Jox

Some great Haiku's posted good far king luck seed sharer picking one which one?

Thanks for showing me your photos , those seedlings are looking awesome! I will keep mine going on there own roots & start to add pics here when they are worthy. Cheers Jox

Hey Hostilis, I have not seen many young Stenocereus so I am not sure how many of them look at that age but last year I ordered a few Lemaireocereus pruinosus seeds (now called Stenocereus pruinosus), they are growing very well & they look very similar to your plant. Good luck working it out. Cheers Jox

Maybe the government should make/help people be more prepared, for example it you want to build a house were there is high fire risk it should be mandatory to have a fire bunker on your property & sprinkler systems installed on your roof! This would surly save lives. Personally I would not consider living in the bush with out these two things. This are the kind of things I mean by more can be done. If you live in a flood pron area & don't have your house built at the right height you can't get insurance. @Sally, I think your friends are lucky to have people like you in there lives!! If you want to call people that volunteer to put there lives in danger to help others heroes then I would have to agree & I think most of them would appreciate our respect, some just do like to admit it. Cheers Jox

@Darklight, I think our volunteers do a great job & have nothing but respect for what they do, Australian residents a very lucky to have a service like this! But do you really think the government is doing a good job at keeping fire hazards to a minimum & that more prevention measures should not be looked at? I am asking you this question as you seem to be involved in this area & I am surprised you disagreed with my first comment. I know the threat of bush fire can never be 100% eliminated but surly we can do better!! I am not trying to stir the pot or upset anyone. This is something that I am genuinely interested in. Cheers Jox

Awesome mate! Cheers for the update, I have never grafted Astro's so I am glad I have a mate that can show me there progress, from most of your photos of Astro grafts they seem to pup to the extreme! I was also wondering how big do they grow before that start throwing pups? I have been growing a few of mine on there own roots under a 600watt MH light & am very impressed with there growth, some are nearly the size of a 10 cent piece. I must admit they look like plain Astro's & are not as freaky as your grafts, yours look very cool with the line of fluff forming like that . Cheers Jox

My best wishes & good luck go out to anyone affected by bush fires. Looking at the conversations going on here it does make you wonder who is responsible for making decisions & controlling back burning, there are not doing a very good job! My hat goes off to the members of the RFS for putting themselves in the front line & as Darklight said there members are made up of an array interesting people, you even get the occasional pyromaniac that sneaks out to light the fires so he/she can hang out on the weekend with there mates putting the fire out ! What ever is going on & who ever is responsible is not doing a good enough job, this is something the government has to look at & deal with. A lot more money, resources & time need to be put in to protect the members of the community that are under threat by bush fire! Just imagine if the government put all of there anti motorcycle gang funding & the money wasted on the war on drugs into making a fire plan that works for our country! Our government should be taking care of us instead of fu#king us up!! Anyway like I said at the start, good luck to everyone that has to deal with the threat of fire this season, please remember you can rebuild your home but you, your family & pets are irreplaceable! Take care. Cheers Jox

Well I am finally going to join in on the conversation of growing these little freaks ! I have been happy just watching you all with your little projects & everyone seems to be having success. I was given some of these seeds a while ago & last month finally got room in my grow room to sow them, even though the seeds have been stored for quit a while I have had very close to 100% germination & some of them already look a little different. As people here have had them growing for a little while now I would like to ask has anyone got any freaks growing on the own roots? Or have they all been grafted? I was planning on letting them do there own thing & not bother grafting. If anyone has photos of these freaks growing on there own roots I would love to see them & hear how they are going. Cheers Jox PS; I am very excited & happy to finally become a member of the nitrogen's mutant cactus club !!

Nice photos mate, I will have a better look tomorrow & see if I can help , did you get any photos of the phyllodes of the sixth plant? It looks a little bit like A.obtuse with the shape of the pods but they seem a bit to big. Also what part of dry outback oz were these found? Cheers Jox

I like the idea of this thread mate , If people are wanting to ask questions they should try to list the kind of cactus seed if known, if there is lighting going to be used tell us what kind of watts & the kind of medium use to sow the seeds in. The more you can add about these things the better an answer you will probably get. jwerta, how long did your seedlings live for? The first thing that comes to mind is the river sand & lack of nutrients for your seedlings, I personally don't use straight river sand but have heard it is great for starting your seedlings but soon they will need potted up into a mix that has nutrients in the soil or they will need to be given fertilizer regularly. When making a mix to use for germinating seeds I think about how long I am planning on leaving the seedlings in there for & make up a mix that suits, for example if I was planning on grafting all the seedlings soon after germination I would probably use straight river sand. Cheers Jox

Your method sounds fine, I germinate tricho & loph seeds the same way without a drama. The only thing I would ask you to contemplate is, when are you planning on potting up these seedlings, I mean after they germinate. The answer to this question has changed the way I prepare my lopho seed mix, I have found the less you mess around with young lophs the better. I now sow my loph seeds in lager containers & use a soil mix that will last them for a few years, for example I make a soil mix that I use for my adult lophs using sifted cacti mix 30%, coarse river sand 30%, crushed gravel 30%, medium perlite 10% & fill 2/3rds the container with this, on top of that I put 1/3rd of my normally seedling mix I make which is sifted seedling mix 50% & coarse river sand 50%. The idea is the seedlings start of in the finer seedling mix & as they grow bigger there roots get down to better lopho mix, the seedlings I have grown like this are much further ahead in growth than seedlings sown at the same time that were started of in seedling mix & then dug up & moved into lopho mix. Just something to think about, good luck. Cheers Jox

I have the same kind of problems as you Torsten, living up on a mountain range & this is what I was trying to point out in the other post. I would be more than happy to fill in all the details that whitewind suggested on my profile & think this would make it a lot easier to help answer other members questions & makes more sense than a location or zone, just my thoughts. Good luck working out what we should do & please keep us posted about what you would like to see in our profile. Cheers Jox

Very nice Swiper, how old is it? Cheers Jox

^^LOL, I will fill very sad for you bullit if you ever lose your password

@ID, that is a Cereus, good luck working out which one, lots of people have lots of opinions about what species is what. I have a few similar one of mine seems to be part monstrose part crest, very cool looking plants. As for the seedling, did you buy/get given the seeds or are they from your own plants? I have found when I have bought seeds from overseas suppliers some times I get an oddity mixed amongst them. Look forward to watching if it is a weird loph or someone has mixed in a random seed. Cheers Jox

Well done stillman, it has been great to watch you work on these & now your crosses are showing your efforts with awesome flowers . Cheers Jox

Cool mate, can you please let me know i you have any success with the cement tech. Cheers Jox

Hey can YOU help me or can I help you? My Polaskia chichipe is getting some decent flower buds at the moment & I am need of pollen for fertilization, if anyone can supply me with pollen I will happily split the seeds with them in return, or I can collect pollen for someone in return for some fresh seed. Please let me know if you can help . I have read conflicting reports on the self fertility of this cacti, some say it is self fertile & other say its not, I have also read that one plant can be self fertile one season & not the next. This will be the first time it has flowered for me so I really don't know & I would imagine I would get more seeds if I used the pollen from another plant. Like I said at the top I would be happy to collect pollen for someone else but I must admit I am very keen to try the fruit that this cactus will produce. Cheers Jox

hostilis, who cares if in is variegated? If you can get your Ario to change to an Aztekium Hmmm!! That is one weird cactus . Seriously, I have found seedlings that end up variegated can be spotted because they show two colours, for example red & green hence the variegation. You might have a seedling that is lacking a certain pigment IMO still cool. Good luck with your grafts & please keep us updated. Cheers Jox

Awesome mate, I am glad you got it all sorted & thanks again for helping me out . I think the member that got the crests should be made to post photos when they get them potted up ! Cheers Jox

Fuuuurrrrrkkkk ! That chimera is amazing.

Thanks man. That is the only drama, moving the things. I rent & this month my lease is up, the lady that owns the house lives in another state & is a grumpy bitch!! I mow the lawn on a weekly basis & keep the place looking neat, the real-estate does three monthly inspections & sends her photos of the well taken care of garden & this week the bitch has given us an ultimatum " move out at the end of lease or pay an extra $20 a week & she will get some one to do my lawns every three weeks" this annoys the shit out of me as when we moved in I spent the first week cutting the meter high grass & weeding gardens & driveways. Anyway the was three points I was trying to make, 1; I hate renting, 2; I hate the lady that owns the house, 3; I will put up with the first two things because moving would be a huge drama !! The things you do for your plants hey Cheers Jox

Well I missed out on this one. Hey Toast I was wondering if you sell these products? I am very keen to give them a try but don't really know were to start, I personally don't know anyone that uses snuff so can't get any feed back on it. I smoke Champion ruby rollies but would love to swap this bad habit for a less bad one . Can anyone recommend were I should start looking for snuff products & maybe a nice brand to try. I have had a quick look but don't know if I should get the dry one, moist one, fine etc......... Please advise me. Cheers Jox Ps; If any of you lucky members that got the free samples have a favorite sample, I would love to here about it.

The pink tongue skinks (Hemisphaeriodon gerrardii) are the best natural way to keep snails away, I have never use poison or baits as I would hate one of theses skinks to eat a poisoned snail. Here are a couple of photos, I lost count at 80 shells , the second photo shows how the shells look after the snail has been extracted, all the shells have the same damage. I am sure these skinks have save a few of my plants . Cheers Jox