gecko

Beautiful pics Tripsis! I've been anticipating seeing these pics. The information you've recorded with them makes your collection (pics and cultures, if still alive) much more valuable. Really nice work, Thanks for posting it.

Perfect looking milk caps in those pics! I've been anticipating a good season this year. I'll be out there picking soon make a quick little fire and grill some on the spot with a little garlic and herb , olive oil in the gills ... cant beat it. garlic, cream and pine nut... i reckon pine mushroom/pine nuts sounded like a good combo, and it works well. I love milkies for mushroom tacos. saute fine-chopped onion, garlic , fresh chiles in oil. add sliced mushrooms, cook for about 3-4 min. add a bit ( say 1/2 to 1 glass) of water and some chopped Epazote put the lid on and steam for about 5 min. serve on fresh tortillas with sour cream and salsa. add scrambled eggs to that too, is good. this year I'm gonna try salting them in jars. I've gor a russian recipe for that somewhere i think. peppery milk caps are supposed to be good done like that, not as harsh after a few months in the salt.

very dilute Potassium nitrate can help too. I heard (or read?) many years ago that is can help some dry climate seeds. also chile seeds esp. some of the smaller wild chiles. I often use dilute seaweed extract to soak seed before sowing. Allows them imbibe a good range of minerals and organic compounds (in case some are lacking in the soil) to get them off to a flying start Dont know what the activated carbon would do, but I certainly couldn't hurt. i've heard of it being used in agar formulations intended for germinating mushroom spores (Cantharellus spp?)

They (TFW) dont have one (L.acidissima), but there is a bael tree there. it's not labelled though and I don't know of it ever having fruited. The tree is in a spot not accesible to the public. I doubt that anyone you speak with there will be aware of the tree. FNQ would be the best shot... I think you should try http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/ and post a request on the forum. I'm sure some of the folks in FNQ would know where to track it down for you.

Hi Meeka, I only just saw this, otherwise I'd have replied earlier. ..haven't been here for a while. Yes, I know the plant. I brought some seeds back from SriLanka in 1999. The Sinhalese name for it is Divul and it's made into a popular drink over there. Unfortunately because it's a citrus relative (Rutaceae) it's a restricted import and so the seeds where seized by AQIS upon entry when I declared them. .....most other things that I declared were allowed through ....Durian, neem, Adenanthera pavonina, Sesbania grandiflora, Clitoria ternatea etc... I've also seen it growing throughout parts of Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia (Sumba, Sumbawa, Komodo, Flores and I may have seen it in Lombok) It's well suited to the seasonally drier climate there east of the Wallace line. I'm pretty sure though that it is already in Aust as I was sent some seed once from FNQ by a friend. that was around 1993-4 and I've since lost track of the resultant plants and if any are still alive. So your search may dig something up within Aust. I think it's mentioned in James Darley's book 'Know and enjoy Tropical fruits' (1994?) Failing that, if someone returning from Indo. was to have some of the fruit included in their last meal before they left, you might just find a small tree sprouting in a garden somewhere... good luck in your search You may also find it being refered to by one of its older synonyms. Feronia limonia, Feronia acidissima, Feronia elephantum etc. While your searching for it, you might just as well keep an eye out for another simmilarly useful plant from the same family Aegle marmelos - Bael fruit tree or Beli. Grown across a simmilar range India through SE Asia to Indonesia. I enjoyed a drink made from dried slices of the fruit in Sri Lanka (Beli) and Thailand (Ma-toom). Like the wood apple, all parts of the Bael tree are also employed in a number of medicinal applications. In India it's often planted around Hindu temples. hope this all helps

Hey that sounds like a fun trip....3-5yrs, you could set up some fantastic gardens in that time. Apart from the usual suspects in a tropical food forest (mangosteen, durian, Anonna spp. jakfruit, chempedak, banana, papaya, sesbania spp., and lots of others) you could start some of the rarer forest species for fruits, medicinals and incense species. one genus that comes to mind is Aloeswood or Agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquilaria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarwood Sandalwood (a root hemiparasite) grown as a polyculture with Teak, Neem, and any other valuable tropical forest timber species. there are also spices etc. Many of the Prosea volumes would be an invaluable resource for you especially if you're gonna be there for that long. also available in CD Rom. http://www.prosea.lipi.go.id/ .... i gotta go now , the kids are out of control!

Thanks for that. survival skills has been a bit of an interest of mine since i was a little kid. I had seen a few of the individual books many years ago, but never the whole set. then I found a copy of the compilation of them in the one book. I grabed it of course, that was about 1984 and it looked like an old book then. My 5yo son is right into it now with the above mentioned book and the pocket SAS survival manual other interesting info can be found in the 'Bushcraft' series by Ron Edwards Ramskull Press i think also, a couple of great sources you might really enjoy: PaleoPlanet Forum and Primitive Ways

Thanks PD. Bloody nice haul there mate. Morels are worth playing with as far as trying to establish patches in and around home gardens and orchards.I still haven't managed it yet but will keep trying They can pop up in the wierdest of places around dwellings and sheds etc. I saw a pic of some growing in the ash and charcoal of pot-bellied stove! According to Stamets (Mycelium Running), Morchella grow from stembutts. following the method for 'natural culture'as described in Mycelium running, if you didn't have sawdust spawn, you could use stem butts, or even fresh fruits. check out video of morels ejecting spores.They're also very easy to clone and are such fast runners on agar that they always outrun contaminants. I've had colonised agar plugs stored in distilled water for up to 3yrs be able to wake up and grow. A good read on Morels is Michael Kou's book 'Morels'. (available here) Although it's about Morels (and related species) in USA much relevant info can be gleaned from it. There's an interesting section on the taxonomy and using DNA mapping to determine the different Morchella spp. occuring throughout th USA.

I've grown them before by excising the seed from the fruit as outlined by Occidentalis. also with GA-3 (500-750ppm from memory) which showed a small increase in germination rate. E.longifolia suckers prolifically especieally with any root disturbance. I haven't tried cuttings but they should work ok as with most species. root suckers or even root cuttings could also be worth a go.

Yeah sort of, it hadn't done anything for 2 yrs so I thought I'd give it a bit of a 'kick in the guts' Bury some of the colonised chip under dirt, introduce more nutrients, bacterial activity from fresh cut weeds etc. y'know disturb it a bit. There just happened to be a pile of quarry dust and agregate there so I chucked a bit on the patch. nothing was hapening before that, except mycelial growth, so I changed things. btw, I found another patch today where some had come up . I remember throwing some colonized chip under some other chip mulch in a depression I dug to plant a tree two years ago. It's just habit I guess. Whenever I plant a tree I alwaws just put some sort of fungi in the mulch. I seems right to start the trees off with some fungal friends for company the tree died from not being watered enough during summer so I abandoned it. that was over a year ago and needless to say i didn't water it last summer. The average rainfall here is around 350mm per year here, mostly winter with Hot,dry summers. since mid 90's it's been less ave. rainfall than that. So yeah, they aparently can handle long dry periods, but of course do better if in a thick bed of material to keep cool and to hide in.

Ah Haaaaaa, thats what those little structures are. I saw some in the Otways a couple of weeks ago. Thanks ZP

Even if you preheated the water that goes into the hot water service you'd save a hell of a lot of energy. Heating water to 65degC from 40degC takes a shitload less power than from 15degC. I've often wondered why we dont have refrigerator's as a bult in appliance in houses. It would make a whole lot more design and efficiency sense to have One heat pump taking heat out of one insulted box (the fridge) and pumping it into another one full of water (hot water unit). Most fridges could boil a lot of water in an insulated container with the heat they pump out. When we move into a rental house, it's taken for granted that you dont bring your own stove or hot water unit or Reverse cycle a/c.... why then the fridge? yes I know, previous renters could have lived like filthy pigs, hated the landlord and taken a dump in it , but there are ways around that too. A recyclable plastic liner/insert.... if it gets all yuckky and worn out, you just chuck it in the recycling and get a new one. Think of how much heat is pumped out of a fridge and transfered to the room that it stands in, to then have to pump it back out again after you open the door and dump the cold air back into the room onto the floor. then in summer most homes these days have a heat pump to get the heat out of the room to get it cool. even if it was just to preheat the water and still have an element heater in the system, it would save a packet. The fridge and part of the hot water are needed in close proximity of each other (Kitchen) In the kitchen you want water hotter than in the bathroom/shower so it make sense to have it closer to the kitchen. with a built in fridge there could be better inulation making it more efficient. Sorry , I didn't really answer your question at all but I got carried away with this obvious inefficiency with water heating and refrigeration of food in the home, and it's been bugging me for years now. you could look at Donkey heaters -easily made with 200litre drums and a few pipes operates without mains pressure water, but with displacement of water as you pour cold water in the funnel. also Chip heaters- or other variations -coil of copper (or stainles steel) pipe inside a burner, slow combustion stove/heater or inside or closley coiled around a chimney flue. You can store heat in the ground during summer via water in pipes and retreive it in winter but thats a lot more expensive to do. Preheat the water before it gets into the electric heater even by a few degrees can make a difference. run a pipe around in the ceiling cavity to scavenge heat from there. or 60cm or more underground- the water is then likely to be 13-15degC rather than 3degC on a frosty morning. also insulate hot water pipes on the deivery side of hot water unit to reduce heat loss. I reckon do it for all pipes hot and cold to minimize temp fluctuations in the water. hope this helps

Sorry , my reply was maybe a bit misleading ie. the hrs of light required was a standalone statement. the sun angle thing was just to work out the angle of light and where the shadows will fall in winter. But where the shadows are in the next few weeks will be as long as they get though really so you'll see it all if you spend a day there anyway. The closer to the poles, the bigger the variation in daylength summer to winter, but I don't know how to work that one out based on latitude for a given time of year. That is except that at spring and autumn equinox (equi equal + nox night) of course, its 12hr from sunrise to sunset wherever you are and that all the shadows track exactly west to east (and close enough to that for a week or two either side of the equinox). And yes, like Magic dirt said about plants growing where they 'shouldn't', sometimes you've just gotta try stuff out anyway.

You're asking about what edible plants to grow? It really depends on the steepness of the slope ie. how much shade you'll have cast on the things you're trying to grow. most veges want full sun for at least 6hrs, all day is better. To work out roughly how much light you'll get 90deg minus you're latitude South will give you xdegrees angle of the shadows at midday at equinox Mar 22 and Sept 22 (roughly) for summer, x plus 23 deg (rounded off from 23deg 26' 17") more importantly for winter, x minus 23 degrees Say for instance your at the same latitude as Dandenong 38 deg S (nice round figure) 90-38= 52deg (angle of incidence of sun's rays at midday) for March and Sept 90-38+23= 75deg for mid summer 90-38-23= 29deg for mid winter with a south facing slope it wont take a very big tree or building to block your sun for a long way down the slope. If you terraced it for veges, you'd have a flat place to work on and it would give the veges a bit more sun. then just plant the usual veges according to the season. As for things to grow in shade, given good availability of water, Ginseng would do well though not a veg as such, a valuable plant to have. It takes 3yrs at least to get them to harvestable size. Running bamboo (Phyllostachys spp.) planted low on the slope, if you're into that kind of thing. It would grow tall culms, branch free for the lowest 2/3rds, then they would be a resource rather than a weedy pest that no one valued. Good edible shoots, timber, building materials, craft, raw materials for char and for mushrooms etc. Phyllostachys spp. are great to work with, easy to split for that sort of work and can be cured with fire to bring out the natural wax to the surface to be used as a polish and protectant to the culms. they can take around 10-15 yrs, sometimes more to really get going though. P.pubescens P.bambusoides P.nigra var. henonis P.nigra would be my pref. if it were me. if bamboo doesn't suit ,I'm sure there would be more that others here could sugest for the site. but I hope this is a help.

If anyone has fresh Dragibus curiosa seed I'd like to buy some. I only want the red-seeded variant though , as it is much more potent than the yellow-seeded one IME. There seems to be self incompatibility with pollonation of the red-seeded strain. the yellow-seeded variant is self-fertile and I have too many of them now. The red-seeded bastard of a thing wont grow from cuttings either and for some reason, is also graft-incompatible with the yellow-seeded one! (or maybe my propagating skills are up the shit...?) I'm beginning to suspect that they're two completely different species altogether. Maybe the genus needs a full taxonomic revision, especially given the confusion a few years ago with Dragibus viridistoma, D.roseodonta, D.chromaglossa and D.curiousa , and all the bloody troubles that it caused. It was so bloody confusing and frustrating with all that contradictory info flying about. someone was even trying to pass D.melastoma off as the true species, maybe just out of ignorance, but it's quite easy to tell them apart, even while in the juvenile stage. There's quite a different taste in the fresh leaf of D.melastoma from all the others once you're acquainted with it, so unless they were familiar with them, an excusable mistake I guess. But still, if they're asking top dollar for a few seeds, you want to be sure you're getting the species you're after. Everyone reckoned they they had the true species, but with numerous introductions from various sources, it was difficult to sort out what was what until they reached maturity. Even then The relevant taxonomic info was so hard to find to key the species out definitively. Now I have the descriptions of most species and I've had them translated kindly by a local Afghani guy. Dari is actually his first language, but he's also fluent in Arabic and he's getting better at English now too. Added to the lack of reputable info in the early days, the differences between most of the species are so subtle that you need to have all the species together to sort them apart from each other. I think I'm now beginning to make sense of it all though. If only I could get some more seed, I reckon I'll have it all sorted out. My red seeded one just needs a pollen donor to grow subsequent generations true to type. So If anyone can help out in this regard, I would be most grateful PM me if you can help and I'll share with you the breakthrough I've made with regard to seed treatment in overcoming seed dormancy I've increased average germination from around 27% to around 93% and in half the time! No bullshit!

Poplar chip bed with weeds out of the catcher on the mower thrown over it. there was also some crushed granite dust and agregate and a bit of soil dumped on it too. dry weather has resulted in splitting of caps. it has endured a week of >40degC (2days up to 47degC!) now this. Apart from the occasional bit of water over summer and a bit of waste water draining from evaporative air conditioner, they're left to their own devices. Definitely not pampered or fussed over. Survivors in quite a harsh climate!

I make up recipes occasionally depending what I've got available at the time. often it's a calculated guess at what the cultures might like, eg the last lot I did was V8juice with a bit of oatmeal thrown in. I notice, looking through the recipes on the above link, that it's already been done , not surprising though. It was for P.nebrodensis and P.eryngii so I figured that the carrot extract would have simmilar compounds to their natural hosts. I've had slow growth with P.nebrodensis on other media before but on the V8/oatmeal medium it was much faster. Beer based medium 1 part Beer: 3-4 parts water plus agar 15-20g/l works well as an easy one. I like this one , even made a bit weaker than this, for storing cultures. making it weaker, they tend to grow a bit slower and have less metabolites and tend to store better. some cultures I've stored in slants for up to 2yrs (so far) at room temp and have revived without any worries. For storage, I also use recycled paper pellets wetted with a 'pinch' (barely measurable) of sugar in about 250ml water. This medium is put into 10ml PP centrifuge tubes and sterilized in PC for 10min. 4mm dia discs of colonized agar are punched out from a colonised petri dish with the top of a glass pasteur pipette and transfered with the tip of the pipette to the tube of sterile paper pellet. I like MYA, it's easy and suits most species. PDA, ok but I cant be bothered stuffing around with the potatos Others I've tried are mixes containing any of the following- wheat flour rye flour oatmeal fennel roots, carrot, parsnip etc.- put through the juicer- use pulp and juice. soy powder various sugars- corn syrup, malt syrup, glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, treacle, raw cane juice. yeast powder haven't tried Vegemite yet, but I'll give it a go though. maybe the salt in the Vegemite helps resist bacterial contams a bit I'like H2O2 8ml/l of 3%H2O2 is good for a bit of protection from contam- not absolute but enough advantage for mycelium to get going.

Bardi grubs, Good for fishing bait, or to eat (best cooked, though ok raw) or to grow fungus on... Cordyceps hawksii

I'm still keen, but I'm still waiting for a few things to fall into place yet to make it all possible. so I'm still watchin this space and will let you know as soon as I know.

I saw the thread title... thinking 'who the fuck is RJD?' opened it up and saw Rainbow album cover then thought 'Shit what's happened to Ronnie?' I missed that. man.. thats a shit! I mostly remember him from when he was with Blackmore's Rainbow and Black Sabbath Amazing powerful voice.

You wont get spore prints of truffles, they rely on animals eating them (why they smell and taste so good), and dispersing them when they shit. You could try low-tech approach. -sow some acorns in pots -get a truffle (or part of one if you can resist eating it all) -drop it in the blender with water and buzz it a few secs. -Water it around the roots of the germinating acorns or young oaks. -grow for a year or two and plant out. you could check to see if any mycorrhizae have formed while in the pots. It may be difficult (but not impossible once you know them) to tell truffle mycorrhizae apart those of 'weed' species of fungi. Thelephora terrestris is a common species that will grow mycorrhizae on pines, oaks and other exotic trees in nurseries. To sell these as inoculated trees would then need extensive checking and guarantees etc. I'm not sugesting to do that, but for growing at home could be a fun and interesting way to go. Ive had partial successes inoculating Pines with other mycorrhizal species. I mean partial, in that they haven't produced mushrooms yet. but the mycorrhizae have formed on the roots of trees in the pots. Worth a shot. I have 1 and 2 yr old oaks in pots ready for spores this year.

Yeah, using a straight razor does away with having to keep buying throw away stuff. Disposables are sold on a loss leader basis and a fancy looking handle and a few blades is sold at a loss but the repacement blades are expensive and they more than make up for the loss there. My razors have paid their way saved me heaps. It does take a little more time I guess, but I see it as a meditation and quite enjoy the need to focus on what I'm doing. If done after a hot shower, it doesn't take too much time out of my day. I can do a quick rough shave or a very thorough close shave and take a bit longer depending on time I have. There haven't been any nasty cuts, a few very small ones if I've drawn the blade a bit, but no more than any I've had from so called 'saftey razors'. I've only ever bought vintage blades, so haven't paid full new price, some models can get well past $600 with some custom blades well into $1000's. most of mine were under $40-50, though if you dont have a stone or stone set (going to 8000 grit or finer) new is probably the way to start. I've not tried any of the cheaper new blades out of China or Pakistan, and purist or collectors will tell you they're shit quality and to 'stay away from them'. I reckon there'd be some amongst them that would work, though I did see one masquerading as a razor that I just wouldn't bother with. Thick clunky heavy blade obviously not made for shaving with. For new Razors made by European culters, you can get some starting at around $100. Joan and Keith at AKC/Knives Australia are Aust. agents for Giesen Forsthoff (Germany), and have accessories and starter kits and I'm sure would be happy answer any questions you may have. Hmmm... I notice they now have portable handle strops, I've been lookin for one of them. http://www.knivesaustralia.com.au/knives.html#razor Others are Dovo (Germany) http://www.dovo.com/_english/rasur.html http://www.dovorazors.com/stockrazors.html And a bit more pricey Thiers Issard (France) http://www.thiers-issard.co.uk/thiers-issardstraightrazors.html or you could hunt around for reconditioned vintage blades. Make sure you buy them 'shave ready'

Yeah, I've seen some beautifully made Japanese blades, full piece with rattan wrapping. a bit like these http://www.ehamono.com/zakka/kamisori.html I'd like a Filarmonica (Spain) 'Doble Temple' or 'Barbas Duras' There have been a few Filarmonica razors, supposedly New old stock on Ebay being offered from Argentina and Spain lately. I don't really need any more though coz what I've got now, if looked after, will well and truely outlast me. ...but if I spot one at the right price, I might indulge. Incognito, if it's a khukuri you want, maybe you should contact Khukuri house in Nepal, they have many designs and styles and ship anywhere in the world. They'll even costom make one to your specs. http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/