. I'll ask my doctors and see if I can twist anyone's arm, it is appropriate for my condition.

It's been a few years, but since summer started everything in my new greenhouse is exploding and my collection is finally starting to be worth showing. Big thanks to the Melbourne folks who helped me get a lot of these together toward the start... I'll be coming back to the meets with something to share in the near future Ephedra sinica, sprouting from fresh seed. I found a research article with a propagation technique that had a high success rate and stuck to that. Used ordinary potting mix; made small indents in the soil about half an inch deep, put a seed in each, then gently dusted over it with a 50/50 mix of soil and propagation sand to lightly cover them. Keeping them in my greenhouse for now and spraying them once a day... I will move them out soon, I'm hoping for a few more babies to pop up. I used a nice deep pot after reading somewhere here that they tend to grow roots downward rather than outward. Would appreciate if anyone can verify the ID on these! Goji. I'm surprised how resilient these are. They were both basically twigs when I got them and kept losing all their leaves every few months, but they somehow bounced back every time. I repotted them before summer and have been giving them a lot of water, and one of them has even started flowering! I don't know if this means it will fruit soon or if I need to do something to make that happen, though. Valerian? The leaves don't look right to me. I harvested this and split the root a few years back and it started growing again recently. Still not entirely sure if the valerian is making a comeback or if this is just some weed. In any case I'll find out when I try to harvest it again... I nearly fell asleep cleaning the roots last time. The oils are super potent when it's fresh. Turmeric. Woefully neglected. Honestly I thought these were dead a long time ago... I don't know why these are still alive, but I'll take it. B. Caapi is producing more vine material than I know what to do with. Also surprising me with how resilient it is... it's seen some rough days prior to my acquisition of a new greenhouse. Psychotria Carthagenensis is looking lively lately too. Brugmansias are making progress as well, with another Psychotria in the back there. Again, you can see that I had no idea what to do with these cuttings. Somehow it worked out anyway. Succulent friends... you can probably tell I had no idea what I was doing when I was potting these cuttings, but I've since learned my lesson. Progress has been slow with the trichos as a result, and I think I ought to repot them properly in the near future. The pereskiopsis only very recently started actually growing, so I might leave it alone for now. Bastard things tried to kill me when we first met anyway. And last but not least... Sally D. The only one left of about 5 cuttings... it's also seen some hard times but it's finally thriving. In case anyone was wondering, the Kava Kava didn't make it

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA i enjoy this

The 27th you say? I might actually be able to make that.

Heya folks, been a while. I picked up a Kava Kava plant from the SAB store and it arrived yesterday. It's looking surprisingly comfortable considering it just went through the mail, but the pot's quite tiny so I want to re-pot it at some point. I'm just wondering when is a good time to do this? At the moment my only greenhouse (cheap thing from Aldi) is falling to pieces and not really holding any heat, and I read here that in this kind of weather kava plants will likely become dormant and/or die back. Am I right to assume that this means I should hold off on re-potting until it gets warmer again (or maybe until I build a more serious greenhouse) so as not to shock the plant while it's vulnerable? I could just keep this fella in a humidity tent until then.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks!

Hey @etherealdrifter, good to see you too. I've been hoping to catch a Melbourne meet at a good time but the timing's been bad for me, and I've been pretty busy with studies Your plant's looking good! Leaving it until spring sounds like a good idea, but like I said my greenhouse isn't much of a greenhouse right now. Think a humidity tent will do the trick instead until then?

Heya folks, Was momentarily excited when I saw that the weed overgrowing everything my backyard was flowering and turned out to be some kind of passionflower. I did a bit of searching and I'm pretty certain it's Passiflora Caerulea (correct me if I'm wrong!). Is this still a useful herb in comparison to P. Incarnata?

Cool, thanks for the info. Any idea whether it'd be more practical to use the flowers, stem, or leaves? I don't think I'll be doing any serious extraction, probably just going to dry it for tea/smoking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-reached.html

http://www.dotteddragonfly.com/tobacco-a-forgotten-healing-plant/ Studies on tobacco typically work with commercial tobacco products, not natural cured tobacco leaf. This interesting article suggests that beyond all the demonization we might be missing out on a useful medicinal - a scenario similar to that of cannabis and many other illegal natural drugs. Some excerpts from the article: "At the notion of tobacco, the majority of people will associate it with disease. The WHO states that “tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced”. This statement is false because the tobacco itself doesn’t present such a health threat; it is the modern tobacco products and the production process that pose a threat. [...] In the US, the industry uses over 600 intentional chemical additives to blended cigarettes. Furthermore, there is a myriad of additives present in tobacco final products which are not intentionally added, but are simply a by-product of growing and production process." "Nicotine is an alkaloid that in lesser doses produces a relaxing and stimulating effect, and increases the level of dopamine and serotonin, which probably accounts for its addictive properties. In higher doses it can be harmful. Even though labeled addictive, its benefits seem to outweigh the risks. In fact, it seems to have no more health risks than caffeine. The confusion about nicotine comes from anti-smoking activists who equate nicotine and smoking. Nicotine is an anti-inflammatory agent and has been shown, among other things to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s, as well as delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Analysis of natural tobacco leaf has been shown to contain more than 3,000 endogenous plant organic and inorganic chemical compounds. Interestingly, among them are certain harmala alkaloids, which perform as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI-s). These prevent the breakdown of monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin and thereby increase their availability. This can also account for tobacco’s “feel good” effect." I particularly liked this line: "As with any plant, it can be a cure, but it can also be a poison." I've been thinking recently that there are no bad medicines, only bad doctors. People have been buying shitty medicine from tobacco companies and self-prescribing it recklessly, and it gives the medicine a bad name. Then again, so have I, so I guess I can't complain about it...

I just assumed it was due to tobacco company lobbying (aka bribing).

Well, I bought the thing. I'll let you guys know after it arrives if it sets fire to my house or gives me metal poisoning

Wasn't sure where else to put this. Does anyone know of a reliable all-purpose herb grinder? I'm not just looking for something to chop my basil with, I need something serious with some power behind it... doesn't have to be electric, just sturdy and vicious as hell. I want to be able to chop and grind all sorts of medicinal plant bits, like stems, roots, bark, vines, and so on. The little hand grinders you get in smoke shops don't even come close to getting the job done, and last time I did it with scissors I ended up damaging a nerve in my thumb

we might have a winner here folks

Cool. These look like they'd be awesome for culinary and smoking herbs, but I need something that can handle dried nuts, stems, seeds, roots, bark etc.

It might do the job, true... but I can't find any that are "cheap". Well, if I can't find a cheaper temporary solution I may end up saving for a hammer mill. Gonna need one eventually anyhow...

Hmmm.... I think we're going in the right direction looking at spice grinders, but I still don't think that'll be good enough - like I said, I nearly destroyed a food processor with these herbs, and it wasn't a cheap one. How about a grain mill? Reckon something like this might be up to the task? Anyone ever used such a thing before? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brand-New-Barley-Crusher-Malt-All-Grain-Mill-for-Home-Brewing-Monster-Mash-/301918549465?hash=item464bbf75d9:g:bNoAAOSwDk5T7ZRC [edit] Ooh, I think I found just the thing. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PICAOLA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3DVEBYB7GLFPC Looks heavy duty enough for my purposes, but not overkill. [edit 2] NEVER MIND LOL $228.24 FOR SHIPPING

Well, more or less I'm looking for a cheaper alternative but that's kind of what I'm hoping to achieve, just on a much smaller scale. I don't need my herbs to be absolutely powdered, just chopped finely. And I don't need to process industrial quantities of the stuff, either...