gerbil

cheers for the info gunter, something for me to think about :D

ah cheers for that, will have a look into that mob, i'm surprised that there isn't a wide availability in melbourne given our volcanic plains in the west, i assume on the farms that get the rock rollers in, they just crush the rocks in situ and feed back into the soil. But it's frustrating, the garden shows crap on about trace elements and rock dust, yet everywhere i ask i just get blank stares, then rarely if you find a source for something it's overpriced and in ridiculous small quantity. I'm about to trial mycoapply maxx, WA source, it's really quite cheap if used appropriately (well so my theory goes) will probably be sending out some small samples soon, just waiting on some seed to arrive to accompany it. On top of all that, if not home made, biochar would be up there too, again commercial sources i've seen are small and overpriced, best off get getting a permit for a suburban backyard burn which is on the cards eventually. agree with the synthetics, i try to get natural mineral based products and organic based, but often realise they are probably chemically treated in processing or have a part of natural elements with synthetic additives, advertising is funny 'based' is a very deceptive word even though it's clear that it could have anything else in it when you think about it, it's difficult to keep up with it all and or get reliable info from suppliers, even if the chemicals are natural, sorta like glutamates additive in food, natural source but unnatural proportions and processing. I try my best though. Often my education is lacking though so i can fool myself. Even 'certified' organic can be quite deceptive, our classification can be quite silly from what i've heard about some of the rulings. Thanks for the direction with the rock dust.

trichs: sulphate of potash, blood n bone, dolomite lime, gypsum, compost teas (incl. microbial mixes incl. humic/fulvic acids, am finding gogo juice to be quite good), manures, worm farm liquids / castings, liquid feeds of fish emulsions and seaweeds, sometimes some mineral based liquid fert, whatever i feel like and is handy. I've been trying to source rock dust for years for topical and soil mixes, just can't seem to find a source, due to go to a rural farm supply so will be trying then. Just moving into mycorrhizal inoculants, particularly planned for seedlings, though also will water into mature plants. This will reduce need for ferts even more. Don't really need much quantity wise small amounts go a long way, diversity is good, just aim to get the soil healthy, feed at appropriate times and everything works well. If you feed too much, you'll just end up salting up the medium and flushing out excess, wasting your time and money.

yeah looks like the culprit the lophocereus, i came across it recently but still thought there could have been a bridge monstrose version, memory was from a europe or yank forum years ago when they had the three clones together claiming all bridge, but seems likely it was a mix up.

re acacia, smaller than the MH pictured, def not a lack of light, definitely a good thing the lower leaves dieing off in your explanation kada, using up reserves and no use for em. I tend to agree with the burn marks, esp with the evident yellow stress and crispy look. cheers JS, keep seeing people using the jiffy, they are a neat idea, should trial some one day but too happy with seed mix and combos. Prob. don't have to feed em if they are just repotted, often it can cause more issues if it isn't actually the remedy needed, probably just taking a bit to get adjusted as the rest look quite healthy. I really like the environment posted, people can learn a lot from it, really communicates bright lit but not full sun, fresh and functional.

some very good points already posted. I'm having a similar problem with the lower leaves browning off on some acacia and some general unhappiness, i had to bring some in due to cold wet weather for a few days, my situation i think is too heavy a soil that is holding too much moisture, Fluoros can be good, but if soil is too heavy and damp with seedlings, the lights can struggle to create adequate wet dry cycles, the top will dry but there is not enough root system to suck subsurface moisture out, which can lead to constantly wet almost anaerobic soil and therefore poor root development. So long intervals between watering is beneficial, but keep an eye out as you dont want it too dry. Yellowing and browning off of the lower leaf tips can be a sign of overwatering / soggy soil / bad root condition, it's an odd browning and plant decay, kinda soft and pliable with sickness / lack of cell plumpness in the yellow bits that the brown continues into. It's hard to tell, but your soil doesn't look overly appropriate for seedlings, quite large chunk pine bark which can almost compact and hold too much moisture, seedlings are best with a free draining small particle not too rich compost like mix. Not saying dig them up, but something to think about for next time. The soil can also cause nitrogen issues which is why they often pump it with fertiliser, i've ranted about the poor quality of bag mixes recently, producers should be disgusted in themselves imo. I think a really detailed soil thread is in order one of these days, it's a really confusing topic that i'm still learning myself after a good decade plus of plant work, and can be really offputting for anyone new or old trying to get plants growing, might try get some notes together and put one up over the next few months...possibly I reckon it could be potentially a combination of all three things of the posts here. Stress, light burn/intensity and bad root condtions. just saw your JS, looking good, nice fresh healthy atmosphere, besides the seed mix and jiffy pellet, did you start any in that heavy pine bark or are they transplants? Seed mix one looks a little hungry, are jiffy pellets nutritious?

just want to say thanks again for all the support at the funeral and the lovely plant meet on Sunday, it was also really great to see interstaters on the thursday especially given the tricky travel conditions, sure brightened a difficult occasion, I got a bit carried away with normal plant talk on Sunday but at the same time was nice to chat to Adrians dad, just a bit embarrassed i didn't introduce myself to his mum when i had the chance, though i'm sure she understood and we shared the odd smile. I can really understand Adrians passions from learning more about his family, his folks certainly created a lovely person and would have been hard to not have an interest in the natural world given his constant surroundings. Big appreciation to Ronny and J for always getting things organised and moving! (sorry for leaving a bit early and not helping with the cleanup!!!) Still hard to believe this is all still reality though, kinda expect a late arrival in the gardens, you'll always be missed fella.

eh but but 3 inchers take too long to get established i reckon, or more so pups are small and slow ime. I reckon 6 inchers are the minimum, with about 3" thick preferably. I don't understand the first post though, first one arm, then two? it's a one armed pup coming from a stump that is cut just above the start of the 10" pup? or it's a stump with 2 pups, one cut back to a stump on the stump and a 10" from the main stump? Sounds like a small plant, i'd leave the whole thing, give it good root space, good soil and pump it with nutes and water. Else cut the 10" either flush, or as bz said cut it back to a bit of a stump. If you cut the whole thing back to stump with bugger all photosynthetic capability, it can take a while to reshoot, then it can either do small amount of pupping, or sometimes will throw out a crown of them. a 1" high stump really will take a while to get back into the swing of things, but has the potential to pup profusely. But another issue is the pups on such a small stump can screw with the stability of the pots if the soil mix isn't weighty (lack of centre of gravity?) I've had it happen in perlite/cow manure mixes, outer weights coming from a central 1-2" stump = unstable pot. I reckon don't obsess with trying to get maximum pups, just get the plant big and healthy and it'll pup, then prop it if you want, it wants to grow, not be chowed to ground level.

ah found it! been searching under macro seed, but it was macro seed i was trying that was 'dud'! Seed long gone now unless someone has some stashed, so trial can't really be done, i recall it was around 3/1000 germination. Thought this is worth bringing back up, surprised no comment, was speaking about this at the recent meet regarding poor germination in a year (or 2-3?) old icaro peruvianus seed and told them of your thoughts / method with sunlight exposure, possibly cool warm, wet dry cycles etc. What are your thoughts on viability times over years in tricho's gunter? Or should i ask, what is the oldest known batch of tricho seed people have had success in germinating? I've wondered over the years about tricho seed dormancy, looking under a 10x loupe seems like it'd be a hard nut to crack, pondered on dormancy mechanisms, especially given the size of the seed, i've sorta had a feeling they are similar to acacia in many ways, easy as fresh, harder as older, possibly ant candy, germinating with disturbance in appropriate conditions (like most seed i guess, but differences across the plant world eh) I did try leaching methods in tap water on older known viable seed, fairly pointless, very undisciplined test, aimed for leaching then just seeing if they'd crack underwater, changed and flushed over a couple of weeks like Sceletium, but can't for the life of me remember where they were sown or what i did with them. I don't think they did crack under water. Anyway always found this post interesting and has been on my mind for a while, think there is something to it.

would be good to see you jabez :D

HAH i had the same thought re:graft, when i got my first one as a youngsta, embarrassingly held my ground thinking i knew my shit and was put into line by some of the knowledgable folk. I still cringe about it to this day AFAIK the tbm clones in circulation where a result of mass seed sowing and finding a unique seedling in the batch, not sure if the oz one was sown in oz and is unique to the overseas ones, or if it's an imported clone back in the day, ditto with overseas, not sure if the lumping of clones into a / b / hulk (?) etc are similar and multiple seed growns or if there are only say 2 (or 3) genetic lines. 3 i mean, i can't remember if hulk was lumped into an a or b, or if it was distinct all together. I reckon gunter and kt would know a bit more about em, ey fellas?

we've only got the one clumper type in aus as far as i'm aware, it does elongate into long penis tips with no spines, with usually spines at the base of them which you can see. The spination and smooth parts are just how it grows, normal tbm.

i thought as much, hard to tell amount of seriousness mixed in with jokes, musta been a slow day with the bonsai ey

don't know if you are actualy asking, or if it's just the m3th joke, edit irrelevant.

no really an issue, but if people are interested, daylight savings starts on sun 2nd oct, clocks forward 1 hr at 2am.

haha that's a good one amazonian, you make a me laff sorry to derail the trade thread, heres some links for you OPP Quarantine Icon Database http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon32/asp/homecontent.asp Customs and other info (links within it) http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14161 it is all very confusing, T has put a lot of work into trying to understand and to communicate it, but still it can be confusing, those threads are locked, but as he has stated, feel free to open up other discussion threads regarding them.

It's more so a question of what doesn't occur in the dandenongs, without looking up the hounds toungue info besides quick scout of flowers, you might be looking at forget me nots, Myosotis sylvatica, they are everywhere up there. Try to supply botanical names zen, it saves people a lot of chasing around for the info. Same family afaik, possibly a synonym but haven't looked it up.

I don't understand what you mean especially re: before t's post. If you follow the link I provided, and look two posts up (#9) from your post yesterday (#11) (in the link provided) you will find the post where T states (in august) customs and quarantine import information re spores. this is doing my head in, over and out.

well it must have been half arsed, because in a post of yours yesterday, looking two posts up, torsten clearly outlines it is a quarantine AND a customs issue, then after federal import issues comes the state laws. http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28790&st=0&p=323638&hl=+importing%20+spores&fromsearch=1entry323638

do better in the ground, but sceletium / similar would be one to consider, can sprawl over pot edges or kept hard trimmed (though best to trim tips if on the sprawl as you want to build up a strong stem base, else it goes all lanky shitty and will abscise itself), good soil and keep the water up to it and you can pretty much keep it ever green without it skeletonising fully.

I've no experience with button mushrooms / phase 2 composting etc. imo spawn is best kept running, realistically you shouldn't even let it go a day or so post full colonisation, if you want storage create a culture specific for it, then revive and get it running. You may get away with storing bulk spawn for a while then getting it to re-invigorate and run again, but do this as practice and you'll soon realise it's not good practice with more failure than success. Storing grain spawn and getting it running again would be far harder than say shiitake dowels in a fridge, it's already undergoing more complex metabolism. another point, if the compost has already been used to fruit a crop, the compost is best for the compost/garden, unless you want to get into species sequencing, using spent substrate from one species as a substrate for another, though see previous no button experience, my species sequencing has been more with saprophytes. I wonder if you've got your wires crossed on that one, or if you can actually fruit twice off the same compost substrate, i'd assume not and if so it'd prob. be a poorer performer than the first crop as it'll have far less nutrient available. You are probably best to go back and ask the fella who gave you the compost with that one.

would people agree this is similar to, or possibly the same as the yellow spot that is essentially endemic to the pc pach? I thought the smaller yellow spot has been spoken about before but i can't seem to find it in the search. Possibly a different type or thing all together, as i've not seen it as spread out or severe as in the first photo. Will get some photos to communicate it better. edit ahh here tis, bugger photos, pd put some up! http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26936&st=0&p=291261&hl=+pachanoi%20+virus&fromsearch=1entry291261

that potting mix really does not look good from what is shown, it looks just like fairly decent sized chunks of uncomposted pine bark with salt build up (either from the mix, your water, or fert if you are using it which you shouldn't be), possibly it's better underneath as all the bigger bits have come to the surface, but still not really what i'd call good in any way. You'd be aiming for a finer more well drained, airier, sandy compost. Or preferably a seedraising mix (you'll notice these are fine and well drained, easy for roots down and veg to break the surface, which then can be moved onto a more sandy compost. Torsten has spoken a lot about coarse sharp sand and compost mixes over the years have a search. Most potting mix is crap, even 'premium' ones, the industry needs a shake up and dont get me started on all the gardening shows floggin the shit, poorly composted materials with added fert yuk, and it's not really the best to start seeds in, getting away with potting mixes, even poor ones are more in the realm of plants/established seedlings with rootballs. I avoid them or add them as a small part of a mix.

RIP Adrian, yet another that will never be forgotten, can't make sense of this, this is really fucked excuse the language. hope you are at peace fella you will be missed immensely. thankyou for passing this on ronny.

Don't know how they contribute to soil fertility, though i guess with a large taproot as they are said to have, that'd improve structure and increase nutrient profile from lower down drawings, chocolate, seems to grow under canopy, likes wet but drained, said to grow near streams if i'm not mistaken. The large amount of rain may be an issue, as i think they prefer consistency over time.