migraineur

Haha, man, they make it sound as if Torsten is growing the equivalent of some massive cannabis grow up. I laughed hard at the part about it him and the nursery being so secretive and sneaky. Yeah, he's so secretive that he makes a publicly available online nursery and forum, which doesn't require onion routing to access and that includes a map and directions to his business as well as the BSB and account number of his ANZ bank account. They'll never find Torsten and his evil lair now!

Hi guys, I have some insect problems with my ethnos. I first noticed a small colony of cushiony cotton scale on some citrus trees and proceeded to squash the bastards. However, I noticed my B. Caapi, psychotria and another plant became affected as well as a small cactus which I put in the bin. The believe one had some cottony cushion scale because I found white sacs under the leaves and there were small larvae along the veins of the leaves. I have been picking and scraping these off. However, there appears to be some soft or armored scale on the plant too. I picked most of these off but small ones still appear. The B. Caapi appears to have some problems too. I believe it has the soft scale too. Some of the leaves also appear "pock marked" and I cut those off and put them in the bin but I noticed a few more leaves also have signs of these same marks. I'm guessing I should take these off also? However, it will leave me with minimal or maybe even no leaves on young plants. One of my psychotrias had some of the cotton like sacks on a leaf or two and I cut these off. I think it might have some signs of soft scale too. I sprayed it with isopropyl alcohol and I think this has really damaged the plant In addition, I am dealing with some scale on some of my trichocereus and dragon fruit. Can anyone provide any advice on how to remove the bugs on these plants? I have read things online but what works for one plant doesn't work for others and can damage some. I experienced this when using the isopropyl alcohol. Some cacti don't seem to like white oil either although it kills bugs pretty well. I apologise in advance for any language mistakes. I'm dealing with the effects of a migraine.

Don't forget the parafilm to help prevent contamination. Shop around for it online.

I suspect this situation will have parallels with the internet censorship debate where politicians like Stephen Conroy, who is a technological illiterate, want to impose censorship on us and take away our freedoms under the guise of saving children. Anyone who presents valid counter arguments is then counter attacked by Conroy who is armed with his sword of logical fallacies. According to Conroy, if you don't support his policy then you must support child porn (nobody in the Catholic Church that he is a member of would abuse children, you see!). In this case, it'll be if you don't support the banning of *insert medicinal plant here* then you are some immoral drug abuser or pusher who seeks to benefit at the expense of the safety of our children (shame on you!). I won't be surprised if they make the owners of these plants appear as some kind of dodgy stereotype, such as some new age hippy stoner, in order to detract from the science of it. I forgot to add a sound byte of my own:

Aussiemushroomsupplies is expensive. Karo corn syrup costs $16 and that's before the cost of shipping has even been added.

Plastic is preferable. When you work with agar you tend to need a lot of petri dishes and the glass ones aren't cheap. Plastic petri dishes are also not as slippery and won't break easily. If they're the right kind of plastic, such as polypropylene, then you can sterilise them in a pressure cooker/autoclave. Also, you should be using parafilm with your petri dishes to prevent contamination. I use Wiltronics for petri dishes and I have found no problem with them.

Your post has made my heart sink from worry as it conjures up images of another scare campaign by some journalist who is a science illiterate and wants only to stir up some controversy. I can already picture the overly dramatised introduction about the threat of "dangerous drugs" that can be bought easily and how the kiddies aren't safe. Medicinal plants will then be portrayed as being on par with things such as dirty street meth and there'll be calls for a crack down so that we can protect the children. Maybe they'll interview some politicians and police to ask them what they're going to do about this horrible threat to public safety. Then some concerned parent or family group will call for action. Someone will then propose reactionary laws so that they can appear tough on crime and hopefully gain some votes.

Mycosupply.com is another good site for mycology gear. If you live in Australia though then Wiltronics has plenty of cheap lab gear that can be used for mycology. Buying from Wiltronics could end up saving you a lot because you won't need to pay for international postage. This thread makes me think that I should update my Aussie Grow Supplies thread that I made ages ago.

The last time I read the rules there was a restriction on importing any mescaline producing cactus seeds from overseas. However, I was free to buy them within Australia.

Just plant them in reasonable sized pots, man. Then you can take them with you when you move. If you have to cut off a lot when moving then make a bunch of cuttings to sell and/or trade. My three plants are in pots at the moment.

This! Exactly what you said. When I bought my first grow light I walked out of the shop thinking "I bet people driving past are thinking I'm some dodgy fucker". Then some lady walks past me and says "You won't grow many mullies with that, mate.". I just started to laugh and I didn't bother to say anything back because I knew she probably wouldn't believe me if I said it wasn't for illegal purposes.

I have an All American 921 and I don't know how people could use anything below this size. It'd take you forever to sterilise decent amounts of grain. I even want a bigger one. Amazon is definitely the way to go.

Which variety did you get?

Yeah, it seems as if every solution brings another problem. Reminds me of the red queen theory too. How many people here have bee hives?

Many things are completely "unnatural" but it doesn't mean they're bad. You could say that farming and plant breeding are "unnatural" or many medicines or a multitude of other things because humans have used tools to create or manipulate. You wouldn't abandon them though. Although monoculture is not perfect it requires less land to be cleared whilst providing more food.

I went to add a Swedish friend once and sent the request to the wrong person. What made it worse was that I wrote "Jag vill bröstknulla dig" when I sent the request which means "I want to breastfuck you" (my friend taught me all of the important things in Swedish). To explain the situation, there were only 4 results when I searched for his name and 3 had pictures which weren't of him and I assumed the one without a picture was him. He laughed hard when we realised I sent it to the wrong guy. Not surprisingly the guy didn't respond to my request although it could've been worse if the guy was actually happy about what I had to say.

Koehres seeds are awesome. They are really well priced and the germination rate is amazing and so are your plants.

I was watching a documentary on penguins and the females were trading sex for rocks with the males who didn't have partners. The rocks that they used to build their nests with could be scarce during breeding season so the lone males would try to collect a stash to impress females and the females who only wanted some extra rocks would put out.

Your shirt might become moldy and stinky after a few days. I don't warm up the water in my spray bottle.

Well, it can be a bit of a shock when you get moved from your nice warm humid environment, thrown in a dark bag for a couple of days whilst in transit and then put into a different environment. Plants tend to be weaned off their original conditions slowly in order to harden them up. I have a 125 watt fluro in the ultra blue 14, 000k range. I also have a 250 watt fluro which is a dual spectrum 6400/2700k. I actually ordered a non dual spectrum because I wanted more blue light for growth instead of red light for flowering but I got called after I placed my order and they said they didn't have any in stock so I settled for a dual range. If you want heat mats, lights or other things then check Ebay first. I found a couple of sellers that have the best prices. Even though I'm ordering bulky items from interstate I still save a lot. I only bought the heated propagator from Bunnings that day because I could not afford to wait for half a week.

Sounds like 4chan....or the Vatican.

Ladyswan, do you have the necessary equipment for mycology or are you only interested in buying a premade kit for now?

Alice is right about it being the wrong time of year but this need not be a problem if you bring your plants inside where it's warm and if you use a cheap fluro grow light. For example, a few weeks ago someone caused some things to fall onto my P. Viridis which almost completely severed it. It's the only P. Viridis I have so I had to act quickly to make conditions suitable for saving any of it. I put tape around where it broke, put a dome over it, misted it and drove to Bunnings to buy a heated propagation box, cloning gel and other accessories. I made 7 leaf cuttings and 2 stem cuttings. I also left 1 leaf on the original plant, which was reduced to almost nothing, in case it pulled through. They were then placed inside where they receive warmth, artificial light and misting. Although I was worried I would lose everything given that it's Winter and I had no experience in making cuttings apart from cactus cuttings, the original plant is still alive and has new shoots, the two stem cuttings are showing growth and the leaf cuttings are still green and healthy.

You can get humidity domes from Bunnings that should sit nicely over your plant and provide plenty of room. They also have an adjustable opening at the top. You could use one of these and use a spray bottle to mist every so often so your plant doesn't undergo shock so much.

I live in Perth and mine came from a tropical climate. I can't remember if I ever used humidity domes on them at the start but if they did then they have been without them for a very long time. They are even still growing at this time of year and for the past number of months have been getting some direct sun each day but not heaps. I have three and one finally started to take off a few months ago so it stays outside. The other two are smaller and due to bad weather I brought them inside the last few nights. I also stuck them under fluro grow lights and they loved it. Have you got a grow light that you can stick it under? You can get them cheaply from Ebay and they don't use much power. They're also great for seedlings, cuttings and supplementing with light your fragile plants that you bring inside during the Winter months.