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so happy when this turned up in my inbox,

Having been supplied with leaves from 4 different psychotria varieties by the generous member Bardo, I set about trying to propagate them. I haven't done leaf propagation before so use the search engine I did. Rather than put all my eggs in one basket I tried a few methods to mitigate the risk of failure. Approximately half the leaves were "cracked", the other half were left whole. Half of each were planted directly into moist potting medium, the other half were kept in wet paper towel in plastic bags. All were kept in a humidity dome and left in a shady spot outdoors, fate was left to take care of everything else, other than an occasional misting. Around 6 weeks later (I didn't note the date, I'm terrible at record keeping!) I can say that the paper towel method wins hands down for speed of rooting. 100% of the leaves in paper towel have produced roots, barely 10% of the leaves planted directly have roots. The roots look much more vigorous on the towel method leaves too. The cracked leaves in paper towel have all shot roots from each crack, none of the cracked leaves which were planted directly have. All the paper towel leaves still appear fresh, crisp and green whereas the others have browned and curled around the margins. I repotted all the paper towel leaves and switched the others to the superior method. If you haven't tried the paper towel propagation method, I recommend you try it and I think you will be impressed. The varieties were: viridis, carthagenensis, nexus and shipibo. All varieties responded similarly, there were no significant differences between them. Pic 1: paper towel method Pic 2: direct in media Pic 3: pots ready to go Pic 4: repotted and bagged up

Okies, so recently I had what is called a psychotic break, this is the result of eating too much drugs, compounded with stress and fear. I've spent the last few weeks recovering, all drugs are gone from my life and premises. It's been very difficult as I was using so many types of drugs. I've not had a smoke for nearly a week, having been a daily mega smoker for 20 years it's quite incredible the difference. I abused the sacred and I have paid the price I would like to apologise to this forum for my behaviour during my melt down, I really did some stoopid things. I would like to apologise to Incognito and Bullit These two people are far more worthy of any reputation than I. They were right and I am wrong. I would like to thank all who have helped me and who are helping me. It's really quite amazing the assistance I've received. A huge thanks to T for making this forum the great place it is. Also of course the moderation team. Mental illness cost money, n lots of it, so unfortunatly I'm liquidating a part of my cactus collection to pay off my debts, this is being done with Cheezelburger on eBay, so get in there over the next few months as there will be some bargains listed. When I have fixed everyone up on here I have some nice auctions planned for seeds and prints and swabs I have, as I'm not setting up a web site now I've a lot of excess stuff to offload to my friends old and new on here. Lots has been going on here that I have missed, this is really the best forum in the world. I love you all and will be back, brighter and healthy n drug free. Lol n they got rid of abbot during my absence, nice NB- we have edited the title only

Crowded for space from the git-go, a few years ago I inadvertently planted a terscheckii too close to a pasacana and several other plants. Naturally I let it get waaay too big to move (roughly 90 cm) before deciding to move it, which I tackled today. I only wanted to move it 5 feet, but the plant and root ball were far to heavy to lift, even with the non existent help. With access to only one side of the plant, I began to dig a hole next to what would become the root ball. I worked the shovel sideways in between the terscheckii & surrounding plants, cutting a narrow groove as far back around as I could access.... I then dug a trench out towards its new location to be.... As work progressed I wedged a 2x4 between some nearby trichs to stabilize the terscheckii & prevent it from falling forward.... Then I dug underneath the root ball as much as I dared & around each side as much as I could reach... Then I had a fantastic idea, that i would use a tarp to assist in moving the whole mass of plant & root ball. Tucking the tarp as far under the root ball as I could..... I then took the shovel to the mostly inaccessible back side and reaching over some trichs, I used the shovel to cut thru the top soil between the two side cuts..... The root ball & terscheckii fell a few inches down onto the tarp, completely free.... Then I lashed the plant & root ball to a short 2x4 to stabilize them both and assist in moving the whole mass forward..... this was accomplished by pulling on the tarp and guiding the 2x4 to the plants new location.... Then it was just a matter of backfilling and a major watering down... Radiantly beautiful in its new home.....

I have to extend a big thanks to Zelly for being very hospitable a few days ago. I had a wonderful time. Also to Nitrogen for popping in for a chat for a while. It was absolutely fantastic to be able to meet you both. If either of you are to come to Australia I will very happily show you some spots and open my house to you. And to Highdesertcacti for providing some guest passes for me and Zelly to go to the Huntington. Wonderful place it is too. Could have spent longer there but they're only open for 4.5 hours on a weekday. I have LOTS of cool cactus pics to share with you all. And I will, but most likely not for a week or so until I'm back home and can spend some time resizing and uploading them. I am seriously behind on my SAB-ing so will get back into it as soon as I can. I will also be creating a mushroom thread to document the first 2 weeks of my trip when I spent much time in forests and had some great and exciting finds. Including a Boletus edulis, (porcini), on Vancouver island. I'm in Scottsdale at the moment, (near Phoenix). And am heading down to Saguaro national park and probably one of either the Phoenix desert botanical gardens of the desert botanical gardens at Tucson. We shall see how early I get up and get on with the day as I have a bunch of dricing to get done to complete my mission..... How's this for a pic from the kitchen window of the place I'm staying at? (excuse the overexposed pic - trust me, the view from the kitchen is amazing, multiple saguaros out each window, and every other window of the house!) And the Cac-Stang has been treating me well. Thought I'd get one of these as all the Americans drive them, (and by that I mean all the tourists rent them....)

Very nice initiative.. Here's some interesting info on pollen collecting by experienced pollinators: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30159&hl=%2Bpollen+%2Bknife#entry335793 post #16 When trading pollen, I've had success but only if we trade pollen in a baggie rather than on q-tips - A good way to gather it is to place a glass under the flower and tap/shake the flower so the pollen falls off the stamens and into the glass - I brush it off the stamen with a knife or other object and then do the tapping/shaking actually.. I suppose Qtips work, but they leave very little pollen on the pistil of the other flower - I've had many fails using qtips.. Per storage, the pollen seems to only last a month or so in the fridge - I've heard its best to store it in the fridge rather than freezer, and be sure to double or triple bag it to prevent moisture from getting into it.. I've had best results with pollination by scooping little clumps of pollen out of the baggie with the tip of a knife and depositing the pollen directly on/in the pistil (the female reproductive thing in the middle of the flower) - and/or, holding a nice clump of pollen deep in the pistil and gently blowing on it so it goes right into the middle of the pistil.. http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33701&page=4&hl=%2Bpollen+%2Bknife#entry404141 post#91 In general I like to collect the pollen by putting a glass/cup under the mouth of the flower, and using a knife or any such utensil to fluff the pollen off the filaments and down into the glass - can also tap at the outside of the flower to get pollen to fall out into the glass. post #99 if you really want to get the pollen you can always sacrifice a flower - chop it off right before it opens and go harvest the pollen safely away from the bees. Likewise, you can introduce pollen into a flower that has not yet opened by prying it open. Using latex gloves / cleaning hands and surfaces with alcohol is probably also a good idea .. Dry and desiccated pollen are not the same. Not dry means it'll rot in a day if kept in a baggie. Dry means it's water is reduced to something on the order of 14% and may stay viable for a week in the refrigerator. Desiccated means its water is reduced so much it'll last a year or more if stored in a jar with some desiccant in the freezer. Theres a paper relating to it [Here] Indicating desiccant can be found in arts and crafts stores, its used in drying flowers. Immediate second round of desiccation, for the previously freezed pollen, and before sending in the mail will most likely increase the chances of successful pollination.. Newly formed condensation when defreezing might be avoided by initially storing the pollen along with a silica gel desiccant baggie .. Protecting flowers before and after the pollination might be useful too.. It's a good idea to check your donor plant for mosaic virus patterns before offering to send pollen to others.. Tobacco mosaic virus might be transfered easily to the recipient mother plant - directly or indirectly.. Good luck to the enthusiast pollinators !!

the roof, the roof, monsanto's on fiyaaah, we don't need no water let the mo' haka burn..

Thanks yeah it looks like a pretty awesome species. I have four outdoor patches in now and some other experiments - seems to be going ok indoors as well in a simple shotgun:

Finally broke out in full bloom tonight, thought it was last night but walked outside a little while ago and the smell was unmistakable!

Righto - P'sDog here with a bit more on the fine art of snuff. Way back in the time of Princess Pocahontas the old tobacco was considered the new expensive "miracle" drug made by mystical, wise ancients, far, far away, endorsed by royal physicians and generally sold to the rich gullible trendies. Now every drug has a time when it starts off hailed as a new wonder by popular "doctors" and supplied to the filthy rich for their parties, recreation and vague medical conditions. It becomes a status symbol amongst the trendy upper classes who openly flaunt it. Then the drug filters down to the middle classes who always want to ape what the upper classes do. Demand makes a profitable dark market and the quality drops, but the price soars, as the middle classes start to peddle it to the lower classes to finance their lifestyle. The upper classes notice that what was once their exclusive fashionable privilege has now become common and available even amongst the poor - no longer glorious and prestigious - and demand something be done about it. So now the law, politicians and doctors begin the campaign to demonise the drug, persecute its use amongst the poor with ever escalating draconian punishments, scapegoat it as THE cause of criminality, moral decay, disease, poverty, etc. and generally make it expensive, daring and exclusive. This doesn't bother the rich who can either pay doctors, lawyers or their butlers to keep supplying it to their parties, or holiday to a foreign country where it is available or can hire the poor to take the risk for them. Every drug near without exception goes over this sociological rollercoaster - a time when it is a darling to a time where it is a demon - opium, cocaine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, AM2201, MDMA, gunja, Xanax - some like cannabis and tobacco are so ancient they'll even do the tour twice - and alcohol got the perpetual season pass! And every generation will come up with a "new" variation of this very old and perfectly predictable phenomena. Notable exceptions are the "sacred" psychedelics that are not at all fun to take if you don't have a strong moral compass, sense of ego strength and well developed psychological defence mechanisms - the "pleasant unpleasantness" as Aldous Huxley called it - they are not party drugs. Oh - they are still illegal, because they're drugs and drugs are bad and the government owns your consciousness and body and the popular myth is they "get you high" a or they are "addictive". But getting back to the time when tobacco snuff was the 'rich businessman lunch time high' and prerogative of the upper classes:- Smoking hadn't become popular at this time because tobacco was supplied by the original Native Americans. Colonists hadn't started to grow much to trade, they weren't good at it and the natives were very protective of it. Later on John Rolfe smuggled out tabacum seeds from Spanish controlled Trinidad - under pain of death - and grew a crappy crop that the Iroquois laughed at. The Iroquois had one of their nations, "Tobacco Nation" that exclusively grew it for them. If they caught the colonists growing their strains they would have killed them. Johnny Rolfe realised he could sell his crap to England because they wouldn't know the difference and it was so weak and so poor in quality it was only fit to be smoked anyway - a new novelty. Hear that folks? "Virginia" smoking tobacco is actually the chaff grade that usually compost. Smoking is a faddish way to trick drunken fools into wasting enormous quantities and encourage the "lung" habit of compulsive use - much like "ice" methamphetamine is today. The "good" stuff - snuff - came from the Portuguese and Spanish that the English elite bought and used regardless of the fact they were actually at war with them and were financing arms deals against their own people - much like cocaine is today - and pretty much same cult status. Snuff was the rich man's upper of the day and used at parties, business meetings, social gatherings, brothels, etc. with elaborate showy rituals. We actually get a few cultural expressions from that time - "we'll see if he is up to snuff" meaning if he is smart, awake, intellectual, stimulated like he is high on snuff; "we'll try his snuff" meaning if he has the right connections for lucrative business deals; "good as snuff, but not as dusty" clever enough to get away with dodgy, shady business; "he could sell used snuff" excellent, if immoral, at marketing; "snuff is good at a funeral so long as there's no haggling over the snuffbox", redundancies, "restructuring" or asset stripping can still be an escape plan if done with fake regret, because using snuff makes your eyes water in crocodile tears and gives you the snuffles; and the all time classic "a deal not to be sneezed at" you could signal your contempt at a deal by sneezing and pretending it was the snuff. Oddly that last one persists to this day - Pat Uri knows a Chief Accountant of Local Government whose favourite way of ignoring criticism or anything else he doesn't want to listen to, is by feigning a sneeze that sounds like "bull-sheeeeeet!" in your face. He must have learnt it somewhere as he hasn't the intelligence to come up with it himself - his appointment has turned a once wealthy shire into a $7,000,000,000 debt and thinks nothing of it - now that's "bull-sheeeeet!" The ritual required the best snuff you could get your hands on and the most expensive snuffbox. The latter are collector items to this day - scour the markets for them - the Chinese still grind beautiful snuff bottles out of jade and other single crystals and because they are donated to local temples can be picked up cheaply if you do the research. They have great investment value. Most snuff boxes have one polished side to use as a mirror to double check you haven't a snuff moustache. You'll need a foppish handkerchief printed or tie-dyed an intricate black and brown pattern to blow your nose into and delicately dab your nose. Tuck it in your left sleeve - the handkerchief originally came into fashion with snuff use. Snuff comes in every colour to match your skin complexion - from Caucasian "white" snuffs, through to "black" snuffs to match the velvet worn by royals. Snuffing will cause you to walk with "your nose in the air" so the drip goes down your throat - very fashionable. The upper class always kept the heavily perfumed snuffs to sniff pinches when "a horse walked by" or in the presence of an unwashed commoner. Judges would use it as a signal that they thought "evidence was 'on the nose'" - there is a lot of non-verbal communication that went on with the snuff rituals. Certainly nothing is better for handling a smelly job than a snoz full of snuff. Its use was for the refined gentleman and smoking for the dirty, foul breathed commoner. I actually like snuff when reclining with the laptop or putting my head back driving a car. Look up Wikipedia for the "anatomical snuffbox" on the back of your hand. Here snuff is placed to make a show out of your taking a little snuff when making yourself the centre of attention. I've seen Pat Uri absolutely astound the audience when leisurely doing it this way in a formal police interview - the look on their faces! Pat had a run in with Site Management over his snuff use because they couldn't help but associate it with drugs - they were allowed to smoke, why couldn't he snuff? it was discrimination - they could drug test him, and themselves, unless they had something to hide. That was what they were worried about - he'd cause them all to get tested and only he would pass...and they didn't think that fair! (Oh they hate his guts - because he hates them, and all capitalists, annoys them and doesn't hide his contempt of them and love for the workers - you want his respect, you have to work for it.) You'll notice people who abuse other sorts of sniffable drugs can't stand watching you snuff without wanting a go themselves. This is where they betray their naughty habits because instead of taking a short, smart sniff to get it in their nose, they take a huge sinus crippling full inhalation to get it up their nose as high as possible. And tobacco ain't coke or speed, like they might be used to, it doesn't numb or shrink the mucous membrane, it wildly activates the nerves like hot pepper and stimulates the sinuses to full charge. They sneeze and cough and run around like horses that have inhaled a bee! Beginners beware you take it very easy first few weeks - use it only when you have nicotine withdrawals in tiny amounts. It will be some time before you have hardened up your nasal passages and can really indulge. Same when you haven't had it for a while. Then you kind of miss the sneeze and the burn - but then things like yopo will go down very easy and comfortably. Just remember how long it takes a smoker to get used to not coughing. Oddly you never lose your sense of smell snuffing - that only happens with smoking. I see the bods like their toasts and other fine grinds like the American Scotchs. Until beginners have mastered the breathing technique you might want to stick to the coarse German schmalzler which are impossible to over sniff and get down your throat or lungs. They are bloody good value too - at $8 for 100g and absolutely delicious from the fruity Brasils to the smokey Perlereuter and even one-man factory handmade Sterneker. In Bavaria snuff is quite common - they even have festivals - and I understand there would be public outrage if their government ever attempted to overtax their products. Oh - and no incidence of throat or mouth cancer. Dr Poschl was a German throat specialist who first linked cancer to tobacco smoking and founded his own snuff company to serve the people. The breathing technique is to completely fill the lungs with air before you sniff so only a tiny sniff is possible. Another is to balance a pile on the tip of your thumb and press it to the nostril to make a seal. Sniff, but do not break the seal - somehow it gets in, but not too far. The old nunu, eh? Be very careful saying that to a Bengali person because nunu has a very different meaning over there! Oh yes indeed! Offering a sniff of your nunu might get your face punched. Well folks this has been a long speel from the Dog - hope I haven't bored you with these rustica ravings. Looks like a sleepless Halloween for me - yee! hah! Bye 4 now! P'sDog. Oh PS - if you do cop a snuff headache Panadol works very well - the only time it ever does! And a snuff bullet is a good investment for discrete use in public etc. and they even sell models that glow in the dark!

Bushmaster Zed Rocks the Huntington !

Gawd I'm in "real" rehab at the mo and I'd trade it for yours any day! The garden I mean obviously heh and great to hear you're chugging along :D

Are you sure about that?

Per the 2015 Seed giveaway - if you PM'd me your address and did not put a full name with the address please PM me again with a full name. It is amazing to me how many people didn't put a name, or just put a first name, or initials etc.. Think about it for a second - which type of people don't put their full name on their mail? Shady people with stuff to hide, that's who! "Normal" people put their name on their mail - and the post office people know this. Not putting your name on your mail is basically just like writing "Hey post office, I'm super paranoid and have something to hide!!" So, please PM me forthwith a full name I can use - otherwise I'm just going to make one up for you - because the post office people know me, and I don't want them wondering why all these recipients I'm sending stuff to are super paranoid about using their full name. Thanks!

Let me see if I'm reading this right. Western ignorance = ignorant westerners = blame the victim Cultural clashes = armchair moral relativism = excusing the actions of the abuser Perhaps I'm missing something. Feel free to enlighten me. I think that's right, relative inequality definitely makes unscrupulous behavior more likely - or maybe it changes the kind of unscrupulous activity - we have plenty of bent bastards in Australia, they just end up in a different line of work. I think there's more to it though. Abuse in institutions happens here too, and we have nowhere near the level of absolute poverty that exists in south America.

Today I repotted my largest plant, not a cactus, but a Pachypodium lamerei, a succulent native to Madagascar. It was in a pot 34cm internal diameter and height, I moved it to a 42 cm pot, an increase in volume of about 65%. It hadn´t been repotted for a few years, so it was well overdue. The biggest problem was actually getting it out of its old pot - it proved quite stubborn. I ran a screwdriver round the upper part of the pot, removing a little soil and root. Then with my son´s help we laid it down and wiggled it up and down, gradually easing it out - sadly we broke off one of the branches doing this. The content of the pot was almost entirely root, which we lowered into the new pot and surrounded with fresh compost. Damn thing weighed a ton !!

I finally got a reply from technical support about my trouble ticket submitted on the 8th. In view of my ongoing experiences this reply from a "Technical Support Ninja" at Arvixe was actually funny enough I thought I should share it. "I would first like to apologize for a delay in getting back to you. Unfortunately, we are under higher than usual support requests load, which is causing additional delays. Your reported issue has been fixed server wide, if you are still facing any issue please get back to so that we can certainly assist you accordingly. Once again we sincerely we apologize for the inconvenience. Yours Sincerely, Mohsin Sarfraz, Technical Support Ninja" I am probably too easily amused by noting a common definition of a ninja: "A ninja was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and combat in certain situations." I think I'd rather have a technician showing up to help than a ninja. I also came across an article on the company that bought Arvixe (also webgator and a host of other companies that have been going the same route down the tubes) http://www.digitalfaq.com/editorials/websites-blogs/hostgator-alternatives-eig-pt1.htm

lol @ flora...today I almost accidentally fertilized all my plants with roundup, must be one of those days.

wtf is going on round here...lol fck heaps to catch up on, spring is a busy time at the best of times. I'm healing up well and survived propaggedon Hard on this old bastard at the best of times...lol. get some pics up later

Ill do an update this weekend, i got a few more seeds to go in too and few peres to prop in one tub i think

Here's 6 & 7 months of growth from grafted seedlings.

Now I'm collecting all my bong head associates bong water to use on my grevillea and banksia seed. I'm trialling a soak in bongwater before planting, and watering in with bong water after sowing. Smoked water is all the go with these babies apparently, and apparently bong water is smoked water either way rad place U have there mate, how many acres ??

gotta nice pic, which was taken in nature? gotta bloody, upload it here. the uploader with the pic with the most likes gets 50 ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus seeds!! here is mine, taken at the Carnarvon national park.

He'd be tasty I reckon.....been feeding him good Wouldn't be all "doughey" The chamo made it through in pots with absolute neglect....thats a good sign. I am thinking carrots.... More garlic in the middle, the leek project is about to get moved on. I've selected my parent stock, closer to the middle - except the bastard that has bolted to seed. I want a better leek . Knocked out some silverbeet seedlings, sowed some peas and snow peas. I reckon the minus degree nights are nearly done, propaggedon is coming....lol