WoodDragon

I once had about 40 different stapeliad varieties, but I was ripped off twice. I've had a bugger of a time trying to ressurect again - the second time a really generous collector helped me out but I haven't been able to find his contact details. I'm still only back to about a dozen. And for anyone with an interest, this the the go-to site: http://www.stapeliads.info/serv/core.s3

For all the Aspie number watchers here, today's the last time in our lifetimes that we'll see day, month and year matching. And so far there's been no apocalypse! [Edit: ah, use Full editor...]

It's still all well... I thought that there were supposed to be tsunami, asteroid, dogs and cats sleeping together, and carbon tax ruination. What good is an Armageddon if no-one brings a catastrophe? Still, there's a few hours to go so there might be a last minute rush on the disasters.

In my area fly agarics seem to grow most vigorously under English oaks. Birches next then pines, but that could be because the pines here are usually on harder ground. There's one individual oak in particular down the road from me that gets at least two hundred mushrooms each autumn, and the largest are a foot or more across. If I remember I'll take a photo next season. There's a group a few kilometers away that grows heaps too, but I don't see them as often so I can't really put a number on the production.

It grows under most of the oaks here, as well as under pines and silver birches. It's versatile that way...

Can't wait for the mail. The packages smell so wonderfully distinctive when they're opened! This time I'm not going to give any away either!

Heh, I couldn't pick any of the Kiwis from reading these posts - your accents hardly show!

If you're going to chuck them you might as well try white oil first. It'll sort out the scale, but cacti are apparently susceptible too. I bought a bulk lot of a Confidor a few years back. It was death to mealies, mites and scale, but the war always seems to come back eventually. At least, it does if you have hundred of potted plants sitting cheek by jowl! These days I'm using diatomaceous earth, white oil (not on succulents!) and pyrethrum, but I've had some mealies appears again on orchids and a staghorn, so it might be back to the Confidor.

Hey Toast. There a a few plants that I'd like to order, but I'm wondering how the post between now and Christmas.New Year may interfer. It's worse for my corner of the world because I'm rural and the post seems to take another day or so than ususal, and at this time of year it really grinds to a crawl. If I order now could the plants be sent early in the week, or alternatively could you hold back posting until January?

Take the peat out of your cactus mix. If you want organic matter, put in about 10-15% sandy/gritty compost. For robust species I go up to 25%, and trichs are fine with 50%, but any finnicky taxon is usually much happier with less. Keep the peat for carnivorous plants.

Handling frogs can remove their mucus coating, as well as transfer any contaminants that may be present on your skin. The mucus serves to keep the animal hydrated, as well as acting to inhibit micro-prganisms. I've handled thousands of frogs for my work, and I always used disposable gloves and kept the animals in freezer bags rather than holding them directly, partly to minimise any risk of harm to the frogs, and partly as a control against the spread of chytrid. If you do ever need to handle a frog directly, use wet (preferably washed thoroughly with fresh water) hands and be be sure to wash your hands again directly after to avoid chytrid dispersal. Also, some frog mucus can sting like heck if you transfer it to your eyes - as I experienced on a number of occasions. Never move frogs or tadpoles from their home range. If you do get a frog that pees on you and it's a fairly dry day, be sure to put the animal somewhere moist, cool, and dark. Some species use the water in that ejected fluid for hydration, so squirting it to scare a predator is a risky strategy in dry times. Nightlights are by far the best way to provide a bit of extra food for frogs. Most species are very noctural in their feeding habits, so daytime feeding is uncommon. Some people like to attempt to make frogs 'perform' in various ways. I won't say how, because I don't want to give those types ideas, but if you ever see anyone doing this tell 'em to back off. It's an extreme stress for the poor little buggers, and can easily result in death - I've seen it happen too many times. Bogfrog, the ones that are hanging around your cacti might be Litoria ewingii, an import from Tassie. They've been calling recently - it's a sound that I never tire of hearing.

Lost one of my Burmese a couple of years ago, straight after losing my two Newfs. I empathise brother.

Ah yes, I see now, it was Qualia's.

Deadstar. If you're concerned about the vigour of the fig a repotting and tip prune is a good first start. From my own experience with weak figs (much weaker than yours appears) overpruning can be detrimental - although a healthy fig can be mutilated and recover. Bonsai is all about patience and hearing the plant, so take the time to sit and listen...

I'd sell both my arms and legs to go out with a redhead. I have a fatal weakness for them, and in spite of being bouncing multiple times by red haired girls I always go back for more...

And George Pell is a fuckwit.. ...that's all.

I has a seller labell a packet of Dunalia seeds exactly as listed in the Schedule and AQIS still took it out of the batch of packets, and sent me a rude letter saying that they were not permitted. I even had the seller include a copy of the relevant page from the schedule for AQIS' convenience. Not happy Jan.

Actually, no, that's not all. Anyone who stalls, misdirects, denies, and generally covers for arse-hole kiddie-fiddlers is just as guilty of any resultant child-abuse that could have been otherwise prevented. In my book George Pell is a first-grade child abuser and deserves life in a little cell - the sort of little cell in which some of his much more noble predecessors chose to live, pursuing lives of deliberate simplicity and avoidance of earthly temptations. I hope that his old-boys' club is mashed in the forthcoming investigations.

You sound like Special Ed from Crank Yankers. ;-)

Distracted. Some aviculturists keep guinea pigs in their enclosures to keep rats away, but I had no idea that they actually collected the carcasses after killing them. I've been thinking about giving my kids' mum some Guniea pigs to keep with chooks - hearing about this they sound like just the beasties. Of course my eldest daughter might object - she actually sneaks feed for the "cute rats" that have burrows in the long grass of the huge run I built for the chickens.

In this day and age, with portable GPSs and decent radio/telephone technologies, there's just no excuse for that type of incident. Greg Woods was one the money: For any of us who've done remote field work, it's just about Darwin Award material.

Having had the chance to digest HUANDUJ: Brugmanisa I've gone all David Stratton and written a wanky review. It really is a marvellous book. Go get thee to a library and have a look.

The ABC's Science Show has just interviewed Alistair Hay in the context of his new book, Huanduj Brugmansia. The interview was most excellent, although I winced when Robyn Williams went straight for the "what happens?" approach. More excitingly, the book is on its way to my mailbox - a hefty price at $95 + $8 postage, but there's no way that I'm risking it being sold out before I get a copy. And for any of the keen-eyed who notice that the ABC confused pollinators with dispersers, I've already submitted a comment on the page.

The UK response to feeding kitch scraps to chooks is somewhat over the top. Their fear is bird flu, but sensible treatment will kill the virus: The thing is, if someone's scraps are contaminated, the people handling it will likely have the virus anyway, and will be more likely to infect the birds that the scraps will. Anyway, it's not a big deal in Australia at the moment, although that could always change depending on what happens overseas. Quarantine have a sentinel chook program IIRC, so there should be adequate warning if it comes in via migratory birds. On the matter of Marek's it's possible to clean and disinfect all sheds and gear, and spell for a few months. There are breeders who will sell vaccinated birds, and I know that some varities are fairly resistant, although I'm not sure off the top of my head which ones. I don't know what is the current minimum batch size for vacccines, but in a year or so I'll be breeding on a small commercial scale so I'll be vaccinating against it - once I've sorted out the costs and logicstics I'll update and let others know of any way that the small-scale keeper might get around this bugger of a disease.

As much as I find Romney repugnant, I've always thought Obama to be a squib, and his 4 years in office hasn't changed my opinion. If the Yanks had a Republican version of Malcolm Turbull, and I was a citizen over there and the Turnbull doppleganger was running, I'd happily be voting Obama out of office. Although come to think of it, such a bloke would be a Democrat anyway, even though Turbull is conservative by Aussie standards...