Popular Post MeanGreen Posted January 27, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2018 (edited) Hey everyone, I was blessed with a large amount of very fresh Mitragyna speciosa var. "Green Malay" seeds coming straight from a Kratom farmer in Malaysia who harvested them. Someone I know is in direct contact with the farmer who sent him the seeds and he was kind enough to give me what I estimate to be at least a thousand of them. This is a rare opportunity and I'm very grateful. I haven't sown them yet but my friend already has many sprouts in less than a week. These are pic's from my last year's grow, Rifat seeds. Seed to propagation: This plant plays an important part in my life so it's important for me to share it. And what better place than SAB to share those, hey? Especially considering what I heard about Shaman Australis being the pioneers who grew out the seeds Claude Rifat brought back from Thailand, which gave birth to the famous Rifat clone. Any details on this? I'd love to hear more of that story @Torsten The farmer said he might be able to send more seeds of other cultivars soon as well. So I might do more of these giveaways in the near future. One is a strain they call "Urat Merah" in the Kuala Lumpur area, which the farmer said he thinks is the strain we call Red Vein Thai. Apparently we will receive those around mid-February. Another one would be seeds of horned kratom (sometimes called Maeng Da), he said a friend of his is traveling to Vietnam this spring and might be able to bring some seeds back for us. And finally, and I'm very interested in this one, he talked about a strain of kratom they call "Ketum Daun Jambu" which roughly translates to "Guava Kratom" of which he says the leaves are smaller than average but the potency is at least double that of other strains. Anyways, enough rambling, put a number between 1 - 100 down and I'll randomly pick 10 winners in a week or two. Please check if your number has already been picked, if two people pick the same number the first one will be the winner. The winners will get a pack of approximately 30-50 seeds of Green Malay, and I'll throw in some Rifat seeds as well which are starting to get a bit old (~10 months) but you might get lucky and have a few sprouts still. If by chance the "Urat Merah" a.k.a Red Thai seeds show up by the time the winners are picked I will include a pack of those as well. Edited February 17, 2018 by MeanGreen The giveaway has now ended 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siggor Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 (edited) Wow awesome job, 26 Will they make it through the mail? Edited January 27, 2018 by Siggor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimli Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Can I enter and allocate the seeds to someone else if I win? 47 Great giveaway! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubism Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Whoa... amazing giveaway man!!! Very generous of you... Legend!!! Put me down for number 27. Thanks mate! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Australian_dream Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 32. Nice giveaway man! Cheers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northerner Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Great stuff MG. Legendairy! 76 Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endotheogen Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Dis is super cool. 33 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Rainbow Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 42! Good on you MG 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macca Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Awesome cheers mate. 50 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklight Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 10 hours ago, MeanGreen said: Anyways, enough rambling, put a number between 1 - 100 down and I'll randomly pick 10 winners in a week or two. 13 Most generous of you- thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Darklight Posted January 28, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) 11 hours ago, MeanGreen said: Especially considering what I heard about Shaman Australis being the pioneers who grew out the seeds Claude Rifat brought back from Thailand, which gave birth to the famous Rifat clone. Any details on this? I'd love to hear more of that story Torsten contracted me to undertake micropropagation of this species back last millennia. It was a crapshoot, as the species hadn't been done in tissue culture ( that I could find ) at that stage and seed numbers were limited. I had two clients with seeds, T was the one who sorted the germination riddle, which is why it was his seed which produced the Rifat clone in-vitro. We got it! It's quite the saga. We were going to do a presentation on the process at EGA but decided to do the NMT presentation instead. Had to abandon the species entirely after the TGA scheduling came into effect in 2005. At the time we weren't aware of the intricacies of TGA scheduling and believed they wouldn't be so stupid as to S9 schedule- no known medical use- an entire plant with such medical and clinical potential ( it was the height of the heroin epidemic in Australia ) as a 'potential future drug of abuse'. They were. We learned a lot from that, it was horrible, stupid, ignorant and cruel. Many long stories, much happiness, learning, letdowns and lots of generousity on the part of T. Much snipped from here. One example of one very small part: Torsten and I were discussing retail price for this species once we had an established protocol. As it was highly sought after I suggested a general release, with first adopters and collectors paying a higher price for limited release, and subsequent releases of increasing numbers of plants each year at lower cost. We knew there were a few collectors who would pay good money, and I was impatient to capitalise on our significant investment ( his funds, my time and experience ) I figured the plant would leak out sideways after a few years anyhow, retail price would drop and any delay to the general public would be limited He nixed it straight out. His take was that it is an important potential anti-addiction plant and should be available to try by as many people as possible as soon as possible. This attitude of his is why I adore working with him :D As it was, a bunch of potential clients offering megabucks for clonal material had expressed real interest. And as soon as they realised it was in tissue culture they demanded we supply it to them at $0.30c a plant. Many demanded the micropropagation media alongside it. That price was set in 1976 and is for mass run easily produced plants with no research input. And only a fool gives their IP away so cheaply. When we refused sale at that price and made a counter offer all the clients vanished. So we did a general public release instead. Over time the performance in micropropagation dwindled ( happens in many species ) and the TGA scheduling coincided with the decline. We dropped it. We were too well known for producing the plant and the risk of continuing wasn't worth it. I had a feeling the authorities would have considered us tasty headline clickbait if we had continued and it would have endangered other conservation and medicinal work. We also had to abandon significant plans to undertake more phytochemical research, including food safety and storage It may have been possible to apply for federal compensation for future losses against the value of our investment. It was a fair sized figure by then. T also nixed that on the grounds that supplying information about our investment could leave us open to a requirement to divulge personal details of all purchasers of the clone in Australia. That wasn't acceptable to either of us So we took it on the chin, and we're still recovering. At least it's now available for consumption in many other countries and has a track record as an effective taper/ substitution/ remedy for opiate abuse for many people. That was our initial aim and even though we couldn't get it to happen here there will be data out there at some point which will hopefully one day support a re-scheduling in .au There are many stories left out of this post for brevity. Hope it gives you an idea of it My firstborn. Or one of 'em. So excited I was Full production The decline and fall Quote This plant plays an important part in my life so it's important for me to share it. And what better place than SAB to share those, hey? Really kind of you. I loved working with the species too, I'm glad it's still bringing people joy and comfort Edited January 28, 2018 by Darklight clarity, add pics 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeanGreen Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 Thank you so much for this awesome story Darklight, you guys really did an amazing job and I will forever be grateful as I'm sure you played a big part in popularising this miracle plant. Especially when you consider that big "false kratom" debacle back in the early 2000's where my compatriots Bruno & friends at ebotashop flooded the market with false kratom (M. parvifolia I believe). This could have caused everyone to just brush off kratom as ineffective and killed the market in the egg... I think it's extremely unfortunate that Australia decided to ban it, especially during an opiate epidemic. How can you consider an opioid which doesn't cause lethal respiratory depression as not having any medicinal potential is beyond me... I really hope this will change in the future and you guys will be able to pick back up on the micropropagation op. With your climate and proximity to Indonesia you could have those kratom forests I dream of over there in Oz hahaha. Could you share a bit about what the selection process was for the Rifat clone? Was it simply the most vigorous sprout of the batch of seeds? If you do a talk about this at EGA I might just have to fly my ass over there haha 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklight Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 3 minutes ago, MeanGreen said: Especially when you consider that big "false kratom" debacle back in the early 2000's where my compatriots Bruno & friends at ebotashop flooded the market with false kratom (M. parvifolia I believe). This could have caused everyone to just brush off kratom as ineffective and killed the market in the egg... There were vendor pages online back then which incorrectly ( and possibly knowingly ) pushed the psychedelic properties of M. speciosa and those most definitely contributed to the TGA scheduling. Mitragyna speciosa is not psychedelic, had never been touted as psychedelic prior to the existence of those few web pages, and the incorrect publicity was not scientifically evaluated, but was used directly as evidence nonetheless during the TGA scheduling By the time Jon Hanna's expose on false kratom came out it was too late to do anything Flawed data met lack of oversight and flawed process and produced poor outcomes 3 minutes ago, MeanGreen said: I think it's extremely unfortunate that Australia decided to ban it, especially during an opiate epidemic. How can you consider an opioid which doesn't cause lethal respiratory depression as not having any medicinal potential is beyond me... It also has potential as an anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour etc. It was a cruel and irrational scheduling, and because of the bureaucratic specifics of the scheduling process back then we were not permitted to respond or object to the scheduling. I believe that's changed for all new introductions, T would know better than I, but it's not retrospective If we'd not been hamstrung by the scheduling we were on track to do so much more good research In practical terms a helluva lot of good science gets proven wrong over time ( which is entirely the point ) and so many claims made back then could have been fortified by extra research or dropped as spurious Our facility, our towns and region really lost out on this. Research programs and commercial opportunities all happened off shore. Quite a few overseas companies have done seriously well out of it and should continue to do so for some time. Good on 'em. We were uniquely placed to do all that here, in a region of high biodiversity, appropriate climate, high unemployment and fair access to some first rate research facilities. But hey, no. I still want that small, private research lab where we can rigorously train citizen scientists in the love and practice of quality empirical data generation and never be de-funded by any bastard government again. I want it so bad I can taste it. So much talent going to waste. 3 minutes ago, MeanGreen said: Could you share a bit about what the selection process was for the Rifat clone? Was it simply the most vigorous sprout of the batch of seeds? Erk. It was the only one which survived. We bit our nails for a year or so until it was proven both stable in micropropagation and active. Long story snipped 3 minutes ago, MeanGreen said: If you do a talk about this at EGA I might just have to fly my ass over there haha Seriously, you should come to an EGA anyhow. They're deadset brilliant. Best crew ever. And if we are accepted for an EGA presentation on this and T agrees to co-present with me again I may hold you to that statement :D 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenris Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Too good to refuse, 66. Awesome work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anodyne Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Wow, very generous MeanGreen. Great to hear a little about the clone saga too, thanks Darklight! 93 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crop Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Good work MeanGreen. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slocombe Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Would totally love to enter the comp, if only my climate was suitable (bone dry and extremes of both heat and cold) . Whoever wins this, I'm jelous 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noname Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) \ Edited October 11, 2020 by noname Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etherealdrifter Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 seeds thats pretty cool dude 69 - the breakfast of champions 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oncewhywechange Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) Sorry deleted my post. Good luck with the giveaway. Edited January 28, 2018 by smithy customs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyh64 Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Nice one meangreen ;) 57 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1208 Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I'll take 22 cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagusTasmanicus Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Fantastic offer - thanks, I'll go with 17. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon_unit Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Wow awesome great to see these getting shared :-) 29 please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWormwood Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Hearing about the history of this was facinating, thanks Darklight for the insight 40 for me please b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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