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Illustro

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Posts posted by Illustro

  1. Posted

    Hola!

    Very interesting, great to hear some first-hand info! Do you happen to live in an area with alkaline soils? Most central and/or regional governments have online interactive soil maps with a soil pH layer.

    I just don't get it why they're supposedly so hard to grow. So many people seem to have so many problems with them! Almost seems like a waste of time from what I've heard. But there's gotta be some glaring oversight, was hoping people might have shown that pH was it? If it's high humidity that kills 'em as some have hypothesized, Pablo is kinda fucked. He lives in the jungle, so his plants will need huge efforts to protect them from the rain and humidity, and them pesky monkeys. He's praying to Pachamama to look kindly on his efforts.

    Gracias!

  2. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    Saludo!

    Mi amigo Pablo wishes to understand cultivation of Syrian Rue better, for educational purposes :wink: . He has been googling el culo off trying to find out why this plant is so tricky. There's been some speculation of pH being the limiting factor, that these plants love alkaline soils; ver aqui:

    http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12349

    There's been some hablar and some success stories attributed post-hoc to high pH, but nothing solid so far.. What I wanna know is, has anyone given alkaline mixes a go? Any success stories or other new developments?

    Muchas gracias!

  3. Posted

    I've got my own research funding problems, but I think Professors Ikramov & son who Torst mentions (here & here) (who are involved in trying to preserve Lagochilus inebrians) are much more deserving than me. If I remember rightly, they can barely even afford food(?)

    I think they deserve a bit more than one grant tbh!

    http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=816

    http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35283

  5. Posted

    Hmm, I'm really, really, not a fan of ham-fisted applications of noxious chemicals in stead of good cultural practices. Poor cultural practices oft creates/promotes the problems which then need these chemical treatments in the first place. Pesticides certainly do have their applications, though they should be seen as a last resort when all practical steps have been taken to minimise their need.

    My 2c.

    • Like 2

  6. Posted

    consider dipping the plant in liquid plastic / latex to help prevent some of the worst of the gases from penetrating the plantconsider dipping the plant in liquid plastic / latex to help prevent some of the worst of the gases from penetrating the plant

    Sounds about as promising as importing live animals in a sealed plastic bag tbh. Plants need to breathe too.

  7. Posted

    SWIM hypothesises it is more or less due to babying, exposing plants to more moisture and nutrients they'd have naturally, promoting fast unnatural growth which results in limbs too weak to support their own weight, something which is also a problem in other semi-arid trees such as olives. SWIM recommends less nutrients and less water, combined with an approach intermediate between staking and not-staking: using flexible chords tied to stakes ~50cm away to secure the plant from falling over, but also allowing enough trunk flexing to trigger stem reinforcement.

  8. Posted

    That's some pretty disturbing stuff, even more disturbing when you realise how relatively innocuous this shit is compared to half the crap we dump into our environment, and its still causing massive issues... fuck humans...

    In addition to what the FDA said, apparently the overwhelming majority of bacteria are removed from your hands simply by a thorough scrub, and soap takes care of the miniscule remainder. Scrub, light soap, scrub. Simple innit? And the soap is probably overkill as it is...

    What is it about humans that makes us want to regress to such simplistic and gross excesses when dealing with . . . anything? Farmer wants less weeds? JUST FUCKEN SPRAY THE FUCKEN SHIT OUTTA MY FIELD WITH FUCKEN TOXIC-ASS SHIT. Farmer wants more productivity? JUST FUCKING SMATTER THE FUCKEN SHIT OUTTA MY FIELDS WITH SOME FUCKEN INDUSTRIAL-ASS FERTILISERS. Want to clean your hands? JUST FUCKEN STERILISE THE FUCK OUTTA THE CUNTS WITH SOME MORE FUCKEN TOXIC-ASS SHIT. To get (x), simply add tons of fucken toxic-ass shit, essentially.

    Ugh... No insults can do justice to just how utterly senile and destructive this mentality is... People seem to think the world will just keep taking this kind of abuse...

  10. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    Olá!

    I was talking to an old friend who's a freelance shaman of sorts in Brazil, the topic of Yopo and Cebil came up, to which he said both are inferior compared to this other plant he called Paricá, which after a long search we tracked down to the species Acacia polyphylla. He claims the snuff made from the seeds is far more potent than Yopo, as well as being much more like Ayahuasca, and is also less toxic / cleaner feeling, without any nausea. I trust his claims, his life is shamanism, he works closely with different tribes and has ready access to all these plants; scattered around his hut he has whole sacks -tens of kg's each- of these different snuff seeds, as well as all sorts of other crazy jungle products which he consumes like a true fiend.

    Apparently Monjoleiro is a very common plant around the area where he spends most of his time, and according to online sources it has a very wide distribution and is also used in forestry, meaning it should hopefully be a more sustainable alternative to Yopo given it works as well as he claims.

    Here's a couple general links:

    One ; Two

    Anyway, before I get too excited over it, has anyone else heard of it? Used it? Know more about it?

    Obrigado!

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Oh right, I forgot about the situation over there ;)

    I assume they're fresh-ish, Pablo sewed them straight after he got them - tho no idea how long the suppliers had them sitting around for. Quite unfortunate really, they (equisetina) seem like such an interesting species to grow! Pablo vey dissapoint :( poor Pablo...

  14. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    ¡Hola!

    Has anyone got any amazing germination teks for E. equisetina and E. intermedia? My penpal Pablo is having issues, we've both searched far and wide (including UTFSE) for more information but none of the teks seem to work for him.

    He's tried all sorts, from GA3, to cold stratification, to temperature swings, to freezing, to scarification, to warm incubation, and come up three quarters of fuck all really.

    The seeds are from three different sources; we both suspect (and have read) that perhaps the seeds have some very strong germination inhibitors and may only start popping up in around 12 months time. Apart from that, we're stumped.

    ¡Gracias amigos!

  15. Posted

    Fascinating work PH! I'm usually not one for breeding oddities, but the NL red is really quite cool.

    Sometime ago, I came across somebody on the internets posting about growing some of your plain NL's from seed, at a year old they had all caramel/pink tips and branches - I was wondering, is this common in your NL juveniles? Any idea what the mature plants will grow to be like?

  16. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    Not sure, I can't remember the species that were looked at but I remember Austrocylindropuntia spp. and Opuntia spp. being part of the study. I would say it is highly likely that Pereskiopsis has evolved some form of C3, as the natural growing conditions would probably cause CAM types to have less fitness and competivness.

    Even if Pereskiopsis did not have C3, more leaves could conceivably cause increased growth rates due purely to the increased surface area to capture light energy, transfer gasses, and store products.

    Yep, CAM is the reason why most cacti can't adapt to a full light cycle as unlike other plants, they close their stomata during the day whereas most plants (C3 & C4) will keep their stomata open - if a CAM plant were exposed to constant light it would quickly run out of 'food'.

    Scientifically speaking, it is believed the reason they close their stomata is to avoid evaporative waterloss (evapotranspiration) and to reduce RuBisCO fixing O2 into useless metabolic products (photorespiration) which is an increasing problem at increasing temperatures. Plants in cooler conditions have a much lower rate of evapotranspiration and photorespiration so C3 is usually most effective for them, but C3 plants will be seriously affected in hot conditions as they largely have no way to circumvent photorespiration and are prone to evapotranspiration. Whereas C4 plants will convert CO2 into membrane-diffusible products which essentially deliver CO2 straight to chloroplasts which are in cells 'insulated' from atmospheric O2, causing much lower rates of photorespiration, but this also means their stomata are left open during the day, making them to vulnerable to evapotranspiration. Though they have evolved several mechanisms to minimise this like rolled leaves and trichomes growing over stomata which minimise airflow and subsequently evapotranspiration rates. CAM on the other hand converts CO2 into solid products (malate) during the night which are stored in vaculoes, during the day they close their stomata and get their CO2 from the malate by converting it back into CO2 in the cell, this means there is a much lower abundance of O2 (reducing photorespiration) and evapotranspiration is dramatically reduced as water is less able to diffuse from plant, which is further reduced by employing trichomes, thick cuticles, and epicuticular wax; hence hairy, thick-skinned, and waxy desert plants.

  17. Posted

    I believe, though I do not know for sure, that the amount of CO2 which can be stored as malate is limited to some degree, so if this true, adding CO2 will only decrease the time needed to sequester CO2. Just don't take my word on this. Though, if this is true, you could conceivably shorten the dark period and extend the light perioid, which would increase the amount of stored carbon they could potentially convert to sugars. Though the flipside of this is that the plants may run out of stored carbon during the light period, halting photosynthesis. CAM plants also need to expel excess O2 from photosynthesis at night, so prolonged light periods with closed stoma may potentially cause oxidative damage. Perhaps you could try multiple day/night cycles per 24hrs with increased CO2 during dark? And try playing around with the dark/light ratio of each cycle?

    Also, a curiousity I came across a couple years ago is that some leafy cacti actually employ CAM in their stems and C3 in their leaves, when transpiration becomes too excessive they drop their leaves and rely on CAM, when the conditions become more moderate they grow leaves and exploit the advantages of C3. Pretty cool!

  18. Posted

    Sure about that? (the research) I'm coming with nothing.

    I don't doubt its part of another 'genus' (fucking hate pigeon-holing stuff; such a pseudo-science...) as I said, the plant currently known as C. transvaalensis is probably more closely related to L. tetragona judging from morphology. But I think its early to speculate whether Catha is indeed monotypic, there simply hasn't been enough research. I decided to do my own research and made a phylogenetic tree from a MUSCLE alignment of 100 publicly available matK genes of all the closest sequences/relatives I could find to the Catha edulis matK sample I chose. Here's the results:

    catha.jpg

    Started at 9am, took 6-fucking-hours as I used 100 bootstrap replicates to be extra 'certain'...

    I've got 5 other genes I can analyse if the community wants to pay me to do it, ha :lol:

    • Like 6

  19. Posted

    this guy is a fucken legend, he's been flat out bagged and his product called into question and he still keeps his cool. he sets a wicked example for the rest of us

     

    Here here. This guy is fucking awesome; why are people trying to force him away like the PNG guy awhile back?

    I love your work KhatMaDo! Do you have any pics of ~1 year old seedlings of various types? (narrow-leaf, red, other) I just love the way these plants develop, quite interesting. Have you ever come across the Transvaal Khat? (Catha transvaalensis) I suspect it is something like Lauridia tetragona, but interesting none-the-less. Not sure what the fruit are like, from the pic it ALMOST looks like a capsule, which could make it possibly very closely related to Catha edulis, considering most of Catha edulis' closest known relatives (from nucleotide sequences) have fleshy fruits.

    • Like 3

  21. Posted

    Hola,

    So, my friend Pablo has a Catha tree which is pretty flimsy.. Its been in the ground ca. 1 year, and has grown from ca. 40cm to ca. 260cm tall in this time. Problem is, that the root system seems not strong enough to bear this mass, and when the wind blows strong, the root mass closest the trunk (<30cm) visibly moves up from the soil, causing the tree to lean more, and subsequently cause more root mass to lift. Pablo has temporarily restrained the trunk with poles and flexible ties, allowing the trunk to move 20-30cm, but not enough to cause the roots to move. The plant doesn't seem to be getting any stronger though (been like that ca. 6 months), and Pablo was wondering whether the plant may need to be topped? Coppiced? Cut back to the ground? Other?

    Pablo theorizes that the plant is just growing too tall for the root system to keep up with? Any other ideas? Pablo figures if he removes the main trunk, hopefully the next shoot to take apical dominance will come from elsewhere in the root system, or if not, setting it back will give time for the roots to 'catch up' with the growing main shoot(s)?

    Gracias.

  22. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    lol i met david cause i brought some kanna from him through trademe and ended talking plants, then invited him over for a cuppa cause he was in dunedin

    then i got a bit nervous that i could have invited some axe murderer over to my house but as soon as he got there i thought.. wow he's just like Zac :innocent_n:

     

    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.

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    also i take some dirt from the garden and mix it in some water and water with that to make sure that soil microbes are present, often i let the mix of dirt and water sit for a few days before i use it

    +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.

  24. Posted

    Rh = Relative humidity. :)

    Cool technique on the mold & moss prevention btw, was thinking myself of experimenting a bit with willow extracts and IBA for moss prevention when I finally get round to germinating some cacti seeds.

     

    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.

  25. Posted · Edited by Illustro

    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.

    • Like 1
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