kadakuda

"Beehives are removed from agricultural areas when poppy crops are grown broadacre " Really? Does the resulting honey from an almost exclusively poppy colelcted hive have any effects on people?

ya they grow super fast, as do mine. But they don't grow out very much, they really like going UP and slightly out. Zaka how did you get yours to grow so much outwards?

looking good man, mine dont do that though, they grow up just fine, but not out. when i really get into training them they show me who's boss and just grow as a shrub for half a year lol.

i find them hardier than trichs when it comes to water. by trichs i mean the main ones people around this forum grow, not all trichocereus/echinopsis. like helonasty said, pretty hardy, but i too never had them below 11C so cant say much on cold. They grow lsow, but grafted plants grow far faster. I have some grafted on various stocks, they do well. they do have areoles, rarely spines, so they do offset from these areoles. here are some old pics of my plants. teh white spots are areoles. Actually sometimes there is still all the tissue needed to make offsets, without any areole poking the surface, although not super common, it does happen a fair bit that a cactus will bust a stem without any areole.

i dont know this group well, but does look Nicotiana like. flowers will tell you better maybe. I never understood the need to graft the tomatoes, they grow so damn fast and, at least here, are fairly resilient to pathogens.

Hehe, for sure man. Im not sure if its warm enough here for mangosteen, they grow well, but they are too small to fruit so time will tell. I had to fly to thailand and get seeds cause the plants they were selling here turned out to be another Garcinia, which i have also collected on Orchid island recently. Actually winds dont worry me anymore, there is some damage, but especially in this kind of format i find group planting shield each other a bit. one big problem is flooding a lot of tropical plants cant do it. the most extreme cases with flooding and plant death i have had so far is iboga, cacao and some smaller herb plants. so there will be many raised areas for such plants. going to redo the trenches a bit, and make them wide to plant water loving plants like mitragyna in and use the dirt from those to raise next door for more water sensitive plants. I hear you on Alpinia, in fact it was one candidate for a border. they spread, but they are nothing compared to real weeds, so im fine with it all i need to do is tell people its organic and free and it will be down to the ground in days around moon festival don't know how i forgot to mention, bamboo will also be represented there. both for building material and for food. i am going to try it out on the shady side, any thoughts? i use bamboo a lot, harvest it a lot and hike through it a lot, but havent ever grown it much. Edit, have been doing a bit a plan to get things ready for spring and get an idea of numbers. here are some pics that are to scale and suited to our farm using the triangle thing. I am drunk so i am going to give it a fancy name so i can refer to it: triangles. each full section form -g through F (form one end to the other) i will call a pyramid so our farm can fit 5 pyramids comfortably and still leave me end room at the north end for greenhouse/pond/other stuff. Here is the general idea of each pyramid Here is the whole farm. these pics are really huge, so had to scale down for internet,so the letters may not be readable. Mauve, you know i have the vines goign too. Vines, being vines, are good at sneaking into cracks. But things like perennial morning glories (ie turbina and hbwr) along with other big perennial vines like entada and b. caapi will be planned somewhat carefully because they can all take over the trees too much....about the only vines i have really decided on placement are annuals like beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, Piper species etc. as an aside, we are not going to be farming animals for food. Mammals/birds anyway. I do have worm and snail projects going for a while, but may consider fish, we are still thinking cause they need some space as far as wasted ground space. I wonder if kratom grows as a perma marsh plant...meaning no dry out season...??? I have thought about small ponds/canals under the canopy for a wet pyramid.

This year i have decided to turn our farm into a permaculture style food forest. Will be growing various ethnobotanicals but mostly food crops and medicine crops. If this turns out successful we will also be turning a piece of agriculture land into this type of thing in the mountains, but built slightly differently because a mountain slope has different attribute like water/light. For now here is the rundown on our land that this is happening on now. just a notch above 22 degrees N lat, very far south Taiwan. usually ab good 4-5 months of rainy season, 3-6 months of zero rain (except this year) and some variability in between. Typhoons hit us hard and we can see meters in a short time of rain. After 2 years of working the soil, we have gotten it so that it wont dry out ever in our climate, and irrigation is not really needed unless exposed dirt for annual veggies. Temps ar eusually in the 25-35 range day and night from late Fed to Nov. In december through early feb it can go down to the high teens/low 20s at night, and we get teh odd cold snap from northern winds. 8-9C happens a few nights once every few years. Soil is hard-almost-clay, but has been worked and is far better with more animal activity and lots of organic stuff for about 10-24" now. Here are 3 pictures i made to try and illustrate it to some students at a university i often chat with. open to any and all feedback. the goals: No refined fertilizers, only organics. limited outside resources (mostly in the form of raw plant waste we turn into compost) cheap setup sustainability without huge labor costs pest management (i think this will be hardest) organically. self reliance one thing that just came up over some brews a week ago was trying to get mainstream agri farmers to consider polyculture/permaculture etc. I was saying that probably the biggest drawback is labor and the fact many polyculture setups cannot easily get machines into the farms without sacrificing yield even more. very interested in learning any ideas you guys may have on this, these computer drawings were made without the though of labor. The idea is a triangle and species diversity. Fruit trees we would tend to want light on all sides, so we treat them as the middle peak, so they can yield well on a 360 rotation. the triangle face north/south, so on the south side it slopes downward meaning that side the platns get good light on their tops and one side, not the back. these rows would be more for leaf/bark/root etc type harvests, not fruit or at least not fruit that requires good light. it keeps sliding down to shorter plants until it gets to annual crops like many vegetables and some herbs, these will be put through crop rotation as is already standard practice here and works relatively -OK-. Behind the triangle, facing north, we have shade tolerant/loving plants. Starting at small trees/shrubs (like coffee) and working down to smaller ones. Always up for suggestions on other species to use, especially shade plants that can be grown in the understory and be useful in some manner. A trianlge side view A few rows of triangles An overview layout shot of a single triangle row. Here is a short list of some of the plants that will be grown wher eyou see the letter in the pics. Also open to any suggestions This list isnt complete, im just too lazy right now to retype every species we have lined up. the capital letters are the south facing ones, the lower case with a - sign (ie - means north facing, getting more shade. A - Large trees enjoying lots of light all around mango tamarind lychee longan durian rambutan/pulsan Artocarpus sp. B small trees, or trees kept small Fruit trees here are experiments and really just for personal consumption, ideally I know they should be spaced to get more even light. mangosteen citrus (pomelo) guava (maybe, they are pest magnets) kratom Cinnamon species including camphor wax apple jujube santol cashew (might get too wet??, so far they grow good here in the open) C small shrubs under 2m, will mostly be pruned short Annona species (cherimola, squamosa, muricata, montana) citrus (tangerine, lemon, orange) Mimosa hostilis iboga tabernaemontana species cacao D shorter perrenial plants around 1-1.5m tall. dense plants will be spaced more. miracle fruit pomegranate various ornamentals Alpinia speceis and also various gingers E bell/chili peppers the odd thinly spaced corn rotation egg plant artichoke tobacco F low growing annual herbs/veg. potato, carrot, lettuce/grens, yam/sweet potato, onions/garlic, peanut, bean, mints, lavendar, thyme, rosemary etc. For the shade -b small trees/large shrubs that are shade tolerant Pachira aquatica Piper species (grown on tall poles) Coffee -c Coffee Psychotria species -d Coffee Psychotria species -e through -g More of the same until i get more into searching out shade plants. The understory wil be littered with Psychotria, Piper and Salvia to start with, partly becauuse they will grow ok there in such dark, and secondly to try and supress weeds a little. Any suggestions/comments greatly welcome, Full planting gets put into the ground in March, though a lot is already done.

hey guys thanks for the feedback Mushrooms will surely be grown, they already are. but need to be a little careful. Ganoderma will infect living trees for example and in some places are considered a plant pathogen. I will be growing oysters to start, mostly for making good compost with the aid of bugs. and we love oysters. there are a number of mushrooms, some edible, that grow in heavy farm areas. This is a heavy farm area, no natural areas left at all, its all farms and houses. The area this little project is being done on is only about 3/4 acre. about 1/4 of the land will be kept for other projects. Timber i though about but gave up because it is not a good money maker long term with small land holdings, and it is very tall effectively cutting out the rest of the plants for light. a single good mango tree can make about $1000 US a year here, or as little as a couple hundred. native plants, yes for sure. Mostly understory and small plants, but there are a number of species i am mixing in that are not for much reason other than variety and hopefully pest resistance. i should have written more Noni are already growing there, but i think i need to remove them and plant new ones to fit the pattern. have lots of fabaceae, other than tamarind. About 14 species i think. does anyone have any opinion on planting plants that attract butterflies? i am wanting to plant a certain plant around the border on the N/NE side to make a barrier from the farms that spray, they have pretty flowers and attract butterflies like no ones business, but caterpillars are a fucking menace.

yes, you chew it. How you do it will depend a bit on what you buy (how its prep'd). but basically chew it up decent in your mouth, get it all sloppy and juicy and hold it in your cheek (cause its easier). dont swallow the first few mouth fulls of saliva, there is a lot of lime in there. spit it out, but hold it in your mouth for a while, like 5mins or more if you can to get everything basified inside. many people dont like to swallow any of it.

here some MH pics.

arbutus are a real bitch to transplant and such. I have a lot of experience with them in BC, and fuck are they a nightmare (well, the 2 sp. i played with anyway). Perfect looking plants for bonsai, no doubt, but one of the worst for actual bonsai due to root bitchiness.

be doing a road trip all around Sabah in a rental car this chinese new year with my wife. I really hope o find some kratom trees and if im lucky seeds...or a couple cuttings Anyone know any spots to find them, unlikely but need to ask. perhaps more likely anyone knwo where to buy dried/fresh kratom leaves in sabah, or know the local names of them? even higher on my list is the red fleshed Durian, D. graveolens, not sure how many tropical fruit freaks are here though, so hoping to get some insight on at least the kratom any other cool plants ya know of there let me know peace

/\/\ thats good advice. Not to say you cant graft to woody cores, its just more or less a waste if speed is your goal.

i too have some "carths" from brazil. Some are even from in front of the church and they use them in ceremony, so why throw them away? I for one like to collect different plants from different areas. I dont need the strongest/best etc, i like variety and diversity on my land.

great stuff, cheers man. Ya, i looked at a lot of the areas that are on those sheets. The thing is, as far as southern Taiwan goes, i have been all over. A lot of those places they mention i have seen multiple piper sp that look quite different. But i am still not good at all about differentiating them. you also mention the variability, which i have noticed at least with P. betle as well. When my plants grow up some i think i will send in some sheets to a museum here to see how much they want to give free help that said, in Taiwan most of these botanical guys publish in English as well.

just some 2 cents i had laying around....sharing a greenhouse will at some point probably be a big argument. you need to set boundaries with each other. what happnes if your crop, or his, is pest prone and damages your crop? do both of you agree on using chemicals, or is one organic and the other not? there can be HUGE clashes with close proximity farming. I have clashes with our neighbors and we own our own land, I am organic and they are not so it becomes a real problem. just be aware of it before signing anything.

There are also Alpinia species, quite commercial to boot, usd for other things that very well could be sold as such. In chinese culture the leaves are common for wrapping rice dumplings.

cant go wrong with caapi....

excuse my very shitty example, this was a potted up runt that i made into a bonsai cause i liked its root form. I pruned the fuck out of it and root pruned, then we got a cold front and rain, anyway at least this is a good example of how not to do things lol.

would places that do dyes have rue seeds there?

It could very well be Acacia confusa, I know a guy who says the acacia he has is confusa. Don't know his skills or the other acacia species in his area, but it seems reasonable. I know A. confusa is in Taiwan, japan (south) China (south) and read about it being a filipino acacia as well. For the orally active thing, cant honestly say i have tried it. The bark tastes bad, and its hard like bark....one day maybe. Its pretty damn active in aya or extracted though. though a BIG problem with extracting, goes for other dmt plants like mimosa as well, is here its warm and the crystals tend to melt at room temp here. I'm thinking that nut is probably betel nut as well. Chewed it in Palwan there but it felt the same as the nut here in Taiwan.

As usual Zaka, great info We also live ina big coffee producing area of Taiwan. How things are done ere are berries are pushed through a machine which is set to a specific width adn 2 planks are turned on to rub off the outer fruit flesh. The inner seed gets thrown into a bag and sun dried. tehse white beans are then roasted. Roasting is pretty easy in my opinion. we do it ourselves over fire in a wok. bascially we put sun dried beans into the wok (you can use a turning roaster if you ave it) and keep moving them constantly. it takes about 15 mins to finish for most. after about 7 mins you see some colour changing, then after 10-15 mins the beans start to crack, you can hear it. the line in the middle pops open here. after that, acording to coffee geeks here you can see an oil seep out, it makes the beans look oily. after this point ou roast to taste, but it can be stopped anytime after th oile is eeven over all beans. you can use anyhign you want to generate heat, e it green or polluting...tats up to you. But hte principle remains the same.

Amen to that brother. By we, i think we means humans not you and me. Humans have done a lot and are quite good at thinking about things, but man is there a lot of uncharted territory to be sailed. Maybe you can post more about specifics, that would be interesting! I was thinking along your lines that animal cells are differnet in the way we can defend against pathogens vs. plant methods of being more chemical related in a sense that chemicals repel certain things whereas our biology allows our cells to recognize and strategize, in a sense.