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Experimental growing Cephalotus in beach dune sand


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I've never been worried about losing a few plants in the search of knowledge. I like to question convention. Sure there are reasons why the convention originated, maybe from gained knowledge or maybe assumed because of how they grow in habitat, or sometimes how people think they grow in habitat. One that comes to mind is Mexican Pinguicula, which in their natural environment typically grow in a mostly mineral substrate (so I'm told), so this must be the best growing medium for them... right? Well, in my conditions they grow far better in a multipurpose compost. Given this, in the wild, do they survive but not thrive? OK, over time they would probably (possibly?) lose the ability to capture prey if soil nutrients were available to them, but is this really an issue in the short time they are possessed by a grower? Davion, some 'old' people have forgotten more than some younger people have every learnt :smile:

BTW... the fastest growing of this batch of Cephalotus seedlings is the one that I potted on in a mix of Levingtons multi-purpose compost and sand!... but CPs don't like nutrient rich soils :wink:

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"I"-'Think'-We're Slowly-Learning What-R Bullshit-Story The-LOW-Nutrient-Theory Was.

I-Mean Even The-Commercial-Places R-Now Beginning to-Mention that-They're 'Fertilizing'!!! >(*~*)< What-R Turn-around or-About-Face 'Thart'-IS!!! >(*~*)< / >(*U^)<

(1) Good-Source of HEMICELLULOSE for Nutrient-Storage.

(2) Plenty-of-Aluminium [Especially If-You're 'Trying' to-Use CHEAP-Coir] to Keep The Acidity (pH) Strong-&-Low that Releases Normally 'Bleaches'-OUT Normally-Sequestered Nutrients Such-as Iron / Manganese & Cerium / Molybdenum &-Helps Bring-OUT That Golden-Yellow 'Look' or Appearance of The-Plants Away from The Growing (RED) Centres &-Leaf-Bases (Flavas: ... Yellow-at-The-Top / 'Glauceous' at the-Bottom, Dionaea, Drosera-peltata Etc., Etc..).

(3) Magnesium, Zinc-&-Strontium as-R-Natural Heathl'oo'nd-Substitute for Calcium &-Promotor of Cyanobactia [NOSTOC]. Will 'Lock'-UP Iron, Overtime ... Hence The-Need for Cerium / Other?

(4) Some-Nickel to-Keep The-Mycorrhiza (Generica-australis) 'Happy' as-Well-as Keep Sulphur-Content of Medium Low Which Not-Only Promotes Healthy Mycorrhizal-Growth (IE They Have to-'Work' to-Get-It Ie Into The Hemicellulose.) but-Also Has Benefits for-Cyanobacteria from The-Molybdenum Point-of-View if-You 'Search' The-Net.

(5) Keep Copper on-R-Par with Nickel-or-lower &-Add some-Chromium as-R Retardent against Penicillium spp., if-You're Using Copper as-Well-as &-Avoid Cobalt Which-Appears to-Be Dispproportional Detrimental to the Growth of CPs in-General. The-Last-Two [Copper-&-Cobalt] Probably 'Imply' Further Substitutional Investigation. The-Price of The-Lanthanides Has Come-down Enough Now Since The-Late-Nineties for-This to-Be 'Work' for-You to-Persue ... For-I've Kind'a' Done-My-Bit / Paid My-Dues so-to-Speak. The-Future Is-UP-to-You.

My-Suggestions Would-be to-First Tackle Elements Usually in Highest-Proportion in Other related Soil-Groupings &-to- Perhaps Follow The Sidophile Notion that Cerium Appears-to-Be IE IRON, NICKEL & COBALT R-ALL Ferromagnetic. Cobalt Being The Most Ferromagnetic of The Primary Transition Series Probably Implies it-Is interferring with Another Lanthide of Similar Properties as-well-as Another Organism other-than Rhizobia that Competes by-Using The-Other Element to The-Detriment of Rhizobia IE It-Accumulates in-Soils Where Rhizobia Cannot, so-to-Speak.

I'd Look-at Scandium (Already 'Known' to-Promote Seed-Germination), Euriopium (High in-some-other Soil Series & Most-'Reactive' of The Lanthanide-Series Per-se), Niobium (Mainly Because It-Is Under-Vanadium Which doesn't Appear to-Promote CPs But-Is Prominent in Oceanic-Symbioses &-Is Next-to Molybdenum that Does-appear to-Be Somewhat Important but Could-be 'Better' so-to-Speak IE Iron / Molydenum Vs Cerium / Niobium???), Praesodynium Because it-is Colour-Valency Opposite to Neodymium Which Is-Involved in Strong-Magnets But Initially Has-Shown No-Promise thus-far ie Using Wrong-Twin??? Basically Start-with the Most-Colourful, Abundant, 'Soluble' from Yttrium-to-Ytterbium ... though You-Probably-can Rule-OUT Yttrium Because I've 'Already' Tried-It Qualitatively on-R-Number of-Basic CPs ... though it's Always 'Good'-to-Be THOROUGH!!! >(*U^)<

Word-to-The-Wise ... Always Buy-in-Bulk, even-if The-Expense at-First Doesn't Seem-to Warrant-it - but Then-again Get-Use to-Them as-Being 'Cheap' ... Otherwise You-May-Not 'Stretch' Yourself Far-enough to-Make an-Initial Discovery!!! Pay Careful-Attention to-Stock-Solutions that-Can Last for-Years if-Prepared Thoroughly at The-Beginning ... You Never-'know' How-far Down The-Track They-Could Come-in Handy. >(*U^)<

Be-Patient ... Early-Responses Took 60-Days to-Become Obvious ... over R-Ten-Year Period "I"-Refined-This Down to 5-Days with An-Obvious Above-Ground Response Within 3 IE The-Next-Leaf, so-to-Speak!!! >(*U^)<

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And then your lighting has for sure an influence too. I am no friend of LED lighting for plants, I would always prefer full spectrum radiators like metal halide, but I have to admit that your lighting shows interesting results.

I don't think that any lighting that relies on phosphors for colour conversion, such as fluorescents and white LED, will every compete with the spectral distribution that discharge lamps are capable of. White LEDs have an advantage over fluorescent lamps though in that they can provide a focussed beam. For instance, a T5 8W fluorescent distributes the light output radially over a 300mm length. This would be nearly impossible to focus into a spot. However, I have a 7W LED that produces a round beam with a 40° beam angle, so all of the output can be focussed into a small area. Not ideal for large grow areas, as lots of lamps would be required, but satisfactory for individual plants. It could possibly compete with the output power available to a plant from a 35W HQI, as it can be positioned much closer to the plant.

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  • 2 months later...

So-'How' RU Going, so-to-Speak?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

"I"m 'ON'-to-Something ... Working very-Long-Hours to-See if-"I"-Can't FINALLY 'Break'-The-'Bach' of The-Ol'-FLYTRAP, Once-&-Forall.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

"I"m Going-Back to SAND, CHARCOAL, Urea-Formaldehyde 'Floral'-Foam, Vermiculite ... You-Name-it ... If-"I"-'Think'-it Has-R-Chance "I"m Going to-Re-'Test'-it, so-to-Speak - Burning-UP The-Hours Like-There-IS-'NO' TOMORROW!!! >(*U^)<

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

Cannon-Fodder-Plants Have-Now Come-IN at ~$4.50 Aussie R-Pot ... So-It's Making Life R-Little 'EASIER', so-to-Speak On the-Ol' Hip-Purse. >(*U^)<

"I"ll-Be Posting UPDATES All-Over The-Place as-"I"-Go ... so-Stay-'Tuned' and Keep-Your Ear-to-The-Ground!!! >(*U^)<

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So-'How' RU Going, so-to-Speak?

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

"I"m 'ON'-to-Something ... Working very-Long-Hours to-See if-"I"-Can't FINALLY 'Break'-The-'Bach' of The-Ol'-FLYTRAP, Once-&-Forall.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

"I"m Going-Back to SAND, CHARCOAL, Urea-Formaldehyde 'Floral'-Foam, Vermiculite ... You-Name-it ... If-"I"-'Think'-it Has-R-Chance "I"m Going to-Re-'Test'-it, so-to-Speak - Burning-UP The-Hours Like-There-IS-'NO' TOMORROW!!! >(*U^)<

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=192...1478&ref=nf

Cannon-Fodder-Plants Have-Now Come-IN at ~$4.50 Aussie R-Pot ... So-It's Making Life R-Little 'EASIER', so-to-Speak On the-Ol' Hip-Purse. >(*U^)<

"I"ll-Be Posting UPDATES All-Over The-Place as-"I"-Go ... so-Stay-'Tuned' and Keep-Your Ear-to-The-Ground!!! >(*U^)<

Like Martin say,please ,can you not written like everyone els ,i not understand a word from wat you are saying ,is it something new only for young people?

The are many not Englisch speaking persons on the forum ,when everyone go written like this then we can not following anymore,

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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=193...1478&ref=nf

Don't-Give-UP Mobile ... "I"ve Set-UP Some WATER-Equivalent Experiments to-'See'-if My-New-Knowledge Has-Any-Effect on 'Strike'-Rate In-Water-Culture, so-to-Speak ... though "I" Must-Admit Colin-Clayton's (from TRIFFID-Park) Comments from 2003: "Soo-LOW That-You Can't 'Do'-It" R-'Still' Ringin-In Mine-Ears, so-to-Speak Regarding Trying to-'Find' The SWEET-Spot (Made-UP Two-Batches Yesterday ... &-They BOTH-Failed to-Hit The Theorectical Sweet-Spot) ... so-There May-be Some-Delay Before "I"-Can Get-INTO SAND, CHARCOAL & 'Floral'-Foam ... 'Hopefully' ONLY-R-Matter of Days ... But-it-Still SUX, so-to-Speak!!! >(*~*)< / >(*U^)<

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'Sounds'-GOOD!!! >(*U^)<

"I"-'Think'-"I"ve Deciphered Colin-Clayton's 2003 Cryptic-Coment: "Soo-LOW That-You Can't 'Do'-It" so-to-Speak .... Basically Leave-Well-Alone & Just-'Let' MOTHER-NATURE 'Do'-The-Work!!! >(*U^)<

Anyway "I"ll-'Start'-Heading-INTO Sand, Charcoal & 'Floral'-Foam THIS-Week.

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'Sounds'-GOOD!!! >(*U^)<

"I"-'Think'-"I"ve Deciphered Colin-Clayton's 2003 Cryptic-Coment: "Soo-LOW That-You Can't 'Do'-It" so-to-Speak .... Basically Leave-Well-Alone & Just-'Let' MOTHER-NATURE 'Do'-The-Work!!! >(*U^)<

Anyway "I"ll-'Start'-Heading-INTO Sand, Charcoal & 'Floral'-Foam THIS-Week.

I seem to recall you posting about floral foam (known as oasis in the UK) before.

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Yep ... That's-WHY "I"m Going-'Bach'-to-it, so-to-Speak. "I"m Likening-It to-R-LIGNIN-Substitute or 'GRAVY'-of-The-Peat, so-to-Speak. >(*U^)< It's-R HIGH-Nitrogen-Source, Like-LIGNIN, that's Virtually Unobtainable to-Most Organisms. >(*U^)<

The-Question-arises that 'If'-LIGNIN Contains No-Structural-Nitrogen of-Itself ... 'How'-Can-it Be R-HIGH-Nitrogen-Source &-that SEDGE-Peat that Has TWICE The Lignin of SPHAGNUM Has TWICE The-Nitrogen-Content Unless One-Assumes it-Is The Organisms that Live-On (WITHIN) The Lignin-Portion of The Various-Peats that Provide the-Nitrogen ... Presumeably via-'Fixation' from the-Atmosphere. >(*~*)<

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  • 4 years later...

Old thread yes but I just recently made some experiments on sand. It looks like the sand mobile has (silica). I bought it as a sand blasting agent (silica sand). The composition is:

 

SiO2 45–52 %
Al2O3 24–31 %
Fe2O3 7–11 %
CaO 3–8 %
K2O 2–5 %
MgO 2–3 %
TiO2 0–2 %
Na2O 0–1 %
Quartz < 0,1 %

 

I soaked 5 ml of sand in 50 ml of RO water (not deionised). This water has a TDS of 4 ppm. Soaking results: after 10 hours: 7 ppm; 24 h: 8 ppm; 36 h: 10 ppm. So there is something that is slowly dissolving into the water. But is it bad? Would you recommend pre-soaking the sand before using. Of course I rinse it, but does it need soaking.

 

I have used this sand with my Cephalotus and Drosera and they're doing just fine.

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 just some  clarifying  information for  this  post , first off ,  only  1 cephalotus site  is  at a sea side site ,  that is  Coal Mine beach site, all the rest are  much further back inland and  may be close  at times to  inland swamps/ soaks   or  land  locked lakes  ,with may be exception of  a few   but  there still may be 1/2 a km from  the  actual  sea shore .

 all  sites are comprised of  fine sand based soils  as  the whole area so far back in time   were  massive  sand dunes and  gradually  getting  plant compost added over  the  millions of years from  trees, shrubs and grasses  composting , most sites  with  may be  only  Nothcliffe  to a degree ,are  fine dune sand compost based , the  compost soils   has a  very  high  level  of  this fine sand  in all soil  in  these area's  in many areas as high as 60% , the sand  is probably  from  the  granite  that is  predominate  in  the coastal areas of  Albany , though I have not  investigated  that part , but  the sand  is  very fine grade and  pure white indeed .

  when taking  PPM reading from  water  in winter at some sites  the  ppm reading was  quite  unexpectedly  high ,the water  dose not  hang around  as  the  sites are most on areas where the water runs past or drains  quickly . on top and underneath  the  area ,making  them  the  ideal site for cephs to grow . this  is base on  field site trips and observations only . 

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