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The Corroboree

philistine

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About philistine

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    Big Member
  • Birthday 06/05/1982

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Country
    Brownsville, QLD
  • Interests
    growing stuff, the great outdoors and the doof (preferrably simultaneously)

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  • Climate or location
    Dry tropics

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  1. philistine

    Tea (camellia sinensis) wanted, dead or alive!

    This may be quite irrelevant, but I have taken cuttings from the Nerada and the Nucifora tea plantations in FNQ on several occasions and they have NEVER taken!!!!!!!!!!!! (some kind of Karma perhaps? but COME ON! a couple of twigs taken from a 10+ acre plantation? I hardly call that stealing....) The closest I ever got was one single cutting from a batch of about 20 or so that stayed green and kept it's leaves for about 3 months...... then it died.... I guess the point of my story is, get seeds or already rooted plants!!!! Anyway, good luck...
  2. philistine

    Opuntia compressa

    Ive tried the double graft thing, but the root-halves always die on me.... I know some people have luck with it, but Ive given up on it all together... I got sick of seeing the shriveled up deadness But yeah see how ya go, I'll try to get some pics up of a large batch of seedling/opuntia grafts Ive done recently... once they show some signs of growth.
  3. philistine

    Opuntia compressa

    Thats a shame to hear about your lack of success with the opuntia/seedling grafts... as you can see in the photo in Teo's grafting book, I've been having success with grafting T.bridgesii seedlings to O.compressa but it does seem to be more difficult than the Pereskiopsis grafts... Ive found that misting them lightly seems to help as the Opuntia dries out and shrinks much more than pereskiposis.... I think the other main thing to consider is that the vascular tissue you are trying to align is in a straight line as opposed to a small ring like in the pereskiopsis and I have been testing a theory that if you align the cotyledons on the seedling with the line in the opuntia it's more likely to take (its still early days yet so I have no proof of this) My reason for trying this was that after cutting a few seedlings (they were astropytums) I noticed that instead of having a tiny vascular ring, they seemed to all have two little points, eg. this ( : ) instead of this ( o ). The two points were in line with the cotyledons - so Im guessing that unlike a ring, which will intersect no matter where you place it (providing it is actually ON the vascular tissue of your root stock) you need to make sure that the line of the vascular "points" of the seedling a running in the same direction as the vascular "line" on the Opuntia. Does this make any sense? If not, let me know and I'll do a diagram.... But yeah, like I said before, this is just a new found theory which I have yet to prove either way...
  4. philistine

    Betel Nut Prep

    the leaf looks like piper betel.... from what I can gather.... But aren't ya supposed to take the nut out of the husk first?
  5. Working for Jims Mowing, Ive recently heard about the latest installment in the JIM'S epic saga of home service franchises, check it out ya'll.... http://www.jimspermaculture.com.au/ Could be interesting.....?
  6. philistine

    Recent Acquisitions

    I reckon your little desert friend from bunnings is a T. bridgesii, or aka E. lagenformis (spelling?) I just got one myself actually, $3 with the infamous "spike" label, but this one actually had a small paper sticky label added on saying T.bridgesii. And after growing 500 of the little bastards from seed this year, I reckon they're right.... I also scored some kind of crestform cactus (no idea what it is) for $4 with the same desert friends label you had on yours... Love the "cactus juice" bottle
  7. philistine

    Pere's pots

    there's a mob called "garden City Plastics" that do mail orders.... http://www.gardencityplastics.com only in bulk quantities though.... not sure what your budget is, but for the square agro-forestry tubes (which are perfect for peres. cuttings being used for grafting) it works out to about 15c each including postage.
  8. Yeah, I had no luck with grafting seedlings to hylocereus, although I was just mucking around blunt blades, putting them outside.... Im sure with practice you could make it work.. check out this link, http://rschoi.com.ne.kr/cultivation.htm It's thai I think, so I have no idea what it says but the pics say it all really. I have had success grafting a loph button onto hylocereus, but I kinda.... killed it by accident.... knocked it off with my sleeve one day and then stood on it... :BANGHEAD2: :BANGHEAD2: :BANGHEAD2: :BANGHEAD2: I reckon go for it, I can get you a truck load of the stuff if your interested..... what you got? - Phil
  9. philistine

    dark blue tea

    Microwaves? Blue coloured? Chemical extraction? words with more than 3 syllables? For best results, crawl around on all fours, like an animal and eat them straight off the the ground... not strong enough? then eat more! Shrooms are natures gifts - free, natural and special! just eat them! Sorry guys.... carry on
  10. philistine

    rainy day cacti pics

    Nah, similar in appearance, but Totem pole is right, - I think - formerly Lophocereus schottii var. montstrose, now Pachycereus schottii var.monstrose (thanks teo) Speaking of which... (sorry to hijack this thread with a question that most people won't see... hmm maybe I should start another post.... maybe some other time... oh yeah, back to the action:) Does anyone out there have a cutting or some seed of the above mentioned species? I have some seed from a non-monstrose schottii, but it's the mutation that Im really after... Willing to trade or even buy... PM me if anyone has any info on the whereabouts of such a thing.
  11. philistine

    20kg mushroom found

    I wish I had some pics to back this up, but Ive seen mushrooms that size up around Grafton, nth NSW. Theres a road called "waterfall Way" (I think.... this is stretching the memory banks here...) but along the road is a small rest stop/camping area at the top of some waterfalls (can't remember what they're called either) and there are mushrooms that size growing around the carpark. Not sure what you call them, Ive always known them as Slippery Jacks, brown on top and slimy, with yellow sponge instead of gills. My mum and I used to pick the smaller versions down south in Victoria in pine forests and make traditional polish style mushroom dumplings.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ dumplings.... you coould probably have called them pirogi, we'd dry the mushrooms for storage, then when it came time to cook, soak them in hot water, dice them real fine and fry them with finely diced onion and butter. Then you make little pastry circles with a cup or a glass to use as a cutter and fold a little spoonful of the mushroom mix and seal the edges. These were then baked and served with piping hot Borscht..... (which is a soup made from fermented beetroot) SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD...... Sorry, that went completley off topic there.....
  12. philistine

    Betel Nut Prep

    Yes, I must extreemely second that caution on the lime paste!!!! I had my first experience with the paste and used a little too much.... it BURNED THE SHIT out of my mouth, toungue and gums!!!!! The pain lasted all day (i had a chew in the morning) Then to top it off, that night my host at the time cooked an incredibly spicy sezchuan pepper stir fry and HOLY MOTHER OF F**KING SANTA CLAUSE, THE EASTER BUNNY AND VARIOUS OTHER COMMERCIALLY CONVOLUTED CELEBRATORY FIGURE HEADS did it HURT!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah... so anyway, I also discovered that just grating a FRESH betel nut on the real small bit (the one you powderize parmesan with) and mixing it with a little all-spice and some palm sugar was also quite effective as well as being rather pleasant. One heaped teaspoon of the powder (you'll get a shitload from one nut) put under the tongue and just sucked on and chewed occasionally is stimulating enough (for me anyway) also takes effect almost instantly.... no need for lime - although im sure it would increase the effect somewhat....
  13. philistine

    interesting rib formation

    Nah, I reckon the meristem (or area of the plant with actively dividing cells ie. the very center of the tip) got wounded and then the areole closest to it, most likely the freshest one right in the center thats just freed itself from the creation vortex , has started producing a pup as a hormonal response to the damage. Bestowed with the power of "apical dominance", but being situated just slightly off center, the new pup would have caused a slight disruption in the noramallly parallel order of the surround ribs - you see it when ribbed cacti lose or gain a new rib - but gradualy formed itself back in the middle, pushing the disruption out and growing above it normally. so yeah.......... like stuff n' that - Phil
  14. philistine

    Stapelia sp. episode two

    you mean the traditional way? How long do they (usually) take? Do you soak them beforehand or anything?
  15. philistine

    Areca Catechu cultivation

    Sorry, i know this post is s bit old now, but I though I'd chuck in another $20 dollars worth, though I'll just chuck it on to your Tab. As far as I know, the husk is quite important for germination, it seems to provide a nice little moist jacket for the nut and a good medium for the emerging roots until they break out into soil. Having said this, I have no idea if they'll germinate without the husk, they might just grow fine...? All the nuts I grew and sent out where picked up off the ground, not buried and seemed to be thriving just by sitting on top of a layer of leaf mulch... but that place was magic for plants, don't know how to explain it.... right in the rainforest everything there would just GROW... never had any problems with parasites or insects... it was like the ecosystem was already so developed, there was no room for anything to become unbalanced, pests just get eaten by predators and fungi and bacteria seemed to just be beneficial and natural.... Sorry, went off tangient there.... The little white bits popping out of the round end of the nut are the beginning of germination, most likely the first leaf, I think the roots follow soon after. Shade is definately good, although nuts I saw sprouting in another location in full sun looked much... fatter.... shorther distances between leaves and wider stems/trunks but a little bit burnt from the sun. I hope this answers your questions, but you probably found all this out by now. Take it easy, good luck - Phil
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