apothecary

If I was you, I'd email the guy who owns that site with the photos you posted attached, he seems to know his stuff.

Well said Smogs, HPS lights are on the red end of the spectrum firstly, which isn't perfect for cacti (unless you're flowering them you want them under a 400W Metal Halide). Secondly the "intensity" of a HPS light only goes 3 feet, directly down. So if your cacti aren't within that 3 feet range, it's getting a very low intensity light. That's the thing I don't like about High Inensity Discharge lamps like HPS and MH. They're only high intensity for 3 feet, and the last 0.5-1ft before the lamp is so hot as to either burn or completely bleach the chlorophyl right out of the plant (yes I've seen this happen with several plants who got too close to the lamp without burning).

Torsten, there's a place in Sydney called Dan Murphy's. They probably have it up in Byron too. It's like a Woolworths, but all they sell is alcohol. They have the largest selection I've ever seen (kind of like this place) and if they don't have something, they can probably order it. My advice is to NOT use something like the one above, it looks like it should be labelled "Alcohol Poisoning Guaranteed". You should ask them for a high proof vodka, but yeah, if it isn't a good brand, don't bother, low quality batches of vodka are even worse for your liver than normal alcohol.

http://columnar-cacti.org/arrojadoa/index.html If I had to guess, I'd say one of those.

Beautiful. I am just starting my cactus collection, 2 trichocereus bridgesii penis plants, a l. williamsi button, that cereus I rescued and a big fat round spiky thing that I haven't got a clue what it is, and all of its pups. I'll take photos soon Let me ask you something. Is it just me, or do you get lost too when you look at your cacti? Just brushing my finger over the smooth skin of the williamsi button calms me down, and I can sit and stare at my bridgesii's for about half an hour without realising it.

I do a lot of walking around my suburb, enjoying the various plants that people grow. My walk home from work takes me past about 6 gardens that have T. Pachanoi's in them. A route down to the local bush also leads past an old decrepit house with a giant San Pedro out the front. I never really stopped to examine it closely because it was so large and I could see it quite happily from the other side of the street (the side I tend to walk on). However, today I stopped and examined it closely. The two main branches were quite large and vigorous, with some damage but otherwise ok. Then this pup caught my eye. At first it looked like it only had 4 spines, so I climbed up onto the rock it was on, and shock horror, this is what I saw. This pup needed rescuing. I knocked on the door of the house, and nobody answered. I went down and took the pup. I seriously doubt they'll care, or even notice. Here are more photos. As you can see, there are mold spots, the top is severely damaged. All the spines are "dead" i.e. dark black/grey as opposed to white. What is the best way to save this cactus do you think? Cut off the bottom and dry, then plant? Cut off top and bottom and dry, then plant? [ 14. February 2005, 17:09: Message edited by: apothecary ]

Does anyone know how long it will be before I should pot this? I checked this morning, and the bottom is quite dry, similar texture to that of bark, except you can feel softness when you poke it.

Try fronine. www.fronine.com.au ...they have everything!

You presume incorrectly smogs! Didn't you see that Mythbusters where they ate poppy seed products, and for 16 hours after consumption they consistently tested positive for opiates? While the content is negligible, it isn't nil

US14 a gram means more than AU20 a gram, which is how much pretty much everyone in Australia pays for their weed. You're gonna have a hard time convincing people to give it a go if it costs more than the good shit :/

I just heard an account of a friend of my gnomes next door neighbour, I'll relate to you, I'm curious what anyone else has to say. This friend of my gnomes next door neighbour has been a partaker of the fine herb for about 5 years now. Apart from a few codeine tabs, it wass the only illcit substance he'd ever done. Recently, he dropped acid for the first time. It was a dilbert, nice clean mellow trip, only mild visuals, but left him feeling very nice at the end of it. No elements of the classic "bad trip" were come across during the trip, and no residual effects after. Last weekend, this friend of my gnomes next door neighbour decided to smoke some herb as he usually did. Shortly after, he hit the sack. He was still quite high, and within minutes of lights out, he was having intense "closed eye" visuals. For example, he'd see a di-cotyldonous type seedling sprout from the blackness, the seedling would grow into a full sized plant, then begin changing colours, from green to yellow, to orange, to red. Then the visual would zoom out, and it'd look like a pattern (kind of like an inverted cog, if that makes any sense) consisting of these plants that would constantly change colour. The visuals were often followed quickly by revelation about his life, about how he'd been acting badly to certain people, or epiphanies on various things. If the visual wasn't followed by a revelation, it would lead to another visual that would eventually lead to something important. My gnome stresses that his neighbours friend said these were completely involuntary, he wasn't concentrating on making them come or go, but he had some control over them once they were there. So this weekend, this friend of my gnomes neighbour decided to partake in his usual herb, and the same thing occured. Intense closed eye visuals, always with a botanical twist (e.g. tulips or cannabis plants, branches of trees, etc) that became literally like a "trip" through a garden that was punctuated only by revelations and eye opening thoughts. Last night (being Sunday) this friend hit only the tiniest cone, I'm told, only half of the conesize he usually hits. After a weekend of heavy smoking, this only gave him a threshhold "high", nothing interesting to read, he decided to sleep. Almost immediately, the same revelationary trip began. Plants growing out of the darkness behind his eyes, each plant yielding an image of an old friend, or some other similar thing after it faded. These "trips" aren't giving him trouble sleeping, or botherhing him psychologically speaking, if anything they provide him with some insight to things he has done wrong or could have done better, and always fade into natural sleep. Is anyone else experiencing such a thing? My gnome informs me that his neighbours friend doesn't recall any such thing happening before he took LSD, so is it possible that the LSD is the cause of these trips? Any information appreciated. [ 14. February 2005, 12:06: Message edited by: apothecary ]

Quite possibly just a fruiting mutation, my gnome also has a neighbour who has seen similar on many cannabis plants. Of course, I could be talking out of my ass. Apart from the accounts my gnome and his neighbour give me, and my small plant biology knowledgeset, I'm not much help.

Yeah...sorry. I just read my above post. I was a dick. Apologies all for the bad vibe.

mr b. caapi, I do believe you're right, it isnt a Trichocereus at all, I always had assumed it was because I never looked at it up close. The species wasn't my motivation for attempting to save it though, it looked like it needed help. Anyway, I just performed "surgery" on it...as crude as it may look, it's the best I could do with my small knowledge. I cut off the bottom and most infected moldy bit, and also scraped off some of the mold spots. I'll let the bottom dry off, then stick it in a nice pot full of nice cactus soil. Do you think the top will stay the same and simply pup, or what? Any help appreciated. EDIT: The soil around it isn't from the other persons garden mr. b, it's a "dead" part of the garden in my house. There used to be a huge tree there, and then father had it cut down, but the roots and stump remain, so not even weeds will grow there. EDIT2: Can anyone identify this poor cacti a bit more definitively? I'm fine with the Cereus genus, but I'm curious as to the species. [ 14. February 2005, 19:06: Message edited by: apothecary ]

Maca, I don't want this place destroyed by a) Morons who don't have the common courtesy to at least use proper grammar or spelling. Some government officials who busted said morons, found out where they got the seeds and decide to make a personal vendetta of it. I understand it's his first post, and the first ethneogen he mentioned was of questionable motives, but a bit of discretion and courtesy would be nice. After all, I just grew into my user name.

Maca, my gnomes neighbours friend said this when I mentioned what you said. Cannabis made me respect unsual plants. Unusual plants made me respect all plants. Can you elaborate on the last bit of your first paragraph? What do you mean by de-focusing of intent?

As far as I know empire, the seeds they sell are the ones used to make poppy seed muffins with.

It's quite simple to import LSD, afaik. You simply have a single 1/4" blotter square, soaked in undiluted LSD. This single square is equal to probably a pageworth of normal doses. Upon arrival, the single square is washed out into an appropriate solvent, diluted to the correct single dose per blotter strength, then a fresh sheet of paper is soaked in the solution. Voila, 1 sheet worth of street sellable LSD. This method was recounted to me by a hippy from Erskineville.

I agree with the above post. This weekend a gnome I know told me about the guy down the streets best friend, who spent the hours 4:20 - 9:30 smoking. Straight buds, no tobacco, pipe and joints. When he got home at 9:30, he ate a bowl worth of dark chocolate. There was no noticable "up" at that point that could be attributed to the chocolate, and the high didn't last much longer after that. I'd say the chocolate quite possibly has some effect, but it isn't worth eating that much chocolate for it. Much easier to simply pack another cone.

teo, theres a reason for this. Each "block" in a plant (I don't know how to describe it. When you look at a section of plant under a microscope you see a bunch of blocks, kind of like a brick wall. They're groups of cells, anyway) has a single cell that is heavier than all the other cells in the block, and it moves to the bottom of the block. In roots, this is what causes downwards growth, because the root tissue simply "pushes" in whatever direction it's currently facing, and as the heavier cell moves to the bottom of its block, the roots move in that direction too. I'm at work right now, so my would diagrams suck, and I can't give actual quotes or links, but if you're interested, I can paste a link that explains it a lot more eloquently than I do when I get home. [ 14. February 2005, 11:36: Message edited by: apothecary ]

I'd suggest either an low diluted, high concentration Zero solution sprayed at the base of the plants or a hydrochloric acid solution. As soon as the base dies, remove the entire plant and chuck it. You may have to do this a few times, but you shouldn't see any more of it after a month or so.

Torsten, will you marry me? :D

friendly, I'm sure myself and others would appreciate it very much if you could outline the extraction method. Are we just talking about the same method used to make hashish (e.g. settle in alcohol for few days, scrape/decant/evaporate off resulting resin) or is it more complex than that? Would someone be so kind as to enlighten me to the difference in procedure between say a 5x extract, 10x extract and a 25x extract?

heh cool, my hippy has the same seedling propagation dome as the one you got going there mr b. They're pretty good for normal cuttings, and lastly, they're perfect (as you can see) for cactus seed germination! If anyone was curious, you can get them from www.hydromasta.com.au which is in Epping, Sydney. Enter Site -> All Products (on the left bar) -> Propagation Tools. I love that place, it's right near my house, means I can do emergency visits when one of my plants is having trouble, pick up almost anything that can fix anything there. [ 12. February 2005, 21:06: Message edited by: apothecary ]

friendly, your work is something you should be very proud of, and I hope that when it counts, that in itself will relieve some of your pain.