Inyan

I plant my Trichocereus seedlings in full sun. It does make them ready for full sun sooner though.

Yellow flowers could be B. flava, B. sanguinea, B. cubensis, B. aurea, B. candida, etc.

Update of seedling graft as wrap has been off for a day now. This is a key point where you get to see where some key problems might be. Remember, with this type of graft we are attempting 3 grafts at one time. Each side and the middle are all attempting to be grafted. The graft will be successful only if the middle graft and one of the outside lateral grafts takes. If both outside lateral grafts take and the middle graft fails to take the two seedlings will not grow as one and all was for naught as that is not the point of this type of graft. As you can tell, it looks like at the moment the middle and the left side have grafted while the right side has pulled away for the most part. I will call this a success if the other two grafts continue to hold as its purpose will have been served.

Thought this little Peru2 x Validus might want to be seen today. Picture taken today.

Hybrid seed of Datura metel (mom purple outer skirt/yellow inner skirt) x Datura wrightii (dad light lavender). Datura wrightii seed collected from Mojave desert. Seed is in the process of maturing. I didn't quite no where to post this as i will accept SASE otherwise known as Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, Donation, or trade for seeds once mature. Seed takes 60 days to mature once crossed. Items of interest for trade are Trichocereus pachanoi pollen, seed, etc. If you have nothing to trade and no money please just send SASE and I will get seed out to you. I know some people can't afford plants/seeds, etc. so this is a good way to get them if you honestly can't spare a dollar or have nothing to trade. Please do not tell me if you are sending cash or haggle with me over cost. It is what you think the cross is worth and what you can afford. I will not turn anyone down save if I think I will not have enough seed to fill the order. I only take orders after pods have secured themselves and are past the point of dropping prematurely as often happens with such crosses the way I make them. I pollinate long before the anthers ripen and long before the flower opens or comes out of the calyx on its own. I then try to pollinate again as pistil matures. Hit me up with an instant message if you are interested.

Grafting babies. Hoping to get some colorful babies to cross pollinate in the not too distant future. Just figured out this is where those beauties with colorful flowers go. I'm hoping for some that are just as nice as the rest I've seen on this page.

I have Datura metel (purple outer skirt/yellow inner skirt) x Datura wrightii (lavender) seed production under way right now. Always interested in trade for seed and or pollen from Trichocereus pachanoi. I always pollinate prior to the anthers maturing on the mother plant. I also remove all anthers from the mother plant so I can be 100% sure there is no self-pollination. The only Datura cross I am doing this year is indeed this cross to further ensure that no accidental hybrids other than the one I want will be made. The Datura wrightii you see here was collected from the Mojave desert.

I've got my fingers crossed for you. I've got that special feeling that your going to have some nice ones popping up. Time to make a trip down to the Dam in the morning for some coffee, but I'll be thinking of this pup and keeping those fingers crossed for you.

Just one more reason that you should buy your seeds in bulk when you have the chance... you don't have to grow out 30,000 seedlings to maturity, but planting 30,000 seedlings and watching and hoping for the nice ones can be promising. This is something I've just started to do in ernest with cacti as my primary point of emphasis in the past has been Brugmansia. While I still find Brugmansia to be some of the most beautifully fragrant flowers (not all of them mind you, but many of them), I find Trichocereus hybrids, variegations, monstrose forms, colors, etc. are quickly becoming a new area of research and interest for me. I've found a few good resources for hybrid Trichocereus seeds with an emphasis on color variation, a few good sources for Trichocereus hybrids with other points of emphasis... and I can see the work continuing from other members in here as this bug for unique cultivars spreads. All in all, I'd say don't let anyone talk you into cutting on this one until your ready to. When you do cut on her... ensure you keep multiple types of growth for yourself first and foremost to ensure the strength of the line as someone else may come up with something similar and we don't need to buy or trade for multiples of the same cultivar unless it is a different variation unavailable from another source. Often times with mutations or variations one will find that chimerical growth can be expected and different cuts can provide different growth patterns to include things like a cutting losing its variegation, an albino variation, etc. etc.

Anyone have any experience with growing this particular variety? What is the history of this one? http://www.highstreet.nl/shop/catalog/Peru...cm-p-16283.html http://www.shamanic-extracts.com/xcart/sha...ear-8-10cm.html Any hybrids with this particular mom or dad?

It was John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton) who originally wrote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." http://www.prisonexp.org/ Now, if your familiar with Philip Zimbardo and this famous psychology experiment... go to this website and really go through it with a magnifying glass. Watch all of the video clips. It will change your life forever this is real. Expect nothing less. power |ˈpou(-ə)r| noun 1 the ability to do something or act in a particular way, esp. as a faculty or quality : the power of speech | [with infinitive ] the power to raise the dead | ( powers) his powers of concentration. 2 the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events : the idea that men should have power over women | she had me under her power. • political or social authority or control, esp. that exercised by a government : the party had been in power for eight years | [as adj. ] a power struggle. • a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body : police do not have the power to stop and search | emergency powers. Control, the locus of control... internal or external... who do we give control to and how does this affect our health and well-being? These are some things to think about at any rate for those of you involved in a religion for example... control is often handed over to the religious leaders in one form or another. Control is given to the government, police, school teachers, etc. How much control do we give and do we give too much control sometimes and at other times deny our own internal power to control and influence? Anyone that is looked at as being an authority figure to us personally... do we give them more control than we should or do we fail to question where we should question as we fail to realize that the experts fall into their role and are molded into it simply because of our perception of them in that position. Any excuse becomes a good excuse and we fail to think for ourselves. Food for thought.

I just received Trout's Notes on San Pedro and what can I say... yeah, I stole this link from a fellow member here, but it suits how I feel about this book.

Love the song! Who is that? I need to buy that song. Now, I once knew this guy who was a real ass and not much of a looker by any means. He did however never fail to ask a girl out within seconds of meeting her or seeing her if he liked her. Amazingly enough, he struck gold many times over... sure he might have been turned down 99 times for every 1 time he got a number, but he got that one number. Play the odds, you have nothing to lose other than allowing some ass to get the date you might have had. Roll the dice man and remember, nothings personal.

If you want some tricks with this one... I'll give it a whirl as I used to grow this one and had some very large specimens. One, if you can lay your cappi down or bury it deep enough so that you have two eyes buried beneath the ground then those two eyes will grow and often get much thicker than your original vine would. Sorry, no pictures to show this as I've long ago given this one up and my computer has crashed and burned with those pictures, but its an old trick and one I learned from other cappi growers much more experienced than I was when I started with them. Okay, so I learned this trick from Lee Rathburn of Native Habitat. See, I have no original secrets or at least very few. Now, taking this a step further, if you continue to lay down the more supple and greener vine as it comes up from those nodes and burry it every so many feet while keeping a good foot exposed to light... you will have many offshoots from the green portions exposed to the light and a much deeper/larger root base which will also include more buried nodes. These nodes will come back much faster and stronger that are buried if your plant should undergo a freeze that is more than the top portion can deal with. Fill in all of your cappi growth with dirt once you have nodes that are a few inches up in the air so that none of your horizontal vine is exposed to cold air/chill. You can create a nice forest of cappi in a very short 3 years in area's where the temps only go below freezing for a few days each year. Diplotery's is also hardy at the same temperature range as cappi so similar techniques should work, but I've never personally worked with Diplotery's to confirm, but have this information instead from others who have grown this one. Hope this helps, Inyan

Just thought I would share this one for you from J.L Hudsman. These are the kind of photo's I like to see when I'm thinking of hybridizing.

I like the links you gave. This alone, but combined with other psychological research into who we are certainly gets one to thinking that, "We don't really know ourselves" as well as giving some insights into, "The illusory nature of self and reality in general." I think this is the reason that many entheogenic substances are feared. They help to break through the illusion of reality by linking ones consciousness into an alternate reality while at the same time strengthening the power of the mind to shape reality just as it is shaped consciously or unconsciously by all that live in what we call reality. The illusion of power, the illusion of control... in the end there is just "being" and how one perceives or relates to these perceptions.

It was John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton) who originally wrote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." http://www.prisonexp.org/ Now, if your familiar with Philip Zimbardo and this famous psychology experiment... go to this website and really go through it with a magnifying glass. Watch all of the video clips. It will change your life forever this is real. Expect nothing less.

Unless the flowers are a heck of a lot more potent than the cacti itself... you would need a heap of flowers to even begin to accurately judge this... with that many flowers... I think it would be a shame not to be setting seed and making crosses with them personally as that is where your going to get more diversity. My guess is that the calyx itself and not the flower is what is active if any portion of the flower is indeed active. I'd be willing to lay money down that the pollen, anthers, and stigma were not active. I'd be willing to believe that the ovary and the calyx might be. Still, who is going to waste that many flowers? One or two flowers, sure... thing... You can dry flowers by simply placing them in front of a fan, but I might also look into placing them in a food dehydrator,... http://www.silicasec.co.uk/ The above website tells you about the silica gel method. Very nice. http://www.humeseeds.com/drying.htm "AIR DRYING - To use this method, simply hang bunches of flowers upside down in a cool, dry room. Among the most popular to use for this method are baby's breath, bells of Ireland, cattails, Chinese lanterns, globe thistles, hydrangeas, strawflowers, and money plant. Herbs, like mint, thyme and sage, can also be dried in this manner. Generally it will take about two or three weeks for these flowers and herbs to dry properly. SILICA SAND DRYING - This is one of the most overlooked methods of drying flowers. Relatively inexpensive, it is an easy method to use, Many of the more delicate flowers, like zinnias., browallia, marigolds, lobelia, and heather, plus just about any other flower, can be dried using this method. Silica sand can be purchased at most any masonry store or building material center. The flowers are simply buried in the silica sand for one to four weeks. My wife uses this method quite frequently in drying her flowers and finds they do exceptionally well with a minimum amount of attention and they last for a year or more. BORAX AND CORNMEAL DRYING - To use this method, mix one part borax to one part of cornmeal. The flowers are buried in this mixture for about two to three weeks. Many different types of flowers can be dried using this method, SILICA GEL DRYING - This has been one of the most popular methods for drying flowers in recent years, Generally a cookie or fruit cake tin is used to dry the flowers. Silica gel is a granular material that quickly absorbs moisture from the flower petals. The drying time varies from two to seven days, depending upon how many flowers are dried and the types being dried. Generally the stems are removed from the flowers and just the flowers are dried. After drying they are attached to thin wire covered with green florists tape. Daisies, roses, larkspur, marigolds and zinnias are just a few of the most popular flowers dried using this method. It is especially important to follow label instructions when using this method (Silica gel) or you are apt to burn the flowers. If you are drying flowers for the first time, you will find that the pink, lavender, yellow, orange and white flowers are the easiest to dry successfully. Some of the best to start with are marigolds, zinnias, daisies, pansies and violas. In addition to drying flowers using these methods, you can also dry flowers in dehydrators and microwave ovens. It is important that you refer to the manuals for specific instructions for temperatures and timing. In addition, many flowers can be dried by the pressing method. Using this method the flowers are generally placed between two layers of waxed paper and pressed within the pages of a book."

Very nice, post some pictures of those flowers when they open up for us.

Another book for my wish list to be filled shortly.

I'm glad you saved me from this blunder then as I was about to cash in their entire stock. Laughing, now you know how pissed I would have been as I would have saved two or three for hybridizing and well the rest would be proof undeniable to me one way or the other. Thanks for the save Michael.

Mutant, You had best be careful. You wouldn't want those escaping into the wild.

Lovely little beauties. You can see these in the winter time decorating all the pastries in Europe. They also don't taste half bad sauteed in butter and mixed in with some eggs. The weather will soon be perfect for these little beauties to begin surfacing all over Europe once again as they like a good cold spell followed by a nice quick warm spell to initiate fruiting.

Good and Evil, Heaven and Hell, propaganda and truth... what you believe and have been led to believe is based on the motives of those who wish to spread their own wishes, desires, objectives... which is very subjective and extremely variable. Ethnocentric dogma clouds the mind in such a way that any truth is quickly squashed in favor of the powers that be. Free thinking, questioning, etc. is often related to the obscure realm of rebellious minds who are insecure and thus frowned upon. There is only action and inaction. Perception is biased and easily manipulated. Insecure in that those minds do not cling to a set of "truths" as if they were true simply because an authoritative voice emulated the correct answer to be mindlessly muttered and thus those that are insecure are potentially able to free themselves from the collective ties of the society that binds their mind. Is a man evil because he does an act perceived as evil? Is a man good because he does an act that is perceived as good? What is the motive behind the act and does that matter? How does the man perceive the act himself? Does it matter how good a man perceives the act he has done if those affected or witness to the act can not perceive it in the same manner? Pleasure, joy, love... fear, anger, hatred... emotions cloud the mind as they are attached to preconceived notions of what is, what should be, what will be, and what was. In the end, what matters most? How you are perceived by yourself or others... which one matters most? I find it simpler to simply try to fully experience what it is to "be" and in being to try to see how the mind, emotions, trains of thought run rampantly this way or that while simply observing what triggers this or that within and in this way perhaps gaining some insight into what truly is or is not real within. Perhaps, what we should really be asking is what is real and objective and still, I think we will end in hours of debate. Is it the watcher that sits quietly in his or her corner watching sensations unfold into the reality we see and hear? Is it the reality as perceived by the majority which changes with the time one lives in or the place one happens to inhabit? For me, there is love and there is fear. There is pain and there is pleasure. There is consciousness and unconsciousness. There is contentment with simply being and existing. Anything that promotes love and pleasure with the least amount of fear and pain is to be desired. Anything that promotes consciousness is to be desired in as much as it is desirable to have consciousness excepting of course when pain and fear a re at such levels that consciousness of it would make life unbearable at that moment and for that time. There is perceived control, control, and lack of control. Where I have control perceived or otherwise I tend to generally feel better. When I feel out of control or not able to control a given situation or personal expression within that and find myself simply reacting or being pushed along... then I may experience fear or a manifestation of fear such as anger, resentment, etc. if I am unable to let go. Control, real or imagined.... how does this affect our lives when we perceive it as being within our grasp or completely outside of our grasp? In relinquishing ones control does one gain control? Subjective or objective... what matters? To me, it all depends on where I'm at. Now that I'm sufficiently muddled and completely indecisive on this issue what is there to be afraid of? I fear, I may never know the answer to this question, yet I still find myself trying to debase myself to feelings of love and awareness thereof as other options such as wallowing in fear, self pity, anger, etc. while they do exist for me... are not where I wish for the majority of my time to be spent. Does this make me evil or good? I guess that depends on whether you believe in a heaven or hell. I suspect it is safer not to believe in a hell, but if it isn't... it surely is less depressing than thinking of so many different religions and sects thereof all going to hell save the one true righteous one who happened to just happen to get things right. How many wars have been enacted in the name of religion? How many wars can be considered evil or unjust? Which side of the propaganda do you choose to believe? How many wars have been started in the guise of something holy or just when in fact money or gain was the principle reason hidden from the masses? Is war then inherently evil or are just some wars evil? Is killing someone good and noble sometimes, but not always? Is ignorance any reason or justification to ones well being when one finds that they may have killed or maimed someone who is innocent. Does the end in fact, justify the means? Who's end is more important? Your end, my end, the wealthy, the poor, and why are the rich so few and the poor so grand in number? Surely the poor must deserve to be poor and the wealthy must surely be entitled to their riches due to their superior intellect and such. Or perhaps in the selling of what is right and what is wrong and judiciously applying praise on those who think not and agree more..... Enough of my rambling.

Understood, local variations in performance are sure to exist. I was thinking a bit more globally minded, but this may still be of some help. http://cssaustralia.org.au/component/optio...id,19/catid,10/ You are quite right to see what grows best locally as environmental genetics are sure to be a factor with your hybrids. You may also consider growing several different lines out of different crosses. With one line you can work towards speed of growth only. Line B could be speed of growth + large diameter. Line C could be speed of growth + height. In this manner, if you end up with a Line A that grows extremely fast in comparison to your other lines but only grows to 4 ft in height you can work these into your other lines.