bogfrog Posted April 21, 2014 Hi All, I have just joined this forum this week and want to share my experiences with everyone here as am building my collection back up again since I arrived in New Zealand from the UK, and as you can all see from my first post here, I already have some plants to talk about. Sadly I had to leave them behind as you are not allowed to bring plants over here.: Hi, welcome to the forum and Aotearoa! pm me if u looking to expand your collection any further, i can most likely help, esp if your interested in cacti ie: http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38224 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 21, 2014 (edited) the toad died last night , only got her last june, I don't think I will be getting another , this is just too much heartache for one year already. in retrospect , she went off her food, started shedding her skin and then would only eat 20 morio worms the whole of the last 3 weeks I don't know enough about them to suspect the food, I did recently change to a new cricket, locust and morio worm supplier since my local one went bust... I have already checked her over and cleaned her body to see if i could find anything amiss and buried her in the fae garden before the heat kicks in and any pong.. out of respect for her... all I could find is that she lacked gripper pads still and was probably right about her being a girl { cry hard } Edited April 21, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 22, 2014 (edited) 4 of the 14 virola nuts/seeds I ordered arrived today , exactly 8 days from purchase , like the first time I bought some 2 years ago when I started growing magickal plants - from ethnoplantes in France These particular virola are sebifera and possibly from Nicaragua So I sowed them in damp sphagnum following EG's very kind advice and in a baby food tub with a lid and plopped them in the rainforest box which is currently 32C on the floor, 22.8C at the height of 11 cm and 22.9 at the height of 40cm Edited April 23, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) psychotria viridis leaf cuts arrived leaf 1 Espina Foveolae Domatia leaf 1 potted up 2nd leaf 2nd leaf underside 2nd leaf Espina /Foveolae /Domatia I was that happy with them I went and bought 3 more After the expense of 2 years worth of fake uk "viridis", so far I haven't been able to purchase any genuine viridis in the uk what so ever the only genuine uk viridis I did get was a gift with a purchase last autumn: 3 beautiful leaves that I rooted and then potted up and clipped the leaves and re-rooted until I had 8 cuttings I bought some new zealand sphagnum -this time not for orchids, but for the the future sowings of Virolas and other cool plants Edited May 5, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 25, 2014 some cielo cuttings arrived so I slit the ends, dipped them in root gel and stuck em in Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 27, 2014 (edited) flooded the whole fkn wrld with requests for virola , particularly the vast most beautiful region geographically situated below north america even went as far as seeking other sellers of even more recalcitrant seeds just incase they knew virola on the subject of recalcitrant (awkward) , isn't it funny how these particular recalcitrant seeds seem to love to be sold by a lot of recalcitrant people anyhoo , checked the virola seeds, one had developed some mycellium as a buddy so i rinsed them under the tap (mixed hot and cold until it felt same temp as my hands) and repotted them in freshly rehydrated(with freshly fallen rain) new zealand sphagnum and fresh brand new baby food tubs and let their propogator go to 36C before limiting the temp to 30C maximum for the rest of the day to compensate for any wind chill they may have experienced in washing and replenishing their wombs :D also , I don't know why I didn't say before , but when these virola sebifera seeds arrived 2 of them rattled when shaken, anyhoo when I was rinsing them... inbetween rinses I put them in a jug of 30c water I noticed only one of the 4 sank... this floating sinking thing i recall , was mentioned in some info i dug up somewhere at somepoint in the last 3 years... that mimosa seeds that float , are the dead ones... I hope this isnt the same for virola , but maybe will turn out that way incase it does... I have separated the sinking one from the floating 3. umm yeah I also wrote to a rare tropicals store about some white chocolate trees - theobroma bicolor and with that began feeding the rainforest box... starting with theobroma cacao i noticed one of the muricata seedlings's first leaves that had been scorched by sun after heavy misting last week has now fallen off, the other muricata is going strong into it's 2nd set of leaves-stage and looks awesome the one with the dropped leaf has only just begun to look like it will do the same soon the alicias that got too dry when i used to open the vents of the rainforest box have almost finished dropping the shit leaves and are growing at full speed for their age , 2 of which that died and were reborn are even catching up with the long standers what else?.... I misted the cielo cuttings a tad with freshly fallen rain 2 hemia myrtifolia cuttings that seem to have now failed on the windowsill..i have now put outside , seeing as the plant i struck them from is adoring outdoor weather new shoots on the sassafras still are only shoot buds, seems very slow to bounce back , but then it was ridiculously ill and tiny when it arrived after paying an extorsionate price at burncoose nurseries, but they seem to be the only stockists in uk that I can trust enough so far which means for yet another species.. the uk is fkn bleak, to say its the garden of europe ..pfft if i think of anything else i'll add it later - microwaved a litre of freshly fallen rain , added it to the sprayer after it had cooled to 32C and gave the rainforest box a "night rain" of 500ml with the lights switched off, hopefully this approach will render sunlight burns- a thing of the past wrote to tropilab ,,, again see these are the issues we guys face when our new wife is mother nature - strangest thing of the day (night) was when i flicked 2 of the lights on and off rapidly in the rainforest box (imagining lightening lol) (one was already on simulating sunrise)-(there are 3 now since the toad no longer requires one) the tunkunaka both jumped!!!!! and in unison too and shook about for a bit until they were still again I thought it may have been a droplet of condensation but simultaneously in 2 different places? I guess it's possible.. - just bought a vanilla plant :D - more excitement! - I'm going to grow that up my chocolate tree Edited April 30, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) last night i felt a strange urge to bite one of the virola seeds after reading about a virola species being one of the secret ingredients in chocolate well it cracked and off came the shell, and i did it with the other 3 too so then I soaked them in 30c rainwater - incidentally they no longer floated :D but still kept them separate just incase can't imagine these finding their own way off... can you? and then microwaved their moss beds like i would cacti pots before sowing and let them cool down of course, in this case tho overnight... woke up , checked virola nuts (in just enough water to almost cover them at 30c) and re-nuked the moss bed tubs/pots just cooling down again now and then they'll go back in hopefully this has liberated them from their little mycelial pal that wasn't invited to the party I didnt try to remove anything from the seeds initially ...because in another thread, Torsten posted that he left them on and they found their own way.. away from the seeds in the germination process this makes me suspect some really do need removing from this inner shell or some other secret pre-treatment because on these, theyre fkn very hard -later- and back in with the ophthalmo's Edited May 17, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Evil Genius Posted April 29, 2014 It´s the type of Seed that would probably benefit very much from using a file to improve germination Rates! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bullit Posted April 29, 2014 my garden has loads of weeds... id please <> ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ JOKES Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 today i went n took some pics of the garden if you want ID's for them , check my gallery, i certainly cant be arsed to write all that out again 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) its the type of seed that benefits from a little nibble at the end EG, a file might have damaged the inside -edit ....l8r found a nail file and re-thought what i put- Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) my garden has loads of weeds... id please ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ JOKES aww please don't, i already had someone try to doubt my id on solanum dulcamera , whom ive known very personally for years (the solanum) but lol still ... Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) ok i found a better file ( nail file ) , yeah a file would be good i guess too , maybe more for the thinner husked ones... very gently , will look forward to the findings on that Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) postman pat just dropped off a letter with a beautiful koala stamp ... mmmm i hope these are what I think they are *sends hugs to SAB* fahk me i thought i'd seen scientifically packaged before now... ! Psychotria viridis seeds arrived from oz I soaked 2packs in cooled, boiled tap water .. 2 floated which i put in a pot in the rainforest box , I put half into a med cap i made for germinating cactacea; of vermiculite that i had hydrated with boiling water and allowed to cool down in an enclosed space... then inside a baby food tub I put half into a 2"bef pot like I do with 10's of cactacea; of a special own made rainforest soil blend that had been nuked for 15 mins and allowed to cool down ... and wrapped in cling film another 2 packs in 10%bleach solution soaking now , I'm going to put half again in the rainforest bef like above and I'll sow the remaining half non floaters in a bby food tub of sphagnum and add the 2 floaters from this time with the other 2 floaters and again if necc Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shonman Posted April 29, 2014 Pan ad for lady bugs, said they eat scale insects. So, I got some, even though I did not think they would work. Sure enough, the ladybugs just walked right over the scale insects. My plants are indoors,.....ants have invaded. They have a very close relationship to the scale insect, farming them for honeydew. I was a bit surprised, to see ants attacking the ladybugs, even though the ladies left the scale alone... Ants would pick up the ladybugs, which react defensively by pulling in their legs and being still..... The ants carried almost all the ladybugs, out of my little plant area! There were around 1500 ladybugs, but now there are only a few left!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
irabionist Posted April 29, 2014 I threw some snails that were eating my cacti really really far over the fence. 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) look fwd to seeing some of your guys pics for a change , gettn sick of seeing just mine is there a quality orchid thread here? I can't find one Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Pan ad for lady bugs, said they eat scale insects. So, I got some, even though I did not think they would work. Sure enough, the ladybugs just walked right over the scale insects. My plants are indoors,.....ants have invaded. They have a very close relationship to the scale insect, farming them for honeydew. I was a bit surprised, to see ants attacking the ladybugs, even though the ladies left the scale alone... Ants would pick up the ladybugs, which react defensively by pulling in their legs and being still..... The ants carried almost all the ladybugs, out of my little plant area! There were around 1500 ladybugs, but now there are only a few left!! any way of trying isopropyl alcohol ? maybe a blast with a sprayer?, it is flammable as heck , so don't use it if you can't ensure there are zero sources of ignition and would try to only get the bugs.. did the ant method with the cinnamon oil on a cotton bud not work? i linked a video of the vid for it at some point maybe a cotton bud with isopropyl on and manually remove them if theyre as big as the scale i'm used to outdoors I got the idea originally from reading the method of removing ticks from pets with methylated spirits and a cotton bud and then releasing their spirit via fire fkn bite my kitteh! I notice alcohol seems to be the best killer of anything .. but bleach was the chemical of the day yesterday for killing things :D (weeds and anything that might infect my plants when I put them outside) Edited April 29, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted April 30, 2014 (edited) today my vanilla orchid vine arrived looking very sexy indeed also I was that impressed , I went and bought another, but a varigated one... the last one too at the time I cleaned out the rainforest box and rearranged a few plants to benefit more from the late afternoon sun they get I potted up 2 psychotria nervosa leaf cuttings into the mother plants pot and a carthagenensis cutting checked germinatia for virola and psychotria my mimosa scabrella seems to have died so I boiled up another 4 seeds and figured I might as well retry 4 acacia victoriae while i was at it bought a coffee plant for a friend ... The Silene capensis seems to be coming back to life Also the validusXechinopsis things are getting fatter im kinda guessing rhodotricha or oxygona but who knows , maybe a flower will help made a new cool contact in Asia and got them interested in virola growing , big score for the Asia hunt so far ummm will add later if anything else undeniably cool happened that i forgot - oh yeah bought a book from a guy who has grown virolas for decades probably ... purchase eventually came with a reply as to where/if i can buy them though ... : /, answer: our trees arent mature enough yet , aah well... but thats so fkn promising for the future x] Edited May 17, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
planthelper Posted May 1, 2014 nice photos, and a nice garden, I could almost smell the lilac! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted May 2, 2014 , clematis montanas next - with their heady vanilla/chocolatey aroma and thank you kindly Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted May 8, 2014 starting growing some aromatic plants, some thyme and some mentha , occasionally using groundcloth this time (I am experiencing a lot with groundcloth this season) , planted several pomegranates , from which I succesfully also cloned some more. I also succeeded in cloning a couple lemon verbena and Lavandula. I also got a stevia, not yet re-potted her, a friend grew it last season , but he told me it died and I thought it was an annual. but there's cold where he is.. I also read stevia is a weak perennial, does anyone have experience of how much cold it takes? I think I will also try to clone it ... anywayz, I think I will try her the hard way and still keep clones my raspberries seem to be going fine. the clonehead in me already wonders what kind of cutting would be better for this plant (commmercial Rubus ideaeus) also trying to grow a couple different chilli plants I got some time ago through a trade and also some mid sized tomatos! ...happy to report some peganum harmala I sowed along some Desmanthus sp. dont remember which actually , are going fine especially the harmalas.. I have experieced harmalas resisting cultivation and I am hoping this year I create a permanent patch... I really prize two seedlings from seed I picked myself from a wild Salvia officinalis in some greek island. they have revealed their real leaves now and I am stunned. Hope I dont fuck this up! happy growing season to everyone, it came a bit late for us, but as always nature is interesting ... growing vibes to all useful gardens everywhere ! peace 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) and some mentha , I also got a stevia, not yet re-potted her, a friend grew it last season , but he told me it died and I thought it was an annual. but there's cold where he is.. I also read stevia is a weak perennial, does anyone have experience of how much cold it takes? I think I will also try to clone it ... anywayz, I think I will try her the hard way and still keep clones my raspberries seem to be going fine. the clonehead in me already wonders what kind of cutting would be better for this plant (commmercial Rubus ideaeus) also trying to grow a couple different chilli plants I got some time ago through a trade and also some mid sized tomatos! ...happy to report some peganum harmala I sowed along some Desmanthus sp. dont remember which actually , are going fine especially the harmalas.. I have experieced harmalas resisting cultivation and I am hoping this year I create a permanent patch... I really prize two seedlings from seed I picked myself from a wild Salvia officinalis in some greek island. they have revealed their real leaves now and I am stunned. Hope I dont fuck this up! happy growing season to everyone, it came a bit late for us, but as always nature is interesting ... growing vibes to all useful gardens everywhere ! peace good man! cant get enough peganum outdoor wild , even minus 16 winters dont stop it re-sprouting again in spring they seem to be easy to grow in the home build propogator indoor but i think the real trick to them is putting them outdoor somehow even if its an unheated greenhouse, I think its the night temps? (computer controlled in the home build propogator -ixtlahuatl in my albums would you like a few mentha cuttings? ? I have some chocolate mint, moroccan mint and trying to get some more pineapple mint english mint grows as weeds here - and aquatic mint too I got blue heirloom , black krim and gardeners delight all hitting 2ft+ now purple beauty , orange sunshine reaching 7 inches, and red n yellow marconi not far behind for sweet peps I look fwd to your stevia news , it's one I haven't tried yet but want to ... ever tried tayberries and loganberries ? - good luck with the sage Edited May 8, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) gave the rainforest box a night rain with distilled water and made sure there was room in the branches for the new epihytic orchids before they arrive also my very first trichocereus flower bud emerged I watered the damiana with cactus feed just before they dried out - as usual I began plans on how to efficiently cram as many species of virola as humanly possible into 10 hectares of rainforest and leave as much room left as possible and at what risk of hybridisation for the benefit of reforestation and began hunting ways to eliminate this issue whilst simultaneously working out partner/beneficial plants to further benefit the virola's ecology began working towards solving another potential issue of altitude and at which point trichocereus would nicely kick in as a main tree Fed the whole fkn lot of everything growing in Horsia with the exception of the arrid short stuff crew cacti , they got bupkiss and liked it made sure to try the urine tek on every tree in the garden over 6 feet now sufficient time has been of my detox with distilled water I also did it with the nicotiana tabacum and it grew so big it began to sprout legs and chased me round the garden I almost darent go near it to repot it incase it bites me like some sort of triffid and the brugmansia I did it with grew so big it had to go outside and get trimmed and shaped Edited May 8, 2014 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted May 9, 2014 thanks for feedback sure aiming to put the peganum outside. I dont like inside growing and too much artificial setups. mint cuttings sounds nice, not now though... got too much on my back boy you sure seem busy! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
