GoOnThen

These are my favorites out of my Astro grafts. Love watching their pattens change as they grow. There is a bit of mite damage yet again. Cheers Got

Qualified automotive mechanic BMW trained ( many years ago ) More recently Specializing in reclamation/ repair of worn and damaged mechanical components. We have a metal spraying and specialized welding business which repairs parts from Mining equipment down to motorcycle parts and frying pans and anything in between. Also have steel, stainless steel and aluminum fabricating facilities We try to have the answer for any component that is worn out damaged or broken whether it is steel, stainless steel, aluminum, bronze, cast iron and many exotics. Plant and equipment include 300amp tigs, 300 amp migs, 350 amp arc spray system, 180 amp arc spray system, milling machines, lathes up to 3 meters and swing 660mm, vertical borer swing 1100mm and all associated tools and equipment. Suited mainly to West Aussies but hey if its small and under 3 kg a express post bag is only about 15 bucks. Willing to offer advice or discuss any problems or projects that you might have. My very talented wife can make the cake of you dreams http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=31084 She is taking a break until the new year but then she will be back. Cheers Got

This is so cool and of great interest to me. Thanks Atom Cheers Got

I hovered my mouse over the like button for some time as I looked over the pics.............................................................................but I really don't know what to think . But then again it was posted by the one and only Fritz so what's not to like. Cheers Got

I am probably a bit older than some here and in some ways my values are looked upon as a granddad rant but I truly believe that the lacking of community spirit and thinking of others is the base of allot of issues that we face. Having to always find someone to blame for every event in our lives, not taking responsibility for our own actions and Its all about me me me have made a political nightmare not only for the average person but for organisations like Bush fire brigades. I cant give any figures but I believe we are way behind with our prescribed burns in WA yet again this year. And again the is an outcry of why hasn't there been more done but you don't have to look very far to understand why. Last year a prescribed burn got away and caused a far bit of damage to property and the finger pointing started straight away. Every year when the bigger prescribed burns start we get smoke hanging around for a few days and of course that is good enough the city folk living on there postage stamp blocks get up in arms. They only want the burns done if it doesn't effect them at all but they are the first to point the finger when things go wrong Another issue that I have come up against is trying to find the person or department responsible for a piece of land. Just because a piece of land is vacant doesn't mean it is government land as such it could be controlled by a number of different departments or entities and to get someone to accept responsibility for the fire hazard on that piece of land can be an absolute nightmare. I have been down this path recently and I can assure you the amount of time I wasted it would have been easer and safer to just put a match to it and then ring the fire brigade rather than waiting for ether one of my staff or one of the other businesses to accidentally lite it up in the middle of summer like has happened for the last ten years. Lastly there has been so much shifting of responsibility between departments over here in the last 10 or so years it is crazy. Politics and fire management just don't mix in my opinion. This is just an over view of what has been going on. And then "State Government had established the new Department of Fire and Emergency Services which is now operating as from November 1, 2012. Mr Barnett said changing the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) into a Government department was one of the key recommendations from the special inquiry conducted by Mick Keelty AO into the Perth Hills bushfires." So then we end up with Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW) The Office of Bushfire Risk Management Department of Fire and Emergency Services Bush Fire Brigades Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service And then we have Volunteer Fire Services (VFS) Brigade is generally established by combining the resources of a Bush Fire Service (BFS) Brigade and a Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (VFRS) Brigade. Confused about who is supposed to be doing what well I am and so were may of the different agencies for many years. Hopefully the next time they all need to work together they actually do and there wont be another enquiry to find out why it went pear shaped yet again. Cheers Got

Nice mate you have got plenty of bang for your buck there. One seed producing seven plants ( of sets ) within I presume 12 months is not bad. I love watching grafted Asto's grow as the go through so many changes. When my nudums were all fury I was thinking there was something wrong but as they grew they slowly lost their fluff. Mine started off with a rush but then slowed some what. I presumed I just wasn't giving them enough loven. Cheers Got

The thing with fires they can be so unpredictable with what houses they will take. A family members house survived a major fire here and houses on both sides and the one behind all went up. The crazy thing was all of the ones that burnt were brick and tile and theirs was all timber Queenslander style. They stayed until the house next door when up and then left thinking theirs was done for but with the help of the water bombers and fire fighters on the ground it survived with a bit of scorching. There are positive always story's like that but sadly there are so many that loose everything. Cheers Got

NSW Rural Fire Service Current Fires and Incidents http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?cat_id=683 Cheers Got

http://youtu.be/b7kYVjL2lps Cheers Got

I just found a write up on a garden down the road from me and the have a jabuticaba growing in their garden that has fruited for the last 2 years. The only thing that worries me is they have had it growing in their garden for 30 years. Twenty eight years to bear fruit sounds like a plan Cheers Got

Cool tree It reminds me of a Ficus racemosa ( cluster fig tree) First time I ever saw a cluster fig tree was at the Kings park botanical gardens. I can remember me and the kids standing there looking at it going WTF What is the jabuticaba fruit like taste wise and are they only tropical growers? Cheers Got

Hey all I have the following seeds to give away to experienced growers as there is only a limited number available. 5 packs of Yowie x Mike Seeds are from my plants http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33875&hl= Each pack contains only 15 seeds Viability is unknown You must post in this thread and PM me you details to receive a pack of these seeds Cheers Got

I received a bag of seeds a while ago with three or four diferant seeds in the bag with instuctions on identifying the seeds. Instructions said the largest seed are the Ephedra so I do up a pot with my standard cacti seed mix, sow the seeds place the pot in a ziplock bag and then onto my shelves under fluros. 1 week nothing. 2 weeks nothing. 3 weeks still zip. By now i am starting to loose interest but I still left the pot on the shelf. At about week 6 or 7 I notice something growing in the pot. Definitely not a Ephedra .......................looks like a weed but I am thinking the bag hasn't been opened and the mix was well zapped before the seeds were sown. I keep an eye on it and it continues to grow. after a while I have to open the bag as it is to big now and is hitting the top. Still unsure what it is I check back on the seed packet and see there was also some mimosa hostilis seeds in the bag as well. Any one else got any accidental seedlings. Cheers Got

Beautifully written Once a monk Upon time and space Eternal silence Cheers Got

Probably not quite what you were talking about but I went and took the photos so I will post them any way. These are more of WTF why didn't you just plant them. Furcraea foetida ( Mauritius hemp) This is around 5 feet tall and still in the pot it came in ( well sort of still in the pot) Cant remember the name at the moment but has been in the same spot for over ten years and will have to stay where it is now. A couple of cocos palms Kenta palm again it has been in this spot for around ten years. We are going to build a planter around this as it cant be moved. Cheers Got

Criss Angel Cheers Got

Ten minutes of Blues goodness Cheers Got

IndianDreaming I have a few things that I have collected that I keep in my shed to deal with mixes and seedlings. Those little tools are really handy plus I have a range of cheap stainless steel sieves with varying size holes plus one one of the bunnings plastic ones. I wash and pre sieve all of my different additives that I use for my mixes and keep them in plastic tubs. My seed raising mix that I am using now consists of Zeolite, diatomaceous earth, course sand, coir and seedraising mix with the organic parts only making up about 20% One of the best things with using this mix is it has a noticeable color change between wet and dry. I have been using a slightly different way of keeping my seedlings in humidity recently. This is not my idea it is from an exceptional Australian grower that posts at the Australian cacti forum and the cacti guide. I wont mention his name here but his posts are not hard to find. Ok here goes. . He has been using what he calls a wet box this is basically a clear plastic tub with a capillary mat in the bottom. I have been following his setup as close as I can and this involves starting the seeds in pots in enclosed propagation trays on a heat mat. Once the seeds have all germinated the pots are moved into the wet boxes. Water is added to the capillary mat as required to keep the pots moister levels up. When it is time to bring them out of high humidity you just remove the lid and continue to water via the mat. Once you have been using the mats for a while you have a good idea about how much water you need to add to wet the pots through. This system is very basic but what it has done for me is take a lot of the guess work out of watering as once the pots are wet through I just wait for them to dry and then wet the mat again wait a day and if the top layer of the pot isn't wet ( DE changes color ) add more water. The hardest thing for me to get this set up was finding capillary matting over here. I started using chucks wipes which worked surprisingly well but I had to use a number of layers. I have ended up using the felt type material used for furniture packing (furniture removals ) The only other thing I had to do was drill more holes in the bottom of my pots. If the right style of pots are purchased then this would be unnecessary but I had already bought a few hundred pots so I drill holes. Propigation box on heat mat Wet boxes I think from what I have read and experienced you are correct with those temps. mid thirties should be good but up into the forties I start to worry I don't know how your lights are with there heat output but watch for hot spots. I have spots on my shelves that get a lot hotter then the rest because the ballasts from the lights underneath produce a fair bit of heat Ceres That was a great write up and it looks like you have your seed raising dialed in. I will add more again later including some photos of the slowest growing Trich seedlings in the world. Yes I will also post pics of my early disasters. Keep it coming guys and girls Cheers Got

This right up my alley I will get some pics of a couple of mine if I can pull enough of the foliage back to get a pic of the pots. Cheers Got

I had been adding a layer of course diatomaceous earth ( D.E., diatomite ) or similar after my seedlings were up. This was mainly to stand them up as many grew on there sides and even upside down but it was very time consuming. Now I am putting a layer down on top of my mix and then sowing the seeds on top. This is working a lot better as most of my recent seedlings are all growing up the right way. The only thing I do after I have sown the seeds is to just knock any seeds that are sitting on top of the course covering down into the gaps. I also have a different way of bottom watering now which I will explain in another post. The issues I had with bottom watering by dunking was because I use a lot of courser particles in my mix all of the fine pieces are the seedling mix and coir and they float up onto the surface which just defeats the purpose of my mix as the top is where all of the water ends up being retained. This layer was put down well after the seeds had germinated. Cheers Got

Transplanting seedlings I use the hook end of one of these. They are called a Machinists scribe and are nice and light and easy to hang onto. The shaft diameter is only about 3mm. To lift out individual seedlings I will use the straight end to loosen and then lift it out with the bent end. If I am doing a whole tray I use the bent end and work from one end to the other by loosening and lifting. I would think any hardware ( $2 - $3 ) should carry them in the tool section or you could make your own out of some heavy gauge wire. I also have these which would be the best 3 dollars that I have spent ( the kit even came with some labels) and they have cool names The dibber is great for transplanting but it gets the most use for pere cuttings and the widger is just a handy little thing that gets used for all sorts. Cheers Got

There isn't going to be any stopping that beast. I have come to the conclusion that growing pumpkins is like owning a dog. Sounds like a cool Idea at the time. They are cute when they are small but as they grow they take over your life and yard destroying every thing in there way They get more demanding wanting to be fed, watered checked for bugs and groomed and you have to do it all as the kids have lost interest. When they are done you have big piles of shit to clean up and the kids will be nowhere to be seen. Cheers Got

Is your mix you are using measured with normal cups? If so I would have thought that a tablespoon of lime was a lot. I haven't checked on the application rates so I could be wrong but It might be worth checking. Your set up looks good and I will be interested in how your lights perform. Are the temps that you are talking about the temp on the shelf or is it the soil temp. From my experience the air temps at around 35 deg is a great temp if you can hold it at that but you need to make sure your lights are not heating the soil from the bottom and cooking your babies. If this is the case you can add an insulator on top of each shelf and place your trays on top of that. Wood will work ok if you want just reduce the temps a bit fiber sheet like blue board works well as it tends to spread the heat along the shelf more than wood. If you need to get more serious the you can use styrene sheet 10 mm is reasonably cheap and works well. The other way to deal with hotspots on metal shelves is to lay a piece of mesh on each shelf and place your trays on that which lets air circulate underneath same can be done with heat mats and trays that don't have thermostat controls. The biggest issues I am still having with seedlings is turning them red. I have found the hardest to get right are trich's and they also seem to be the hardest to correct once they have gone red. They also seem to totally stall while they are red. I will make another post in this thread later with the setup that I am using now which has solved numerous issues that I was having. Cheers Got

What ever date it is I will make it I can but I wont know until the week proceeding due to family and work commitments. I really want to make this one as I have some trades to do and stuff I owe people plus of course it will be great to catch up as its been a while. Cheers Got

Like with ever product there needs to be a market it is easy to dream about selling a product for large amounts of money but if the market is very small then making a good profit might only be sustainable for a few months until you have filled the void ( ie crested peruvians in AU in the next 12 months ). Then it comes down to the same thing with every business input costs compared to sales prices. The trap that most people fall into with plants or crops is not putting all costs into the equation especially labour and also upkeep or replacement of plant and equipment. This is obviously different if its a hobby but for a business all costs need to be considered plus you also need to make a profit that is large enough to cover losses whether from pests or weather. The reason so many growers grow on such a large scale is the profitableness of each item is low but if you produce enough of a product and you have a market that can take every thing that you can supply then it can still be viable business. I believe the best model for growing plants or crops as a business is to grow out of season as this normally means you will get a higher price for your produce and it also means you can offer a constant supply. Being able to supply your product into the market all year round is very important with any product that you are trying to sell. Every time that you run out of stock or you don't have stock because of seasonal growing then it leaves the door open for another producer to take over your market. As the others have said not knowing you location makes it very difficult to suggest any plants as such. Cheers Got