Cimi

Found that about 10 of my custard apple seeds have sprouted! Potted up individual germinating seeds in small pots of seed-raising mix and watered with Seasol solution. Hoping my mulberry cutting will root. I placed it in a small glass of 50/50 water/seaweed plant starter: http://greenharvest.com.au/tools/organic_fertiliser_prod.html#SeaweedPlantStarter Inspected my capsicum & rockmelon seedlings, going good. Moved my krachai seedling as it was getting too much sun. Loving the weather today!

This thread reminded me of this Simpsons episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EqusIsObeo&feature=youtube_gdata_player Lol

Found a new flower on one of my lophs. They've just had a good feed. This, along with the turn of the season, has spurred them into a lot of new growth. This is the first time this one has flowered since I acquired it a couple of years ago, so this is really nice to see. Hopefully my rabbit doesn't eat this flower like he did my last one And some new pups! I love seeing this sort of fresh, healthy new growth on a loph! So exciting And the worm farm is going nicely. The worm tea comes in handy and I can't wait for the castings.

It would be so cool... Thanks everyone for the advice. I will work on improving my potted loph care first. I need to learn more about feeding and practice my technique. I fully think it could work if you did lots of preparation of the garden bed and provided lots of shelter. Maybe even companion planting of traditional desert plants for shelter, and to suck up excess moisture. A desert garden. It would need to be dry & very well-drained. Digging down deep with plenty of gypsum to break up the earth and using high-quality materials in the soil (eg., horticultural charcoal, crushed volcanic rock / scoria). And lots of yummy slow-release things. I also like the idea of a large tub. I would love to put an awning on the side of my house and prepare a bed underneath. That could work. But to be viable it would be a big project, so I will wait a bit. It is damn exciting, though! watertrade, I can't wait to see what you come up with! It will be a loph paradise! Question: what is the best type of fertiliser to feed regularly? I'm guessing something slow-release, like osmocote? And anything I should be wary of? Thank you, everyone.

Sounds great carl. Next person gets 2-3 small T. bridgesii cuts. They range from 10-20cm tall and are very healthy, new growth from the past 18 months.

Yeah d00d, looks like you have a great setup, and some very happy seedlings! Today I repotted some very chunky scops that had been pot-bound for many years prior to living with me. They are now in nice, wide terra cotta with plenty of space for their roots to spread. Madly pupping already! I also turned my horse poo / straw patch. It is starting to break down nicely! I want to dry it out a bit. Then I will start adding random crap (eg., wood-based mulch, coffee grounds, whatever else I have lying around). I also got a nice fresh batch of loph potting mix ready (sand, perlite, cactus mix, gypsum, plus some horticultural charcoal I picked up from Bunnings). And then I repotted my lophs. I also re-potted my avocado seedling and my rose-scented geranium. Very productive day!

PM'd

Sweet, thanks. That would loosen up the soil nicely without adding organic matter. It can get a bit compacted over time. Then, once repotted, I can experiment more with feeding different things. Maybe some dolomite would be an idea. I need to test the pH again.

Yeah good points. We do have long periods of rain at times. The roof sounds like a good idea to make it work. Maybe a compromise could be a long, rectangular container. They are currently in a mix of 1/3 cactus potting mix, 1/3 perlite, and 1/3 river sand. The time for repotting is approaching and I started to think about more long-term options. Also interested in other ways I can make them happier in pots. Maybe I need to fertilise more often and with more varied substances.

Thanks mimzy! Next person gets a P. cubensis (ecuador) print for microscopy purposes only.

Hi ef, I got the same error message as Paradoxical when I tried to PM you. I have previously exchanged PMs with gem about this offer. I will keep trying. Cheers, Cimi

Bottom-watered my lophs and placed them in a part-sun position to warm up for spring/summer. Budding already! I also watered my horse poo patch in preparation for an outdoor mushroom garden! So excited about it. The horse poo is leaching into the garden, on top of some straw I already had down for mulch. The whole lot will sit in part-sun for 1-2 more weeks, then it will be ready to pasteurise. Watered my herbs, lettuce, spinach & strawberries. Got some daikon radishes (from seed) going really well, nice and leafy. Also planted some custard apple seeds a few days ago - fingers crossed they will sprout! I planted out some trichocereus cuttings a while back. Watered them today along with my freshly-sprouted self-sowing flowers to promote good bugs (eg., red clover, queen-anne's lace, etc.). The soil here needs improving, so I will be sowing some buckwheat seeds soon for 'green manure' to increase organic matter. Hopefully I can build a good ecosystem here to reduce pests and improve soil quality, good bacteria, etc. It's an exciting time of year!

I was initially interested in this stuff for its delicious-sounding flavour. It has pale yellow finger-like tubers which are eaten raw and cooked, and often added to soups and curries for its aromatic, spicy flavour. Sounds easy enough to grow in the right climate, too. Info: http://greenharvest.com.au/Plants/Information/Krachai.html Then I saw this: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaempferia_galanga It has many amazing properties including potential as a sunscreen, killing roundworms in dogs, and inhibition of the Epstein-Barr virus. It could be quite a good insect repellant, apparently. Then I saw that the sap also has hallucinogenic properties, due to an 'unknown' alkaloid. It is a CNS depressant. Does anyone have thoughts about what the likely mechanism of action / alkaloid could be in this plant?

Congrats Jox! Looks amazing. You must be very proud!

Sweet thanks! I s'pose I could just get some from the store couldn't I lol I did some more reading and there are a few good stories of people getting a nice mood lift from eating it raw / chewing. Interesting stuff. Some experiences I found: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5777 http://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Galangal.shtml It's funny, the stuff on galangal is all about ingesting the root, but the wikipedia page for krachai talks about using the sap from the leaves. They are two different plants, I guess. All parts of the plant have specialised uses.

Thanks all, I found it: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=27457 Weird that it isn't present in my post history through my profile, but I guess it must cut out after a certain point. Thanks again!

Hi guys, Just wondering if there's an archive somewhere where we can view old threads? I have been looking for one from back in 2010 I think it was and it isn't showing up in searches. Thanks, Cimi

Thanks guys. I will try some more searches. I was looking for an old thread started by me about problems I was having with growing cacti from seed. It doesn't appear in my post history. It was either in 2010 or 2011. It had a few pics in it as well. I will keep looking!

I found this sociology thesis on the 'return' of entheogens to modern western pop culture: http://www.goagil.com/Larkin%20Thesis.pdf Pretty interesting read! It's crazy to see modern culture incorporating elements of traditional shamanism. The use of technology (eg., digital music) is also a novel element in the ritual. Modern techno-shamanic rituals are a totally new cultural experience. Hopefully the return of entheogens will gradually improve our society.

Yum! Next person gets 1.5m of E. Pachanoi (very scaly after years of neglect but plenty of it) & 3x P. cubensis prints (Ecuador) for microscopy purposes only. EDIT: I will keep / destroy the scaly cuttings unless the next person wants them, and instead include 1.5m of healthy, scale-free pach.

Hi Deadstar! Yeah it really is a great community here Welcome.

Do any of you guys ever have problems with seedlings getting nibbled by large bugs and then shrivelling up and dying? I have some seedlings sitting inside near a window which are about 3-4 months old, just starting to toughen up a little (uncovered, weekly bottom-waterings). (no fungus gnats or mold; soil completely dries out every week. There is noticeable salt buildup however, which I mist down about once a week) I had 7 germinate, lost 4 very young, and then had 4 live until about 3 months. Since then, I noticed chew-marks in 3 seedlings on 3 separate occasions. A little cockroach-like thing had been hanging around. I thought I was keeping him out with a cake-cover put over the seedling tray but alas today my best seedling has had his round top chewed right off I hope he lives. It's possible as he is pretty big but all the others have perished after being nibbled. They just dry up and shrivel dead once their skin has been broken. I just watered them so hopefully he will get some moisture and live through this! If he dies, this leaves only one seedling alive in the tray! I gave up and got out the surface spray to keep roachy away. Sprayed a square around where the tray sits (none on the seedlings!) I would like to know how you guys protect your seedlings from bugs while they are uncovered and hardening off but still quite young? Maybe I should use the plastic bag method and let them stay wetter for longer. But they have to come out into the air some time. So tell me cactus lovers, how do you prevent death by nibbling? 3 musketeers (middle one has just been chewed and is starting to curl up) This is the middle guy. You can see where he has been chewed down the centre. Slowly shrivelling away And this is how the left-most one looks today! round head completely eaten away He probably won't survive this Finally the last uneaten one left (right-hand seedling in the first photo). This one is recovering from some earlier sun damage.

Yeah? Well I guess that proves that you can sensitise seedlings to sun stress by starting them too dark. Cheers for that. This means I will just need to keep up the gradual exposure to light for these two but I might give future batches more light from the start. There must be some kind of mechanism which determines their light sensitivity really early on, like upon germination. I'll see what happens with my next batch. Edit: It's possible I left them on the heat mat too long trying to induce the rest to germinate, so it may have been a heat problem. Can heat cause greater light sensitivity, or even 'sunburn' in itself?

Yeah mac, the roach thing looked more like that - not as flat as the cockroaches I see in google images for "cockroach". That segmented look. Water moats and sticky paper are great ideas! By the way - somehow the latest one to be eaten is still alive. Hasn't shrivelled like the others. He was the biggest so maybe a bit tougher. Thanks tripsis - I guess that means they do like lophs! Archaea - they are like 1.5 cm tall and very thin. The stems are about 1-2 mm thick. The sun damage was actually just pigment which was pale green-white, then orange, red, then purple now fading back to blue-green. It started at about 2 months in. Initially, I had them germinate in a propogation tray with a clear plastic lid beside a frosted window. I placed a tea towel over the plastic lid to reduce the chance of sunburn. I began removing it for short periods to ease the seedlings gradually into light after 1.5 months. That was when the sunburn happened so I guess the others got deprived of light because I was giving the whole tray the same dim conditions when different seedlings had different needs. I did lose a few seedlings to sunburn in those days. Maybe they were more sensitive to it because they were covered up too much initially. There was a fine line between too much and not enough light. I've had 1-2 month old lophs die early from sunburn in just indirect light through frosted glass windows on overcast days. As for light now, they are on a pretty bright windowsill (still frosted glass, but uncovered). Should I give them sun outside yet or not? Another factor which I now know is that the mix in the propogation tray was way too coarse - big bits of bark from the potting mix (I didn't sift it). I used 1/3 perlite, 1/3 propogation sand from Bunnings, and 1.3 commercial cacti potting mix (Debco from Bunnings). http://www.gardenexpress.com.au/debco-cacti-succulent-mix/ I will sift in future! Hmm interesting topic - are alkaline cacti more tasty to the bugs? Greedy buggers... Thanks for your encouragement. Hopefully the left one will live and we will have 2 alive in the tray long term He isn't giving up as easily as the others.

Thanks. Hopefully the surface spray will work for now. I will also try to give them a little more light as new seedlings in the future to minimise etoliation. One day I will have a greenhouse, that will be the best. Cheers guys. Edit: sealed takeaway containers might be the go as well.