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The Corroboree

Solipsis

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Everything posted by Solipsis

  1. Solipsis

    Micropropagation techniques

    Hey! I must admit I haven't read the thread yet but will after this. I just had my first Loph seed germinated on MS medium! Next I would like to use tissue explants of rare cacti and do multiplication, I guess using areole activation? TC is amazing Is anyone else doing micropropagation?
  2. Hey, Turns out this species from NZ may have special significance for where I live (the NL in Europe). Attempts to source Ps. weraroa - the regular pouch kind not the subsecotioides that does open up a bit - have failed so far. So it's kind of my holy grail, or moby dick haha. Am willing to reward well, I have an extensive collection of fungi and plants (although i realize customs are big problem) and supplies for growing and experimenting. Still tho, for a legit sample i will make it worth your while. s
  3. Solipsis

    Desperately looking for Ps. weraroa

    Fair enough I think I have found it, source seems very reputable, will just take some time... I can't supply you guys because of biosecurity but i can see what i can do about just keeping it within Australasia and having some relayed. Prints are hardly a thing because the species does not really seem to have ballistospory so the spores are not massively ejected. So another reason why people take swabs or just cloned cultures. peace
  4. Maybe this doesn't really apply to Aus but various species are able to survive frost by dehydrating some tissue in their myc and thereby making it less vulnerable to the damage from ice crystal formation due to frost. Sclerotia of grassland species aren't simply for frost but for other / added stress factors like floods and drought and I think they are mostly guarded against dehydration + fatal hyperthermia. Idk though but afaik, dehydration alone is not really much of a problem because it alone may only really put a piece of myc in stasis. Pseudosclerotia are similar to sclerotia but contain other matter and basically form around it instead of forming from existing myc that is supposed to colonize/consume whatever is in it?
  5. Solipsis

    Edible/Medicinal culture seeking thread

    Hi Cactiqueen nice to see you here
  6. Solipsis

    Is this Orange Rot? (lophs)

    Let me be blunt: So you went against advice and combined different remedies? Peroxide on the roots seems really aggressive, what were you trying to accomplish? For bugs, still.. 'just in case'? If anything it would only be a superficial treatment anyway and if you truly had rot in those roots, this would be game over at this point afaik. Yes it looks like rust type rot even much more than it already did to me. I sympathize but it still doesn't seem like you are respecting the kind of stress that stacks on when you try to throw on treatments this aggressively and in conjunction. Because on the other hand yeah these lophs look pretty threatened, that doesn't mean you should apply a kneejerk reaction out of panic. I would rather make the conditions as inhospitable to something like rust as you possibly can while trying to avoid extra stress on the surely already very stressed out plant. You could apply (acetyl)salicylic acid to try and alleviate some stress - basically aspirin works - but this is kind of a tangent, as it is only symptomatic treatment and almost palliative. Don't suddenly throw the rudder on a boat when you are going the wrong way, you'll capsize. Try to level back. Meaning it would be better to not stack treatments but stick to the most important ones and carefully remove the factors that help rust rot. Uprooting them well it's stressful but at least they are out of that too organic soil. I would give the roots air but not to the extent that they get dried out incredibly. Holding off with other treatments now is good, you'd better just try to halt what would help rot, before you try to make the loph more comfy again to actually grow. It's on the defensive. When lophs are in a really bad way, it often does not get better and you can lose it. If you don't want that you would have to learn to prevent, and that also involves not biting off more than you can chew. I started off with a pair of mature cool cacti once upon a time, and I totally botched it.. Losing plants because you make mistakes is part of the learning process. I think you are kinda in over your head in the sense that it is demanded of you now that you try and fix a very sick but mature loph. Don't get frustrated if it turns out it is too big of an ask to heal it, I think you are best off counting on losing it. When it is not your plants, this just translates to the owner with you combined I guess. I wanna assume it was a gift or something, otherwise I don't understand why a careless actual owner would "deserve" to have this solved. You just can't expect such a plant to take care of itself and not go along learning how to. Manage your expectations. Also.. about the photos: some are out of focus, the last one is useless.. some of the scarring on the plants is par for the course but not red spots that develop. As for the lophs that are actually running out of green and just go kind of crispy: it also does seem like a type of blight.
  7. Solipsis

    Whats wrong with this Loph?

    Is Trichoderma more aggressive than these pest molds? I know it can be protective generally but not sure if it is able to kick out the rust or whatever that is. And an antifungul would also be expected to kill Trichoderma ^ so I doubt you can really combine that. IDK how long the antifungal works. With soil its probably good to have healthy soil with bacteria to 'man the fort' when you use antifungals, because it creates a sort of power vacuum. I am personally not gonna use Trich because I also grow fungi lol, so not gonna encourage any Trich xD Pretty much agreed with Darklight, it's a good point.. not surprising that people want the best for their plant and want to try things out of desperation but it can get even worse if they start drawing false or biased conclusions from what happens next. And yeah if you have healthy ones nearby and have the possibility of separating healthy ones (there may very well be an invisible infection / contam that started but has not really gotten far yet), that could help because you can limit the sporeload of the sick ones, produced by the mold. And you can apply preventative measures mentioned in the thread on the healthy ones so that sickness does not progress or really start on them. It always starts with observation and figuring out what is going on before you do anything. And in my personal experience: i have more than once noticed something odd but came up with an explanation in my mind for how it could be normal or okay. For example i have gotten a little scale once because I did not realize that the weird bumps could be insects. I have more than once thought that variation in plant growth just happens.
  8. Solipsis

    Cultivation of glowing mushrooms (ABC news article)

    Thanks, good to know
  9. Solipsis

    Whats wrong with this Loph?

    Whatever it is, I would consider it serious.. and in my experience it is not good to just start randomly applying solutions especially ones that are mainly meant to maintain and control problems. If spider mites, you would want to launch an attack to stop their infestation in their tracks. A proper treatment like the spinosad I guess, or pyrethrins, but also the day before or after that you may want to [start using] insecticidal soap because it actually helps to stop the mites in other stages of their lifecycle too. And you need to break that cycle and screw up a complete generation or it can be a little pointless. People do use add-ons for that soap (don't use dishwashing detergent for it by the way! but old school soft green soap), and nicotine could be such an add-on yeah. I consider treatments like cinnamon and some ive heard you mention as more of a prevention or maintenance protection and not a treatment. And i think it can get hard to kill certain fungal problems. Identify the presence of spider mites if they are there (a magnifier can help), but i think if this was recent damage you should probably be able to find them without too much problem as they should have grown in numbers i would think... It can be a bit of searching but spider mites are visible with the naked eye. If present they really should be on top too, preferably near the apex usually i think.. or otherwise if not mites or other insect damage, try to confirm that it's fungus and i would agree that it seems quite a bit more likely. Spider mite damage should be a lot more like a greyish haze over them and not the red and brown colors. Focus such a treatment on a decent systemic product and don't start putting peroxide on the roots or combine 5 different things meant for prevention, hoping that it will work because you stacked them.. Skip the garlic, tobacco and sulfur imo.. but potassium bicarb can at least help halt growth on the surface. Inspect the plants again and see whether it progressed and if there is active rot... like i don't trust that pup on the far right in the third photo.. Realize that various treatments can be big stress on the plant and that repotting is stressful too... but do make sure that you don't water again with this soil mix, for the foreseeable future at least. Cause too much water / too organic soil can have contributed - as well as too high humidity / not enough airflow. Tricky cause while you want to get em out of that soil asap which has *way* too much organic soil in it, but you probably wanna wait right now until you have identified the cause of the problem and can act accordingly, give treatments first without stressing it unnecessarily, and only take them out of the soil if you really have to or if it can be part of the cleaning treatment. With fungus, i wouldn't expect it to get better, at best to halt it spreading.. but not sure honestly. Get systemic antifungals, some have been suggested above.
  10. Solipsis

    Whats wrong with this Loph?

    I really wouldn't start cutting into the plant to try and reach the fungus beyond the superficial parts, that seems like you may make matters even much worse. A product meant to be applied on leaves which are relatively thin probably should not be expected to act deeper, you would need something systemic or a formulation designed to pass through/into that amount of tissue. About the first photo: a big chunk of the cactus was cut off? Or did the infection just do that? Is the red we are seeing on top that tomato dust product or a symptom of the fungus that caused other widespread damage? Before saying more I think it is important to get a good history so please tell us a story or paint us a picture of what happened / what apparent symptoms are unrelated and much older? (I would forget about the pesticides for now unless you currently have pests in there that play a role in these problems, it confuses the point otherwise, and the plant as well. Or is the red dusty appearance actually mites if you look very closely? Hard to tell from photo. So: did you see the mites or jump to the conclusion? I am personally about to start working with other beneficial microorganisms: bacteria and mold which can kill pests)
  11. Solipsis

    Cultivation of glowing mushrooms (ABC news article)

    Yeah i have friends who have already grown them, i haven't had a chance yet but do have cultures of Omphalotus nidiformis and Panellus stipticus. Great for time lapse photography, but often it can be kinda faint to really enjoy with the naked eye. Still incredible tho! I wonder whether LC works.. for one of those species no i think it's just the gills that luminesce.
  12. Solipsis

    Whats wrong with this Loph?

    Not sure but it looks like rust mold to me and not like the kind of fungus that rots your plant away from the bottom up.. For something like rust: In some cases it can stabilize and remain an aesthetic problem (and contam problem), but yours looks more problematic than that i think. It starts superficially and creeps in through the stomata.. but i think it is able to go deeper.. In your case it may very well be too late for superficial remedies. Bicarb makes unfavorable surface conditions for example.. Not even sure if that would help prevent the spreading of spores while the fungus mainly stays deeper. Honestly i have quite mild rust issues here and there and a "non eco" fungicide hardly helps. As far as i have been able to find out you shouldn't hope for a cure, just to slow down or halt the process. I would use a much more mineral inorganic soil mix and see if you can do anything to change the (air) conditions so that it stops developing. For me putting plants outside (i can grow almost exclusively indoors and without sun unfortunately) seems to help a lot and i get fresh new growth that looks better. A lot of molds don't like fresh breezes but thrive in closed quarters where the spores just keep hanging around. Some insects may also play a role in spreading such diseases by the way and in those cases it may be necessary to solve the insect problem before you can even start to work at the fungus problem. I would like to hear more about actual experiences of people with things like copper and sulfur against such a case of mold on cacti!
  13. Solipsis

    Seedling heat mat

    Yeah in my experience it helps, brings temp from 20 to 30 here using a terrarium stone with a book in between as buffer.. Supposedly it is best to turn it off at night or at least have fluctuations.. not sure how confused the seeds get if you were to not sync the warmth with the light... Of course you can also get more evaporation and mold etc with heating. So be careful and have the life in the soil stabilized if you can. I think you are better off just growing at about 18h of light per day instead of 12, but yea you can put the heating on 12/12 that should be fine. About the light spectrum: certain proportions of far red vs red wavelenghts can promote stretching in plants and it is generally thought that red light (vs blue wavelengths / the rest of the spectrum) can too... but on the other hand a warm spectrum does promote good growth of roots. Probably not a good idea to overfocus on what spectrum temperature you pick but the exact composition of the spectrum can vary even between ones of the same temperature and there should be a decent balance and no major deficiencies is IMO key. Other than that i believe in dual spectrum. That said, i'm talking beyond the seedling stage and you can just use a 6000K fluorescent tube for seedlings and it works perfectly for me. 2x36W is nice... when you see that subtle purple blush you know you are on the heavy side of good. Your seeds should germinate with the extra warmth... but if even that doesn't help (i think about 75% is reasonable for species like in Lophophora) there are ways of inducing germination like GA3 or you could try karrikins / smoke water for some plants. However that may not work for cacti since they are not used to growing after a forest fire lol. So it would have to go way way back on the evolutionary timeline.
  14. Using UV-C is not that complicated, I have built an enclosure around my FFU flowhood and will be using it to also irradiate with UV which is built in. A friend has already done this and apparently created irratiated spores some of which were made into monokaryons. I saw some really funky star-shaped growth, lol. But it will take a while before we start seeing results I think, and he is very busy. Rattlesnake venom has nothing to do with mutagenesis but is cytolytic and breaks down cell walls which is supposed to help with fusion of some old cultures that were not cooperating, I think. But there are easier ways to achieve things like that. Hybridizing initially is a little work but not necessarily that crazy (if they are compatible enough and not some crazy attempt at an intergeneric hybrid or something), it seems to me like the work afterwards to stabilize can be a lot more. How Workman created APE by the way seemed pretty easy but he said he had insane luck with it. Anyway, back to mutations :D I think mutants like some of the KSSS cultivars are nuts haha, I would love to see something like that with gourmet mushrooms as well. THe greater number of chromosomes I think you meant polyploidity induced with colchicin? Yeah also interesting but IIRC it would take years of breeding to get reliable desired effects out of that.
  15. Solipsis

    Your experiences with BAP

    I have just made some 2% BAP gel/cream by using vaseline. From what I read, all fats including the butter suggested (and I don't see why not the lanolin) can block stomata and transpiration, which can cause a shift in the water relations in the plant but is not by definition detrimental. Besides, I only plan to apply a very small area anyway, right next to or on an areole most likely. I can only conclude that it is supposed to be an extended release drug patch kind of situation that is meant to last for weeks or months. Therefore a spray does not seem practical because the point would be to subtly but effectively change the local hormonal concentrations that would promote pupping. It also seems to me like you cannot fairly compare typical 6-BAP concentrations for foliar sprays with such an extended duration formula. I was considering making some kind of emulsion, to help not only get the hormones through the waxy cuticle / fatty tissue layers, but also efficiently into the aqueous tissues. I did add a drop of tween 80 for this reason and a drop of water, but I don't think like a 50/50 mix here of water/fat would be appropriate. Not only because it would become runny, but also because it would probably absorb too well and too fast, effectively overdosing the plant. I would like to test with and without the surfactant. Another thing I was thinking about is whether adding a bit of GA3 could also help here, to also promote the transition to shoot production? And finally, I heard about someone being enthousiastic about a combination of silver and olivetol, which is something I am interested in trying. Not sure how fast that worked. When I researched this a while ago I thought you might need to reapply after a few weeks, but I am not sure that you really need to wait 6 months. When dosed too high it might inhibit growth or at least locally have such effects, until the concentrations gradually drop again... so with all due respect to Zelly, but I am just wondering whether it is possible that the higher concentration while effective, leads to an unnecessary delay? (Just to add: if you played around with different concentrations and just found that to be the most effective with no difference in timeframe, that would be great to hear. And also: various conditions may come into play like whether a sun is shining on it, melting the substance more quickly, or a dog nibbled on the butter gel and spontaneously gave birth)
  16. Solipsis

    Edible/Medicinal culture seeking thread

    Nitpicky but i think H. coralloides is not exactly Lion's Mane but a related species. It's confused cause it seems that there are two species of Hericium with the name Bear's Head? Fun names for these stunning mushrooms anyway. What is DFAM? It's summer here and idk if it is the best time to be sending cultures, but you can contact me if you like. I generally have cultures of all those common ones (various ones commercial grade cultures) and many more.
  17. Solipsis

    Creating an Outdoor Patch for Woodlovers or Subs

    I have a Ps. cyan balcony planter and 2 shoebox grows of ovoids and subs on my balcony but apart from a sub pin have not really gotten fruits yet. Lot of work to keep them wet, and the gnats... But i did make patches of king oyster too recently for the first time... still have a lot to learn about outdoor patches. From what i understand, just like indoors you get a more explosive growth with low density substrate... it can seem like quite a bit of myc, but thin shavings or fine sawdust should be much more easily decayed than rough chips. Not really sure what the point is of having to wait around 2 years for a patch to start fruiting since it is running out of food. Sure maybe 6-12 months is reasonable to let the myc get established but if its about getting the myc hungry i don't see the point in feeding it super well at the start. I inoculated one or two of those shoeboxes with mud from a creek by the way, for the microbiome. It's a shame that it's so slow, not cause i'm impatient but i would like to start more grows with exotics and have learned from some experienced before then.. am especially interested in NZ and Tasmanian fungi (and flora/fauna), in pointy capped species (papillate or umbonate.. esp acutely) and in mutants + hybrids in general.
  18. Solipsis

    Microscopy and DNA workshops

    I would really love to follow a course on it online, as i just got a new microscope with dslr... Aus is bit far for me!
  19. Woow such great cacti, I love them! I have a bunch but they are still seedlings and I am first tackling the high evaporation rate in my apartment where I grow.. Say, which parents have a very high tendency to produce mutants? How does that work? (Apart from TPM) Could you tell me a little about VRG, and what about Bertha, Oscar, Olivia, hmm what else.. Cause I have an Olivia cross and I am not seeing any mutants afaik.. is it a particular interaction between two varieties mostly? And the mother contributes a little more by epigenetics? To be clear: these are incredible plants even when they are not mutants, but I have a fascination for weirdlings and the complexities of breeding plants and fungi. Also, I am a big scop lover, but I don't seem to be the only one! xD [ So much to learn from this amazing and famous cactus community :D ]
  20. Solipsis

    Edible/Medicinal culture seeking thread

    Hey guys I have an extensive collection of fungi and that does include King stropharia and reishi species but not exactly sure how difficult this would be for customs :S
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