tedzr

Hi all - thanks for taking the time to look at this post. Hopefully you guys can help me find a solution for the issue I am having with a number of my ornamental plants. Essentially I think I have two types of problems going on with my cacti. 1# Scale bugs and #2 - Mites. Please see attached images. (Thousand words). #1 Scale #2 Mites?? (Patient Zero?) As you can see, it's a cactastrophy. I have left it for a few years, hoping that the problem would go away - but now it has shifted into the next gear and I'm worried that I might lose my entire collection. These plants have never been treated with any form of insecticide, and I hesitated to do that for obvious reasons, but now I'm prepared to pull out the big guns if need be, use systemics etc, and even cull / sell infected stock to any interested buyers. These guys have been a part of my life, and I feel like I have let them down. If possible I would really like to rescue this collection and keep the genetics for the long haul. Help please! Kind regards, tedzr

I always hold my breath when opening up my perlite bag, run away around the side to breath then come back and mix it into my soil, I know others wet it. Kinda freaky!

Look at this Four Corners report from last night for a pretty thorough look into the issues of privacy and information gathering if you are interested: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/09/09/3842009.htm

Eating up bandwidth and chewing up power on my mobile phone so people can sell my data to advertising companies, letting intelligence agencies see all types of internet and communications activity. Granting police, state government, centerlink and whoever else can get it, access a cornucopia of metadata about my day to day activities from where I'm driving to what I'm spending my money on. It's a HUGE invasion of privacy. I've got absolutely nothing to hide, until a legal authority decides that I do. We need to get some civil rights into the IT age. It's becoming so easy to join the dots along the information trail that is is not funny. Do you trust a bunch of lawyers, politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists and IT nerds to make the best decisions in your best interest, regarding your information? No I do not. Ghostery is a good small-scale tool that you can install along your browser. I suggest you get it if you are thinking about browser tracking - it'll open your eyes a bit. When I visit SAB, the only people trying to collect information on me are Facebook and Google. Some other sites, there are 10's of players trying to get to the nectar. Peace.

She's a very fast grower!

Ghostery is a cool thing to install on your browser. Literally blocks heaps of different tracking services and jave script shit

SAB helps fill my need for ethnobotanical stimulation and gives me access to other trippy human animals, this is why I love SAB.

Anyone else have comments of the 'peruvianus' ?

ergo.. Just sayin'. It's those 50 year old ladies I feel sorry about!

I've nailed an aphid plague by drowning the pot for a day or so and placing some sand over the top of the pot when it came out, the plant wasn't a a cacti but a similar tactic may work for mealies! Likewise, I've scarified a cacti by soaking it in a diluted solution of Yates mite soap and forgetting about it for over 24 hours, but the plant has bounced back and is growing well now. Needless to say, mealies on that one were most probably wiped off the face of the planet. Sometimes I throw some DE into my soil mix, but not always, and the DE itself is a very fine particulate (hold your breath) has an expiry date on it, so not sure how that works!

awesome plant

I wonder if tobacco mosaic virus can be transmitted through urine?

1. From Hamiltons, labelled as Trichocereus Peruvianus, "Not for human consumption." Suspect pach or scop x bridge? 2. Pachanoi, sourced from Sydney vendor. Told was seed grown from South American seeds. 3. Pacahnoi, sourced from same vendor. Same story. 4. Labelled 'Trichocereus Peruvianus', sourced from Hamiltons. --------------- I am largely unfamiliar with the PC pach forms in Aus, but I would be interested to know if 2 and 3 are common clones. 2 has very short spines but is definitely not the common scop clone that I also have. Likewise, would be interested to see what others think about 1 & 4. Many thanks, G.

I've used Debco garden mix for my last couple of bags, priced similar to the other premium bags and practically no wood chips, although there is a small percentage of finely shredded wood material in there. Mix with sand, charcoal, perlite and volcanic stone + some additional slow release ferts, that's my mix. I would like to add more organic material to my mix though, I'm thinking of getting a compost / worm farm thing for the balcony (apartment dweller) as I don't want to rely on chemical ferts too much more as they are bad for the environment and only provide npk, not the more complex elements that I imagine could improve soil quality. I used to get that cactus mix and just run it through a siev, but it's far too expensive for the huge percentage of bark. If you're gonna do that, just buy some cheap garden mix, siev and add drainage and other elements as required.

people need to have a bit of respect for endangered species, this style of exploitation for personal gain is what is undermining the resilience of life on this, our mother planet.