Crop

Yeah mate, even if it's not anthropomorphic, taking a look in mirror can only be good for us in the long run. Personally I think our economic system is the culprit. Unfortunately not an easy fix. The only really viable alternative, dosn't seem to work in practice. At least not when it has to compete with capitalism. Maybe all we need is a cap on wealth. Most of the large scale damage seems to be for no other reason than so, obscenely rich people, can get even richer.

Yeah mate I hear ya and your probably right. Still to not fix an immediate problem. A problem that not only exists right now, but that can be solved right now. To put all that off, just because a bigger problem, a problem that can not be prevented, 'might' happen some time in the future, that is pretty foolish to say the least. Aren't problems like climate change or overpopulation, simply selfishness problems? It is easy to become apathetic if someone is not convinced they will be too badly effected by a problem, at least in their life time. Especially so if they believe the effort to solve the problem adversely effects them personally, more than the problem it self. Perhaps why self regulation, a "do all you want" approach is simply not working.

Come on mate, don't ya like Vegemite? Anything yeasty should do. Kombucha and Kefir are easy to drink every day. Both have good levels of B's. What about beer? Good amount of B's in general but not a lot of Thiamine itself. Still can't hurt to drink a few and give it a go.

Mate, sounds like a great way to live your life. However when it comes to talking about overpopulation, don't you think this could be part of the problem?

Maybe Ethnoob's solution to the population problem is a wee bit extreme So what is a good solution? India tried giving away radio's to any women who would volunteer for sterilization, but it wasn't very successful. China's 'One Child Policy' essentially taxed individuals at a higher rate for each child after the first. Much more successful, but problematic in a patriarchal society. Many female fetuses were aborted, and worse. Anyone have any better idea's?

https://outabouter.com/2019/04/11/rest-of-earths-inhabitants-vote-to-phase-out-people-by-the-year-2040/?fbclid=IwAR3Vcqkoeozpaf1e6agb5fSeNe4-lAfkopIHaPxjYq1oTqLjPPQUEBeX2-o Rest Of Earth’s Inhabitants Vote To Phase Out People By The Year 2040 BY PAUL DUNCAN ON APRIL 11, 2019 • ( 13 COMMENTS )

Mate there are a few places on the sunny coast which can get a bit of a frost, some times, every where else shouldn't be much of a problem. Wider the pot the better, or get em in the ground.

Neither of these will attach to the cement itself. You could grow something else that will cling first, then grow the caapi up that. You could also put your eyelets up each end of the wall and run wire or cable horizontally between them, or suspend rope, wire or ghost net from the top. Once they have climbed up a few, equally spaced, vertical ropes, they will quickly spread between them covering the wall.

Here you've nailed it. I think the problems start when money, becomes the drug of choice. It makes perfect, economic sense to go to the quickest, easiest plant you know of, strip it of all it has, while rushing to get it to market. Least amount of work for the highest profit. However I don't get how even a money junky can really call it working; going for a stroll, in as many beautiful places you can think of, grabbing a sample from each tree as you pass.

Mate, I think this can cause serious problems, if its only half done. Which it usually is. Pretty soon you have hundreds, then thousands of plants being sold, all from a single cutting, from a single plant. Most of the remaining individuals of that species would have the same DNA. Even in the case of seeds from one or a few. Chances of long term species survival, reduce, the more you water down the gene pool.

Great land management points. Personally I think the native thing can distract from the bigger issue of invasivness. Will this plant add to biodiversity, or reduce it?

Mate, I've never made essential oil. The missus has recently been talking about having a go. I am lead to believe steam distalation is used (depends what you are extracting) You could use the ebay job, bardo mentions, if you can find a basket that fits in the boiler to keep the goodies up in the vapor. The rotating column alembic is made for both simple and steam. You put the googies in the column, you can even rotate the colunm to put in fresh goodies with out stopping the still. You probanly don't need the added expense of copper for essential oils. Copper in a still (you only really need a little in the colunm) absorbs sulfur, making higher quality alcohol.

Mate distilling is very easy, much easier than making a descent mead. I'm doing a ferment now, I'll run it through on the weekend, to make Trich tincture. At the moment I am using an old Still Spirits reflux. There alright, if all you want is tasteless, fairly high strength, ethanol. On a single run of sugar water fermented with a 20% turbo yeast, you can get about 80's to low 90% range(I recommend you water it down for drinking). I don't think much of that Chinese ebay thing, it doesn't have a dome or column (usually you want at least one or the other). The best stills I've used, where ones made by mates. I'm looking at getting a new one my self and I'm not good enough with an oxy, so I am looking at these. https://www.copper-alembic.com/en/split-top-rotating-column-copper-alembic-stills/20-l-split-top-rotating-column-alembic-still Or maybe if I can really sweet talk the missus https://www.stilldragon.com.au/4-crystal-dragon-glass-column-4-plate/ You do put aside the first 200-300ml or so. A good method involves running it all in to small jars. The quality varies through out the run. You can smell the difference. Generally the beginning and the end (heads and tails) can be thrown in with your next run. You don;t really need the beer kit (unless you want to make beer), any cheap food grade container will do, You will need an airlock, their cheep, or can be made with a bit of hose going into a bottle of water. Carbon filtering makes a big difference, but can strip subtle flavor. For very clean ethanol or vodka, I use activated carbon paste mixed through the spirit, then filter through an irrigation filter. If you like gin you can get creative with your aromatic and medicinal herbs put them in strong ethanol for a couple of days strain through a coffee filter, then water down.

Give away to a good home. Hangjiao #5, large, mild-medium heat, few seeds, good producer of heavy fruit (need tying up). First 5 to put your hand up.

Check out the way cool modernised Mongolian Throat Singing.

Mate your really getting into some serious ethics questions lately. Love your work. Questions like these have been asked by such great thinkers as Goethe, George Washington Carver, Luther Burbank and my favourite, Masanuobu Fukuoka. This is a hard one. Ethics is one of those strange phenomena that seems to change depending on what most people think. It was not long ago, at least in some parts of the world, it was perfectly acceptable to bind girls feet to make them small, or in south america to bind children heads to make them elongated. Neither of these effect life span, yet if you did them to your children today you would be locked up. Probably the biggest problem with a question like this is: the science isn't there yet. We don't know enough about plant consciousness to make an informed decision. Using animal analogies seems a bit pointless with such a dramatically different organism. It is perhaps akin to eurocentrism in anthropology. Yes plant don't have pain receptors or neurons, they also don't have a heart or arteries, yet there is no question nutrients are delivered to the cells. Research by people like Monica Gagliano have shown that plants use a calcium based signalling network that allows them to not only remember, but to learn by experience (see link below). Other research (sorry can't remember who, Uni was way too long ago) shows that some plants respond to predation (being cut) by secreting pharamones which warn it's neighbours, allowing them, in turn, to secrete repellent chemicals. Is this an indication of altruism, some kind of community spirit, or is it just another selfish evolutionary trait like some birds which communally raise the offspring of others of the same species? We just don't know enough. The fact your asking probably means you will go about bonsai in an ethical way. After all bonsia is part torture and part nurture. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep38427.epdf?author_access_token=ndXv7HCRrrXgnqZkGRINU9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PFvNbZvaVrCKW4Rb8ZW14eVyb7xNIHahQoZ-WZXB-uth8RSOQA0pfaOyF6to9zHCjhchoo9tGdx9p0lbntPMnN

Hah Ronny, Thanks for these and the link to the sight. Great resource for those of us lost in the sticks.

Mate if it's illegal to import and posses the oil, why not. Depending on where you are, you might find it is less of a crime to grow a small amount that it is to import a schedule 4.

It might be easier and cheaper to grow your own CBD. Strains from the Himalaya and Lebanon are usually high in CBD. For instance plants from the Pavati Valley when tested showed half of all plants having equal ratio of THC to CBD with a further quarter Having a ratio of 75% CBD to 25% THC. For those of you that do not have access to seed, but live somewhere it is legal to trade in seeds, https://therealseedcompany.com/ is a good source of landrace's.

Mate some great examples of ethical harvest. I think anyone contemplating wild harvesting, anything, should really do their homework. Here root barks are only taken during the dry season, even then, some species only have a short window. As far as confusa is concerned, Taiwan is one thing, but outside of it's natural range (most of Oz), this thing is considered extremely invasive. Away from it's home territory, probably the only non ethical form of harvest, is to plant it first.

Good point. Unfortunately according to this _Australian_Psychoactive.pdf it's not so. Further more 'Useful Tropical Plants' claims phyllodes taken during dry times can be toxic. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Acacia+confusa

Personally, I'm not convinced. Left to themselves, bees often nest horizontally. As well as rock ledges I have seen them build horizontally along the top of an old wardrobe, under the eaves of a building and even hanging from the rafters of a shed.

Beautiful hive mate.

Where I am now, the local people harvest lots bush medicine, including root barks. They go to the same patch of trees their grandmother showed them, dig down, take a little bit from each tree. They come back again and again and will show their own grand kids the same spot. It's not really rocket science. That said, of cause growing it is far better. It's still usually more efficient to sustainably harvest than it is to kill the tree and start again. I think greed is an illness we will either overcome or it will be the end of us.

Has any one got fresh seed, seedlings or cuttings?