enohpi-zeekim

I found this cool little shroom online today, a sky blue mushroom. Thought to be found only in NZ and parts of India. Pigment is Azulene blue, or , which is also found in other plants in nature such as seaweed or algae. I just thought it was a awesome mushroom and wondered if anyone had tried to grow one of these for a display type hobby humidity terrarium? I would be interested if anyone knows any interesting facts about it from their own experience. Is there anythungi like it in Oz?

Long awaited new addition to my garden collection. Thanks SAB. Going to be a few years before I have the collection i once had when I left NZ. Oh the memories and all the spiny repotting year after year My old cacti collection was ( 40 trichocereus pachanoi between pup size and five foot, 10 trichocereus scopulicola 2-4 foot +pups and a couple lophora williamsii and two grafted to pach's. and a couple agaves...and a garden gnome. I left my babies behind. Was my pride and joy. Well here's to many more in my new and soon to be improved australian version. One thing is Australia has the climate for an potentially amazing collection with all the species that I could never either get or never get to grow. Here's to you Aussie and all your amazing plants, and the people who are wiling to share and give advice. This is the little notch I was waiting for. It's all fun and games now, I hate feeling like I'm missing something in my garden life.

I didn't have high hopes for this working but so far still green. Better than what I can say for my control which just had the MEA dextrose, indole acetic/ naphthalene acetic and GA3 . No iodine and no seaweed nutrient. But neither were dipped in bleach for contaminants or treated with ethanol. So I think it's just a matter of time until they die.

I didn't have high hopes for this working but so far still green. Better than what I can say for my control which just had the MEA dextrose, indole acetic/ naphthalene acetic and GA3 . No iodine and no seaweed nutrient. But neither were dipped in bleach for contaminants or treated with ethanol. So I think it's just a matter of time until they die.

My control experimental plant culture has contamination. And on the other side of this picture there is Black Death starting at the base. But the one I experimented with iodine as an antibacterial is fine. I also read a bit up on it and apparently I should have dipped the plant leaf in dilute bleach then purified water. Then, oh,I can't remember off hand but I think it was a 70% ethanol dip, may have been just on the cut end for the alcohol and using African violet as the nutrient. I was tired when I read it so don't use this as an instruction by any means its just a pointer from what I remember. The other one appears healthy though.

#2. Culture Mixture Mixture 2. Consistent of MEA (malt extract agar) plus small portion of Dextrose (glucose). With main active ingredient indole acetic- naphtalacetic acid + GA3 (Gibberellic acid) although I don't know if it will work as there is no other nutrient other than the Malt extract and the Dextrose!! For essential growth it's necessary for NPK & trace elements but seeing I'm only looking for a significant amount of growth that it can be transferred into a pot. So fingers crossed, I think it's got a good chance at working, or not! One or the other are definite outcomes. ;)

One tub, 1 tube silicon, 1 pair elbow length chem gloves, 1 knife ( to go on the gas stove & heat up & melt the pre marked holes It's a Budget Box, don't knock it, "it's cheep"!

Venus Fly Trap leaf and 2mm wedge of plant tissue on MEA, dextrose, GA3 & indole acetic naphthal-acetic acid and seaweed liquid nutrient for plants...... Diluted with 1/2 ml 80% ethanol to dissolve the hormones into deionized water. Boiled and sterilised in glass jar with micropore tape over hole for filtered air exchange. One fifth of a mm grain of iodine crystal added to ethanol. Not enough to register at .00gram, so a pinhead size, added for extra sterility and to help dissolve the partially insoluble growth hormone. Then added to the water at 100ppm, mixed with the agar nutrient mix and boiled After pouring the agar nutrient growth mix the lid was lightly screwed on and jar placed into an oven bag. Placed in oven for 17 mins until starting to simmer then let to cool before any caramelisation of the sugars took place. Next day the oven bag with jar inside was placed in the glove box treated with bleach - 1part 4 - parts water! Let to sit & sterilise box. Plant cutting was taken with disposable scalpel and placed in steril beaker. Area sprayed down with alcohol around lid of Glove box, in surrounding air then inside the box. Finally the cutting (Venus F Trap) was placed inside and once closed and alcohol evaporated, the cutting was cut again fresh in the sterile conditions, finally wedged into the nutrient culture! The small wedge from the extra cut was left to make its own way in the medium,(in other words it was left to float around wherever it decides to settle, hopefully it takes root as its the smaller wedge that will be the interesting result. It may just die because it was exposed to air outside when cut)! Does anyone think this will work as a way to culture plant tissue? It's just an experimental mixture so if it works awesome, if not I'll have to read up on "correct" plant tissue culture, instead of using instinct (or my educated guess work). It's only cloning using much smaller samples in my opinion, I started with larger parts to begin with but will go smaller if I have any luck. Comments welcomed on this technique. Well been thinking on my method, think I should've tried hydrogen peroxide as a anti bacterial agent! Too bad I had none. But perhaps none would've been better than the iodine, I think it might have been the wrong thing to use for stopping competing bacteria or moulds. Another mistake may have been to try keeping it under a 30W light at night, at least at the stage it's at it's probably shocked and burned so I'm still waiting to see if any signs of death occur. Has anyone here got any plant tissue culture experience? I'm real interested if I'm far off, better google it!

I thought I had this plants identity sorted but I seem to have misidentified it. Anyone have a fix on what it is? It has a small yellow flower about 2-3mm size, a lot like a fern in the way it branches from the soil with a brown fibrous root and small nodes forming just beneath the ground before sending up another branch. I had thought it was a ephedra but it doesn't have the same jointed stems as E.sinica perhaps it's another variety? Yellowish to dark green colour, branchy twig like structure. Would love to find out if I am actually right to it being e.sinica but a a seedling next to it has definite differences, the way it doesn't have a full jointed structure.