Duboisia hopwoodii germination

[JumpedAngel]

how are mine? good question

I stuck up an image of #1 in the gallery about a week ago, I suppose that one is doing just fine.

the other 3?, I dunno, its hard to say, to some extent at least #4 still has me worried, believe it or not, its still wearing its little helmet

#2 and #3 also had difficulty in freeing themselves of that increadibly persistant seed case, with #2 the seed case is still on the cotyledons and has strangled them, fortunately a small branch has appeared out of the stem and has begun shooting forth small leaves, with #3 again the seed case strangled the cotyledons and then shriveled up and fell off the plant, however the plant survived and is now putting forth two small branches with leaves either side of where the seed case was.

I'm not sure what all this means, I think that the seed case in this beast is increadibly tough and persistant and Q.E.D. GA-3 has been the only thing to have been able to crack it so far, however I think that next season I may do as Rimbaud suggested and use larger concentrations of GA-3 to see if it helps breakdown the seed case better.

[xerophil]

Congratulations on getting results with this and thanks for posting all the interesting info. I've found that just picking brachlets with flowers on and standing them in water resulted in fruit forming. Don't know if the seed would be viable though.
I have a query: I suspect the scheme water that I'm using is alkaline. If I treat seedlings in 50mm tubes with an Iron sulphate solution then continue to water once per day, how long could I expect the influence of the FeSo4 to last. (conc. 15g/10L) and could I expect to see an Fe toxicity at some stage ? ( mostly growing Eucs and Acacias from 250mm rainfall area)

[JumpedAngel]

Hi xerophil

Yes I've tried doing pituri cuttings myself and have been surprised by how long they survive before their eventual demise.

can't help much with the toxicity calculations, sorry, how much (neutral) water do you need?, is it something that you could batch up in a 44 gal tank once a week with a bit of litmus paper?, if even less than this then I'd consider making up a solar still out of a dozen or so 2 litre soft drink bottles and some micro prop. fittings, just a thought.

[xerophil]

Currently a few thousand seedlings and looking to double that next year, but in summer they need about five waterings per day at about 50L per.
I do like the idea of the solar distillation setup. How does that work?

[JumpedAngel]

->Xero
I'd rather not subvert this thread into something else, so if you really want to get into this then maybe a new thread, but here are some basics anyway.

first do a quick google on 'solar still' and have a look at what some people are playing with. I thought "http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_manual/manual15.html" was quite good for selection of types although it was basically meant to help people who want to distill alcohol, same principle still applies.

Having had a think about your situation, 50l/day @ 2.3-2.5l/msq still means 20 sq m under glass and that might cost more than it is worth to you.

Ideally it might be worth spending some money or just doing some research to find out what is in your water.

Another thought came from a 'Quantum' sketch I saw over the last month on a low tech water filter, equal parts of dry clay and coffee grounds are mixed then moistened to a hard dough consistency, the mix is then pressed into a pot (plastic will do) so that it has a 1/2" or so wall thickness,
allow it to sun dry, then remove the plastic and place it in a fire, they used a cow-dung fire on the show cause you can't get wood everywhere, the fire baked the clay and burnt out the coffee grounds making a good pourous pot through which water dripped well and brackish water was rendered drinkable, when your filter clogs up a bit, you just stick it in the fire again for a while.

[darcy]

Any updates JA?

Mine is going well, approx 3 times the size of the last photo, will take some today. Still growing well despite temps close to zero every night, or around 5 degrees at the most.

[JumpedAngel]

Hey Darcy (how was the holiday??)

Mine are o.k. I guess, although I expect it has been alot colder down here.

#1 has grown a little (not much), #2 & #3 are still around 2-3 inches tall but seem to be surviving fairly well and #4 has not died yet but I expect it will happen as it has remained exactly the same, I too will post another pick soon.

[darcy]

good thanks JA i think i deserved one...

I was expecting the 'Kudna' to be dead when i got back but it was the one plant that had grown the most.

Glad to hear yours are surviving too, then we can try cuttings in spring/summer.

forgot to get round to a photo also...

[JumpedAngel]

I've tried cuttings many times now, scurrying home from the desert during the night to lessen the chances of drying them out, it has never worked for me.

This season I intend trying some grafting, and I've prepared a couple of trays of D.myoporoides for just such an experiment, I will be trying this toward the end of the year.

[darcy]

Rimbo and i didn't have any luck scurrying home with the cuttings/suckers either, though it was mostly my fault I've got a heap of D. myoporoides for grafting too.

Here is mine currently:

[darcy]

wELL i tried a graft today and a soft tip cutting in the hothouse, will see how they go. Graft stock was D. myoporoides.

[JumpedAngel]

#4 croaked it about a week ago, the rest have surged with increasing temps.

[darcy]

the first graft has shot from it's axillary buds, looks like its taken. Cut on stock growing together, it's actually th efirst tree graft i've even done that's taken cacti are no problem.

The soft tip cuttings in the hothouse r looking strong too.

[Rimbaud]

Awesome, D.

Did I mention that I have 4 hopwoodii germinations now? 2 will die... but 2 seem OK....

[darcy]

Cool, you've done well with the limited material you had better than my solitary germ.

the graft is growing pretty strongly, soft tip cuttings r just hanging on, is getting quite hot now so htey wilt a lot more.