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Post by starbuckwhy on Jul 3, 2016 13:54:05 GMT -5
yes, it is pokeweed! there is a big bush of them growing near the second garden. i am thinking of trying to make a pesticide out of the berries, since the toxic surfactant in them is under investigation as a potential organic pesticide. i haven't tried cooking them yet, as i am nervous and there is little young growth on the plants. but they make a great spider sanctuary, which has made it so that I've needed very little pest control so far.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Jul 1, 2016 0:58:36 GMT -5
hi, i'm Starbuck. this is my first year gardening as a hobby. I have two small gardens and two tiny little gardens. I am starting a project to make my own breed of popcorn as a living family heirloom. I am also going to build a small x-ray machine to mutate seeds and I am thinking about making my own pesticides... because that is how i role (jk) here are some pictures of my gardens.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Jul 1, 2016 0:21:48 GMT -5
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Post by starbuckwhy on Jun 21, 2016 1:16:09 GMT -5
Joseph Lofthouse I read a paper awhile ago re freeze drying corn pollen. Will have a look next week and get back with the details. From memory it found if you desiccate the pollen (with silica bags) package and put in the freezer the pollen was 15% viable at 1 year. Collecting the pollen would probably be accomplished by shaking the tassels into a paper bag. It's what I was going to do with the Peruvian giant corn I grew this year - but have just decided to resow the planned crosses next year now I know I can get the giant corn to maturity... yes. what they said the youtube videos i have seen on collecting corn pollen for hand pollination basically said to shake the pollen onto a paper plate every day and then use a brush to pollinate with. I figure I'll buy a few cheap brushes and then tap the pollen into a zip lock with the silicate packet and the brush. once the silks are all pollinated and the taslles are withering and drying up i will pinch off part of them and stick them in the ziplock and freeze the entire thing. just tapping it into a ziplock with a desiccate packet should be enough for something that's getting used this year. i was never able to find any information about how the frozen pollen works, if it has a higher rate e of mutation , or anything like that. everything I read suggested that you try to use stored pollen within 6 months of collecting it, but never said why exactly. the nice thing about pollen is , it only takes a tiny bit to pass on to create hybrids.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Jun 16, 2016 3:23:13 GMT -5
oh, haha, of course I didn't mean right away or anything just whenever you can, if you want to I planted my corn in groups, three seeds of each kind in each group. then staggered out the groups every two weeks. that way the early varieties and late varieties will easily pollinate with each other instead of missing each other. I had a couple of batches that mostly died off, so some are spaced an entire month apart. I started almost three months ago under a grow lamp, on a heating pad. so the oldest seedlings that are early breeds are silking now. I will be saving the pollen and hand pollinating so that I can use the pollen for back breeding later. that is why hybrid pollen would actually be even more use to me than dilperennis seeds or even hybrid seeds. I can use it to pollinate the seedlings that are still babies now (the ones that just went in the ground last week) and then add any residue to the pollen bank I will be setting up for the later years of the project.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Jun 14, 2016 3:46:03 GMT -5
How is that project coming along this year. I'm eager to hear any news on teosinte projects or odd corn of any kind (like that 10 ear plant). i too am curious to hear about your teosinte, and your zea hybrids. i am just starting to get tassels on my drip watered corn, so my drought stress corn should start tasseling soon too, the early varieties anyways. do you think i could trouble you for some of the pollen from your hybrids? it would speed my project up a lot to be able to fold some of those genes in at this early stage of the project.
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Post by starbuckwhy on May 22, 2016 2:54:41 GMT -5
yah, that sounds wrong to me too. my understanding is that the shielding absorbs the x-rays, not sure what would make them bounce, but I'm still just starting to learn about this. I know that there are issues with some materials reacting and creating other types of radiation (visible spectrum florescence being the most common example I know of) that's why what types of aggregates you use in the cement are so important. since last reading your posts I read up a bit on aggregates used in nuclear reactors, they seem to use barite heavy aggregate in "heavy cement. there a few good suppliers of construction grade aggregates in my area, I plan to hit a few of them up to see what they know about getting a bag or two of the stuff. I figure I could use barite sands in the lid for the sarcophagus-like structure I plan to make as a casing. afterwards, it should make a good raised garden bed
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Post by starbuckwhy on May 20, 2016 1:36:44 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure that you could get that concrete thickness down by a lot by building the thing underground and adding atomized metal or something like that to the part that sticks up above the dirt. we have very heavy clay soil wear I am, and soaking it with water (the clay soil) would make it pretty good containment I think. and of course, it would need to be tested with a Geiger counter to make sure it worked.
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Post by starbuckwhy on May 6, 2016 13:30:15 GMT -5
the tutorials on united nuclear are pretty good too. that is where i plan to buy the x-ray tube and socket from.
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Post by starbuckwhy on May 5, 2016 21:18:18 GMT -5
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 30, 2016 21:33:25 GMT -5
Two germicidal UV-C bulbs, something like these. the link didn't work. i was curious about fitting type (bi-pin?), filament type (fluorescent, led, incandescent) i found one that seems to be some kind of incandescent, seemed weird to me. and the power consumption.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 28, 2016 3:57:11 GMT -5
what kind of bulb did you use?
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 25, 2016 3:26:40 GMT -5
All that said, organizations using these techniques might want to be quiet about it because people seem to freak out any time you mention radiation/chemicals/mutations. yah, I haven't mentioned it to the guy from UC that is helping me get seeds and look for grants and places to rent land for the later years of the project, when I will need more space. I am concerned that he or the people who I am asking about the land rentals will freak at the mention of radiation and mutation. eventually, I will probably come up on a direct question or a renters agreement of some kind. then my dedication to honesty might bite me in the ass.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 22, 2016 23:47:43 GMT -5
...Now, back to what started this conversation... I will post updates on the project here as they come up. Any details on how you've been thinking of building your device? I got a pretty bad cold, flu, pneumonia, thing, just getting over it now. it was all I could do to keep up with my planting schedule. I found out my zea diploperennis might not be diploperennis, so the two seedlings that came up (of the ten or so seeds planted) might be worthless for the project. I managed to get a copy of that paper you guys recommended for helping me calculate the right radiation dosage, exposure timing, etc. but haven't sat down to slog my way through it with a highlighter yet. at this point, I'm thinking that the x-ray machine is going to be something for next year. I can build the housing in January 2017 and have it assembled and ready for testing in late February to march. that way I will have a month to work out the kinks while running seedlings through it. that will also give me a chance to run the project past some friends of friends who know a little about electrical engineering. wish I had something more exciting to report. but your project seems to be coming along really well. thanks for asking, and thank you even more for sharing your work.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Apr 11, 2016 14:16:58 GMT -5
wow, I take it back, sounds like you are a lot further along than I am hours was the worst case scenario I had in mind with the relatively unfocused tube that I found cheap online. the seeds I am most interested in mutating are teosinte, for breeding. I am concerned that with the super thick seed coating it will be hard to get mutations from wavelengths that have a harder time penetrating dense seed material like the husks of the zea diploperennis seeds I want to work with. some of the stuff I read about x-ray induced mutations seemed to imply that with the normal "soft" x-rays (as they called them) it can be difficult to get the mutations with short-term exposure. I've had a really hard time finding any scientific or scholarly articles on the topic, so I have been going at my research from the opposite angle. I have been reading a lot of stuff that is written about avoiding radiation exposure and what situations might put crops "at risk" of mutation. this angle of research may have skewed my understanding of the topic. I am nowhere near actually building the device yet, so I haven't gotten into the specific numbers. I am looking forwards to reading your following post(s). haha, I actually didn't realize it was your blog that was linked to thank you for engaging with me on this topic, I am really enjoying the conversation(s)
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