teonanacatl

Google has changed again, the option use to be under search tools. Now where is it?

Yeah thats tricky. It could just be the impact of cultivation on the species. There may be something in the native environment that selects against the larger a-v thus making the population appear to be dwarfs, cultivation doesnt have the same selective pressures as the wild as such the larger a-v's have built up some genetics and become more common. Im guess a-v seed in cultivation has been though quite a few generations now. The simplest explanation is often the best. Have you seen others report these larger a-v's before? The problem with cultivation of cacti is we dont really select for healthy strong plants, in fact we kinda like the freaks. See if they're fertile with the dwarf a-v's.

The flower looks more like koehresii too me. Williamsii is the only self-fertile species though. Kada did some crossing experiments and the only cross he got to work was koehresii x fricii with fricii as the father plant. The resulting offspring were self-sterile. That said he didnt try alberto-vojtechii. I kinda remember williamsii having pinkish coloured styles where as the other species were much more white in colour. How sure are you that it is self-fertile and that some devilish bug isnt doing some pollination for you? Id also be thinking that maybe the seed you grew it from wasnt all alberto-vojtechii or there was a labelling error on your end? Check the seed under a microscope and compare against the other species. Seed today is highly variable in forms, grafting doesnt help show natural characteristics much either so Id be hesitant to say its a hybrid just yet. Nice plant by the way

According to this site P. spathulata and P. diguetii are synonyms? http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2413536

Further reading suggests Epiphyllums will open for 2 days in warm weather, more in cold weather The same source (http://www.theamateursdigest.com/epis.htm) suggests that flowers can be kept in the fridge for up to a month to save it for a special occasion!

Awesome Zelly! Maybe some of the cultivars have been bred to open longer. Keep me posted on what happens, pretty funny. A lot of cut flowers have short shelf lives of only a few days. Lotus flowers whilst not popular as cut flowers in Aus are popular in Asian countries and they only open for 2-3 days. In my experience once cut they only really look good on the first/second day open. So they may not be the type you buy for your gf for valentines day but they would really shine on single day or night events such as weddings. Also keep in mind that transportation of flowers can be done at cool temperatures so their actual opening time might only be 1-3 nights/days but they may "keep" for up to a week after picking if refrigerated as is common with other flowers. That Selenicerus is beautiful SF Despite the short flowering period there are many positive attributes to cut cacti flowers including the spectacular nature of the flowers, scent in some, wide variety of genera, species and hybrids, variety of colours and the plants can be very floriferous. Thanks for the productive thread guys!

So I did some more searching and found a few mentions of Epiphyllum flowers being cut and placed in a vase. They use buds the day before they open and they only open for the one night/day. I look forward to seeing how the trich flowers go

Cheers incog my bala!

I love pressing flowers incog, botanical specimens make great works of art! This is actually a serious question, so Ill rephrase it. Have you cut a cactus flower (Trich, Echinopsis, any of the dragon fruits or other larger columner types) and placed it in water as a "cut flower"? If so did it still open. There are a lot of flowers that dont last long, Nelumbo nucifera for example, that will still open when cut as a bud and placed in water. The cut flower industry is a big industry with many many flowers but yet no cacti flowers. So if you have a large cacti about to flower and dont want fruits or cannot cross pollinate it to get fruits could I perhaps trouble you to cut it off as a bud the day before it opened and tell me what happens. Its a curiosity of mine. Id do it myself if I had any flowering......

A nice article attached below that for me lays out one of the significant problems people would face with living off the land or when placed in a survival situation. In todays world a lowcarb diet or even a carnivore diet are very much in vogue, carry that into the wilderness and you are in deep shit. TV perpetuates the myth that one only needs a handful of berries or a rabbit or two to survive, survive yes but you will loose weight and muscle growing weaker till you die. Ive done quite a bit of research around this topic and the offal of an animal provides significant sources of vitamins and minerals not to a mention high % fat on even the leanest of animals, for example the liver is a great source of vit and minerals and lungs are high in vit c. Rabbit starvation is a very real phenomenon and ketosis is something one would want to avoid in a survival situation. Anyway enough ranting here is the article. http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/living-off-land-delusions-and.html

Great idea to pin it!

Hmm I miss my cactus collection, but orchids are much more manageable in my climate! Maybe Ill start collecting some!

Id make drinking alcohol and sell to mates then use that cash to buy fuel, more economical- just my thoughts though, do what you want to do Making biodiesel from scrap oil or diesel from pyrolysis of plastic is likewise worthwhile- they are waste streams which you can convert to a useful product.

Cheers mate seeds would also be fantastic. I use to get mine from the centenary lakes area in Cairns but they killed them all.........

Looking for lotus (Nelumbo) plants. Prefer tropical native species/cultivars. PM me if you can help and we can organise a trade.

Hmm i found the problem, Im on a mac running safari and I only get "anytime" and "all results" options under search tools. Running firefox I get the usual options!

So I pump from a soak in the ground (sandy area with hole dug below water table, though still above salt water table) to a header tank on a hill near my place and then use gravity to feed my house. DYHIW you spend 3 days with vomiting and diarrhoea only to find a big, dead, well decomposed rat in your header tank (could smell it in the water after 3 days) which is now empty however the soak you pump the water from is nearly dry so you cant afford to flush the tank..... Come on Rain!!!

I have a dream (like many Im sure) of a large property with large food forests, animals and peace. Ok so thats me fantasising, lets get down to the nitty gritty. Ive read Mollison's book and researched a lot around permaculture and here is the thing, I see many many problems and very very few excellent examples. - Mollison's view of producing food forests is a great idea, where there is considerable land available. In a small space I think a conventional market garden would outperform it. - Despite its claims permaculture does require a lot of work. Permaculture properties rely on a lot of volunteering, interns etc. - Permaculture properties/ groups seem to make their money from running expensive permaculture courses and consulting on permaculture design, not from selling produce or living self sustainably. - Permaculture properties/ groups use market style gardens when they have to produce food for $. - A lot of aspects of permaculture are made out to be cheap when in reality there is considerable cost. - Despite claims of a closed system blah blah, there are considerable inputs required. To me gardening sometimes seems like fishing for food. People spend so much money on bait, tackle, fuel and time that they may as well get their fish from the shop. I do understand its a hobby etc and thats why people pay. Me I have a 50m drag net that cost $300, in which I can catch 30kg+ fish at a time and fill my freezer. I garden as a hobby so Im willing to spend money on it but in reality I hold no false beliefs. My staples are crops that grow well with little maintenance and that dont suffer from pests. In the end Ill trade and buy many plants before I find another that I can add to my staples. Im wandering from the point. Anyway if you know of any good permaculture properties that disagree with what Ive said please point me to them Im keen to see

As some of you would know Im a carver, I carve mostly Jade now. Ive posted pics of my work in the creativity forum. The last piece I made was for a worldwide Jade symposium, the idea to raise the profile of jade carving and jade carvers across the world. Some of the worlds greatest gem and jade carvers have participated and there are some truly amazing pieces. If you feel inclined check out the pieces go here and vote on your favourite- you have one vote for each section. http://www.jadesymposium.org/vote/ Peace!

Great points paradox! Mollison wanted people to think, yet they follow blindly.....

Exactly but banana circles, mandala gardens and herb spirals kinda become permaculture pin ups and people make them without thinking. I guess as always there are people in this world that can think for themselves and those who cannot. I totally agree Paradox! Its just always driven me mental that they claimed that you could fit more plants in by planting in curves etc, I finally had some spare time to model it.

The box is a Red Coolabah burl that I bought online, Ive still got more which Im excited about Thanks!

Thanks Alice! It took a lot of planning, basically after laying it out on the piece of jade I used a drill press to drill the holes you see, that set up the symmetry and geometry. The rest was freehand. You can see the progress shots here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.559006450840517.1073741839.506811786059984&type=3

I dont consider these depraved but others might: - Was out hunting pigs and the dogs found one, I shot it once but it didnt die and had run out of bullets and had no knife so I tackled it tried to break its neck and choke it, eventually I found a big log and managed to knock it out. As I was carrying it home it kept waking up so I had to keep knocking it out. - The easiest way to kill birds is to rip their heads clean off, I do this regularly for food. - The easiest way to kill an injured kangaroo if you dont have a gun or knife or anything else is to stomp its head- have had to do this more times then you'd imagine. - Ive tried to kill a large boar with a machete, I was hungry and didnt have a gun with me. The pig smashed and charged me multiple times, I was lucky not to get ripped, the pig got away after I chased it for several km- not sure it would have survived its injuries though. - Ive had 2 occasions where Ive shot large boars in the brain with my .22, then bled them out and gone home for the wheel barrow to carry them home only to come back and find zombie pigs. In one case I had a knife so I just bled it again. The other case I had no knife so I beat it unconscious with a rock and then stuck a stick down the aorta to remove the clot that had formed. - The best tasting pigs I get are pregnant sows, loads of hard fat and sooo tasty! Anyway being pregnant they are full of foetuses. Ive always wanted to take them home and cook them but thus far none of my hunting partners/ witnesses has allowed this. People will probably be thinking "thats not ethical", my opinion is that its hunting, its not ethical. You are taking a life and thats not ethical though you should do it in a humane fashion. Life is not perfect and for the 100's of animals Ive killed for food very few go wrong, what Ive listed is the worst. I believe one has a responsibility to kill an animal as humanely as possible, and sometimes depending on the circumstances thats not very humanely, thats life.

Ok so his design wasnt very efficient. The middle one beats my initial straight lines but has less of the apparently important "edge" at only 56m. The one on the right approx even with 4 straight lines. The one on the left is the best so far and is repeatable too! It has an efficiency of 0.12 which is nearly double his designs.