PD.

All done, thanks ppl. Should have more in the next few days hopefully.

Im still trying to find the picture i have of the "valida" or "validus" from fields garden but from memory it wasnt much good for ID purposes, was at a distance. Im quiet sure he wrote the name valida on the list of plants and then validus on the plant tag, no biggie afaic though may be to others, not sure. As for the "terscheckii" from the other collection all i have is these pics which i have shown more than a few times. As already noted the spination is strange, throwing the long central at times. Is easy to see the size of the plant by comparing it to the spachianus or whatever it may be to the right in the first picture. and here is what fields has as chilensis..... I will be getting better pictures of both collections soon.

Not at all, the owner of the garden "attached" the name when i got a cutting. I guess if you try an ID a plant from one or two cuttings it can make things hard and as for girth, well i guess you never did look at the pictures of the mother plant i sent you, no question there, its well fat enough to fit in the basket. Im starting to wonder if we are even talking about the same plant? Perhaps the problem with the ID of plants from the garden in question is the owners sometimes apathetic attitude toward correct ID as some would like it, its often hard to get anything other than "its a hybrid" or "they are all san pedro" out of him but with so many different types of cacti who can really blame him, he also has a commercial vegie farm to run. Perhaps he just doesnt really have the love for trichos as he does for others or perhaps he just does it for the love of all cacti. I dont know, im not him so i cant tell you. As for the original plants coming from WA im not too sure, i thought it was SA but was a long time ago when that was talked about and very brief so id have to ask again to give the right answer about that. Has been a long while since i have visited there and the last few times he wasnt available, only his wife or son were around but i might just head out for a visit on the way west in a week or two. I have asked for IDs for quiet a number of plants from there and other places, is good to hear others opinions and to show something different that hasnt been seen by many if any here. Shit, i have only been collecting for 6 or so years so its no surprise i have asked for an id here and there, sharing and getting opinions is just another way of learning amongst others, we cant all be eddy expert by reading script itself, sometimes asking questions is a good thing not something to be ashamed of. Who is "he"? The cutting i got from fields was labelled Trich. validus from memory. Like I have said over and over, the label they come with is what generally stays in my collection unless its blindingly obvious and as has. been mentioned, the number of baskets (according to modern nomenclature) is gettting smaller and smaller. I never mentioned anything about money..... or is that just a dig? do experts get paid? really dont get that one but if its just a dig ya got me smilin. When ya can turn passion into profit ya doin it right.

Had a brief yarn with sina and mu about another camp, same spot as the last one up this way. Is a nice secluded spot that very rarely has any other campers and is easy to find.

There is another plant of the same type in victoria that a few have questioned as to its ID of terscheckii due to its spine size and branching. Unopened flowers are the short fat lil numbers (you must excuse my flair for scientific descriptions ) youd expect from a terscheck type but open they look different. That said the plants in this particular garden are more than likely the product of recent cross breeding and when i say recent i mean in the last 30 odd years. As for you pressing the issue Michael, well my plans to go back to Roberts have been in the works for well over 12 months now, probably more as i cant recall how long ago i visited and the idea to actually write down what we talked about came about as soon as i drove out his gate as i was just overloaded with information. That and some time ago i was asked to collect some DNA samples. I endeavour to get the whole story, from the first tiny lil mail order plant to present day, then like many before me ill ask to do a few days work for him lol. Honestly Michael, if it werent for ppl such as yourself that constantly pick apart each and every speculation or "fact" as some people present them then our understanding of these plants would be all the poorer imo. Like i said, you are at your best when the arguments start as the info you seem to dig up from nowhere to prove your points would otherwise be lost to most and the hearsay and stories would remain. Some ppl dont care what their plants are and just collect them for their beauty but without those that hunt for the proper then the piles as such would be very boring and we could all end up like a well known collector here in victoria, "They are all just san pedro".

But really Michael, but thats when you are at your best I cant really be bothered trawling through old threads or searching the net like many do to get their point across, i simply dont have the time, but i have seen it mentioned a few times, that is questioning if the pc clone even originates in Sth Am. What i was really referring to though was a few comments i have heard, the most recent at EGA, where i was told that "according to trout the pachanot is a hybrid that came from cross breeding in Australia that has found its way all around the world, its not even real pachanoi!" I couldnt be bothered getting into specifics with the guy, he can believe what he wants afaic, he was happy and its not my place to tell him what is what or force my opinion on him. Im not here to argue what trout said or didnt say nor what his final assumption of it all may be, all i assume is that the person that told me this wasnt really paying attention or had read half of a story somewhere and added their own little twist to it. Whether it be pachanoi or not wasnt really the point of what i was saying, that this particular clone has been questioned so much that ppl now dismiss it as just some hybrid produced in Australia way back when or some other cross bred form is what concerns me. We (and when i say we i mean the dudes that just wanna chill with their plants, not the armchair experts) have gotten so far from the real question that the stories, so many of them, are just getting to be all over the place and that is when the questions stop being asked and the stories become fact to some ppl. To some people "might" often means "is" that is what you must consider Michael. My comment about Roberts naming of plants was as i mentioned, in regards to his stubbornness. Often when questioned about the names which i assume a few people do he gets rather defensive. Old habits are hard to break and since he has more than likely known some of these names since childhood he would hold fast to them regardless of modern nomenclature or other peoples opinions of them. Yep the validus sure does look terscheckii, the flowers like you mentioned are a dead ringer, his rosei also looks a hell of a lot like peruvianus Like i have said before, when it comes to names, i name them as i get them these days as it helps me to remember origins and often the lil stories behind them. Throwing them into a pile of which they most fit if they arent labelled by the previous owner/seller. Ill leave the slueth work and the niitty gritty to the experts so they can tell people when they are right or wrong, thats what experts are for no? The "Im more right than you" thing is just boring now, yes it helps ppl to discuss and gets questions asked that may not have been asked previously but ill leave that to the "experts" and then decide for myself when it comes to putting ink to tag, sometimes the "discussions" can seem a rather forced affair. There is only so many piles to throw into. Im heading out to see robert soon again and this time i will actually try and get some questions fully answered and write them down this time. Cant say if they will be detailed answers as he does go off in different directions with his conversations sometimes but i will try. I doubt it will solve much though, we all like a lil bit of mystery dont we?

Ok, i have grafted both crests i got from a super pedro x J3 cross. I have since lost one of the crests to rot through enormous amounts of neglect though thankfully i had grafted a few times before the mother succumbed. It is still somewhat disappointing due to the fact it was the plant that showed a more consistent crest rather than going from crest to reasonably normal looking shoots then back to crest....... anyways, The reason for the auction is because so many ppl have asked for some of this crest action and i have no doubt many more that havent asked me directly would want it aswell, so the only way to do this then is an auction. If you are going to bid and hope to win then please keep in mind that im selling these in the hope the buyer will continue to cut, graft and grow the lil buggers so the genetics can be eventually spread throughout the community. If you dont plan on trying your best to prop the plant and share then please dont bother bidding! As said the plants came from the same seed batch, Super pedro x J3. Only the 2 crests appeared, no more mutations have occured in any lots of the same seed put down since. Auction starts right now and will finish at 5pm this friday!!!! that is 5pm by my watch too, Please post with your bid and remember to put which plant you are bidding on. good luck. Both plants are a tad under 10cms across, grafted on pc pach and in very good health. Plant 1 Plant 2 edit; sorry about the pic quality, i only have fone cam atm and it is hella shit.

I just got home and missed the end of my own auction, yep, im organised Well done tipz and myco, Im glad one of them is going to WA! The time stamp on Tipz last bid is 4pm on the dot so he got it sorry trips. ill PM you with details fellas

Very sheckshie fez, love the spination on the full vari plant So hard to find a happy place for the full vari plants, too little light and they do nada, too much and they burn and look shithouse, even in the greenhouse with shadecloth one of mine still burns if it cops too much light. A good stock has helped it become a lil stronger and grow faster but it doesnt look as good as yours. Is it under cover of any sort or out full sun with the rest of your whores, i mean plants?

Damn straight tripsis I looked into importing some different cacti a few years back, a joint venture with a few others here. After going through everything at the very least it was going to be around 2000 dollars depending on the inspections, time spent in quarantine etc. Then there is the fact that the plant(s) may not even be cared for whilst they are in remand and if they do happen to get some sort of insect or infection problem whilst in lock up they get destroyed. Its a fair amount to pay and go thru just for a tricho crest. The other option was build an approved quarantine station lol, huge investment in both money and time but it would pay for itself once you started letting out space, though im sure there would be a lot of mandatory courses or tickets to complete/obtain to be able to run such a thing. I thought it better to just grow thousands of seedlings and try my luck that way and ime if you use seed from an open pollination or try a trich/echinopsis pollination chances are youll get a larger number of freaks than usual, dont know why, although generally in my case i have found i get large numbers of varigated plants. Is a far greater reward to find one of your own seedlings is a crest or mutant just dont neglect them, they are precious lil things to us cactus nutters.

Mention those two words to Robert and see what he says lol. Good to hear Snu and Trout got out to see Robert though, dunno how they will go in regards to Roberts naming of some plants as he is a stubborn old bugger in that area lol. I only hope they quizzed him about the PC pach stand he has there (under the she oaks), i have mentioned a few times Robert said it was one of the first imports from Sth Am prior to 1920 but for some reason ppl forget this on their never ending quest for the origins of the "mysterious" pc clone, dont know why its so hard to believe and so easily dismissed as a plant/clone from sth america. Shit, even if it aint what some think "Should" be pachanoi as described, that it comes from the motherland is enough for this lil pigeon. Hopefully trout got the dna samples i was too poor and lazy to go and get for him My oh my, that could be a pandoras box one wished was never opened lol "Rosei is genetically more related to cuzcoensis than peruvianus and pc pach is more peruvianus than pachanoi, my god, knuthianus is more elephant than an elephant" IME the validus is slowish growing, cant say 100% though as the main cutting is in a garden with other leafy plants so often gets almost covered. This season it has been kept clear of foliage but is grinding along slowy. Will have more to put in better positions later this year/early next. Hope to get the pollen from bret and do a cross or 3, see how it takes.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome back everyone I visited at EGA twice, i was there for bout an hour on the friday to drop off some cuts and tbms for sharxy and kanje and then on the monday arvo for a few hours again to flog off a few cuts i had sitting around. I would have loved to have been there for the entire event but as many here know my organisational skills are sfa to nil plus the dollar thing is about the same so those two things combined amounted to me deciding not to go. As usual hindsight is a marvellous thing and the two aforementioned hurdles could have been cleared quiet easily and i now live in the big black dark shadow that is EGA regret It was awesome to catch up with the crew on those two occasions though and it was worth the trip just to get a photo of Ethdritfers bicycle the "debutante" lmao. So yeh, ill be floating around these parts again, got lots of plants i need to move to make way for all the bloody hybrid seedlings that need potting on and beczause to be honest, if i dont get rid of the majority of the plants that are taking up space they will get neglected and go to waste. I couldnt stay away from this place and once i started screwin around in the greenhouse and on the farm it was natural progression for me to wind up here again, like i have already said, its good to be home , thanks again everyone.

ey dood, i have some peres kickn around that you can have, will need a lil tlc to get back to good form, also got some t spach seedlings that are excellent for the job. Shoot me a PM if you still lookin and ill sort ya out.

The flowers are emerging once again but more importantly so are the fruit which didnt set at the end of last season. Ridiculous amounts of seed in these fruits so dont let the ants and mice get to em. The most so far for me is 33 seeds from the one fruit but out of the half dozen or so i have picked off so far there has been well over 20 seeds in each. The caespitosa fruits however still only have the small numbers of seed.

sorta hard to find a song that expresses the feeling of wanting to put a shotgun in your mouth but being too weak to do so.

haworthia, tephro, gymno

I have pics of 2 schicky crests and an E. oxygona in my gallery. Crests are very very hard to ID and the only reason im 100% on the ID of my crests is due to the fact i found them growing from the mother plants i have in my garden. My oxygona crest grows ridiculously fast, going from a 20 cent piece size to a dinner plate in around 2 years and that was with little to no care, just a sprinkle of water every now and then. It will most likely go under the knife this season

LOL, its still gettn advertised as cereus, They have been selling that "cereus" for a few years now.

I had a lil theory about what was goin on here but i never got around to posting it and now i cant really recall what it was exactly. It was something like the plants on the outer parts are all larger and obviously have more/bigger roots, with every feeding/watering the larger plants are taking up the water faster and faster and in turn the soil in the middle dries out slower. Unused salts from the ferts are building up in the middle where it dries out slower and the smaller plants arent able to use them so they look malnourished compared to the plants on the outer of the pot...... OR, the soil is just too poor and the plants in the middle arent getting anywhere near enough moisture as it drains away/dries far too rapidly and the plants are unable to draw in any nutes. If you are soaking from the bottom i would say its the first problem but if you are watering from the top then id say the latter, either way its time to split them all up and put them in individual pots, you should have no problems with them then.

So, i finally sucked it up and got on a plan, no more prepaid screwin around. I also got a phone on the plan at $10 a month, i finally had a half descent phone......... Then the other day whilst doing my stay at home dad chores the phone somehow fell out of my pocket into a bucket of soaking clothes, fuckin awesome, i have had this phone only a month or less and this happens!! It was a split second, I dried out the thing on top of a fluoro light and after a few hours it seemd dry and was still working fine, a few more hours later it decided to go retarded and switch itself on and off a few times then finally off. I got it to turn back on but the touchscreen was unresponsive surprise surprise. No amount of drying since has fixed it and i assume it is completely fucked. I called vodafail and due to being a new customer that had no insurance (first time they had mentioned it!) there was nada to be done, i have to wait 2 more months before they will put another phone on a payment plan. That means i need to purchase a new handset outright and my question to you is, which phone?????? The phone i had was an xperia x10 mini which wasnt too bad a phone but now i think id like something a lil bigger perhaps like the nexus s, so many choices out there. whaddya reckon?????

Thanks for the replies everyone. I thought i had a lil dollar to throw on a phone but now it looks as though i will hafta get a lil cheapo for 30-50bux lol. I tend to agree wit ya incog, keep it simple etc but the new phones have a lot of useless crap to keep a fool like me entertained whilst nothing else is happening. Anyways, im kickn myself in the balls atm for dropping that god-damned thing in water, the fact i still have the plan and no phone is also a major blow to the testicles i will inflict upon myself in due course. cheers.

Dairy, milk bar, corner shop etc

yep its super ped x J3 and yes, there is also super ped x psycho0. Im pretty sure i didnt have the reverse of each cross but i have not a lot of seed left these days, most has gone out to ppl or shops.

mmmmm thursday gon be a good good day. Ill pre heat the oven ME