Illustro

You would of had the best chance of that being in Dunedin as well, with it being the serial-murderer capital of NZ and all... "Dunedins' serial killers bring all the SWAT to the yard, and they're like, they're far stabbier than yours, damn right they're stabbier than yours, I can show you, but ya gonna get cut in the face." I think it must be something to do with the awe-inspiringly shit-house weather there, its shitty enough to turn just about anyone into a raving menace. *Oh yeah, cool garden BTW, looks like a sweet place to trip face.

+1, I'm really into adding soil microbes as well, I haven't done it to young seedlings yet (apart from adding Trichoderma sp.) but I have been using 'live' mixes with my mature specimens (>1yo), like Ariocarpi, Turbinicarpi, Mammillari, Strombocacti, Obregoni, buttons etc for about 2 years now. What age do you start adding your soil inoculum? I started out by doing a bunch of research into the species of arbuscular micorrhizae (AM) and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) which associate with Mexican-American cacti several years ago, and I found about 8 AM species were pretty common across the board, as well as several PGPB. So I researched those species, and found about 2-3 of the AM spp. had extensive international ranges, but in many cases the species incidences were classified on morphology, which I believe is pretty inaccurate. Unfortunately, many of the PGPB were endemic and highly specialised. But, I found that cacti were quite opportunistic with what species they could host, with some examples of them being host commercial AM and PGBP lines. I wondered if any of the orthodox AM spp. were found locally, and sure enough, 2 spp. were, just unsure how closely related and similar they really are to each other though. I also wondered how opportunistic local unorthodox AM and PGPB would be and vice versa; surely there would be some local unorthodox species which would be compatible and be able to withstand the arid conditions. So I decided to give it a shot, but instead of inoculating via liquid, I actually composed about 1/2 of my organic content in my mixes from rich thriving top-soil (sub-humus). I tell you what, people are always astounded by my growth rates, health, and root masses of my cacti; whenever I repot them, it is impossible to see the tap root through all the feeder roots - an average 3cm button will colonize the vast majority of a 15cm wide pot with feeder roots within a year. Never had any issues with rot either. I've told a few old-school cacti enthusiasts about my technique, they were very much visibly and vocally appalled at my naivety; we shall see though.

Was just inspecting some of my young seedlings, and noticed they have just started to look quite interesting, and thought y'all might appreciate some phytoporn. The cacti seeds were sown pretty much exactly 3 months ago, for reference, the punnets are ~5cm wide. Turbinicarpus mix Pelecyphora valdezianus v. saliillo (awesome flowers) Pelecyphora pseudopectinatus Mammillaria mainiae (awesome flowers) Mammillaria fraileana (awesome flowers) Mammillaria bocasana (the whole plant [mature] reminds me of silk ribbons and lace frills for some reason lol) Epithelantha micromeris Got a whooole bunch more, but camera ran outta batteries, I think I got the best ones, but the pics really don't do them justice! Especially the M. bocasana seedlings; its crazy how fluffy those lil fuckers are!

Oh righto, I never bothered with measuring humidity, but I think it would be ~100%. I didn't look to prevent moss, it was purely for mold, got a few mosses growing in there! Will have to try willow extracts out one day.

Cheers man! Some don't look quite as good as that though, had a few disasters, like really poor germ. rates in some batches, esp. in my Ariocarpi Temp. initially was 24hr 30'C (bottom heat), with 18hrs light (1x 15W T8 6000K 18" 900 lumen fluoro), that's now 18hrs ~30'C (+/- 5'C) daytime down to ~15'C nighttime, with supplemented natural light from window (diffused by net curtain), but I also put them out for some direct sun when I can be bothered. Not sure what you meant by Rh though, do you mean Ph? If so, dunno! Never bothered with it. The seeds were started organically, non-sterile though, I did it on purpose, I sewed them in a Trichoderma harzianum mix, and used a cinnamon, chamomile, & cloves tea as a very occasional fungicide, I haven't had ANY visible mold or fungus, but I'm not sure if something did get some of the seeds, as I mentioned earlier about some poor germ. rates. This also could be due to some kind of allelopathic chemical in the fungicidal tea that I didn't account for, or it could also be any number of things. Something did attack some of my Ariocarpus scapharostrus seedlings though, I have lost quite a few in the last few weeks, but I think it may have been related to some sort of mite that I noticed scurrying around on the dieing seedlings when I pulled them out, they could have just been attracted by the decaying plant material though - I have repotted them and none have died so far. EDIT: T8, not T18 fluoro.

Absolutely nothing at all!

Bampity baaaaamp.

Pablo knows he was probably to blame for the majority of his losses, but genetics probably did play a part in it also, simply due to the PHx seeds having a higher rate of heterozygosity than the NL-selfs. Its bad enough to breed with a sibling or even cousin, imagine how bad it would be if ya bred with yourself! Anyways, it could just be human error on the user-end, I'm not really sure if bisexual plants have any genetic coping-mechanisms for selfing (they could have something similar to moles perhaps?). What are your germination rate experiences with raising the two (PHx vs NL) PH?

My friend Pablo got quite poor germination rates from the NL seeds, but his friend got ~99% germ from the PH seeds. A lot of Pablo's poor success was likely due to his own ineptitude...but PH, am I right in assuming the NL were self-pollinated? If so, I think that could have caused a lot of the NL seeds to be inviable or be poor performers.

Oh man, that's such a shame you have to go to such drastic measures.. Do those people have no common decency... Do you still have any trouble with them?

So, my friend Pablo's red khat sapling is just nearing the 2m mark, and should top 3m by the end of summer judging by growth rates - Pablo needs to make decisions on what to do with the plant. Pablo and his closest friends are total amphetafiends, so he thinks he will likely harvest and share the gift from the earth quite regularly during the summer months. Pablo though, doesn't want to maim the tree by stumping it, he would much prefer to let it grow into a big happy tree, plus he quite fancies the idea of being able to climb up it, chew some leaves, and get pranged in the canopy just like a koala. So, Pablo wishes to know from the khat veterans out there; if he lets his plant grow big and happy, will there be enough easily harvested (and potent) fresh tips to sustain a ~1kg harvest every week or so over summer? Pablo lives in a very productive area, with even yearly rainfall, at amounts optimum for khat (~1200mm pa), very fertile soils, and a subtropical climate - so the plant should have no problem supporting it, just the quality of the product is in question. Gracias!

What kinda mix have you got it in? I hope its not just woodchips, I know it may seem like a strange question, but I have seen people do strange things. How long exactly has it been in the pot?

Hmm, what about putting the tub on its end, and then putting it somewhere where the odd bit of leaked water won't be a problem? Lol, Last Samurai! Classic.

Some great info PH, cheers! Apparently, Pablo has decided he will leave his original plant to prosper and grow strong; clones shall be a plenty in no time...then the fun shall begin.

Peow peow bro! Don't chop it! It looks so happy, it would be almost...criminal.

Dang, them goats get hooked up; they must be real tweakers, all itchy and wild-eyed fuckers I bet. I had a look, but nah, sorry; I couldn't find much on google scholar, so perhaps it was a book I was reading. I'll have to start a vegetarian cult, like the moonies or something, and get all my protein-deprived followers to lick my leaves as part of their daily ritual.

Well, you would imagine that a large tree would have far superior biomass producing capabilities to a stumped or coppiced plant, seeing as the surface area available to absorb CO2 and photosynthesize would be that much greater, as well as absorb soil nutrients, seeing as root mass is directly proportional to canopy size. Just the quality of the shoots would be questionable, seeing as growth would be spread out amongst so many different meristems - definitely worth investigating.. Now, that's really interesting on the temperature effect, it seems bizarre that the alkaloids would change so much with temperate, but I guess cathinone isn't stable like most, so the need to be constantly synthesizing more would make sense. But, are you sure that the temperatures didn't introduce harvesting bias though? Like on colder days you hastily picked the closest tips to you, on hot you picked those under the shade, and on moderate days you were free to pick more selectively? Either way, khat sounds like a really interesting plant to do some studies on, it is quite the oddity.

Pablo doesn't need to worry about it being spotted, he lives rurally; the tree could only be spotted by people right in on his property. And, Pablo really doesn't take too kindly to trespassers, that's for sure; he is well versed in clandestine tactics, he learned from the best. 7 years you say? It would be interesting to do an alkaloid cohort study, see how these rumours measure up, I've heard so many different ideas on the topic. The hedge idea is brilliant! Plus, one could inter-plant the hedge with red tipped Photinia sp., and if kept well pruned, prospective thieves would be none the wiser to the hidden death-trap! Nothing quite like a quid of hydrogen cyanide to start the day, a deviant idea indeed.. EDIT: @Thunderideal: Hmm, interesting, that's a good point, just prune back the small branches a bit, it would have to induce the growth of fresh tips. I was thinking of something similarish (to do with alkaloid boosting though), but it was a rather fancy full idea. I was wondering whether the alkaloids in khat are constitutive (always the same), or inductive (responding to attack). I read a few studies some time ago, testing the mechanism of how inductive responses are actually induced, whether it was just due to foliage removal, or whether it was triggered by another factor. One thing that came up in many inductive plant species, was that alkaloid production was unaffected by foliage removal (via pruning equipment), but showed strong responses to herbivore saliva, specifically some proteins in it; there was more of an alkaloid response to the application alone of these proteins to the foliage, than there was from foliage removal. So, I was thinking, Pablo could try let goats, cattle, horses, or some other herbivore which could have the salival proteins needed to trigger a response, graze the plant. Though, if Catha edulis is inductive, I'm not sure if it would be possible to find domesticated farm animals with the right salival proteins to trigger a response, with most being non-native to its range; but it could be interesting none-the-less.

Cheers for the replies, though I seem to have jumbled what Pablo was trying to ask, I'm not very fluent with español; he wanted to know if there was much difference in fresh shoot yield and quality between a large free-growing tree, and a coppiced plant? Pablo lives where this is legal, so no problems with the legalities. He appreciates that 1kg was probably too much to ask, though he says he does imagine he will be a heavy consumer. Muchas gracias, amigos!

I came across this awhile ago, a really good dubstep War of The Worlds mix, I liek.

Do you use a spring bombilla? I find the tea strainer-looking ones don't quite cut the mustard, but powdered yerba sounds weird.. Most of the yerba mate I buy has about a 20% powder content. Are you sure the yerba was meant to be drunken with a bombilla? Funnily enough, I have a friend who is a major entheo-head in Porto Alegre, who is also an epic yerba fiend, I'll talk to him and see what the bizo is.

Oh right, I think I might know the exact story then. If I am right, the original seed supplier, who I shall not name, has only two different clone-lines of Trichocereus, one is a long-spined San Pedro, which she does not breed (at least as far as I'm aware) and the other is a T. terscheckii, as well as a few different mature plants of what looks like backberg x scop hybrids. All her plants are clones except her backberg x scop hybrids, so she has to hybridize to produce any seeds other than more of her backberg x scop hybrids, so to produce T. terscheckii seed she crosses them with the hybrids, and gets what you see here today. Here's a pic of her typical backberg x scop morphology, the paternal gamete donor:

Hmm, now I look at the pic closer, I wonder if that is the same one I am thinking about, the garden and greenhouse looks identical, but the hills are no steep enough looking. The person I bought mine off of is a well-known cultivator, though she does not sell anything on TM, at least as far as I am aware. The plants posted in this thread look identical to hers though, perhaps she did a trade with tink, and tink sold them on? Here's what I originally bought: And what it looked like sometime before I purged my Trich collection:

I've been there! And I've bought one of those T. terschekii's before. The maternal plant is definitely some form of T. terschekii, but the owner only has the one plant, so it is possible she is crossing the flowers with pollen from the many scop-pach hybrids she has around the place.

¡Hola! I don't want to give too much away here, so I shall be as indirect as possible.. Someone..we shall call him Pablo, has been given the opportunity to take over a well established horticultural business that for certain reasons has to start growing a different crop in the next couple years, the business consists of close to 1000 hectares of prime fertile growing land, in hardiness zone 10b-11a, 1100-1300mm precipitation per year. The business has substantial monetary and infrastructural backing, so there should be no problems catering to any special needs to establish and process the crop/product. What Pablo is looking for is something not contentious, which can be easily grown organically, and which can be easily sold under his own label, so far Pablo has been thinking about growing Yerba Mate, and making a very high-quality boutique label tea - but this idea just doesn't quite cut the mustard for Pablo, it seems just a bit too risky as Yerba Mate market is still quite small. Other alternatives that have been considered is Chinese tea, goji berries, coffee (though C. arabica would probably produce sour beans in his climate), and Pitaya (dragon fruit). Any ideas for Pablo? Muchas gracias, amigos!