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gerbil

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Everything posted by gerbil

  1. gerbil

    what is this weed?

    Hi Wt i'd dance around S. lanciniatum, aviculare and linearifolium. They can be difficult to ID. I think one of the references can be Solanum in Australia (1981) though could have been redone. You're black berry thing confused me, as you say they are staying orange later on. If you are getting darker blacks/purples you might have linearifolium. But if they are orange it's looking more lanciniatum, with some red then towards aviculare (but not strict as lanciniatum and aviculare can be browny, reddy, yellowy, orangey) Flower lobes are good for ID with this bunch, fruit colour and shape, stem angled or not etc. There's lots of different resources, with some conflicting info, without typing stuff up or scanning, maybe start with these links. http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/efsa/lucid/Solanaceae/Solanum%20species/key/Australian%20Solanum%20species/Media/Html/Solanum_linearifolium.htm http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/efsa/lucid/Solanaceae/Solanum%20species/key/Australian%20Solanum%20species/Media/Html/Solanum_laciniatum.htm http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/efsa/lucid/Solanaceae/Solanum%20species/key/Australian%20Solanum%20species/Media/Html/Solanum_aviculare.htm
  2. gerbil

    Raising A.Phlebophylla

    Really nice ferret, what a beauty. Mine are liking the bagged native mixes too, mixing up some sieved sands, coir and innoculants as well to see what does what. Sun scorched them really bad the other day, no longer blemish free hah :D but tough buggers. Missed your big ones too interbeing and obtuse, looking really nice guys.
  3. gerbil

    Orange woodlover ID

    ah about lighter size, so they are quite tiny, looked like they were big flared 20cm oystereqsue ones at the base but not so. If pics are too big I can remove them.
  4. gerbil

    Orange woodlover ID

    Well out of practice and am a little torn, the small images instantly reminded me of Gymnopilus junonius, but on closer look it just doesn't feel right. They can be really beefy to delicate little things. i'd look at Gymnopilus, Pholiota or Armilaria. Edibility of G. junonius is said to be non-edible. Found one liners from, bitter, poisonous, hallucinogenic. Tryptamines and the likes from memory.
  5. gerbil

    What's this Iridaceae?

    Possibly Dierama pendulum. Only other species I can find is D. pulcherrimum. I can only find Tasmanian location data for the pendulum, hobart way, not to say pulcherrimum isn't there.
  6. gerbil

    VIC Plant ID

    One of the Docks. Probably, Australina pusilla ssp. muelleri. Possibly Senecio minimus, but hesistant, have always ID'd this one and forget it. Probably Stellaria flaccida.
  7. Things are healthy but you should be aiming for thicker stems and a more robust apical meristem and axillary shoots. In general I think you will be wanting to increase the sun exposure, wind exposure, nutrient availability, manage a better wet dry cycle and potentially use an alternate mix for the acuminata. (not to say they can't do well in what they are in, but barkier seed mixes tend to get more fungal issues, nutrient issues, seperate and compact easier, become hydrophobic and can make managing wet dry cycles difficult, achievable just tricky/different.) Regarding sun or general setup, I quite enjoyed this explaination from a novice, although you can start them in full sun, timing is fairly crucial, as full sun during parts of the year here will kill things outright. "The potted plants are placed in a waterproof shade structure giving 70% shade with orientation allowing two hours of unshaded morning and afternoon sun when day temperatures are below 30 degrees C, afternoon sun is shaded when temperature exceeds 30 degrees C. This is achieved by adjusting the heights of two shade cloth blinds. The design of the structure allows plenty of air circulation. The area is protected from strong wind. This sounds elaborate but it is only a man-made structure trying to duplicate the conditions self-sown seedlings experience growing under native trees." http://anpsa.org.au/APOL2006/jun06-1.html Not to say completely replicate it, but allow times of good strong light in comfortable conditions, then when overly hot and strong it needs to be more dappled Acuminata is quite prone to water issues like damping off and root rot / poor root development, so I think getting their soil and environmental factors right are quite important to a good start. Having a fertile well drained sandy soil (like sandy loam), and allow a wet dry cycle. If your seedling mix or potting mix is of quality, then you possibly won't need any fertiliser, like a good homemade aged compost etc, but if you buy from stores or make up coir/CSS mixes, fertiliser is needed if not essential for the latter. I use this to fert my acacia seedlings/saplings with great results (middle one), over a variety of mixes: straight seed mixes, various coir:css ratios, coirs:composts etc. Inoculated or not. It's essentially blood and bone, don't know what they've dont different, yet to investigate. http://www.richgro.com.au/my_native_garden/fertilisers.php There is good info here regarding different mixes, nutrient levels etc and how they made plants react, i.e. the quickest 'healthiest' growth due to excess Nitrogen isn't particularly desireable. Well worth a good read, and it is context and species specific, we need to group things, yet seperate and think logically about specificities. http://www.kew.org/ucm/groups/public/documents/document/kppcont_047341.pdf oh, and with sands, don't forget to sieve and wash them, adding 'sand' with all this fine particle dust will lock up your medium, creating a waterlogged anaerobic envionment for your roots, if you are doing that to an already difficult to work with mix, you'll be pulling your hair out playing with drainage, pH, nutrients, over and underwatering etc.
  8. gerbil

    Is this an African Acacia sp?

    Possibly Acacia farnesiana / Vachellia farnesiana, said to potentially be here pre-european settlement, via sth/central america or asia.
  9. gerbil

    Treasure Hunting Time

    good to hear from you, was hoping a news report didn't pop up talking about an evil genius with a metal detector ;) No doubt it's been an exhausting day. Keep ya chin up huh
  10. gerbil

    Acacia Courtii Seeds

    cheers ph! will make a thread, but just deciding on how to go about it so might be a little while. thanks for showing that, nice to know of success. Never know if people are just being lazy, haven't had success, haven't tried or simply don't wish or haven't shared their progress for varying reasons.
  11. Thanks for taking the time to share these fellas, really stunning shots. Went to take shots but really nothing good to show at the moment, we are still in a lull with quite cold temps, lots of tip growth so hopefully flowers kicking in with a bit of coming warmth. Must be climatic or maybe nutrition Hellonasty, your buds are well advanced on mine, at most my PC buds which are very few at the moment are around 1/4 size of your smallest, and my scop is just a couple of hairs at the tip. Really cool to see Eileen flowering for you Zelly, i'm not aware of anyone getting flowers besides when she went off for Ed about 5-10 years ago. And interesting she's dropped her spines for you, again could be climatic or orientation in my yard, as all mine are still pumping out spines as much as possible, even though not overly heavy. Did you cross her?
  12. gerbil

    Acacia Courtii Seeds

    edit: should actually make my question a thread, disregard :D
  13. gerbil

    Treasure Hunting Time

    What are the measurements of the bullet case? that's if you kept it.
  14. gerbil

    Phleb grow log

    pm me your address khala, i'll send you the 2 seeds i've left. Have alot going on at the moment so am not too sure about the meet eth, but am giving it thought.
  15. gerbil

    Phleb grow log

    cool i'm sure in a few months time there'll be more opportunity for seed to be spread to interested parties, and in the coming years we will see this plant more frequently in peoples collections and tube stock on offer which is really exciting, if I run into any i'll keep you in mind. At the same time, imo it's important for people to not get too caught up in it as there are plenty of other species around that are in need of attention and have similar things happen, seed distribution, tube stock availability etc. lets cast our nets wide hey, we have a fascinating country with so much exploration and hard work to be done
  16. gerbil

    Starting seeds...how do you guys do it?

    haha i knew that'd be asked, which is why i spelt it out first it's generally said CSS, coarse sharp sand (just being cheeky) is 0.2mm to 2mm. Find sieves in this general range, one big, one small. It's all covered, maybe search for sifters anonymous. And here is the small bit in the knowledge base http://www.shaman-australis.com.au/knowledge.html
  17. gerbil

    Phleb grow log

    beautiful eth, really healthy lookin', nice and thick stems with vigour. I've found this quite insightful and try to read it somewhat regularly to re-interpret and solidy my understanding a bit better. http://asgap.org.au/APOL1/mar96-2.html I too have been quite scared of feeding natives, but often it's just been from the old message that natives don't need a feed which really is total bs that just keeps being parroted, that said I don't have a proper understanding of it all and of course there are no hard and fast rules as plants differ, even within a genus, like a lowland acacia in a nutrient rich floodplain on silts or heavy clays would react differently to say an alpine species in quite a mineralistic sandy soil. I held off as long as I could, and seed to seed it differed. Without feeding (besides innoculant), I had one particular plant that grew much larger much quicker than the others and generally showed no need for a feed, whilst at the other spectrum one or many plants stayed small and showed signs of needing a feed quite early on. Monitoring the cotyledons allowed me to see when each specific plant was chewing up it's reserves, with the drawing of Nitrogen from them and consequently turning them yellow, grouped with that or simply alone I noticed a slowing of growth and or complete stunting, with lack of stem thickness and a general redding of stems being present and distinct lack of axillary shoots / reluctance to produce axillary buds/shoots. Don't confuse yellow cotyledons/lower phyllodes yellowing due to overwatering with need for feed though, generally that could be communicated by backing of the frequency and the yellowing would stop or slow and you could see vigour be reinstated. I started small, with a general light sprinkling of the 'native blood and bone based 'protea' fertiliser' (I think it's called and it's a brown bag from memory) with just enough to cover the surface lightly which was watered in. I had these indoors and did notice the surface start to fuzz up with fungal issues, presumably from them being indoors with lack of airflow, I rectified this by simply lightly digging/fluffing the surface to avoid a stagnant surface crust and the fuzz and smell went away in a day or so. I plan on doing some experimenting with other species that I can afford to lose, and see how far I can push things at different ages with normal blood and bone and the native blood and bone, and then apply it slowly to species which I have relatively limited seed supply of. I did apply a mycorrhizal innoculant early on and before their first feed, but even then I felt that small amounts of additional nitrogen would potentially aid the development of the nodules and or simply feed the plant until nodules where better established, I could be talking bollocks on that though. I do plan to reinoculate upon potting on, and will still be fertilising with the native blood and bone on a gradual basis, with less rather than more. So I simply started small and saw they reacted really well, so next time I had more confidence and upped it a little, but still only about a small flat teaspoon max per tube (if that!), and generally only when I saw a slow in growth. They are due for another feed and this will be their 3rd feed I think. Your pots are really big for their size, so be careful not to overwater as it will be very easy to do so and can be easily confused as nutrient issues which it's related to, but not a sign to feed. Don't be afaid to let them dry out a bit, although i've heard alot about how they don't like to dry out much, i've let mine go to somewhat floppy phyllodes at stages, but have rectified it very quickly; as long as there was a little moisture in their base I was fairly content and no dramas with them yet. I still prefer to underwater than overwater, and under feed than overfeed, can always up things, but can't really take back whats been put out. Thanks for the update Khala they aren't really in trouble, it's a common misunderstand/misinterpretation, they are isolated and have pressures put on them, but not something that really needs humans to come and save the day, if anything we will just make it worse. My goal is more so just to have these available in backyard circulation so you don't get every man and their dog 'needing' to go and visit them, fungal transfers would be my major concern in regards to population decline, I think people get a bit ahead of themselves and feel the need to visit them just because they've read about them once or twice, I find it funny people would 'need' to go see them when they probably haven't even had a walk in their local bushland areas. Not that seed isn't available, but I urge people who don't really have any experience in growing plants especially acacias, to get their protocol down with highly abundant species and then request seed of such species. I'm not thinking badly on anyone, but I find it frustrating that people who gave out the seed often requested (but not all the time!) people who knew what they were doing to only request it, but it seems a heap of people snagged them and then asked how to germinate them, again no ill feelings or anything like that towards anyone, experience is great and so it attempting things, I just found it all a bit odd.
  18. gerbil

    Iochroma- unexplored but promising

    damn I love it when you talk salt chemistry Torsten I find it one of the most fascinating parts of chemisty, so basic but with endless technicalities at the same time (no pun intended ) and much easier for me to remember and grasp than more complex neurological things. Thanks a heap Mindperformer, I too had a misunderstanding about this plant, really appreciate this discussion.
  19. gerbil

    Treasure Hunting Time

    hah got the bit i thought i should cut out just felt a little awkard but probably silly on my part. Thanks for the info, it really is fascinating even small bits of writing about it, but I understand the reluctance, maybe not the best word, but i think you get it :D
  20. gerbil

    Treasure Hunting Time

    i'd be keen on seeing any war stuff if you feel like sharing it EG, fragments, shells, bayonets, knives etc. Nice interest, you'd find some fascinting stuff over there, and no doubt have already.
  21. gerbil

    Starting seeds...how do you guys do it?

    Sow in a light well draining mix, a 'seed mix', can be more organic/forestry based like coirs, composts etc, or can be more mineralistic for tricky or rot prone seed like coarse sharp sand or perlite, or a mix of both like a coir:perlite, CSS:compost etc. Torsten's spoken alot about CSS as a starter but I don't think many people have listened or caught on. It's on the forums and the info pages on the main sab site. Seeds generally have enough nutrient to get them going for a couple of weeks, then they'll need a source of nutrient. So yes you can start them in a nutrient free mix, but be aware of the context and react accordingly. Sieving can be beneficial for both particle size definition/incoporation/exclusion and loosing up the mix. Generally plant twice the depth of the seed, but it really is specific to species, some just lay on top.
  22. gerbil

    Phleb grow log

    so how goes it eth?
  23. gerbil

    jam5

    love it naja, great looking country. do you hunt? looks like a dream for it.
  24. gerbil

    Catha Help

    yep, that to me is a classic overwatering, curled/drooping leaves with yellowing from the oldest leaves up, leads to roots inability to breathe, root rot, lockout of/inability to uptake nutrients and potentially pH problems = a stunted plant. I'd do as suggested and ease up on the watering to allow the roots to heal, breathe and uptake nutrients, i'd also start lightly feeding it when you see some recovery. If you are not good at guaging wet and dry, get a moisture meter, the top can seem dry so people will water heavy, whilst the guts are still quite wet, but you don't want the other extreme of it drying out completely.
  25. always healthy lookin' plants stillman, I like your attention to detail, good work.
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