Open Pollination Project

[ChocolatChunk]

I love it! I'm trying to save up pistachio shells for slug repellant outdoors this yr we have hungry slugs and the beer can trick works just fine but want to go a little extra this time especially with the deer will be fencing it off high up to keep them out lol bastards...
This is a great discussion people from different areas talking about how they have success it is good to share the knowledge.
I heard a cup of wood ash and char is good about 1 ft to ft. And a half deep too when the roots hit they're gonna be needing the boost of the K. Supposedly it's one of them old secrets from a tomato farmer. So will be trying that as well and might as well give the shrimp a go as our local fish have heavy metals sadly still edible but. I do not ingest the skin as the plants would and I want to consume the flower in many ways so wont be using our local fish like the native once did sadly that is our world but that's why we container garden and build beds our land is just as bad as the water flowing through it.
Anyone with good clean farm land or clean land in general is blessed!

 

[Stunger]

Someone once said something to me, that all paths lead to the same mountain top. I think that applies to gardening too. My experience is very narrow, applying only to outdoor potted soil conditions, and in that way I seem to escape the often seemingly far more involved measuring out and application of nutes etc.

This is a great discussion people from different areas talking about how they have success it is good to share the knowledge.
I heard a cup of wood ash and char is good about 1 ft to ft. And a half deep too when the roots hit they're gonna be needing the boost of the K.

I use Bio-Char in my soil. Doesn't seemed to have harmed things.

So will be trying that as well and might as well give the shrimp a go as our local fish have heavy metals sadly still edible but.

The shrimp idea originally came to me from a friend who grew up in Malaysia, and was carried a sack of dried shrimp which ripped apart, and they left the fallen shrimp on the ground in his grandmother bamboo grove. He said how astonishing it was how much the bamboo grew the next year. But Jim Bennett/Clackamas Coots used crab meal I think so same thing, a Chitin amendment for the soil.

I do not ingest the skin as the plants would and I want to consume the flower in many ways so wont be using our local fish like the native once did sadly that is our world but that's why we container garden and build beds our land is just as bad as the water flowing through it.
Anyone with good clean farm land or clean land in general is blessed!

It is truly terrible I think, compared to the organic home gardens that almost everyone had when I was a kid, the clean waters and lakes. It is isn't a comforting view ahead nowadays.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Very interesting words of wise and comparing with gardening. It certainly is a voyage to the top of the mountain and the little things we often overlook that can bring joy and purpose Im afraid too many have refrained from like you mentioned how years ago more people would have big robust gardens filled with massive vegetable plants and not in just a single area seemed a lot happier to me at least growing up in the 90's.
That is a good and dear story of how you came to with adding shrimp. I have always been intrigued with making my own shell fish meal as did the Nutty Professor... Very inspirational work from that fellow 420magger
I had tried some biochar in a hydro system with a tomato and it did good. I once had an auto garden my first go at indoors maybe 12 yrs ago now.. Used activated charcoal for fish filters lightly mixed into the coco/ peat blend and was using crushed coral calcium plus the whole general organics line they were quite impressive and has lately had me considering simplifying it down back to the basics but adding the dry amendments like crab and seaweed/ guano, blood meal and my personal favorite burnt spent coffee grinds with crumbled organic banana peel it's important that it is organic banana
I have gotten some crushed oyster shell before and switched to gypsum for the cost and see no difference in performance and yield capabilities in any calcium supplement.
Rabbit poop is another wonderful additive and have always been using a little chicken coop poop every now and then to really enrich the soil especially freshly acquired potting mixes with basically nothing in them.
And I agree these are some uneasy times and looking more uneasy by the day. We need to stay strong, be fearless and play.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Sorry been busy these were pictures from a week ago. Had cleaned up the white room and some iof the plants in there. The garlic cake is already puffed out from the flattening just days after and perked right back up. The male is quite a stud muffin and will be the proud father of many seeds. Spread the purple diesel pheno'd GDP gumberry creeper auto out formore light penetration. Found some bananas in the sisters closer to the dehumidifier who hermied them out of the gorgeous flowers I spend many hours cleaning and dusted some of the white hairs I could see and put tangerine pollen on every white hair I could find. This will help keep a whole seperate gang of F1's to back cross and stuff with from the first group of F1's
The plant to the far left very finicky platinum that has potential and surprised I still have the genetics and only wanted them to be better so here goes nothing.
Orange cake getting gooey in a good way very sweet and happy to put some tangerine pollen on her frosty purple delights.
Broke a branch and sampled it was very tasty even being dried fast and has a good tough spongy feel nice soft smoke for being right off the plant. Great taste picking up gdp and gum notes. The finger hash is heavenly.

 

[Stunger]

Looking good CC. This morning I did the same and carried out another round of finger painting pollen on some selected stems with my Mulanje pollen. I did a first round a few days ago, I'm considering it all done now, just the wait till harvest to see what the results are!

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Gotta have some better orange cake shots sorry... Ah some of the F1 creeper harvested nuggetery feast the eyes.
A new F1 from the bigger orange cake plant being kept elsewhere with a Cali bay dream plant. Due for an update soon.
I am all about the little things though slowing down to appreciate all my precious life forms like pet fish and houseplants.
I like growing lemon from seed its fun to see them really take off I have a tray with tomato's, Danjou pear and lemon seedling and the Pebble Pie Blur Dream baby.
Have a look.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Looking good CC. This morning I did the same and carried out another round of finger painting pollen on some selected stems with my Mulanje pollen. I did a first round a few days ago, I'm considering it all done now, just the wait till harvest to see what the results are!

Im intrigued what is this Mulanje you mention.. Sounds tasty lol

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Im gonna call her Gumball machine once it is finally stable nice gumball round buds and swirly leafs it's as if they are covering what is beneath to protect the mouth watering resin glands.
Thank you stunger! Heres my new propbtray with all that and will be doing a tutorial how to make one of these life long set ups. Working like a charm for seeds and clones.
My Blue Dream gave me another ripe seed yesterday I picked it and had to get a pic of this greasy bean love the dark stripes very bold looking. Fingers crossed!

 

[Stunger]

Im intrigued what is this Mulanje you mention.. Sounds tasty lol

Mulanje is a strain from Malawi/Africa, first time growing it so I am utilising a male to make some seeds.

My Blue Dream gave me another ripe seed yesterday I picked it and had to get a pic of this greasy bean love the dark stripes very bold looking.

That's a handsome looking seed too!

 

[ChocolatChunk]

That sounds pretty cool I want to make some Malawi cobbs but need banana leafs so gotta get a banana plant first lol
Supposedly thats the Malawi delicacy to smoke. It is a long process involved with burying a thai stick like grouping of buds that have been dried and cured slightly to be good to smoke. Then, wrapped in a banana leaf and buried 2 ft under the soil surface with dirt.
So Im gonna eventually get a banana plant and use a garbage can as the ground and fill it with mix and let sit for i think 2 months. Can't remember exactly but one to try for sure.
Thank you on the bean too we shall see what she has in store for us. Im happy to have another the first dream pie seed didn't make it and 1 is doing good so this is a good back up but will pop it soon bc Im curious and I know you are too!

 

[Stunger]

That sounds pretty cool I want to make some Malawi cobbs but need banana leafs so gotta get a banana plant first lol
Supposedly thats the Malawi delicacy to smoke. It is a long process involved with burying a thai stick like grouping of buds that have been dried and cured slightly to be good to smoke. Then, wrapped in a banana leaf and buried 2 ft under the soil surface with dirt.

In my previous year's journal I had a go at making some cobs and I did a post about it here, it has pictures of the process I took. I would say that you don't have to have banana leaves or corn husks either. The main advance nowadays, is using a vacuum/sealer unit and that massively reduces the chances of mold developing. While I used twine and baking paper to wrap mine, some people vac/sealed naked buds or even a whole unwrapped cola, and that way they are like a canary in the coal mine that one can view thru the plastic to observe their 'cobbing' progress.

Thank you on the bean too we shall see what she has in store for us. Im happy to have another the first dream pie seed didn't make it and 1 is doing good so this is a good back up but will pop it soon bc Im curious and I know you are too!

I am all for making use of a found nanna to make some S1 seeds. Many growers seem to want to remove them pronto if they find them. But probably because in my neck of the woods, where seeds and strains are often hard to get, if I found a nanna then I'd want to capitalise on it and make some seeds, plus if S1's they should be female too!

 

[ChocolatChunk]

In my previous year's journal I had a go at making some cobs and I did a post about it here, it has pictures of the process I took. I would say that you don't have to have banana leaves or corn husks either. The main advance nowadays, is using a vacuum/sealer unit and that massively reduces the chances of mold developing. While I used twine and baking paper to wrap mine, some people vac/sealed naked buds or even a whole unwrapped cola, and that way they are like a canary in the coal mine that one can view thru the plastic to observe their 'cobbing' progress.


I am all for making use of a found nanna to make some S1 seeds. Many growers seem to want to remove them pronto if they find them. But probably because in my neck of the woods, where seeds and strains are often hard to get, if I found a nanna then I'd want to capitalise on it and make some seeds, plus if S1's they should be female too!

Quite an interesting thing to be of similar interest in a world of fast lane cultivating and curing to find a person who sees the beauty of a thing we spent so long just growing and even flowering to say its ready in just a few weeks after cut is good but I like where your mind is on the cob making it is also an art not many are fond of and it is ironic speaking of Malawi cobs that you have lived that chapter and documented it for the world to see.
Im gonna give it a read. I do appreciate these journals they help me make decisions for the better and I like the idea of not having a mold take over the buried bud that would be a big upset... So was thinking would be the same thing then if you put some cured nug in a water tight vessel of some kind that can sink and leave it under water for the pressuring effect.
I guess thats why they just made those cure vessels it does the work of months of curing in days. They look pricey though but the terpenes are preserved so well and stay intact the flower stays nice and spongy still. Its all about that seal.
Its funny how a lot of people wont know what the banana is and that it keeps the pollen in itself. I have used bananas that were months old with success and resulting is some pretty impressive large plants i have to clean her up but am sharing soon my purple diesel she is taking up too much room in the veg now lol
Seeds should most certainly be female from the result of using the precious nanner dust.
The guy in one of the shops told me there was a multi million dollar op running this strain that had exceedingly high levels of thc and would profusedly throw bananas and they had tenders picking them out of the flower constantly lol... Like thats when you just run a better strain it may take a while to find that variant but thats why you keep growing and breeding for better results!
It is important to have a seed to start I believe that is very important aspect of gardening. Its the circle of life back to the start no short cuts fresh DNA and new life it is a remarkable thing to witness. I would always try keeping as many seeds as I could growing up and now only collect what comes from my garden and threw legit vendors breeders and on ocassion I find one somewhere on the ground and or have gotten a few people seeds from etsy even as funny as it sounds. I have tangerine scented beautiful plants from genetics iI ordered from netherlands from a guy on etsy who closed shortly after but bred accidentally with seeds I grew out that were way over priced from the hydro store I used to work at and had such a perfumey taste some of the f1s i made on those turned out good though with flavors ranging from super lemon to cherry and skunky but still a tad perfumey but kushier none the less and now the orange cakes so it has been fun as I continue on finding the traits I have always wanted it just takes some imagination and belief in yourself.
They might be s1s though since the "frosted zen" seeds i paid 100 for 10 were females but didnt do well for a good smoking bud.. They are for a fact I know from hermied field hemp and is why they were all fems and most likely the mother had been an ice cream cake clone so why I suspect they are f1s for the rate in which they grow... Does like to get cloned and grow as clone so not a bad thing in particular to have seeds come from clones in my opinion they carry a trait that says we somewhat like being cloned if you wanna take some cuts from us go for it.

 

[Stunger]

Quite an interesting thing to be of similar interest in a world of fast lane cultivating and curing to find a person who sees the beauty of a thing we spent so long just growing and even flowering to say its ready in just a few weeks after cut is good but I like where your mind is on the cob making it is also an art not many are fond of and it is ironic speaking of Malawi cobs that you have lived that chapter and documented it for the world to see.

The process was set out in other writings. I just tried to document my understanding of it and provide pictures so people could understand what I did and make sense of the words.

Im gonna give it a read. I do appreciate these journals they help me make decisions for the better and I like the idea of not having a mold take over the buried bud that would be a big upset... So was thinking would be the same thing then if you put some cured nug in a water tight vessel of some kind that can sink and leave it under water for the pressuring effect.

The approach I took uses an initial period of 'ferment', this is the magic key to a cob cure. In other words you have to make the cob while the buds are still relatively freshly harvested, you need some moisture to start a ferment within the cob, no ferment no magic. But that depends on the RH of your environment. Last year I left them 4 days hanging (as whole plants), a 5th day trimmed in paper bags, then made into cobs. Next time I will change this to make them into cobs earlier, while they have more moisture in them, maybe after either 3 or 4 days. In other words you don't want to start with cured bud, as I don't think it will work, the magic seems to be in the ferment.
I have seen where people have put their bud into a jar and squashed another smaller jar on top with some weight on top to keep it compressed to minimise 'air' and therefore mold. But the important thing is, you don't start with cured buds, that probably won't do anything much.
I was initially only going to wrap them tight and bind. But I relented when I found reasonably cheap vac seal units, in K-Mart (a chain store we have here), from memory it was about $70 and worked like a charm.

Seeds should most certainly be female from the result of using the precious nanner dust.
The guy in one of the shops told me there was a multi million dollar op running this strain that had exceedingly high levels of thc and would profusedly throw bananas and they had tenders picking them out of the flower constantly lol... Like thats when you just run a better strain it may take a while to find that variant but thats why you keep growing and breeding for better results!

It certainly seems good to collect those precious nannas. Perhaps I'd feel differently if where I lived there were dispensaries on every corner and it was no problem to order seeds online. But I don't, so it is worth making my own.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

The process was set out in other writings.

Yea in Malawi text lol I dont know ancient manuscript but now that you refresh me on the process it is is a fresher uncured flower being cobbed. I thought thats what it was my friend I lost had told me about them. Thai stick is very similar I want to say except they utilize the leaf and some choose to use an oil from their flowers to seal the wrap if you may. I have always been curious to try that bc I can imagine it would be a lot trickier without the melted shatter or rosin whichever extract you have lol RSO the things the cancer patients smoke are completely smothered in RSO they are green cancer killers. Speaking of the purple anthocyanins I want to say are also a big thing too for killing the cells its too bad theres so much silica on the foliage makes it discomforting to digest unless blanched maybe. I would for sure eat a salad with cannabis leafs everyday and never be hungry.
I do graze on my girls when I am cleaning them up I do eat the leafs lol
Rabbits liked them very much too and didn't have any ill effects. If anything they were calmer after the cannabinoids had been digested.
There is definitely room to produce feed and fertilizer from the hemp and or cannabis plants themselves indefinitely. I find remarkable for a crisis were having about fertilizer what a crock that whole thing is.
I bought a cantaloupe at the grocery store yesterday and had a brown area inside the seeds were alright but smelled of alcohol rotten juice inside and was a soup in the pit area so sad to see this I never had this hapen.
At a cheaper store I had a jalepeno with some type of larvae and not just 1 but a team inside my fresh pepper with no holes. I have gotten peppers from the chain since and been fine but same thing happened with a strawberry I bit into when I was about 15 and that came from our better grocery store.
From pests to hermied flowers. I will accept a banana in my bud any day over a coverage of mite nests or a sea of aphids. Any day. Never had micro grubs in any of my homegrown food. If this doesnt make opeople want to produce their own food more I dont know what will. You cant save them all though.
I will at times finger pollinate as well though just collecting from the male plants sometimes it gets on my hairs and skin so I have fondled the girls up quite a few times this yr and have been left with a good cache of seed so far. I need a massive greenhouse now LOL
Told my old boss before I quit lets put together a few thousand rolling benches.
Obviously a fantasy but you never know the way things are heading maybe I just will.
The good old K-mart holy cow man I would shop there with my dad when I was a kid and sometimes pop in there for somethings. My first 12v lithium black n decker drill i got for 50 bucks at a kmart like 10 yrs ago its my girlfriends now but I still do like that drill lol
They just shut our last one down and pretty soon I reckon Wally world will do the same to yours sadly idk how they are price wise but they were starting to become such a rip here where I am.
One of these day I will send you a good assortment of some seeds I stabilized as their own strains. So far you are looking at the ability to run your own dispensary when the time is fit. Youre doing what others are afraid to and just flat out wont.
We are getting them starting to pop up and the reservations are taking all the cred from the street level guys. It is a very odd thing to see and I seen it coming and why I started my own library of genetics. Pollen in my freezer seeds in my fridge I would have never imagined myself this far in but that is when you realize you do not turn back!
A reason to inoculate seeds right from the jump.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

Enjoying some of the finger hash today the compost is so alive I wonder if they are magic. They are so alive in the compost, pinning and fruiting all over the place.
Another fun to grow thing without much effort.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

I watched a movie the other night title "Into the wild" and was a great film about a kid becoming a man who didn't understand his purpose and I dont wanna spoil it but really good movie to watch. It pays to know what you can and cannot eat needless to say.
Ive ate close variety and had some very heightened awareness nice tracers and seeing very fast moving orbs and feel a sort of mystical power in these mushrooms too. They are not much so I wont be eating them but if I get bored I might start making little prints and do a cake or 2 just to see what happens hehehe. Would love to see this mushroom grow in an enriched bulk sub mono culture.

 

[Stunger]

its too bad theres so much silica on the foliage makes it discomforting to digest unless blanched maybe. I would for sure eat a salad with cannabis leafs everyday and never be hungry.
I do graze on my girls when I am cleaning them up I do eat the leafs lol
Rabbits liked them very much too and didn't have any ill effects. If anything they were calmer after the cannabinoids had been digested.

I didn't realise that about silica. I added some to a top dressing a while back. But I often chomp down a nice leaf or two! It must good I think when organic grown and I have worms living in my container soil. I can imagine the rabbits like them too. My brother's cats like a leaf or two of some of his crop as well, so they must know to be comfortable with them.

There is definitely room to produce feed and fertilizer from the hemp and or cannabis plants themselves indefinitely. I find remarkable for a crisis were having about fertilizer what a crock that whole thing is.
I bought a cantaloupe at the grocery store yesterday and had a brown area inside the seeds were alright but smelled of alcohol rotten juice inside and was a soup in the pit area so sad to see this I never had this hapen.
At a cheaper store I had a jalepeno with some type of larvae and not just 1 but a team inside my fresh pepper with no holes. I have gotten peppers from the chain since and been fine but same thing happened with a strawberry I bit into when I was about 15 and that came from our better grocery store.
From pests to hermied flowers. I will accept a banana in my bud any day over a coverage of mite nests or a sea of aphids. Any day. Never had micro grubs in any of my homegrown food. If this doesnt make opeople want to produce their own food more I dont know what will. You cant save them all though.

When I watch all the worm and life in my compost bin, it is really heartening, seeing how much work the biology does to breakdown Greenwaste to lovely rich compost. I think what has been going on these last 2 years is a crock of shit quite frankly. Just scaring the snot out of people to push a lousy narrative. It is unbelievable.

I will at times finger pollinate as well though just collecting from the male plants sometimes it gets on my hairs and skin so I have fondled the girls up quite a few times this yr and have been left with a good cache of seed so far. I need a massive greenhouse now LOL

Oh yeah, a massive greenhouse would be lovely, one big enough even to have a couple of armchairs in to enjoy the ambience!

Enjoying some of the finger hash today the compost is so alive I wonder if they are magic. They are so alive in the compost, pinning and fruiting all over the place.
Another fun to grow thing without much effort.

Ive ate close variety and had some very heightened awareness nice tracers and seeing very fast moving orbs and feel a sort of mystical power in these mushrooms too. They are not much so I wont be eating them but if I get bored I might start making little prints and do a cake or 2 just to see what happens hehehe. Would love to see this mushroom grow in an enriched bulk sub mono culture.

Is that a Psilocybe mushroom growing? That's great if it is. I would like to find some but I am bit wary in case I find something that looks similar but is not, as there are some nasty consequences when the wrong mushrooms are consumed. But it is getting to that time of the year soon when they start popping up, and I would like to find some. I had a couple of great experiences with having a magic mushroom omelette when I was in Thailand years ago.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

So from a safe standpoint DE is safe to consume because the farmers give it to the live stock probably not good for the kidneys in people if we were to consume that every day.
But the plants silica itself the natural formation of it. A little is safe to my knowledge but overly consuming is not.
Makes me wonder how much is safe to consume ya know and how to make it more edible.
We have an idea on how to collect the waste and seperate the urine so that will be good for bulk substrates as well as the soil and compost. Considering a hay substrate instead and plastic the rabbits off. Make a bunk tower with wood and have filtered rabbit air go into the garden instead. Stupid to have them in there, felt bad they were dying in the colder part of basement.
Gonna set up the aquaponics there as a matter of fact. That will be interesting and the tanks plus all the continuous water and components like filters and uv sterilizer will help stabilize temperature and humidity where I want it will never miss a feeding or watering and there will be a wife variety of foods like shrimp, clams earthworms, red wigglers koi summer diet top of the line food and sometimes I feed them some garlic but am going to be using fresh foods more frequently and living foods no feeder fish from farms.
I wanna start feeding some scallops and other type of seafood but its supposed to be raw and that can introduce parasites to the fish so Im gonna try to keep it simple and use the typical foods i give them a trout chow time to time its the scraps of all the feeds the guy makes into food for tropical fiah at our local fish store here. Its super cheap 2$ a quart. So helps me stretch the other more expensive foods I use.
For fertilizer and bait/ pet fish food and waste management of the green matter and kitchen scraps I have been considering making a worm factory myself.
And as far as these babies being magic I am not completely sure but they are intriguing.
They are very similar to the ones pictured except are coming from the coast of maine compost so way far away from Mexico lol but doesnt mean they arent still some 200 plus psilocybe containing mushrooms some.make you very sick yes some maybe deathly toxic or undiscovered chains not yet understood by science on why some people go insane but that movie shrooms is exactly what I picture the guy said not to specifically eat a certain black one and the girl did and ended up going crazy and killing everyone so theres some things better left untouched these look fairly gentle and have a similar cube growth from pin to fruit these pop open like s flower thought st first mini ink caps and observing over the last few days am thinking differently about them.
It is good to hear that where you are you can forage for mushrooms I would love to come morel hunting in NZ.. Do them grow there and what about lions manes? I found quite a large lions mane specimen near where I live I left it alone but regret not getting pictures this thing was amazing looking it was like ice coming from a stone mountain side when its like a wall almost cliff like.. They were growing on the bottom of a downed trees roots over a small spring like of a sort. They were worthy of a nat geo cover lol i been thinking going back to see if it still lives there untouched i know wont be the same as it was freshly chewed wood dust from the ants on the tree it was a perfectly balanced ecosystem for the mane to thrive.
I want to hunt for some chicken of the woods too we have tons of turkey tail all over the place. Do you have birch with chaga over there?
I been drinking chaga from latvia its got a good flavor and am thinking about making some hard candies with some tea from them and some different herbs Im gonna grow this year. Kind Of like my own ricolas lol of course with some of our favorite extra super antioxidant mary jane heheh
Were you able to get some good genetics from Thailand Im jealoud to hear about your experience lol I heard panama was a pretty wild place too I know total different continent lol
But speaking of cubes I had some spores i got of a variety out of fiji and wow it was like exstacy I loved the fijis super good bulk runs very little care to them. Wish I had some again might have spores around sealed in a petri some wheres but viable I dont think so meaning I have reason to travel now I always wanted to go tropical. But would love to backpack a country like yours living under the stars. You get the aurora borealis in the warm seasons?

 

[Stunger]

So from a safe standpoint DE is safe to consume because the farmers give it to the live stock probably not good for the kidneys in people if we were to consume that every day.
But the plants silica itself the natural formation of it. A little is safe to my knowledge but overly consuming is not.
Makes me wonder how much is safe to consume ya know and how to make it more edible.

Some folk do consume DE daily and swear they benefit from it, but I have read others who say they shouldn't, whose right, I dunno, but sometimes theoretical claims are different from reality.

Gonna set up the aquaponics there as a matter of fact. That will be interesting and the tanks plus all the continuous water and components like filters and uv sterilizer will help stabilize temperature and humidity where I want it will never miss a feeding or watering and there will be a wife variety of foods like shrimp, clams earthworms, red wigglers koi summer diet top of the line food and sometimes I feed them some garlic but am going to be using fresh foods more frequently and living foods no feeder fish from farms.
I wanna start feeding some scallops and other type of seafood but its supposed to be raw and that can introduce parasites to the fish so Im gonna try to keep it simple and use the typical foods i give them a trout chow time to time its the scraps of all the feeds the guy makes into food for tropical fiah at our local fish store here. Its super cheap 2$ a quart. So helps me stretch the other more expensive foods I use.
For fertilizer and bait/ pet fish food and waste management of the green matter and kitchen scraps I have been considering making a worm factory myself.

Man, you got yourself some projects! I have a worm farm, but I also have loads of worms in my compost bin, but I guess the benefit of the worm farm is that you can extract/catch the worm wee too. Otherwise, without a worm farm it is probably easy to make some worm casting tea if no worm wee.

And as far as these babies being magic I am not completely sure but they are intriguing.
They are very similar to the ones pictured except are coming from the coast of maine compost so way far away from Mexico lol but doesnt mean they arent still some 200 plus psilocybe containing mushrooms some.make you very sick yes some maybe deathly toxic or undiscovered chains not yet understood by science on why some people go insane but that movie shrooms is exactly what I picture the guy said not to specifically eat a certain black one and the girl did and ended up going crazy and killing everyone so theres some things better left untouched these look fairly gentle and have a similar cube growth from pin to fruit these pop open like s flower thought st first mini ink caps and observing over the last few days am thinking differently about them.

I know nothing about what to look for. But it sounds very interesting. I understand the magic mushroom 'season' here is April/May. I would like to have a go at trying to find some. It'd be great to have a big jar of dried magic mushrooms that I could enjoy a 'trip' on them occasionally. I understand that they can be really great for depression, which generally I wouldn't describe myself as depressed but some shit that happened to me as kid continues intrude on me even now, if mushies can help stop it then that would be great. I found the 2 times I had them when on one of the Thai islands (Koh Samui) they were very profound experiences. Of course it is a little bit concerning that consuming the wrong varieties can be very harmful.

It is good to hear that where you are you can forage for mushrooms I would love to come morel hunting in NZ.. Do them grow there and what about lions manes? I found quite a large lions mane specimen near where I live I left it alone but regret not getting pictures this thing was amazing looking it was like ice coming from a stone mountain side when its like a wall almost cliff like.. They were growing on the bottom of a downed trees roots over a small spring like of a sort. They were worthy of a nat geo cover lol i been thinking going back to see if it still lives there untouched i know wont be the same as it was freshly chewed wood dust from the ants on the tree it was a perfectly balanced ecosystem for the mane to thrive.
I want to hunt for some chicken of the woods too we have tons of turkey tail all over the place. Do you have birch with chaga over there?

The short answer is I don't know. But I assume if those varieties aren't in NZ, then there must surely be a number of interesting fungi that are here. Altho I know nothing about it, it would be cool to be able have a specialist fungi growing setup. Some fungi are amazing for the immune system and so on.

I been drinking chaga from latvia its got a good flavor and am thinking about making some hard candies with some tea from them and some different herbs Im gonna grow this year. Kind Of like my own ricolas lol of course with some of our favorite extra super antioxidant mary jane heheh

I have heard of it but not familiar with it myself.

Were you able to get some good genetics from Thailand Im jealoud to hear about your experience lol I heard panama was a pretty wild place too I know total different continent lol

I was solely enjoying local grown herb as an ignorant backpacker. I wish I had thought of seeking out the seeds and genetics. I went overland from California down to Costa Rica and passed thru some places that I now know as being famous for their weed strains, but unfortunately at the time I had no clue.

But speaking of cubes I had some spores i got of a variety out of fiji and wow it was like exstacy I loved the fijis super good bulk runs very little care to them. Wish I had some again might have spores around sealed in a petri some wheres but viable I dont think so meaning I have reason to travel now I always wanted to go tropical. But would love to backpack a country like yours living under the stars. You get the aurora borealis in the warm seasons?

NZ covers a bit of latitude, and the aurora borealis is more commonly seen from the lower South Island, but it has been viewable from the North Island too, but mostly by the folk who are keeping a close eye on the factors that predict when the next one with be, and if they get to an appropriate 'dark sky' area then it can be visible higher up the country.

 

[ChocolatChunk]

I was adding DE flour to spring and RO water and it was not bad tasting. It was interesting living off chinese take out almonds and hot pepper for the time I worked at the shop and RO water... But never felt better and started growing tulsi or holy basil and theres some magic in that plant..i would add that to my soups and food the peppers were grown in waterfarm which was cool to take care of this 2 yr old pepper plant. Brings me back.
The bottom layer was thick with roots engulfed in DE stone.
The stone served as an ingredient in the owners mix of coco/ perlite and worm castings as well as some ancient clay and various subculture of benneficials. It was a big thing and due to shortages of perlite and mines flooding for the DE in Australia the sources of stone had changed and things changed. So its not a product anymore but was a good one and encouraged me to perfect a similar type of media that I have been reusing for years. I just add some fresh if possible and fluff it up after the plant is done in their pots maybe some dry foods ocassionally if its a big girl she gets a good handful of things from the castings on hand to a good assortment of dry products. Thats the plus about having a variett is they last longer. But organics are best used up in 2 yrs but I find well kept 3 to 5 or possibly longer.

Projects galore my friend, projects galore.
Never ending stream of projects hehe

For being here its funny to say I never made the casting tea I just always put in the substrate but have been considering it more now that I see the benefits and know the benefits. Have you foliar applied a strained worm tee? Have heard it helps in the veg.

It is good to hear the mushrooms are there too and I find very good for depression I have similar haunting childhood experiences no child wishes upon I get bad nightmares and the cannabis helps with that but when I dont get stoned for some time my dreams are so insane. I had a normal life but turned out not so normal and bipolar depression diagnosed the mushrooms definitely help free anxiety and help me be my self and fits almost like the studies they have been doing concluding they are micro dosing the elderly who are afraid to die and no longer have that fear therefore a more comfortable passing. Very bitter sweet.
Just be careful with the hunting there can be some look alikes and have bad experiences from fresh amanitas that are edible because of a musclin which is funny sounds similar to mescaline from special cacti but the musclin in its fresh form is toxic and causes discomfort and bad hallucinations where as dried it makes it safe for the digestion. Its something I learned from reading but never got any without bugs in them so they werent very appealing to eat but found a ton of panthers and yellow amanitas when I went camping and some mushrooms that looked like cubes but were a very different cap like a sponge no gills.
If you have an interest in fungi the best book you can possibly get for the study is Paul Stamets Growing medicinal and Gourmet mushrooms.
You will see there is a mushroom for every ailment.
I watched a lot of his speeches and he is a remarkable human being for all his studies but one of the videos he tells his story on how he overcame a stuttering problem by a heroic trip of mushrooms.
Off topic and in the topic of books a study was mentioned in Andrew Weil's Health and Healing a holistics and alternatives healing short book. A study of a person who told themselves with enough belief under the influence of LSD they were not allergic to cats even though had been severely allergic. Overcame the cat allergy under their own brain power with the cat in front of them rubbing on them and they were petting the cat no longer sneezing or tearing and itching with no break outs.
They have given Holocaust survivors with never ending nightmares LSD to give them a way out of the nightmares and stop having them.
Moving on, it would be cool to travel anywhere if you get the chance so its alright you didn't get any seeds when you were abroad can't feel too bad bc they could have landed you in a slammer somewhere abroad sadly.
Thats why we have the internet now lol I want to get a panama red I heard panama is a pretty wild place.
One day I hope to have a fungi farm of my own but that is a ways away. Very opportunistic way to earn income.
That book is great well worth the investment though you will look at it as your bible for mushroom growing it's far more detailed and to the point than any blogger out there but good to see how other people successfully do it in their environment and get tips out of watching different approaches to enhance the cultivation techniques.
The trick to getting long mushrooms is darkness they actually reach for light.
Dried in the sun mushrooms make vitamin D which is not even a vitamin specialists are saying it is more a natural steroid. Also in mushrooms vitamin K and other beneficial minerals nothing else produces so good for the diet.
When I almost poked my eye out last year I took a lot of vitamin D3 lots of herbs lots of mushrooms and tons of vegetables to heal. Reishi maitake chaga store bought foodies and tincture galore more than enough to knock me out lol glad I had made tincture from my cannabis trim.
Excellent recipes in the back of the book though, one of my favorites is the shitake terryaki and its a from scratch dish but very quick to make and so tasty.
I find more joy cooking and eating/ growing my own ingredients vs tripping on some shrooms from a dealer a lot more enjoyable but like to be a fungi sometimes lol
One of my weirdest dreams happened in a pasture next to my uncles weddinf reception area and we were there back in time at the time we pulled a cpl chairs out on the grass under the dark sky ull of stars and he sat me there and said what do you see here. I said but theres nothing here. He then pulled out a mushroom from in the taller grass and said this see when you squeeze it and it turns blue that means its special. Thats all I remember from it, but to go back in time 15 years and see us younger adolescent me eating a shroom from my law enforcement cee oh pee uncle was a mind blowing experience of its own alone lol
That is natural DMT though it is a very interesting world we live in to shun the food for our souls. People starve but yet there is food everywhere and there is too much being wasted nothing makes sense but the main thing is to not even try to understand why just keep doing what you are doing.
It sure has been interesting getting to know a little about you and your home. I love the sea life and want to get into marine biology so mayhbe one day I will visit on a study or just to visit I sure want to adventure and try new things bring seeds and bring back seeds of local plants that can be of use or just interesting to me. Do you fish? There is tons of bait in your compost it sounds like lol