Cactus FAQ Discusion Thread

[shruman]

Original FAQ Idea thread, read if u dont know wots going on http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...c=14877&hl=

Okay time 2 put my money where my mouth is, here goes. Ive also used some of Ace's PDF to kick things off (actualy its mostly aces).

One of the most commonly asked questions are I.D & most times people just want to know if its active or not so I would propose at the top of the thread keys to I.D actives mayb with a pic for the common ones & a little general information & mayb a couple of the commonly misidentified non-actives.

Something like:

Lophopora williamsi AKA Peyote

Small spineless button cactus blue to blue grey to blue green in colour commonly pink flowered but also white variations 5 ribbed when young to bout 3 years aquiring more ribs with age distinct from other button cacti with a large carrot like tap root can grow singulary or in clumps. contains over 50 alkaloids with mescaline constituting roughly half the alkaloid profile. Native habitat southern U.S to mexico where it is still used by aboriginals of these parts as a ritualistic part of their religion.

Then after the keys mayb terminology & so on.

Terminology

Crestate: a mutation in a specimen’s meristem that encourages a line of growth which results in a wavy or brain-like specimen, instead of a globose or columnar plant.

Montrose: a mutation that creates an unusual looking plant, much like a melted wax effect (found in many trichs) or producing many growing tips and often affecting rib structure.

Apical Meristem: the growing tip of a plant

General cultivation

Indoor Cultivation: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14294

Pests: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13768

Use of fungicides (lophs): http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13768

Seasol: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13049

General Q&A’s: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=12976

Growing from seed

Growing from seed thread (mostly trichocereus): http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14795

Growing from Cuttings

Avoiding Rot: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14045

Peres cuttings: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13944

Trich rot and spination: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13235

Cutting Teks: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13200

Grafting

Pereskiopsis Grafting TEK: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14543

Degrafting TEK: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14682

Grafting Pics: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13323

Coco fibre in degrafting: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13247

Frankencactus: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=13182

Loph/peres Pictorial: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=12464

Obviously theres a lot still to do so it will require a lot of heads getting together & deciding wots relevant & not & people going through all those links to pull out the goodies.

Hopefully the balls now rolling I will b working on it in the future but I encourage anyone to help & hopefully Teo & some other cactus seniors will b able to proof read & contribute. & hopefully we can get 1 of these established in the myc & ethnobotany forums as well.

References (for my contribution anyway) Erowid.

Edited May 25, 2007 by shruman

[Auntyjack]

Shruman....what can I say, man you have grit.

That is awesome.

Thankyou

And Ace...full credit to you to mate.

Toe can we pin it ....for now?

Edited May 24, 2007 by Auntyjack

[SaBReT00tH]

I've searched about 5 pages of Lophophora in the SAB search engine but still can't find it: does anyone have different methods of an optimum potting mix for Lophs? I've read 50% perlite/50% river sand + 1 teaspoon of lime but I was thinking more along the lines of 35% coarse sand, 35% soil, 20% coco coir, 1 teaspoon of powdered lime and 10% powdered gypsum. What do others think?

[benjahman]

Separate sections for each of the most common active columnar cacti and lophs.

Thus:

T. Pachanoi

T. Bridgesii/ E. Lageniformis

T. Peruvianus

Under each sub heading in the FAQ the relevant links should be placed in alphabetical order or order of relevance at Torsten/Someone with a massive gardens discretion to make for time-saving & noob friendly browsing.

A separate the basics of starting an entheogenic (you can omit this word from the actual FAQ if you like obviously but def keep this sentiment in its construction ) cactus garden FAQ started as a central reference point for those completely wet behind the ears. This section should include the stripped back "everything you need to get going stuff" - Recommended potting mix ingredients and ratios for columnars and lophs. A brief basic post on growing entitled "How not to kill your plants, with a section on watering, the bare basics of growing & bare minimum environmental requirements of plants, taking cuttings effectively, avoiding rot, rooting your plants, etc.

A brief section on online suppliers linking to SAB shop, funky fungus, urban tribes, etc. as well as (optional) a brief state specific local cacti suppliers section/ series of links.

I really think the creation of quality FAQs for each section is the way forward for this forum in terms of regaining its once excellent signal to noise ratio. Good luck with it Ace and whoever else may be assisting. If you'd like any constructive criticism, help or advice before you post up the final don't hesitate to shoot me a PM. All the best

Edited October 17, 2007 by benjahman

[teonanacatl]

Sure guys go ahead, but I think these faqs would be better put in the wiki.

Please feel free to write things like soil mixes but realise that there is no perfect soil mix and each soil mix comes with its own set of other cultivation conditions. Its all interactive.

NOTE plenty of places have faqs but that doesnt stop people asking the questions that have been answered in them. Most of the time the reply would be see the faq which would be the same as utfse.

[Ace]

Looking great ladies and gents Mighty fine work there Shruman! I like Benjahman's idea of having the more common actives with links to their info, but I think that it will all be covered under 'general cultivation' anyway. Perhaps if someone has time to add somer valuable links whenever they UTSE, it would be a quick and effective way to keep the FAQ thread up to date and chockers with good info.

I'd love to go thru and do a bit more, but I'm pretty flat chat atm, so I will do what I can when I can.

I think anytime a highly valuable thread pops up, we should keep it in mind to be linked to this thread - say a bit of info on soil types comes up that would be valuable to all, but shouldnt be lost in the forums, just add it here and request that it is considered for the FAQ.

Already, this is going to be of great use to anyone with an interest in cacti cultivation - but the more info we can get up in this format, the better. Especially because it is so clearly titled, finding what you are after (and learning some new stuff) should be a breeze

I think it would be nice if someone could start compiling links to mycology teks/info too - keeping the same format throughout to make it easier for general use and viewing. Like it has been said before - lets try to aviod pinning info regarding the 'drug' content of the plants - or if that should be linked, perhaps just give it the title 'chemical composition' or similar to avoid a negative look to it, and deter people from just getting into these things just for the buzz, not for the actual care of the plants. That's the way I'd think Torsten would prefer it, anyway

EDIT: NOTE plenty of places have faqs but that doesnt stop people asking the questions that have been answered in them. Most of the time the reply would be see the faq which would be the same as utfse.

True, though I think its mostly because there is no pinned threads like this on this site. I know that was the problem I had as a noob around here - there just wasnt enough easily accessable info on hand. Using the SE is fine, but it can be time consuming, whereas this way the hard work is done, and its just a matter of clicking the appropriate link.

I think these faqs would be better put in the wiki.

Great idea Teo - perhaps it would be good to have them there too - but I think they would be most beneficial (to us and these forums) if they were held here and updated fairly regularly (every couple months, or whenever a good topic is brought up) to avoid the usual questions. I really have little doubt that we would have anywhere near as many repetitive questions by having this sort of thing

Edited May 25, 2007 by Ace

[shruman]

Echinopsis pachanoi syn Trichocereus pachanoi AKA San pedro

A large fast growing columnar cactus light to dark green & sometimes glaucous with large white flowers with 4-8 ribs groups of 1-4 small, yellow to light brown, spines are spaced evenly approximately 2 cm apart along the ribs. containing a handful of alkaloids with mescaline being the major constituent growing to 5 metres often multibranched native to peru & equador where aboriginals still brew the traditional cimora as part of their religion.

Echinopsis lageniformis syn Trichocereus bridgesii AKA Achuma

A large fast growing columnar cactus light to dark green & sometimes glaucous with large white flowers 4-8 ribs groups of 1-5 long spines yellow to light brown & grey to white with age spaced evenly aprox 2-3 cm apart containing a handful of alkaloids with mescaline being the major constituent to date the highest yielding Echinopsis, growing to 5 m tall & often multibranched native to bolivia where aboriginals still brew the traditional cimora as part of their religion.

References Peyote & other psychoactive cacti (Adam Gottlieb), wikipedia.

Edited May 25, 2007 by shruman

[teonanacatl]

i dont mean to dampen anyones enthusiasm, but the wiki is the perfect place and we can link to it from here. Im fine about pinning good threads.

As far as potency goes and ive said this before it can differ a hell of a lot to the reported values. Also if your gonna use somthing then reference it please, as generally the references are very usefull.

The appeal of it being on the wiki for me is anyone can add to it or place useful info from threads.

[shruman]

"As far as potency goes and ive said this before it can differ a hell of a lot to the reported values."

"there is no perfect soil mix and each soil mix comes with its own set of other cultivation conditions. Its all interactive."

If were going to have a FAQ than these should b parts of it.

I'll edit my posts to include referneces (no matter how much u cringe ;)).

"but the wiki is the perfect place and we can link to it from here."

Wot do u think wot is in this thread is wiki aplicable?

As someone mentioned in another thread wiki is as good as the person writing it, it contains a lot of unverified & wrong information do u remember that crap bout pedro being a tool of the devil?

Edited May 25, 2007 by shruman

[teonanacatl]

What you said applies to here as much as the wiki,hence why you reference it. You can turn this stuff in this thread into great informative wiki articles, well add to whats already there. Any good threads can be linked to in the wiki article. And yes a wiki is only somones point of view, so is any sort of cultivation information and so is anything you guys write here.

[shruman]

"And yes a wiki is only somones point of view, so is any sort of cultivation information and so is anything you guys write here."

The good thing about having it here is we can have good heads like u proof read it 1st then make it a locked thread .

[teonanacatl]

well torsten has spoken go ahead with the stuff, ill pop it into a thread. please reference stuff from journals etc.

Stay away from the ID stuff for now, in awhile ill get a few people to help and we will go through and move all ID's from cactus (the big part) into ID and alter their names.

My idea with respect to that was person posts Id this please post in the format (somthing - Username) and after general consensus has decided what it is then the name ( this may just be pachanoid or peruvianoid of the thread gets changed to (genus species - username) posters can add anything they want like found in bunnings in the topic description. Alternately we allow any topic name to be posted and then add the genus and species at end of title. but most just say cactus id please etc. With respect to discussions in the threads like a wierd plant then thats ok to and if topic diverges then thread can be split.

Edited May 25, 2007 by teonanacatl

[benjahman]

"As far as potency goes and ive said this before it can differ a hell of a lot to the reported values."

"there is no perfect soil mix and each soil mix comes with its own set of other cultivation conditions. Its all interactive."

If were going to have a FAQ than these should b parts of it.

I definitely agree with you on both of the aforementioned points Lorax, and Shruman no doubt they are a worthy disclaimer to include when providing info on soil mixes and the alleged potency of different columnar trichs and specific clones- respect for that.

However, when I made reference to general soil mixes, brews/potency earlier I had a range of considerations in mind. I suppose the question we need to be asking ourselves is why are we making this FAQ and who are we making it for?

I'd argue the primary goal of the FAQ is the improvement of the signal to noise ratio on the forums so that when you come to check the forums after a day or two ideally MOST of the recent posts in the plant specific forums are of interest and possessed with a reasonable level of sophistication. I would love to give some incentive to senior members of the community like carpedmt, bluemeanie, electro, CS, mulga (yes even mulga, knowledge with a high level of utility contributed to a community is useful irrespective of its source), to come back to the fold and share with us new developments in their research, fine tuned brews, refined tek structures and especially notable synergistic combinations so that we may evolve with them. I and likely many others come here to LEARN first and foremost. That to me is and always has been the most fundamental goal of this forum and is something I try to keep in mind before posting.

What is the point in my replying to a thread if I have nothing of utility to contribute? What can I say about growing trichs that rev can't? What can I say about extraction which hasn't already been stated better by lorax? Cubie cultivation by BM? Nothing to not much is the answer.

So if I have nothing useful to say I don't say anything at all; I keep checking the forums everyday, keep learning and take that knowledge out into the real world to the benefit of mates who lack it. No sense wasting bandwidth and others time with it. I think that with the recent discussions occurring in the social forums regarding the current state of affairs at SAB more members are becoming aware of the merits and flaws of their contributions to the forums, and are ideally working on cutting back on the fluff and focusing more consciously on positive, productive contributions.

Whether or not this is the case however there are and will likely continue be a lot of new members who just want to get things going at home ASAP. Whilst blanket alternatives for things like soil mix may not leave plants in an ideal state of affairs (I'd likely use a different ratios of things growing bridge here than would be ideal for someone growing the same clone in QLD for example) there are adequate basic cacti mixes that'll have trichs growing reasonably well anywhere, as well as simple easy ferts that suit them spring and summer whichever state of the country they may be situated in (Osmocote, etc.) A nice, no frills and simple outlaying of these details means people can pop in to one nursery and get things going at a decent level. They have something physical to interact with. Once they get a little dirt under their fingers and have teacher plants around them they have a responsibility to keep new additions to the garden alive and create a vested interest for themselves learning more about ethnobotany. Thus they become more likely to research topics of interest and research them more extensively when they can see that the benefits that will result are tangible and not so far away as originally imagined.

In terms of potency differing a hell of a lot. Yes that's true and I couldn't agree more but at the same time we don't want anyone hurting themselves or drowning in the deep end on account of misunderstandings/ lack of information on a topic. There are certain broad generalizations that hold most of the time.

For example 3 feet/2.4kg of fresh backenberg clone grown in Vic in full sun for me personally =

"I dare say, what a lovely day it is!"

*Brief flirtations with collective consciousness*

"This beer tastes delicious"

"That was fantastic sex"

,etc.

All in all a smooth relatively psychedelic ride.

Conversely....

3 feet/2.4kg of bridgesii grown in the same conditions=

STRONG STRONG STRONG

*possible period of hypothermia with a side of unrelenting visual assault*

"Jacket or straitjacket?", said the amorphous purple octopus.

,etc

All in all shaken to the core.

Or what about someone taking the same weight of Eileen or Mum & Dad as their typical backenberg seasoning?

There are good reasons to give people ballpark, very approximate estimates on these kinds of things for everyones sake (Providing one has sufficient personal experience to be offering what advice they can in the first place)

Threads like teonanacatl's in the pharm section regarding these sorts of things are among some of the best in the forum for me these days (Awesome thread dude ).

Anyway, all I'm really trying to say is I think the FAQ is a very good idea, it will make it easy for older members to quickly source and provide new, new members with a hyperlink specifically pertaining to the vast majority of their questions and it will make it much easier for new members to get more up to speed with those more experienced. All whilst hopefully bettering that signal to noise ratio! Its a win-win fellas I have high hopes.

We could always create the wiki teo suggested I suppose and then in 6 months time or so submit to a senior member here for review, editing and amendment before posting it as cactus FAQ 1.1- whatever people think will work.

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out

namaste

ben

[shruman]

Yeah good post ben.

"Looking forward to seeing how this pans out"

please dont just look forward, contribute, u sound like u or ur foaf (u may want to edit that) have some experience that would b relevant here & the more people 2 contribute should hopefully start snowballing.

We should probly have something for dosage & a couple of general cactus mixes with bought CS mix at the top then a few make ur own. but with disclaimers like these somewhere in there:

"As far as potency goes and ive said this before it can differ a hell of a lot to the reported values."

"there is no perfect soil mix and each soil mix comes with its own set of other cultivation conditions. Its all interactive."

[XipeTotec]

not sure what has been said on here... but maybe Teks thread pinned in each section( only allowing relevant teks to be posted) maybe more useful than FAQ?? teks are friendly to read and follow... if u know what i mean

[shruman]

Echinopsis peruviana syn Trichocereus peruvianus AKA Peruvian fence post

A large fast growing columnar cactus green to blue green sometimes glaucous with large white flowers

6-8 ribs with 6-8 honey-coloured to brown spines up to 4 cm in length,evenly spaced approx 2.5 cm apart. Containing a handful of alkaloids with mescaline being the major constituent growing to 7 metres often multibranched native to peru where aboriginals still brew the traditional cimora as part of their religion.

maybe this should b at the top of terminology

Scientific classification an example of Trichocereus pachanoi:

Kingdom: Plantae (the taxonomic kingdom comprising all living or extinct plants)

Division: Magnoliophyta (comprising flowering plants that produce seeds enclosed in an ovary)

Class: Magnoliopsida (comprising seed plants that produce an embryo with paired cotyledons and net-veined leaves) ?

Order: Caryophyllales ?

Family: Cactaceae (A cactus is any member of the succulent plant family Cactaceae)

Genus: Echinopsis (taxonomic group containing one or more species )

Species: E. pachanoi (taxonomic group whose members can interbreed)

References wikipedia, WorldNet.

[teonanacatl]

id rather you compiled photos of the cactus species then worried about describing them botanically, more usefull for newbies.

[Torsten]

id rather you compiled photos of the cactus species then worried about describing them botanically, more usefull for newbies.

agreed. If using a botanical description then make it noob friendly. Like pointing out the difference in rib shape or V-notches between peruvianus and pachanoi etc. But mostly backing everything up with pictures. Flower colour for example will not be of any use as the plant bought at bunnings by inquisitive noob will be years from flowering.

While full botanical descriptions are good for the wiki, I think the faq really needs to aim squarely at noobs.

[shruman]

Duely noted, thanks guys, more input is needed though so far it's almost all from my perspsective, Im happy to do the work but input would b great & not just from u 2.

Anyone can feel free to add any of my stuff to the wiki if its warranted.

Terminology:

Etiolation; A pathological condition of plants that grow in places that provide insufficient light, as under stones. It is characterized by elongated stems and pale color due to lack of chlorophyll.

Refs: The American Heritage Science Dictionary

[benjahman]

Link to easy-down tea tek here:

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...t=0#entry142048

Convenient, relatively long term storage for camping and the like.

Edited May 28, 2007 by benjahman

[Ace]

Pereskiopsis Rooting Tek (Cuttings)

A great tek for peres cuttings right here!

[Auntyjack]

Wedge grafting to peres (soon to be tek..thanks teo)

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...c=15119&hl=

[stiched up]

hi guys cant seem to find many direct discriptions on how to build a indoor grow box for cacti and the like maybe im just not looking enough!!!

has anyone used reptile heating lights in their settup?? or maybe basking lights??

also is there ways of mimiking moonlight??

[-YT-]

Hey bro! good too see ya online

With the grow box is it for seedlings? if so you can use those styrofoam boxes from the fruit shop with a piece of glass as a top to keep humidity in use a mix of coarse river sand and cactus mix/potting mix, with this way you can fit maybe couple hundred or more cactus seedlings in it, use a fluro for light and heatpad over winter to help growth along. Only problem you might have is with dam earwigs burrowing in hehe, they do have a tendency to proliferate at certain times of the year too.

Have used heatpads with no probs and fluros usually do the trick, notsure about the moonlight might not be a factor unless trying to set seed or flower in cycles?

[teonanacatl]

moonlight doesnt seem to influence flowering, my plants get their light cycle at night.