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The Corroboree

Inyan

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Everything posted by Inyan

  1. Inyan

    breeding trichs.

    Good post George. GA3 can also be utilized to increase the size of your flowers as well. Again, timing is critical and something that has to be experimented with as different plants react differently. Its the same as saying your chemistry is different from a cacti or a psychotria really. You can't expect to get the exact same results as each system is different. I've had fun playing with GA3 in the past as well. A good resource for some of you. http://www.super-grow.biz/PPM.jsp
  2. Inyan

    Cacti under light, inside project

    Yeah, even people need a few hours sleep every so often. Time for another catnap ayy? Seriously, you can look into the science of some things or you can just use common sense. Still, who knows, perhaps letting your cacti go on an extended vision quest every so often isn't a bad idea?
  3. HunabKu, On the Pine Ridge rez, only pejuta aka as peyote is used in ceremony. Try going out there, South Dakota, in the first weeks of August and you will see for yourself how it is prepared. Not that other days are not possible, but during that time you will also be able help out with the sundances and such with are more prevalent around that time. Sure, I know some of you are thinking why only pejuta? Its because this cacti is sacred to the NAC and utilized as our sacrament. Different cultures have different cacti. It's that simple. This particular batch that I am speaking of was made with dried whole buttons. Personally, I prefer the taste of cacti that has been thoroughly dried. I say lipton tea as it reminds me of sweet tea. Sweet because sugar was obviously added. If you want better tasting tea, my preference is dried pejuta made via the sun tea method and a bit of sugar added. You can boil as well if this is your preference and you don't have to wait four days for your tea with the boiled method, but dried pejuta tea tends to be more appeasing to my personal esthetics. Now, if you don't care about looks, smell, or taste... you can try another method whereby the peyote is ground up and briefly brought to a boil without the addition of sugar. This is placed in a glass jar and buried for one month. There are probably as many ways to make pejuta tea as there are people to make it. I recommend you go to some traditional ceremonies when and wherever possible if you have a calling to this particular medicine or path. The red road is not for everyone as it is not particularly easy. Take the traditional Lakota vision quest for example. You stand for four days without food, water, or sleep. You can move about in a circle a wee bit larger than your feet. This circle is generally made up of a sage matting. Sage bracelets, anklets, and a crown are also made of either male or female sage depending on the sex of the person going on the vision quest. You make these things typically many months before you are to go on your vision quest. If you are male, you will also have a red skirt or if female a white dress. You will also make your 606 prayer ties to wrap around your altar and your 6 prayer flags which will form the corners of your alter. You stand their with nothing but your prayers and your supporters down below who will occasionally sing for you and this gives you strength to continue. You have to prepare for full year before you go up on this quest. It is a serious affair and one that is not easy to do. There are other ways of vision questing of course, but standing for 4 days is considered the easiest. You can go buried for 4 days standing, buried for 4 days laying down, sitting up for 4 days in an inipi/sweat lodge, etc. These other ways are considered much harder as you have no idea of time as there is setting sun that is visible with these other methods. To be sure, even standing for 4 days above ground and you will find yourself losing any sense of time. Seconds can stretch into what seems like years and days can go by in an instant. Still, when you come back from each vision you have a sense of time as you can see the day or night that you are in. You may wonder if it is the same day, an hour, or a few seconds later each time you have a vision. Yes, I know I'm getting a bit off track, but visions whether they are gathered from a traditional vision quest ceremony, sundance, or pejuta ceremony, are all sacred. They all require preparation of which the most common form of preparation is the sweat lodge. You sweat before and after every ceremony when possible. I know I tend to ramble a bit. Hopefully, somewhere in this rambling I have answered a few of your questions.
  4. Inyan

    Cacti under light, inside project

    Trichocereus are not as prone to explode in my experience. I've grown and treated many specimens similar to my Brugmansia and had very fast and good growth. Still, better to err on the side of caution with a new or different species and I must confess I haven't grown that last species myself. I always treat a few representatives of any new adventure harsh, a few easy, and a few in-between to figure out where my limits are in my particular environmental conditions are as they do change, especially with Brugmansia. I have several Brugmansia outside that I've left to freeze to death to figure out the environmental conditions here versus my last place. You would think its rather simple, but its not as simple as you would like to believe with many plants. I'll stop there though as this is the cacti forum. Still, nice work. You've got those babies pumping up nicely.
  5. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    Next question, did you take cuttings from the flowering region or from an area with no flowers? If the latter is the case, you can expect a long wait for flowers. The good news is that you have the right hybrids for your area and you should have seed pods as well as flower in due time. Just remember, these are not self fertile. You might want to revisit the first set of plants and collect those seed pods as well if you want a bit more diversity in your plants. Just expect most if not all of them to be white given the colors of both plants. For this reason, I would grow no more than 13 for genetics or 2-3 seed pods if your heart is set on getting another one in color from these particular genetics. I have a few grafted specimens I could share with you though that would help you on your way faster. One of my old hybrids grafted to its mom, both are pink, but the species influx is such that one is a candida x aurea shape and the other is a very clear aurea x suaveolens shape. Personally, I'd cross them both to a pink aurea like Kaitlyn for more interesting pinks.
  6. Inyan

    Photos of germinating seeds

    F1 crosses can achieve an novel phenotypical expression that is not seen in either parent. With this said, that novel expression in an F1 cross can be rare with many crosses and can require thousands of seedlings to achieve. A blending of traits, rather than a new phenotypical expression, is more likely, is most often seen in the F2 cross between two hybrid seedlings as many genes are quantitative rather than qualitative in nature. This is why an F2 x F2 cross is seen as more productive if it can be done. You may actually create a new species that can freely breed, or breed best, with other hybrids like itself. This addition of genes may allow for new expressions as one species may not have a recessive form of a particular gene or set of genes while the other species does. Or, you may find that while neither species has a recessive gene for a particular trait, that the crossing allows one set of genes to act as the recessive or co-dominant gene in a newly formed cross. Utilizing the pollen donor type from the original species cross to the F1 hybrid will tend to give you better results, but you should not exclude the possibility of using the pollen from the maternal species as well. Lastly, your F1 hybrid may produce variable pollen that allows you to fertilize both species parents much more effectively than either original crosses. You have to realize though that every pollen grain is a unique assortment of the pollen grain genes from each parent which will mean that many seedlings from such a cross could very well appear to be a pure species cross simply as the pollen selected to grow faster and achieve fertilization first by the maternal plant is the pollen that is carrying the most similar set of genes to that particular species. This is why techniques such as minimal pollination are often done in conjunction with normal pollination techniques, cut style techniques, etc. With minimal pollination of 8-20 grains of pollen for instance you can rest assured that a higher percentage of variable pollen genetics makes it to the ovary if it is going to make it at all. Still, minimal pollination techniques don't do you much good if only 1 in 200 pollen grains is going to make it anyway. This is another reason for making many cross pollination attempts using various styles and methods. Your F1 seedlings are going to be the most interesting in what they can produce via attempts utilizing them as a pollen donor back to both sets of parent species, to each other, and as recipients of pollen from both sets of pollen donor species, or perhaps they will have a higher chance of accepting yet another foreign pollen from a completely unrelated species, etc. This takes time, plenty of flowers, and of course an ability to think outside of the box and an ability to not get disappointed or discouraged if your pods result in nothing more than callous tissue or an aborted pod. The idea is to keep trying until you get that lucky variable pollen genetics to work for you in cases like this. Its all about the numbers of attempts as each pollen grain is like a person, each one is unique and different. Keep good notes and hope for the best. Keep tabs on all future seedlings produced from such attempts as successful crosses are not always apparent in the first set of seedlings. In the end, you may have to take up tissue culture and embryo rescue as a hobby if you become sorely disappointed with your results. If your still not having any luck after a few years of trying take try different pollens and moms from the same species or different ones as each is unique. Still no luck, try a researching polyethylene glycol solutions and high calcium dilutions. Protoplast fusion is something I've been researching and while it doesn't sound that hard, requires a bit more lab equipment then what I currently have and of course much trial and error at the start as with everything. Still, the idea of Trichocereus + Lophophora = Trichophora might be nice. Still, 44 chromosomes and not what your after as your looking at 22 chromosome type crosses. You could in theory try anther culture though to reduce the chromosome count back to 22 chromosomes and grow those resulting hybrids up to try more useful hybrids.
  7. Inyan

    frigidii bridgesii

    F1 can be exciting, but you have to grow out a very large number to make it exciting with many plants. You are correct in your statement that F2 x F2 will yield you much more diversity and this is where large numbers are indispensable. You can get by with low numbers in the F1 cross. Not your F2 cross.... you will need large numbers to get anything worth your while. The idea being of course to create something that is not easily repeatable by others and thus your after the best of the best of the best. You know this already though from the sound of it. So, I'm preaching to the choir, but its fun to chat and shoot idea's back and forth nonetheless.
  8. Inyan

    Winter in the greenhouse

    Osprey, that set up looks surprising simple and effective. I'm impressed. Nice collection you have started there as well. You could of course use a bit more diversity to your collection, but then to each their own I always say. I'd love to see some Trichopsis in the mix there just in case you should feel the need to dab a bit of pollen.
  9. Inyan

    Tricho & Lopho on Pere

    Beautiful work Mutant. Don't sweat the small stuff.
  10. Inyan

    Photos of germinating seeds

    Well Kada, it looks like you have at least 8 new seedlings to graft and if these turn out to be hybrids even one grafted specimen, but preferably two would be mesmerizing. With two, you could at least try to cross the two F1 seedlings to each other if they aren't self fertile. Back crossing to the mom or a different mom of the same species of course could be done regardless. And of course the offending pollen from the original cross could also be tried on these same seedlings as well. Yes, I know I'm getting ahead of the game, but all hybridizers think in terms of the future possibilities with such crosses. Here's keeping my fingers crossed for you. Have you tried grafting your seedlings to the apical meristem of your stock or do you generally graft much further down with your seedlings? One more quick question, have you ever grafted a seedling to a cutting that was not rooted? My smallest graft attempted so far was an embryo excised from a seed. Of course, you can see how large the embryo was.
  11. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    KadaKuda, which species do you have? Cold tends to make your flowers deformed, but a certain amount of cold or colder temperatures are better for seed production. Also, how old is your plant? Not enough water and not enough fertilizer can both pose problems to flowering as can too much heat. If your Brugmansia is drooping during the heat of the day I'd say move it into a more shaded area. I've grown Brugmansia and seen Brugmansia grown in Florida... all parts and unless your trying to grow sanguinea, arborea, flava, vulcanicola, you should have no problems. In other words, stick to growing versicolor, insignis, aurea, suaveolens, and hybrids thereof in your area. You should have much luck with those. The others, may not do so well for you as they tend to melt at higher temperatures and don't come back. An exception of course is arborea of which there are a few cultivars that can withstand heat. Sorry this is so short, but I must tend to other matters. I've also grown all species of Brugmansia in colder area's of Europe with no problem. Still, seed production is better when its a bit cooler with all species. If your growing Brugmansia from seed, it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years till you see any flowers.
  12. Inyan

    Photos of germinating seeds

    This is an idea: Get a tripod set up. Keep it stationary. Get a pot with a seed in it. Keep it stationary. Take a picture every month being careful not to move the camera from the tripod or the potted cacti. Set the pictures up via a slide show to appear to be moving forward with the months? Sure, it might take a bit of work, but it would be nice. Especially so with a grafted seedling. What is the youngest age a Lophophora seedling has been grafted? Has anyone grafted a seedling as it was just emerging from the seed? Has anyone grafted a seedling while the majority of the embryo was still inside the seed? While it is nice to see the size of some seedlings being grafted, knowing how old the seedling is can help ease some of the tension of would be grafters. I feel like I'm asking a lot of questions here, but I find that its often helpful for me to ask how can something be done even when others seem to think it is impossible to do. Sometimes the person is asking the wrong question, but there is an answer that best fits the intent of the question. I'm sure some of you can come up with easier and less invasive methods/answers than the ones I pose, but thats what we are here for. Stimulate answers or stifle them with a simple no, it can't be done. I've never been one to think in terms of impossible. Improbable or highly unlikely... Infertile or not very fertile. Each has their own connotation and each opens up different possibilities or closes the door to possibilities in our own minds. I prefer to keep the doors open.
  13. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    Simply bring in your Brugmansia Culebra and it will drop its leaves. If your in a hurry to make it drop its leaves bring it inside and place it in the closet or the basement providing you don't have a light source... you should have a nice dormant Brugmansia devoid of leaves in no time. Keeping your Culebra outside in falling temperatures is a good way to lose her, but she is an old cultivar and readily available in many places so not to big of a loss. Albeit, she is one of my favorites, even if she is a bit difficult for some. Roter Vulkan is a very nice hybrid as well and one of my favorite oldies. Roter Vulkan prefers to grow in a fast drying soil from my experience and while she can be pushed in the summer if temperatures are high and fertilizer corresponds, it is best to let her grow a bit slower than your other Brugmansia.
  14. Just a quick note here. There are ways of preparing cacti without it tasting bitter. In particular, one of my first experiences with pejuta was out on the Rosebud rez. I was told I could have as much tea as I wanted for my help with carrying a barrel of it back from a ceremony. I was upset as I thought I was getting a raw deal at the time. I drank a bit of what tasted like lipton tea to me and a school bus load of kids pulled up and asked if they could have some. Me, thinking it was lipton, said go right on ahead. I was told after all that I could have as much as I wanted for carrying it back. I would have sooner poured it out if I had my druthers in the matter. So, the line of kids started and I was amazed at how much they liked their lipton tea. They would get in line and as soon as they were at the front they would fill their cup and march back to the end of the line to begin again. After the kids left, the medicine man came out and asked if there were any buttons. I looked at my shirt and explained nope while I thought, "This guy is asking about buttons?" Then it hit me, buttons is slang for pejuta. To make a long story short, it was a very potent experience for all involved. Taste is a matter of preparation as is smell. Never mind the type of cacti being employed in the sacramental tea.
  15. Inyan

    Photos of germinating seeds

    Is that so, Garbage?
  16. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    While I don't think I could ever describe a Brugmansia flower as you have.... I will admit that many doubles that fail to open fully or have a good separation in the skirts will brown prematurely and this to me is not desirable no matter how beautiful the flowers are when they first open. Fragrance is another trait that often goes by the way side when hybridizing for doubles in color. I prefer single aurea or aurea x suaveolens types myself as the fragrance and speed of growth is generally more desirable to me.
  17. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    It works like this: Yellow x Pink = mostly whites Orange x Pink = mostly whites Orange x Orange = mostly oranges White x any color = mostly whites The bottom line, if you want a particular color you cross the same color to the same color. You will get many that are lighter shades of color and a few rare ones that are darker in color. Still, to make things more confusing you can cross a white x white and still get one in color if you are lucky. You can cross an orange to a pink and get very lucky and have a blending of colors. Don't count on that though unless you're prepared to grow out a few hundred or more of a single cross. Some hybrids hide another color that will show up if the temperatures are just right. Janet Reno is an old hybrid like that. She is yellow, but will occasionally throw out blooms with pink lips. If you want to cross two different colors and have a good chance of getting one in color you have to look at the parentage of those two and see if they have a different color in their back ground. If they do, then this is still no guarantee. If you have a flower that clearly shows a mixture of colors, even if this is only rarely seen, those are your best bet for a nice orange x pink to produce a color that you might like and this is where you get a few that appear to be rich blends of mango, etc. As far as I can tell, there are multiple genes for color and they are quantitative in nature which is why you have some such as Super Spot and others that appear to be red from time to time. For the average person, cross a double white to a single in any color and hope to get a single in color in a few hundred seedlings. Know you will get several doubles, but the money is on you getting white doubles. It is far better to start out with a double in color otherwise you will be back crossing your seedlings. Of particular note though, if you have two single's in color from a double white you can cross those two single colored specimens and get a few doubles as long as both seedlings parents are doubles.
  18. For me, my mother was disillusioned by her religious back ground and sought out her own truth. She would invite people of every religious faith and or new idea over if it appealed to her and sometimes even if it didn't in an attempt to uncover some common grain of truth. This is what I grew up in. I saw and experienced many things/feelings, etc. that were beyond my comprehension. Many still are. I read books like many of you in pursuit of some grains of truth interspersed within the madness that is man. I looked for commonalities and still, I didn't comprehend or really understand much, but it did fascinate me. I read many of the Carlos Castenada books repeatedly and eventually became apprenticed to one medicine man and then started studying with another. I traveled and experienced many traditional ceremonies and discovered that what sounded like fiction wasn't really fiction at all. Yet, what was seemingly fictional still had its purpose and purpose or intent could be bent to the will and the ego of the person and as such I came to realize many things that I still don't comprehend in its entirety. What I can say is that for every question answered came more questions and more disillusionment along with a little light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. If you've ever watched the Emerald Forest you have a taste, albeit second hand, of what I am speaking of. There is no replacement for direct experience in my mind and we are all colored by the experiences we have opened ourselves up to, our culture, and our own perceptual biases. Entheogens are a tool, just as meditation, vision questing, sundancing, ceremony, etc. is a tool. What we get out of them as individuals is different each and every time. To me, they are keys to different doors. Just because you have a key doesn't mean you will find the same door each time or even the door you are looking for. They help to open you up to new ways of perceiving the world, yourself, and to see behind the reality that has been taught and allows a different perspective to be experienced. How much this alters you as a person or whether this is perceived as positive or negative depends on the person. Just because you have the keys to a race car doesn't mean you know how to drive or should enter yourself into a race. That's my two cents at any rate. I've left out much, but the feel for what I'm trying to extrapolate is there. Whether someone is an atheist, gnostic, or etc. These are all just titles to try to explain to others where you are at in your perception. What really matters is different to everyone and changes as we change. For me, a genuine unconditional love of oneself is first and foremost. A genuine unconditional love of nature or someone else... that's just icing on the top. Do we all have our faults? Do we fall prey to ego? I think that with absolute power comes absolute corruption. The more power one attains or thinks one has attained the easier it is to succumb to ones ego and the easier it is to have it grow out of proportion as it is feed by ones followers. I tend to ramble a bit and leave much unanswered, but in the end what does it matter if it isn't your truth or something you have felt as a personal truth? Freedom to change and to grow.... to realize when you've become trapped in a new way of thinking that while different is no more real than a previous way of thinking or perceiving. Time to turn one perception of reality back to the other and see like so many mirrors reflecting distorted images backwards and forwards till something of value is attained. To let go of such things when the time has come and to allow oneself to be open to that letting go. Form or formless, what matters? Perception? Intent? How you feel? How others feel? Be true to yourself. Love yourself. Realize that everyone is where they are and that what they believe or feel is just as real to them as what you believe and feel and just as important to them. Self perception, perception of others and the world.... these are the things we can change and how we react to them. We can not change how someone else reacts to us as we are only in control of ourselves at best.
  19. Inyan

    Photos of germinating seeds

    Okay, its been a month since you posted these seedling pictures. Any picture updates for us? I realize they grow slow, but once a month couldn't hurt. Heck, it would probably be enlightening to some of us to see how slow or fast they can be pushed with a month by month photo gallery. Eagerly awaiting minds want to see more. Patience is a virtue, but time lapse photography is nice too you know?
  20. Inyan

    Brugmansia aurea (pure species)

    Triples, doubles, etc. All you need is a single double to get triples in your breeding program. Now, to get a double with any color you are best starting off with a double in color and breeding to a like color as otherwise you are likely to get mostly whites and a few that will stretch your imagination as to how they came to be in a sea of whites. Doubles like this one here are something of a novelty still, albeit their is an ever increasing number of good orange doubles out there.
  21. Inyan

    frigidii bridgesii

    Tersheckii (seed bearer) x Macrogonus (pollen bearer)= F1 TM Macrogonus (seed bearer) x Tersheckii (pollen bearer)= F1 MT Tersheckii (seed bearer) x Pachanoi (pollen bearer)= F1 TP Macrogonus (seed bearer) x Pachanoi (pollen bearer)= F1 MP Pachanoi (seed bearer) x Tersheckii (pollen bearer) = F1 PT Pachanoi (seed bearer) x Macrogonus (pollen bearer) = F1 PM Those are the types of crosses I might try myself if I was trying to develop a more cold hardy and larger cultivar/hybrid. I would also try growing out several thousand seed from each individual species in search of the coldest surviving member from each pure species. Sure, it could take a bit of time, but you could get 10,000 seed of each species to play with for a few Euro. Not a bad expenditure of your money if that is your goal. You might then consider something like F1 TM x F1 MT or F1 TM x PT for your F2 cross. Its a time consuming process and the average person doesn't have the patience for something like this, but if you love hybridizing and growing plants you don't have much to lose as you will be having fun regardless of the outcome or how long it takes. Keeping good records is of course a must and any seedlings being subjected to cold to determine fitness should also have cuttings taken to ensure that the genetic potential isn't lost. Keep good records and those that appear to have the least amount of damage can always be breed to each other via cuttings that have not undergone the stress of being subjected to the cold. Just in case you find that you have accidentally killed off your entire stock trying to see which one is the most cold hardy stock. Personally, I'd like to see some red, violet, or purple tossed into the mix as well to add some color, but thats just my preference.
  22. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    Here is a little splash of color for you. I like orange myself. You can see that one of these is a double orange, the other a small piece of a pure orange aurea, and a nice red. All nice ones to breed with. If you want whites though, you can cross any pink to an orange and get your fill of whites. I like fragrant whites myself. The kind that fill up the yard with their perfume.
  23. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    Kenny Blister, nice to see your carrying a few of my old hybrids and creating some new ones at the same time.
  24. Inyan

    Verigated Loph Pics

    Why do you call this one Willy Garbage? Yeah, I know variegates can be more demanding than your typical forms and much more prone to root rot, but garbage? Never call them that. Unless of course your referring to Garbage which would be a compliment. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, so you'll have to forgive me if I misunderstand. The lime green versus yellow on dark green, I like them all. Of course the lime green being more uniform would be easier to keep going via propagation as the other would tend to throw out all kind of variables when one started grafting different proportioned pups to various stock.
  25. Inyan

    Brugmansia aurea (pure species)

    Wild x Wild isn't technically wild anymore, but still pure. I have pure species cuttings, rooted plants, grafts, etc. All of my seed for this season has already been planted. Besides, Brugmansia will throw out mostly whites when you cross yellows to pinks etc. Pink to Pink or yellow to yellow will give you a good percentage of colors though. Any Brugmansia aurea crossed to a double will give you more doubles. Still, if you want one in color your best bet would be to cross a pure aurea gold to a double orange. Do you have some pictures of your crested Opuntia?
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