CβL

So I've noticed this a few times now, but I just remembered to make a topic. Basically, on many of my Trichocereus - at the growing tip, I smell - and I smell a strange scent. It's almost lemon-like, but not. It smells like a cleaning product, or a chemical smell (but there's no chemicals applied to my plants). I'm wondering if anyone else has smelled this smell? It could be related to plants that are running out of water, or perhaps the commercial soil mix has an additive that's rising off the skin. It seems to be that the plants that have slightly yellow growing tips (from the harsh sun) have the smell the strongest, while those that are not really actively growing - don't make the smell. So - have a sniff of your cacti - and report back. (don't get stabbed in the nose)

No-one has sprayed anything. There could be neem granules in the commercial mix - again can't rule it out (probably more likely than citronella). I just checked now, and the smell is still comin' out.

That's so awesome!

Don't have any pictures today - but today there was some daredevil-ballerina fantails - courting each other, and hovering over the pool, doing loops. One even splashed the water. It was pretty cool to watch. I also hung out with the Tuis - copying their calls as best I could (I'm not sure what they make of it).

If it was bacteria or fungi, they would have to be getting that chemical compound into the cactus - as the smell is extremely faint. I have to use my strongest sense of smell less than an inch from the tip. It's not directly from the soil, or in the air. Now that I think about it, the smell reminds me a lot of citronella. I can't rule out that it's not present in the commercial mix, and somehow it's now coming out of the cactus.

No idea it had been located in Australia - but judging from ancient liverworts are in general - wouldn't surprise me if they are remnants from Gondwana.

Sounds like it's going to be awesome - I wish I could magically be there.

I had a whole lot of Roseii (probably #1) that also carked it. I wasn't sure if they were albino or what. But now I also notice that (I think) zelly's bridgesii x validus seedlings also seem to be mostly deficient in chlorophyll.

Congratulations EG, Amz and GOT! :D I'm glad that semantics didn't wreck this awesome and cute competition, and for the record - the spreadsheet was mostly automatic, and it was only time-consuming to transfer and triple-check (lol) the votes onto it.

I have added Plantago sp (Wild plantain) species to my stews before, to keep my nutrients high - they definitely tasted healthy. Also, when they're in flower - you can eat the seeds (apparently you can make a porridge of them too). I saw them everywhere on the campgrounds, and I wouldn't hesitate to eat them again. Basically I would recommend finding all the edible wild greens you can (Dandelion, cowslip, etc) - because those vitamins and nutrients are really rejuvenating. I must also add that you can't always rely on finding certain common plant species in an area. For example I rely heavily on Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) to clean my mouth after eating sugary food (nothing worse than mouth full of plaque IMO - in fact my only cold-sweat nightmares are about my teeth falling out). There are places that it's everywhere (lowland next to the coast), and places where it's practically nowhere (forest higher up on the slopes). I mention this because there are places where the aforementioned Bushman's toilet paper cannot be found reliably - and places where it can. If you see a plant - it's worth grabbing a couple of leaves to put in your bag if there's a possibility you might need 'em later on (don't do it unnecessarily - otherwise everyone doing the same thing would empty the tree of leaves). In other words - learn the plant habitats, as well as the plants. As important as bringing water is - it's also worth bringing 1 or 2 methods of water purification, to allow you to drink river/lake water should the need arise. Some rivers with many waterfalls and rapids, and that don't pass through farmland, can be drunk straight with little risk. Other streams you can practically smell they're full of effluent. But when you're extremely thirsty, head is throbbing from pain, eyes swollen, feeling like absolute crap - then sometimes you have to just treat the water, and drink it, rather than carrying on (where you might not even find water again). I currently only have 1 method, which is potassium permanganate crystals - but I plan on getting some iodine tablets as well. You can also boil water for 5 minutes (rolling boil), but it's quite a lot of fuel, or it's quite a lot of time (and a huge wildfire risk) to make a fire with scavenged wood. I would recommend not bringing a smartphone, and rather to bring an older style phone - as smartphones use all the battery very quickly, and then if you need it in an emergency, you'll be screwed. Many people find their smartphone out of battery before the day is up. Most importantly - keep adding and practicing your knowledge base. Knowledge is the one thing that you can bring as much of as you like - so it makes sense to. Without practice, you could forget it in times of need - and be truly screwed. I.e. don't just know the plants you can eat - actually practice preparing them and eating them (I'm sure this particular paragraph of advice is redundant on SAB - everyone seems to know already ).

Votes have been locked in.

Check this bad-boy out (like spend a good few hours on it, you don't get much of a feel if you just skim through in 2 minutes - actually read the whole thing) The Scale of the Universe 2

Okay, I finished the spreadsheet. Seems to work as expected. PMd

planthelper: If you click on 'person1, person2, person3 and x others like this' - it's a link that will show everyone who liked the post. Also, I can make a spreadsheet that will do the calculations rather easily too - I'd be glad to to help out.

I have a brilliant(maybe?) idea. Just divide the "weight" of each like, by the number of likes the liker, has given. So if I've liked 7 photos (sounds about right), then each of my likes is worth 1/7 of a like. But if I'd stuck to the rules, and liked only 3 photos - then each like would be worth 1/3. If I like only one or two photos, then each like is still worth only 1/3 (because liking only one photo, would be 1/1 - essentially voting 3 times for the same photo - which is a no-no). Might be too late to change the rules again, but this would fix all of the problems I think. I wish I had some photos to add, but they're all hidden away in boxes, somewhere. I'll try and add them at some point.

Regarding #1 - I've actually made a bit of an effort to ignore all forms of media (to focus on important things), so other than the conversations of people around me - I don't really know what's going on. And from the outside - it really seems to me that there's no real reason for me, or any other person at home to hear about it - other than to increase TV ratings. It really has no bearing on the lives of everyday people - none whatsoever, other than people who lived in the area and heard the screams, and related family, friends and acquaintances. I just don't think it's good or right that just because some guy was on TV - his murder gets 100x the coverage of a nobody who did a similar murder. I don't actually agree with any of the celebrity ethos ("harmless" or not) - it's idolatry at its worst - not that I blame the celebrities, but rather the consumers of that vapid crap and the regulators for encouraging it (can't blame the wolves for eating the rabbits - only the rabbits for not running away, and the zookeepers for putting the wolves in with the rabbits). <\rant> Good hypothesis regarding #2 - I could never think of a motive for them to do it, so I was always skeptical as to the people who said it was them. I wonder then - where did the body go. How could distressed and distraught parents, so elaborately rid themselves of the body (question mark)

Today I inched closer to my dream goal of having a super-awesome garden bed of cacti and other awesome plants. :D In the morning today (note the enemy shed that I'd like to re-locate/destroy, as it gets a lot of good sun, and it can be moved somewhere and I can put my glasshouse there instead Also to note - the blackening on the stumps was from when I dug under the stump and used it like a furnace to burn the leaves and wood - until the fire ban kicked in ) Today evening (Note the gum trees in the background right, and the remnant Macadamias on the left) So the plan is to dig in compost and pumice as soon as they arrive, and make that bed rather homogenous in terms of soil and drainage. Soak everything thoroughly to let it settle a bit. And then in due time - plant it out with cacti (in a sort of a ring shape, and then plant hardy-leafies in the middle of the ring. Then dress with rocks, and try and make it look cool. Hopefully this will made it cool to sit inside the middle of the ring, or at least it will protect the leafies from marauding sheep, and perhaps the cacti will eventually lock me out too.

I meant did the 'commercial seed-raising mix' contain fungicides already? At my local big box hardware/garden centre, all of the seed-raising mixes contained fungicide - I couldn't find any without.

That is really awesome indeed! It would be interesting to see how fresh compost fares against the worm farm. Also, was the commercial seed-raising mix one that contains fungicide?

I get that 'profound revelation' feeling as well, but it's usually only one or two waves I think. They might also be quicker moving than the ones from music, and less spaced out in time. What I find really weird, is that my conscious brain will sometimes say 'Oh that's trivial, it might even be totally false', but I'll still get those shivers/tingles. I'll try the earphones 'zac, but I'm unsure how that will affect things, as my speakers (which are high fidelity) work just fine for getting the response from music.

Would this be the same as feeling waves of pleasure down your spine after concentrating to beautiful music? A quick read says yes. There are certain pieces of music that reliably and strongly trigger this response in me. What actually happens is similar to an orgasm in that the waves of sensation reach a high intensity, and then seem to "run out" and require time to recharge - they all produce a relaxation response, but require relaxation in the first place to occur. For an extremely long time, I didn't definitely attribute this effect to the music - because often I would have had caffeine in my system, and it's plausible that it was related to the effect, or that I was simply sitting still, and my skin temperature lowered. It definitely seems that caffeine interferes with the effect in me - possibly just through vasoconstriction. I also noticed that the pleasure responses were amplified while on certain psychoactive substances, but having had such a long break from them, I can't accurately recall the details. That video didn't really do it for me though. I actually felt a strange combination of irritation and intrigue to be honest. After trying for a few minutes to experience it (for this reply), the first minute of this music (a favourite of mine, this rendition slightly faster than I'm used to) did it: I felt the pleasure travel from my head to all parts of my skin, quite strongly on my legs. And after they were over, it felt like there were very slow ripples stirring on the skin. It was maybe a half-dozen waves, they seem to have run out now (sometimes there can be more). I feel a lot calmer physically, and mentally quite calm too. But yeah, somehow I can tell that it's "run out for now" (I might get a small wave every minute, but very weak). It was this response, that actually started me on the pathway to learning music, playing an instrument, and understanding sound. :D

True. I get the comment box on that image as well. It very well could be an option when uploading then.

I think that we can only edit comments to gallery photos that already had comments before the upgrade? But I certainly did like adding comments. :|

That garden is awesome - why isn't this guy on SAB yet?

That plant is soooo beautiful I would say that it looks mostly Peruvianus based on: - The spines are following a pattern out of each areole (this is a feature of Peruvianus and Pachanoi genes, pure bridgesii plants usually have a semi-random number and pattern of spines) - and there are short spines, and one long spine (once the plant gets older, it might also pop a second long central out of each areole during year #2 of growth) - The thickness of this plant, is quite thick (thicker than any bridgesii-mother hybrids I have, but similar to the Peruvianus plants) More circumstantial evidence: - The cross-section's star shape looks much more Pachanoi/peruvianus than bridgesii to me - Golden-coloured spines, without that greenish tinge that often the yellow-spined bridgesiis have. But it doesn't really matter - it's an awesome plant anyway. :D