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The Corroboree

planthelper

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Posts posted by planthelper


  1. nice extention to the the topic Cheshire!

    I do use your method sometimes, mostly if catching prawns and crayfish. :)

    insects can excite me far more than mammals, they can be so alien, and I guees, I like that a lot.

    did you know that the silver fish, goes through more metamorphosis stages than any other insect?


  2. this is an easy experiment, but it can only proofed one way or the other, with a large number of experiments.

    scenario:

    you spot a grasshopper or similar plant pest, and try to catch it, so it doesn't eat your beloved plant.

    the idea:

    many grasshoppers and alike, start to wiggle a bit once they seem to detect a thread. the idea is to in 50% of the cases, to try to catch the insect with a straight forward hand movement, but in the other 50%, to as well, wiggle or move your hand side to side or so forth, till you close enough to attempt the catch. maybe even wiggling the whole body would help as well.

    the hypothesis:

    the insect uses wiggling and side movements, to evade capture. it thinks wiggling is a cloaking device! maybe this strength, is also it's weakness and it does not notice (or see it as danger) if an object wiggles.

    I got a few results already...

    branches and leaves move often, it would be stress full for the insect to, take flight every time a branch moves or a leave(s) casts a shadow.

    • Like 2

  3. hi, people! :)

    I will discontinue growing this plant, so I would like to give it away for free, but you have to pay for postage.

    to save on postage, I would prune the plant a lot and than remove most of the potting mix. this offer would best be suited, for members living not to far away from me. note the secateurs to give you scale. pm me for more details, people without gardening skills, and the ability to say, thank you, don't need to apply!!

    I say this because, far too often, we (this happens to everybody here) give things away for free & pay postage, and the receiver doesn't even say thank you....

    post-70-0-35652100-1410410443_thumb.jpg

    ne_xus#1.JPG

    ne_xus#1.JPG

    • Like 8

  4. thanks guys, no frost where I live, almost prime conditions here, infact some very small cebil seedlings have done very well over winter. I think the peregrina seeds I have were from an immature tree, i think the trees first seed pod, do you think that would affect their viability??

    hmm, the seeds you mention, can't have come from an inmature tree...

    because flowering and setting fruits, are what defines, a plant to have become mature.

    it's said that with some plants the first seeds produced might not be viable, but I highly doubt this is the case here. most likely the seedpod itself was picked too early and as such was I n ma t u r e.

    colubrina seeds (and peregrina most likely as well) will change there color from brown to almost black, once they mature, as well fully ripe seeds, will display a certain shiny gloss.

    only use fat heavy, glossy seeds for probagation.

    I never observed fungus issues ever, maybe the seeds came already with the fungus, and were not dried proper after harveresting.


  5. ^I don't agree, caapi plants which have been neglected, do loose there leaves, this plant obviously has not.

    your leaves look like the plant experience a big shock on top of the neglect.

    but as mentioned, the fatter the stems and branches the more, she will be able to survive.

    • Like 1

  6. Funny you should say that ph, have often wondered when walking past my tree how a walking stick would turn out. Cant remember if someone told me or read it in Ratsch or Snu they use the timber for various things construction etc, Grain seem super tight. i really like the warty lumps on the trunk lol

    I don't remember where I got my seeds from originaly, but one tree displayed warty lumps, but the other one elevated fissures!! maybe the seeds were collected from various trees.

     

    i have found colubrina super easy to grow, but have not had any luck with peregrina using the same methods... the seeds i tried were supposed to have been fresh, should i treat them any differently to colubrina?

    nope, they should germinate just all the same, the only thing is, peregrina (so it's said), is far more frost sensitive, so she needs it much warmer over winter, than colubrina...
    • Like 1

  7. yeah matt, they are out of season.

    unless you are one of those people who always likes to grow everything from seed, I would suggest to you, to rather seek cuttings.

    it's the easiest cutting in the world, and you will get fruits much, much sooner.

    I probably gave hundreds of cuttings away over the years, but the last frost has damaged my plant a lot.

    there are heaps of super cool threads about this lovely succulent (super flowers) around on this forum, so try to find them.

    one of my mates, with bowel cancer, said it was the best treat ever for him! :)

    the red fleshed, is a self pollinator, and said to be the tastiest, but I prefer the yello fleshed ones.


  8. i never took notes, but i guess your estimate is correct.

    i found out, that it totally depends on the weather, to get flowers and fruits.

    without rain, no fruits will be produced, but if the plant is happy, it produces an abundance of seeds.


  9. as toast say's those buggers self seed, with ease (I have erraticated my trees now).

    I would wait till the pod is brown and dry, and just starts to open up.

    some borers destroyed 85% of my seeds.

    no soaking needed if seed fresh, older or poorly stored seeds, will benefit from soaking in water, but make sure, this happens in a very warm place.

    this is the fastest germinating seed, I ever observed, the root came out after only a few hours!!!

    • Like 1

  10. yup, tis a fact.

    but lophs make up for it by (generally) producing more flowers (and fruits) than arios

    yep! allow me to go into more detail, arios can produce several flowers at the same time, but form flowers only when the day's are short. whilst the loph flowering season is much much longer, let's say, they almost flower all year. this ario had 4 or 5 shrivelled up flower heads, and 3 of them had around 50 seeds each, the other two were empty.

     

    I had a loph fruit the other day with 44 seeds in it. I was blown away!!

    this is a fantastic record, I assume, it had lot's of other lophs flowering around it, did ya hand pollinate?


  11. I'm not 100% sure, but back in Austria I know a blutbuche (blood beech) and it could be what they/ you call a copper.

    it's one of my favourite trees, and I always visit it, when I return to the place of my birth.

    it's quite big though, rather 20m tall or more.

    • Like 1

  12. today, I harvested three "pinkies" (fruits) of my ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus, and each fruit contained ~50seeds!

    I notice similar before, those arios produce far more seeds per fruit than lophs do, or did this abundance happen, because the flowers probably recieved foreign pollen??

    • Like 1

  13. as with the other citrus fruits, finger lime seeds will germinate with ease, the most common reason for not germinating would have to be, lack of ample heat.

    trying to germinate seeds over winter without bottom heat, is more than likely a feature which will have to fail.

    anyway, here is a pic of my successfull germination of finger lime seeds.

    two seeds were removed from the fruit on 20.7.14, and planted the same day.

    the pic was taken today, 5.9.14, so germination took ~30 day's!

    post-70-0-24445200-1409895216_thumb.jpg

    fingerlime_seedling.JPG

    fingerlime_seedling.JPG

    • Like 2

  14. I just had a very good and close inspection, at my 3 albertos, and I noticed that, they look exactly how, they are described in post #25! they all are greyish and not a nice green collor like all my other lophs, so I conclude, they have alberto heritage and are not the result of mixed up seed, but must have had a large loph as pollinator!!

    Color: This is were alberto is different from koehresii & a lot more like fricii, alberto has a grey/mauve, greenish/violet epidermis & never get a dark bold green color


  15. The king, Hostilis Alberto :wink:.

    Hey mate, I am not sure how old my plant is as I got it last year as a mature plant. I have done a fair bit of reading about these since there discovery, I think your three locations look the way they should including the flowers. As far as I know Alberto has been placed in the Diffusae section of Lophophora along with koehresii, fricii & diffusa so if you are thinking they or there flowers look a bit fricii it is because there are suppose to. This would also mean it should not cross with williamsii.

    A basic description of alberto, Flower: color range is from almost white to pale pink with a darker mid stripe, it is very similar to L. koehresii the only differences being alberto can have rounded tepals & the bud forms differently. Growth: Alberto grows similarly to koehresii, the areoles radiate from the apical meristem, it differs from koehresii in that it never gets as many ribs, alberto has an average of 5 ribs rarely up to 8. Color: This is were alberto is different from koehresii & a lot more like fricii, alberto has a grey/mauve, greenish/violet epidermis & never get a dark bold green color like koehresii. The thing that sets alberto apart from its other Diffusae cousins is obviously its size at maturity, the seeds have very distinct differences as well.

    Hey planthelper, I have read your comments & am now wondering how you have come to this conclusion. I highly doubt your seeds would be alberto crosses & if they were how would only one not be? I would say they are albertos or they are not, how big is the biggest one & when were they sown? I grow a lot of cacti from seed & it is very common for the same batch of seeds to grow at very different rates, I have L.williamsii here that were sown three years ago some of these plants are pushing 4cm others are still smaller than my alberto, all the seeds are from one seed pod & have all been grow in exactly the same conditions.

    Cheers

    Jox

    I wonder how you can believe that a 45mm diameter loph, which grew to this size very fast, can be an alberto.

    here are more details, I was given 5 seeds for free and the person said they are alberto seeds.

    I managed to germinate 3, two of them I grafted, one I left on it's own roots.

    you can clearly see on my pic that they are already after one season far too big to be albertos.

    the 3rd one though, which I did not graft, grows very, very slowly and stayed quite small.

    have a look at my pic.

    it's easy to explain how some seeds could be true albertos and others which came in the same batch ar not, the seeds were either mixed with other seeds (unlikely as I think we all avoid this from happening) or, more likely the mother plant was cross pollinated and self and same of a kind pollinated.

    we need more info, was the mother plant kept in isolation, or only kept with other true albertos?

    it doesn't look that way to me.

    here is my pic, those two grafts are clearly no albertos!!

    post-70-0-97869900-1409375688_thumb.jpg

    alberto#2.JPG

    alberto#2.JPG


  16. sasca, I heard the same, but quercus ilex, will not grow at my area, whilst suber does.

    carya illinoensis, the pecan nut does grow alright in my garden, and thats' why I chase tuber lyonii.

    I was told in a conversation, with a host tree nurseryman, that not heat is the problem, but one needs 1400h below 7 deg C. that's 8 weeks, I manage at my location maybe, 2 or 3 weeks, with this temperature.

    my gamble is, that tuber lyonii, has a lesser chill requirement.

    has anybody of you experience with getting a fungus through quarantine?

    • Like 2
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