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apothecary

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Posts posted by apothecary

  1. Posted

    And if we are all watching... and channel 7 sees good ratings, then they may look for similar stories. Maybe should all watch it after it has aired?! (dunno if i can wait though.)

     

    Lucky ratings don't work like that ;)

    As long as your household isn't in the Nielsen (or another similar companies) polling list, then you can safely watch without worrying about giving the show good ratings. Even if it was you can just say you didn't watch it when they poll you.

    the whole kronic/synthabinis craze and banning started with the media

    Yeah it sure was dumb of the media to advertise synthetic cannabis analogues which can pass a urine test; natural demand for this type of product is insanely large. But I would argue it didn't start with the media, it started with the huge natural demand for those products. Especially true in the UK, where the old magic mushroom legislation meant that lots of young kids were familiar with their local headshop and after the legislation changed those kids went out looking for new products on the same shelves.

    • Like 4

  2. Posted

    Hi,

    Hi guys,

    I have some insect problems with my ethnos. I first noticed a small colony of cushiony cotton scale on some citrus trees and proceeded to squash the bastards. However, I noticed my B. Caapi, psychotria and another plant became affected as well as a small cactus which I put in the bin.

    The believe one had some cottony cushion scale because I found white sacs under the leaves and there were small larvae along the veins of the leaves. I have been picking and scraping these off. However, there appears to be some soft or armored scale on the plant too. I picked most of these off but small ones still appear.

    Make sure you have identified the right pests before you start any control methods. Google is a good tool for this

    http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7410.html

    The B. Caapi appears to have some problems too. I believe it has the soft scale too. Some of the leaves also appear "pock marked" and I cut those off and put them in the bin but I noticed a few more leaves also have signs of these same marks. I'm guessing I should take these off also? However, it will leave me with minimal or maybe even no leaves on young plants.

    When it comes to caapi you need to get the ants on your side. The plant naturally produces small yellow coloured nectar sacs on the underside of the leaves, which AFAIK is a mechanism to attract ants. The ants should protect the plant from most of its predators. Photos would help, all I can see is a shroomery thumbnail.

    One of my psychotrias had some of the cotton like sacks on a leaf or two and I cut these off. I think it might have some signs of soft scale too. I sprayed it with isopropyl alcohol and I think this has really damaged the plant a>

    Spraying alcohol on plants does not seem very smart to me.

    In addition, I am dealing with some scale on some of my trichocereus and dragon fruit.

    Can anyone provide any advice on how to remove the bugs on these plants? I have read things online but what works for one plant doesn't work for others and can damage some. I experienced this when using the isopropyl alcohol. Some cacti don't seem to like white oil either although it kills bugs pretty well.

    The key is research, don't simply trust whatever you read wherever. If you find something claiming to work then ensure you verify it or test it in non-damaging ways. Searching the SAB forum is a very good place to start, as this is a question that has been asked many times before.

    My advice is that pest management has a lot to do with the health and location of the plants, at least as much as pesticides or predatory insects. Especially in the average Aussie backyard where most pests have adapted to all the off-the-shelf stuff years ago.

    * Make sure your plants are in a location/soil/temperature/humidity which is conducive to healthy growing but does not provide ideal conditions for any pest to setup shop. This is obviously different plant to plant so you need to do some homework but it is really important. If you are 'protecting' your plants too much then it's often an invitation for a colony to march in. Spidermites are a great example of this.

    * If a plant suffers a major raid I will generally make an effort to reduce shock by carefully removing the insects and maybe minor quarantine rather than throw the plant away or start hacking at it with scissors. Nature works on equilibrium, so chances are insects will leave a plant alone rather than kill it and lose their food source. If the insects do become abundant in the garden my experience is that predator insects setup shop pretty quick and make short work of the problem insects. Making your garden hospitable to predator insects is a good idea.

    * Watch what you're weeding. Weeds often provide a welcome distraction for various pests, if there is nothing but your beloved plants for pests to eat then you can't really begrudge them for having a nibble can you? This ties into making your garden hospitable for predator insects. You want the garden to be it's own ecosystem where everything including the pests are present but in equilibrium.

    * If all else fails then do your research and apply the most specific and effective pesticides you can (my bias is towards fast-acting, non-systematic, repellant type stuff as I feel it's better to let the plants compete against the insects than trying to take them out of the picture completely).

  3. Posted

    Now we have the media jumping on the band wagon and trying to expose these " DRUGS "

    As they call them

    It was bound to happen sooner or later, so there's no point getting in a huff over it. The only surprise to my mind is that it took so long.

    These guys are simply seeking another "them vs us" frameup because all their usual crap has been re-hashed and played out a million times. If we want society to become more accepting of this topic at least to the point of sensible debate, we have to accept beatups like this will come and it's on us to work through it.

    As a community we don't want kids going out and doing Aya irresponsibly either. We don't want people to buy plants from SAB just to substitute their Friday night trip to the pub without having done the appropriate research and due diligence. These are valid points which we were claiming before anyone else and we shouldn't let them get lost in our instinct to defend.

    Frankly, if a piece of puff journalism can knock us off our stand then we have a lot of work to do anyway. But the point is that it can't. Our position is the stronger, we were here befoe TT was doing plant-head beatups and we will still be here long after some Korean megacorp absorbs the (again) failed Seven media for pennies on the dollar.

    • Like 4

  6. Posted

    Hey opiumfreak, there certainly are. Even one of the members of our community is a avid member of the academic research community surrounding this plant. I am ashamed to say I can't remember his name right now but if you do some digging in this forum I am sure you will find it.

    This paper is probably your best bet

    http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/6/1/26/#sec4

    as it contains references to pretty much all the papers on pituri.

  7. Posted

    Good luck bulls.

    if you're new to this, please be careful, this is not a game.

     

    Guys, bulls on parade has gone out of his way to post this warning. Don't let it go to waste by disregarding or ignoring it. I spend a lot of time trying to convince people of this, but generally most people aren't convinced until it's too late.

    You don't have to learn the hard way.

    • Like 8

  10. Posted · Edited by apothecary

    Hello,

    Your new friend is adjusting to the significant reduction in humidity and temperatures compared to its original home and leaves which have grown in the previous home will suffer some damage or even be lost. This is to be expected.

    It may continue to recede back into its stem as Winter progresses (so don't throw it away automatically thinking it's dead), but the main stem looks thick enough that some energy should be stored letting it re-sprout in Spring. If you can keep the local humidity up then the plant can stand significantly more sunlight, if not then best to keep it relatively shady.

    Good luck.

  18. Posted

    Hi eatfoo,

    The most common leaf used in this manner aside from banana leaf is lotus leaf from Nelumbo species.

    There is plenty of info about them all over the net on food websites.

    Your best bet imho is a Chinese grocer which sell dried leaves you can soak.

  19. Posted

    It's my understanding the traditional process is quite a thing of patience, but I guess it may vary depending on culture anyway.

    What I remember reading was that farmers grow the trees for five years with pruning and irrigation (sometimes inbetween rows of Coffea). Once they reach that age they can be harvested four times a year and the harvesting process replaces the pruning.

    I would ask though, what's wrong with the "not young" leaves? Sure Pablo, leave the big leathery ones on there but don't turn up your nose at good leaves!

  20. Posted

    Aztecs blew the powdered herb in the faces of sacrificial victims!

     

    The plant is still known as 'Flor de los muertos' I believe.

    Evil Genius: the plant tends to die in winter but come back in Spring.

  21. Posted · Edited by apothecary

    You can try an experiment, like moving half of your surviving seedlings outside and giving half of those fertiliser and the other half nodules, or some both fertiliser and nodules, same with the ones you keep inside.

    Really it's a decision you should make as you know the nutrient content of the soil they are in, their conditions etc. Personally I would just move them all outside but I don't know precisely how cold it gets where you are.

    IMHO once they get cranking you will be happy if even only a few survive because they are quite vigorous in the right conditions and as planthelper points out you can always go again with fresh seeds + the benefit of experience.

  22. Posted

    Mimosa hostilis thread and everyone forgot the nitrogen fixing bacteria..

    I found it didn't hurt to germinate my seedlings (admittedly a few years ago now, but the plants grew big and strong) in pots which had already been used to grow more prolific and hardier Fabaceae. My understanding is that there is generally a type of bacteria for each genus or even species but when I repotted the plants there was plenty of "nodules" of the bacteria on the root system.

    If your soil doesn't have the bacteria present and conditions aren't correct for the small amount that may be assumed naturally present then you need to consider careful (foliar?) feeding to keep the plants happy.

    Judging from your posted climate profile, I would also suggest simply putting the plants outside in a spot which gets sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon until it's time to pot them up or put them in the ground.

    wally-eberhart-nitrogen-fixing-bacteria-rhizobium-nodules-on-soybean-roots-glycine-max.jpg

    Nitrogen fixing bacteria on soybean roots (just provided from google images as an example) http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/38/3817/ZBDYF00Z/art-print/wally-eberhart-nitrogen-fixing-bacteria-rhizobium-nodules-on-soybean-roots-glycine-max.jpg

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