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The Corroboree

Bongchitis

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Posts posted by Bongchitis


  1. Hi all,

    I have 3 healthy T.Bridgesii babies, 14 months old and 10-15cm tall. Seed sourced from SAB just before time of planting. I am parting ways with these as I have too many!

    I would love a 'sterile' Cube print for microscopy purposes if anyone has one, strain unimportant.

    Please make an offer anyway and all will be considered.

    Cheers......... :bong: Bongchitis


  2. My TBM's are putting out the same pups with heaps of spines and really fat and healthy....heaps of spines (and long) per ariole. Did the same thing last winter too! Many smaller pups in the growth period and one beauty in the colder months.


  3. Hi all,

    Just had this sent to me and thought you all would be amused in one way or another. Yes, yes, Steve.........quarantine matters!

    "A true story and its source was the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service in Adelaide.

    A bloke and his family were on holidays in the United States and went to Mexico for a week. An avid cactus fan, the man bought one-metre high, rare and expensive cactus there. On arrival back home Australian Customs said it must be quarantined for 3 months.

    He finally got his cactus home. Planted it in his backyard, and over time it grew to about 2 metres. One evening while watering his garden after a warm spring day, he gave the cactus a light spray. He was amazed to see the plant shiver all over, he gave it another spray and it shivered again.

    He was puzzled so he rang the council who put him on to the state gardens people. After a few transfers he got the state's foremost cactus expert who asked him many questions. How tall is it? Has it flowered? Etc.

    Finally he asked the most disturbing question. "Is your family in the house?" The bloke answered yes. The cactus expert said get out of the house NOW, get on to the front nature strip and wait for me; I will be there in 20 minutes.

    Fifteen minutes later, 2 fire trucks, 2 police cars and an ambulance came screaming around the corner. A fireman got out and asked "Are you the bloke with the cactus?" I am, he said. A guy jumped out of the fire truck wearing what looked like a space suit, a breathing cylinder and mask attached to what looked like a scuba backpack with a large hose attached. He headed for the backyard and turned a flame-thrower on the cactus spraying it up and down.

    After a few minutes the flame-thrower man stopped, the cactus stood smoking and spitting, half the fence was burnt and parts of the gardens were well and truly scorched. Just then the cactus expert appeared and laid a calming hand on the bloke's shoulder. "What the hell's going on?" he says. "Let me show you" says the cactus man. He went over to the cactus and picked away a crusty bit, the cactus was almost entirely hollow and filled with tiger striped bird-eating tarantula spiders, each about the size of two hand spans.

    The story was that this type of spider lays eggs in this type of cactus and they hatch and live in it as they grow to full size. When full size they release themselves. The cactus just explodes and about 150 dinner plate sized hairy spiders are flung from it, dispersing everywhere. They had been ready to pop. The aftermath was that the house and the adjoining houses had to be vacated and fumigated: police tape was put up outside the whole area and no one was allowed in for two weeks".

    There was a pic but not great quality, spider as big as a dinner plate apparently (hard to tell due to quality)


  4. The mystery pics 4 & 5 are identical to a specimen that I have that was sold to me as Opuntia Cristate. I've looked and looked for a +ve ID on line and the closest I can come up with is a Cylindro-opuntia sp.

    Yep, Darcy those spines have hooks on them and seemingly tiny barbs aswell. I will have a look at your proposed ID.

    The pads seem to grow as normal (a bit more cylindical than std opuntia) but get to the end of its growth and the tip starts to distort and turn cristate?????? Weird.


  5. I am new to cacti but I think that is pretty normal. All of mine threw many longer thinner pups upon repotting a single rooted cutting. As the root system develops though the pups seem to come more one or two at a time (not 4-5 like mine) and are more 'normal'.

    Also, all of the mothers that throw pups do tend to shrivel .....just like any other parent, nuturing their offspring almost to the detriment of themselves. You could give them more water but mine are starting to plump up naturally without altering water regime....it is winter, all of my cacti are doing this!

    Good luck!


  6. ...and it keeps showing up in my house and freaking me out. I find that I must flush it down the toilet or tip it down the sink so that I may escape it's ravages. Colourless, odourless and tasteless, a truely insideous and undetectable killing machine.


  7. Thats just awsome! You could look at them all day, couldn't you? I really enjoy the crested cacti. Thanks for the pics zee, nate and MS. Some nice porn there.

    I am assuming they are very rare and difficult to come by but I would love to aquire one for my small collection. I was maybe expecting something with 'neater' and more uniform crests like the crested pedros that I have seen pics of but that is even better in a gnarled, ugly but interesting kind of way.

    I am buying if anyone is selling.

    How old are those specimens btw?


  8. Is there any such thing? I have seen references to a pic in one of Trouts books (or was it Smiths) anyhow, all searches that I have done have yeilded penis plants seemingly mis-named. Another reference at the Nook so I'll have to join and have a look.

    I wanted to have the 3 forms (even 4 including both monstrose forms) together in a small patch for a nice display but the cristate is proving elusive.

    Anyone out there in the know?


  9. Simon,

    My Stevia has carked it several times but only above ground. The root system seems to be very hardy and it reshoots and bounces back very quickly, I reckon it is very similar to mint in this way. Don't worry mate it will come good.


  10. Is it possible for pups to form from no areole? or can areoles be present but 'not visible' (perhaps imature)? Because with the Brigesii Monstrose the top portion (penis bit) does not appear to have areoles yet I believe to have seen plants that have puped from the very top seemingly an immaculate conception so to speak. I will have another look at mine and post a pick if it supports what I say.....if not I will pull my head in and be damned for eternity. :crux:


  11. Hi all,

    My mates neighbour has a very nice cactus in his front yard which I believe to be a trich....but I don't know which one.

    No spines, pale green, over 4m high and fat fat fat..............30cm down from growing tip is 20cm wide. I guess you can look for yourself. If anyone were to ask me I would say Scopulicolus but I am unsure.....perhaps a Juuls Giant??post-962-1131343786_thumb.jpgpost-962-1131343690_thumb.jpgpost-962-1131343886_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343690_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343786_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343886_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343690_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343786_thumb.jpg

    post-962-1131343886_thumb.jpg


  12. When it was legal to have one, I saw that the 'protective sheath' around the new growth turned red and the plant did not grow at all in winter (small plant). No leaf drop though and all leaves remained green.

    So this is a common winter type occurance then?


  13. I read an interesting book about nano-tech recently, it is called PREY by Michael Crichton.

    It is the same old computer gets too smart and attacks humans type scenario but what made the book was the nano-tech concepts....abstract/debateable yet written well enough to be plausible.

    Any lab nerd like myself will probably enjoy it.

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