mimzy

There had been so much rain in Sydney over the past few week I have been getting worried about my outdoor collections. I would recommend making sure the soil is well draining and a little hydrophobic. I've had relatively good success with 30% river sand, 10% perlite and 60% fine seedling mix. Perlite is quite hydrophobic and will redirect a lot of top water down the sides of the pot rather than through the root ball.

As soon as I saw this little guy I knew I had to get one. http://columbus-cactus-club.webs.com/pseudolithos%20migiurtinus.htm This plant is extremely ancient, almost alien looking. I know they are hard to cultivate, but I'd love to give it ago. I'm not sure if they are rare or not, but if you have one in your collection that you would like to part with, let me know!

So much choice! I'd love to get my hands on some of those Phalaris Arundinacea. I'll pm you.

All prioritise needed to say was "Na mate" and we knew he was one of us! I'm interested, but I'll see how ridiculous this bidding gets first.

I'm not sure the romanticism of running away to the bush will live up to the reality of living in the bush, but I hope it works out for you. Take an emergency beacon just in case you get hurt.

From what I've read pachanoi has such high variability in most features that its near impossible to tell them apart until it flowers. White hairs on flower/fruit = PC pachanoi, black hairs = true pachanoi. Useful link. http://www.largelyaccurateinformationmedia.com/pedro/pedro.html

Lovely garden doublebenno!

Greentea if you're interested in doing a little home molecular biology, there are plenty of neat experiments around. Of course you won't be able to do anything with your products. Try this home DNA extraction one. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/

Make sure to stir it well! Simple answer, no.

Gummo. Enough said.

They look like little alien creatures buried in the mud! Awesome.

I recently sowed my first batch of L. williamsii seeds and was astonished at the diversity in seedling morphology and growth rate. In particular, these two seedlings are quite peculiar and I'm trying to figure out if they are genetic mutants or simply different growth morphologies. This one is far more elongated than the others This one has two segments Any thoughts?

The first germinated with all the others, but stayed very skinny. There is also a lot more white tissue relative to green tissue. i assume the white tissue becomes more woody and root-like and the green part forms the plant we see on the surface. The second one doesn't have two areoles form what I can see, but there is a definite divide/line in the seedling. Looks like a conjoined twin almost. Haha well said Prier, I don't intend on counting my chickens any time soon - but they are interesting though. I also have a bunch of abnormally small ones (you can see one in the second photo)

OMG i want. Beautiful cacti you have there. Unfortunately I'm renting at the moment and can't stick anything in the ground

Thanks for the advice gtarman, much valued. I have seen scoria in the nursery before and thought it would be a good top dressing, I'll give it a burl.

Moisture and heat are seed killers. I generally keep my seeds in labelled zip lock bags in a glass jar. Store in a cool dry place.

One my first go at potting up my cacti I used a mix of approximately 70/30 potting mix and perlite. Everything seemed fine to start, but then I started to loose a few plants. I discovered that when I thought I was watering/fertilising, I actually wasn't. The perlite had made my soil so hydrophobic that the water merely soaked the first 1-2mm and ran down the edges of the pot, leaving the root system very very dry. Now I have to bottom soak each plant just to make sure it gets a drink! Definitely switching to torstens 70/30 potting mix and river sand medium for the next re-potting.

Haha tell me about it Shonan! I'm over mine, and I'm only 9 months in. I like the tissue culture idea, although I'm not sure plant cells like forming a monoculture as readily as animal cells.

I'm reticent to say it's impossible, but it would be very difficult. You're first major hurdle would be to identify the gene(s) responsible for your medicinal compounds. Very rarely is a medicinal compound a one gene show, especially in plants - most are a side product of complex biochemical pathway involving many genes and gene regulators. I imagine that it would be easier to generate a plasmid with the genes for the major protein players. You could insert this plasmid into a host E. coli strain relatively easily for replication and transcription. Maybe if you provide the bacteria with the base compounds of the biochemical pathway you would get your end product. There are many variables at play, indeed this would probably represent 2-3 years work and a PhD

I can't go around calling out newbies just yet, but seriously... there is so much information available on this site, let alone the entire internet, to get you from point A (where you are) to point B (where you want to be). Connect the dots, and be patient... not everything in this world comes in a pill you can swallow.

Recently I have become concerned about the vast amount of information that companies like phone & internet providers, google, financial institutions and government collect on my movements, communications and purchases. For the most part I assume that my anonymity is guaranteed by the vast amount of data collected, there simply aren’t the resources to scrutinise it all. However, most of this data is there for good and if I were ever unfortunate enough to give these institutions a motive to look at my data, there would be things there that would not incriminate me, but perhaps arouse suspicion, i.e. searches related to entheogen use, propagation, extraction etc. I'm fairly internet savvy, I avoid using my real name, I use several email accounts for different purposes, I rarely buy anything online and recently I have begun to use Tor browser. Ideally I'd like to maintain a completely separate identity on the net, but this isn’t always possible. Would anyone like to share the measures they take to protect their anonymity online and in day-to-day life, if at all? Perhaps I am just paranoid. I would be particularly interested in hearing from old-hats in the community who have managed to stay of the radar. How have you done it? Has anyone had situations where data has been used against them in legal cases?

Using aseptic techniques it is possible to inoculate the culture jar without contamination, however from time to time it does occur. In most cases, if the jar is contaminated by mold or bacteria you will be able to see the contaminating colonies and discard the culture.

OK all gone for now. I will put more up for grabs early next year. Happy new years everyone!

Hi guys. Not the greatest of offerings here, but I recently found a Persian store stocking wild rue seeds and bought a big pack. I haven't sown any yet, so I cant give you a 100% guarantee they are still fertile... but as far as I know they are fine to grow bought like this. I have so much more than I will ever need, so I'll be sending them out to whomever wants them. Cheers, Mimz

Checked my pots this morning and little seedlings have popped up They are fertile