Raver Buddy

Hi to all you wonderful crew. I'm back in Sydney again. I was wondering if there's any plans for any social meetups here in the Sydney region or possibly any camps for the future? I've been to plenty of SAB and APS meetups in Melbourne and worked for the last 10yrs in harm reduction in VIC. P.S. Are all SAB meetup now done through APS? I just haven't seen many posts here for quite some time in regards to social events so was wondering.

Hi Flux, Awesome! I was going to post the details for the APS Bicycle Day meetup but it looks like you beat me to it. I've been to many of the Melbourne APS events but only one of the Sydney ones. I'm hoping to invite a friend or two, if they are myself are running late, will the fracebook event page you linked to have the updated location if you guys move during the day?

Hi, Is there any plans soon for a meetup in Sydney? I've relocted from Melbourne and been to plenty of the SAB meetups there. Unfortunately I'm only in Sydney for a short while and was hoping I could go to a meetup if there's on while I'm here such as in the next month or two?

Okay m8. If you wanna get technical on light for indoor growing of cacti this is the best Youtube vid-jay-oh I based my tech off. It's from somone @ Cactusinfo.nl: https://youtu.be/r30oZ3FoAAs His quote is: Also just incase I didn't make this clear before, the reason I went with a simple USB heat mat from China and NOT one from China off ebay that contains it's own power supply is because of SAFETY. I've seen a bunch of electrical engi-nerd Youtube vid-jay-ohs of cheap Chinese AC-DC power supplies where they are not up to Aussie or UK standards. Often not with proper gaps between the high voltage AC side and the low voltage DC side. You only have to see some teardowns of fake knockoff Apple or Samsung USB chargers to get an idea. Now you might be thinking but it's all made in China well the difference is as far as I know even cheap shops here like Bunnings, Woolworthless or Reject Shop that get their electrical stuff made in China have to be up to Aussie electrical codes. Buying from ebay either directly from China or from a fly-by-night Aussie ebay reseller, gets around this. The worst case I've seen is where a USB charger failed internally and the full 240V from the AC side crossed into the the low 5V DC line. Needless to say the comment was it gave someone a rude tingle when they touched it so they sent it in for a tear down vid by an electrical engi-nerd!

Hi, I'm looking for Seeds for Trich. Pach. Olivia X Scopulicola. I'm interested in this cross because from what I've heard they produce approx 70% of seedlings in a monstrose or crestata form. Each looking very unique. Any other crossed seeds of from Trichs that are very high in producing monstrose or crestata forms are very welcome. I'm happy to pay for them. Any links or info is apprecieated. I've read a rumour on here that Trich. Oscar X Olivia seeds also produce high numbers of monstrose & crestata forms but I have no idea on what percent. So I'm Interested in this cross if anyone has it and has some info on what percent grow monstrose or crestata?

I think I can help. It took me a few goes to get the takeaway tek to work in the middle of winter. First time I only got 1 seed to sprout but then I figured it out and now every time many of my seeds sprout (lophs, ariocarpus, ortegocactus, mamilaria, trichs, ect). This is what I've found is critical: - Light source in the right spectrum and at least 5000 lux. - Heat mat, low 20's celcius are a minimum. - Timer for heat mat and light. (I set to 12 hrs on 12 hrs off but more or less should work fine.) Details: Cheapest and best bang for buck for the right light spectrum is a warm white LED bulb. You can use compact fluoro in warm white which are slightly less efficient. You can also use halogen in warm white but they are much less efficient (lots of the power ends up as heat). Put the bulb in a cheap adjustable desk lamp from Bunnings or supermarket. I find the lowest 6 watt LED bulb is great for just a few cactus seedlings in tupperware containers. When I have a small coffee table with full of 6cmx6cm potted cacti on it and the tupperware seedlings during winter then I use an 11 watt LED bulb and raise it up so it hits everything. The most critical thing and the deciding factor between me getting only 1 seed to sprout the 1st try and then getting most to sprout the 2nd try was getting the bulb at the correct height to get 5000 lux. I did not use any fancy light meter. I just downloaded a simple free sensor app on an android phone. Most phones made in the last 10yrs running android will work fine as they have a light sensor for auto adjusting the screen brightness for indoors & outdoors. Many free sensor apps will show you a reading of light measured in lux. I stick my phone right on top of the lid of the tupperware containers with the seeds and make sure I'm getting at least a reading of 5000 lux. If you go heaps more than 5000 lux keep in mind that your seeds should still sprout but the seedlings can get a red spot from "light burn". If this happens just move the light source back a bit. I got the the desk lamp, warm white LED bulb & timer from Bunnings for cheap. The heat mats I used are the small camo $5 USB Heat Mats from ebay.com.au bought directly from China. Here's a link: Been using for over a year now with no problems. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pet-USB-Electric-Adjustable-Heat-Pad-Reptile-Heating-Mat-Warmer-Blanket-AU-Stock/254140829651?hash=item3b2bf94fd3:m:maxmf2twD4v-DStMmFlPyeg Keep in mind that I found the model of these that work with a separate timer is the USB heat mat with no switch or adjustable heat settings. I wouldn't reccomend buying the mat that has the switch and adjustable settings as it won't turn back on automatically with a timer. I'm not an electrical engineerd but my 2cents are that if buying a heat mat from China I'd go with one that does not have an internal AC to DC power supply (no wall plug). That is why I just got a simple USB powdered heat mat. For the actual AC to DC power supply (AC wall socket to USB) I use a proper name brand phone charger such as Sony or Samsung. Any proper name brand phone charger rated at 2 Amps output @ 5 volts is sufficient for one of those small mats (My testing shows the small mat draws 1.35 Amps). Dunno how much current the medium size mat needs to reach full heat but I'd expect more than the small. So if you get the medium size mat and it's not getting as warm as it should you may want to try it with a larger current phone charger just to check that it's getting the full current it wants. You can try it with any chargers you have that are more than 2A output and compare with the 2A charger and see if the mat gets any warmer. The mat is current limited (will not draw more current than it needs) so you can safely use any USB charger that is rated to more output current than it needs (3A, 4A, 5A, ect). Just make sure the USB charger says 5V output and no more. Most are 5V. I use a simple USB plug in device with a small LCD screen that I can plug any USB device into and it shows me exactly the voltage and current it is drawing. The are only 5 bucks from ebay. Here's a link if you want one: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/USB-LCD-Detector-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Power-Capacity-Battery-Current-Meter-Tester/322629753120?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=511633953564&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 Here's a pic below of some of my cactus seedlings using the takeawak tek. I'm using the small size camo USB mat l linked to above. As you can see the max it can fit is 6 of those small cube tupperware containers that you buy from k-mart.

I've now given away the last of the extra minerals and topsoil I was offering for free or trade. Just a note that if you don't want buy each type of rock or soil by the 20kg bag, I think Daisey's offer smaller sample bags. Otherwise you could end up with 80kg of rocks & soil like I did without thinking and then had to give away the extra stuff to friends. Also note that the screened local topsoil from Daisey's is high in clay. I would not use it on it's own for any plants as after watering it packs down like glue and will most likely not allow enough drainage for water and air to get to the roots. I found that mixing it with the different size mineral rocks (bluestone, granite & sandstone) in a glass jar showed that even after many waterings there are still lots of gaps below the surface for water & air to get to the roots. A salvia cutting planted in this mix, indoors, in winter has so far survived and even put on growth (with the aid of a regular warm white LED bulb & timer). I think this maybe a good enough test for me to use this soil & rocks mix for any other plants that aren't cacti, when grown indoors. Just seems that this is a far better option for indoor plants that are not cacti as it's less likley to be a breeding ground for those annoying fungus gnats that buzz around after watering. Again the likley culprit IMO is all that woodchip or bark.

Care to post a pic MountainGoat? I haven't seen O. Subulata with crested formation before. Sounds quite interesting! I just came back to this thead to post that just the other day I found some O. Subulata Monstrose while at the shops. It was out the front of a small Asian grocery. The small ones were only 4 bucks so I couldn't pass it up and bought two. No labels and dodgey looking pots suggesting someone at the store is growing them and their other cacti rather than the usual Collectors Corner/Paradisa branded stuff you see supplied to Bunnings & Garden world. I've posted a pic below. Love how one of em I bought was not even in a real pot, just a dodgey hacked up plastic water bottle with dirt. Great! Less wastage for me as I re-pot everything in my prefered black glazed ceramic pots anyway. If anyone else is interested the small Asian grocery where I got them was in Hawthorn, Glenferrie Rd. Same side of the road as Coles but just up the road north a bit. They didn't have heaps of cacti but still interesting if you're in the area. You'll see em out the front on the street. They had a few other varieties of regular Opuntias too if you're into them or multi-grafting such as for a buch of seedlings.

Hey guys looks like I finally have an answer to the question of the thread regarding O. Subulata. I made an account & asked the same question on CactiGuide.com and have gotten this answer from ElieEstephane : So it seems I can't get the monstrose version easily from ebay in Australia as they are actually the normal version. Now that I know what I'm looking for fingers crossed the plant seller at the next EGA might be able to sell me the right cutting. :)

Kick arse, but super long article. After reading and serious hunting I made a post of my exploits (including switching all my plants over to soilless) which you can find here: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?/topic/46223-melb-vic-creating-a-soilless-mineral-only-mix-or-20-soil-mix-based-on-xerophillia-the-stone-eaters/. I include all the places I found to get my mineral rocks from (Melbourne, VIC, Australia).

Okay thanks for the pic & info. I've ordered some O. Subulata Monstrose seeds for 2 bucks + GST from China so will see if I can get them going through the winter with one of those cheap Chinesium USB camo heating mats (listed "for pets") and a warm white LED bulb on a timer. Seems to do the trick so far for most other cacti seeds. Hopefully customs don't have a hissy and hopfully the seeds are real deal. Funny if you read the stories on Ali Express about the so called glow plant seeds. The few people that actually got em to grow said they were just some garbarge random plant. I guess what do you expect for a buck when it comes to Chinesium seeds eh? (Those who might have read more into the experimental genetically engi-nerd-ed glow plant might have realised that it seems to have gone under after the crowd funder and all the hype surrounding it a few years back. I'm sure the anti gen-mod, tree hugging hippies will be releaved but I really want a glow plant to go with my long life radio-active glow sticks ). This is the pic the seller posted for the seeds: In the mean time I ordered some plain old Peskys to play with for grafting (Pereskiopsis Spathulata) and am looking to play around with grafting onto some weird (varieg/monstro/cresty), or possibly just sickly & diseased Opuntias to see what happens. Pics are as follows for the weird prickly pears (Opuntias): Please lemme know if you have any luck getting weird growth from the scion after doing grafting. For some reason I wanna try a tripple banger graft like shown in those links I posted earlier on the chimeras. Maybe having two small slices banged on to a root stock can trick it into getting them both to grow stuff from each of them?!? Ultimate goal would be any fancy stuff from an Ortegocactus... Like this chimera in the pic below. I love the colour and weirdness of Ortegocactus so anything related is drool worthy IMHO. Here's the chimera I'm talking about. Old mate Percy for short (+ Ortegopuntia cv. PERCY) :

Okay so what exactly are the "Monstrose growth tendancies". I've had a look around at some photos online for both O. Subulata and O. Subulata Monstrose and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be looking for. Any chance you might be able to post a pic from the net and give any pointers?

Hi guys, I'm really want to buy just a small cutting of Opuntia Subulata Mostrose after reading that it may have properties to cause the scion on grafts to branch like crazy. This is after reading these threads where they made strange chimearas with them. http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=9172 and also http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8235. So far I've found a couple of ebay listings. Can anyone help me with this, is "Optuntia Subulata Monstrose" the same as "Austrocylindropuntia Subulata" or just "Optuntia Subulata" with no mention of "Monstrose"?!? Here is an example of a listing called Eve's Needles "Austrocylindropuntia Subulata" that I'm looking at buying. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cactus-Eves-Needle-established-healthy-plant-over-10cm-tall/233003762952?hash=item36401b4508:g:aN4AAOSwaiBb6lpU I'm just not sure if it needs to have listed "Mostrose" or not as I've heard a rumor that these are not real Montrose anyway so are they all the same? Here is another listing where the word "Mostrose" is listed and I honestly can't really see much if any difference in groth pattern. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Opuntia-Subulata-Monstrose-Xmas-tree-Cactus/392274225986?hash=item5b555dab42:g:IW4AAOSwBRlchNFO So is O. Subulata the same as O. Subulata Monstrose? Image for one sold as "Monstrose" Image for one sold without mention of "Mostrose" Are they Same-same ?!?

Maybe some rotted and shoulda used some of my soilless mineral only mix?

If anyone is interested in free (or trade) mineral mix and I also have a bag of screened topsoil (free from organic matter & fertilisers) please contact me ASAP as I bought more than I can use or store and would prefer it went to a good home rather than being needlessly dumped. I have roughly 70kg in total so take as little or as much as you want. The minerals are crushed granite, sandstone & bluestone. Each are separate so you can mix at your own proportions for either soilless mineral only or a mineral mix with soil. It took me a while to source this mix around Melbourne based on the Xerophillia: The Stone Eaters and I bought more than I'll ever need since they sell everything by the 20kg bag. If you want more info I've posted pics and everything here: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?/topic/46223-melb-vic-creating-a-soilless-mineral-only-mix-or-20-soil-mix-based-on-xerophillia-the-stone-eaters/ If I could potentially trade or give away this stuff before sometime in the next few weeks before the EGA plant swap I'd be most grateful as it's kinda heavy to lug out there. Failing that if you're still keen and live too far away from me & would like me to bring it out to the EGA plant swap (I live in the eastern suburbs bout half hour from from CBD), then shoot me a message with your details.