franky

Hey mate, I got one cross from you, if you let me know which one I'll get some pics up. Your seeds seem to be the freshest I got, best germ rates!!!

In regards to pine bark how is it any different to other organic ingredients? It will all eventually break down yes in different time frames die to particle composition and size. In regards to sifting I personally found a few premium mixes at buninngs to contain a fair bit of peat which you would be getting if you sifted the bark out. Peat is a consoderably hydrophobic medium until wet

Hey mate, Sorry not too up on the slow release organic pellets, I use synthetic fertiliser at potting up time just a basic one. Not too sure about the ferts being the cause, as I don't have much experience with them personally, although the sifted potting mix may be the problem, especially if it is a peat based mix, as that is a lot of what you would be getting. Is the mix also shrinking? Does water just run down sides instead of infiltrating centre of mix?

Fair enough then mate, in your case foliar feeding may be necessary, although I would first try top dressing my plants with fertilliser, but that's because I wouldn't want to wake up at midnight and foliar feed all of my plants in the dead of night, knowing me id end up with spines sticking out all over lol I'm curious as to your media as well, as you say its heavily mineral based and still becomes hydrophobic when very dry. I personally have found this to be opposite when using heavy sand/scoria mixes. Only mixes heavy on organics minus coir (which is awesome lol) have hydrophobic tendencies when heavily under watered. But this is purely anecdotal evidence on my behalf. Best of luck

I understand plants can uptake nutrients through foliage, but if you are supplying the root zone with all the necessary elements to achieve the individual plants full genetic potential, why spray onto the foliage what advantages are you getting? Different ball game when it comes to hormones imo.

I guess you would need an adjuvant yeh, I never foliar feed any of my plants, but I guess you could use an organic insecticide like eco oil.

I would personally only foliar feed if overcoming deficiencies brought on by bad root zone or something. Otherwise let the roots do what they have evolved to do, uptake nutrients ;)

I knock aphids off my chilli plants i'm over wintering in my hothouse. If the ladybugs seem to be getting the upper hand id let it play out and see who the winner is. If aphids win, knock the inners off of their throne lol

Tbh that has a lot to do with how bunnings store there potting mixes, my one there stored uncovered outside and if we get a consistant wet period they can go anaroebic pretty quick.

At the moment I use a mixure of cheap composted green waste potting mix from bunnings that $2.70 a bag crap, amended with coco coir, sand and perlite. Depending on what I am growing in there, with added fertilliser. I don't use the commercial peat based mixes, cos the shrinkage is too bad when they dry out lol. I am in the process of scouting out cheap composted pine fines in the melbourne area, when I do this will become the base of my mix as I believe pine bark is perfect potting base mix as long as its composted well. Then i will be happy, unfortunately bunnings only has lightly composted pine fines, which are of no use as the N draw down index is too large, and I don't have enough money to be buying 'premium potting' mixes which are based off of the pine bark as well.

I was thinking of growing some pyrethrum plants, but I have read that without the added checmical insects are able to digest the pyrethrum, making it only effective as a knockdown treatment. Have you used pyrethrum effectively from antural sources? Cheers

Do you guys use neem often on edible plants? I have not used it on edibles etc as I have not found a registered product to use on edibles in Australia.

For nurseries to send plants over to wa, they need to be treated accordingly within 10 days prior to release afaik, with a root drench as well as a heavy spray of different chemicals

kush, and how all of cannabis is referred to it in some places, irks me + all the silly 'clone only' strain names coming out of the states for cannabis strains, that is marketing for ya though

I'm keen pmd

Ill grab one pm'd

Edit... looks like im a bit late

From what I've read online less still emit a fair bit of heat, just pushed outta unit from behind via small fans

If it is a virus you will have to cut back and remove any and all infected material straight into the green bin!

It will keep growing just fine, although it is better to repot before they become so rootbounf

Tell him to get a hard physical job? I often switch from all day use to no use to using at night, the nights I go without I tire myself from hard work and I just sleep it off. Quit blaming a plant for peoples abuse problems ffs

Last time I was in collecters corner they had heaps of scop seedlings, I picked up a few

One thing to remember is native soils completely change once they enter a pot, afaik the total AFP goes wayy down something to conaider

Too be honest, I'm not that up on cacti biology, so I cannot really answer. I was under the assumption that, only mineral nutes are forced or 'jump' into the roots through a chemical reaction. But you may be very write dude, for me the biggest factor to consider is how quickly the medium will dry out, some of my established cacti's mixes will dry out in a few hours, so if i watered them in the morning there would be no moisture left in the medium come night time. I hope this somewhat makes sense, I've never been great sharing my information or plain socialising at that so sorry if i come off hard to understand.

Coco coir can come in the form of powder, wich is coco peat, is no where near as free draining as say a 2mm - 4mm chip size, which is seen as the ideal hydroponic pore size. I remember reading a quote from a dutch commercial rose grower, who says once the perfect pore size of coco is found for the plant, you cannot overwater them! But you can also get the coconut husks chopped up, which add a much larger pore size to the medium (mostly used for orchid growth or mulch Although I believe cacti are a different ball game, personally the only cacti I have in a mix including coco is my trich pc, and I keep it wet quite consistently no rot here. For my other cacti I still prefer to use a heavy mineral based mix.