Botany The Acacia Grow Thread

[acacian]

T

I haven't harvested yet, however I did oringinally have 3 acuminatas, one died with the flooding and hot summer, it waa 6 months before I finally ripped it up and it was indeed active, I found however, being as it was dead it was very hard to strip the bark from it. Did the best I could and chopped up the rest, wood and all. I did a straight to base and it was active at barely 2 and a half years old. Couldn't give a percentage as I didn't shred the bark and i couldn't separate the bark from parts of the wood. Fresh acacia is much easier to strip if one is practising sustainable harvesting ofcourse.

If you mean age of courtiis only 2 years old and only spent one summer in the ground. Hoping they kick off this year, the mix may not be as good for it as the phleb and narrow leaf acuminata. Also just started a burkitti and will be starting colei and a few other rarer wattles I got a hold of this yesr if all goes well. Still have 2 courtiis and 5 phlebs in pots that I need to find space for.

That’s great to know it was active after just two years.. there is a surprising lack of data on this available on the internet.. but all accounts of those two species seem very consistent after the 2-3 yr mark. Will be great to see more people share their findings with home grown plants... (wink wink).. as its currently mostly word of mouth. One I would love to see some home grown extractions of is Acacia floribunda. Anyone been collecting seed and growing out active type? This species grows fast and is incredibly hardy/adaptable - but its perhaps the most enigmatic of the known Australian tryptamine species.

Interested to hear how your colei goes. What variety is it? I've recently germed about 60 subs. colei - was which was probably way too many for a tree that may not like this area, but they are grooving along.. albiet slowly.

Below a mucronata subs. longifolia followed by a colei. Really excited to see mucro's first phyllodes emerge from the woodworks.. it doesn't disappoint.

 

[_Trip_]

Awesome pics as always. Your collection seems to be getting quite large.

Think it's colei var colei. From what was written on the seeds.


In terms of activeness I will say my courtiis at just over 12-18 months were active when a sample was taken, can't give a accurate %, very small sample was taken using methanol. But positive on reagent testing.
It will be good to get a data base of samples when these plants are old enough.

 

[acacian]

So a while back I think I posted some shots showing the very simple vein structure (often just 2-3 longitudinal nerves) in very young floribunda. With age, this changes and they start to develop finer networks and broader phyllodes. I am just seeing the first indicators of this now in my own plants, after massive growth spurt this week. The tree the seed was gathered from had very broad phyllodes for floribunda.. so I hope the seed gathered keeps this trait.

The last shot is of an unusually broad phyllode seedling from another variety. The rest of them are needles.

Long live the willow!

 

[acacian]

Thought would be nice to do a little summary post, as my greenhouse is soon to be deconstructed when I move home. I was standing in there before marveling over what has been accomplished in a little over a year, and how much my relationship to Acacia has deepened.

One of the aims of this thread is to show that in the time it takes to hold off growing because wild harvesting is apparently easier, you can get a huge amount done. Most of the plants I have posted here were no more than an inch or two tall last winter (June). In the last 7 months they have absolutely juiced it.

Even species such as obtusifolia and phlebophylla are much faster than people realize. In cultivation they can move a long at a much greater pace. My obtuse was a sad little stem last September with two phyllodes. It is now close to 1.5 m in height. Same may be said for the rest.

All of this is about 16 months of work.. imagine where these plants will be in a few years.

I am mainly speaking to wild harvesters here. Even if the objective was commercial quantities (I won’t go into the moral angles of selling DMT and talk of selling is prohibited here anyways), growing is long term far more advantageous than short term wild harvesting. It’s a win win to grow the plants over taking from them in the wild.

If you like the extract from a tree you have harvested from, I urge you to gather the seed and grow it. It’s an incredibly wholesome process.

 

[inermis]

Nice thread Acacian
Love your little set up you had and the beautiful plants you've managed to grow in a couple years.Hope your next place you'll be able to carry on your project and maybe even put some plants in the ground.
Thought I'd share some of my trees I've grown from seeds blessed to me from some kind people.
Got a few different Acacias
acuminata
courtii
simplex
confusa
tenuiflora/hostillis





.

 

[acacian]

Wow inermis! Thanks for the beautiful pics... your plants.. I'm speechless! So cool to see someone successfully cultivating simplex. How old are your specimens? They all look vibrant and healthy. Do you grow any other Acacia you'd like to share?

Thanks for a great contribution in the thread! My earlier points are reiterated in your efforts.

[edit] and yes new place I will finally be calling home. So plants will be going in the ground. I will be picking the ones in the greennhouse I really vibe with .. the rest I will gift to others/guerilla plant/move to another location. Very excited!

 

[inermis]

Thanks for the kind words Acacian
I've only got these that I've listed going along with a few small A.phlebophylla that have been up a couple months.Ill be honest I have battled loosing seedlings that have popped up but after reading through your thread I put a lot of my issues down to crappy mixes.Ill certainly be trying out your high sand/peat mixes with any future seed projects-seems like they've done well for you.I do find that the first phase till plant gets it's first true phyllodes is the most critical but once past there they much hardier and can take a wider range of abuse along with different mixes and of course once they go into the ground they really take off.Most of my trees are in the 2-3yr range.

 

[Transform]

@acacian @inermis - great work and great pics the both of you, very inspiring!

Now, I've done a small amount of searching in the forum and was still unable to find much information on cold-resistant acacias beyond obtusifolia and phlebophylla. What options, if any, might there be for a damp dark region of northern Europe where melanoxylon dies of misery? Temperatures of late rarely go much below -8C and freezing only occurs for a week at a time.

Or should I simply give up on the idea and be satisfied with the couple of specimens I was able to plant somewhere with a warmer climate?

 

[acacian]

Acacia floribunda does fine in cold temps.. I know where I live it regularly sits well below 0 during the winter night/early morning and they aren’t visibly bothered. Make sure you sow in spring though so that your plants are established come the next winter. Young seedlings will likely die.

Obtusifolia may not be very happy in prolonged cold but still worth a go. It has been known to snow in some areas it grows. Phlebophylla and floribunda to my knowledge would be your safest options.. however I’m a little unnerved that melanoxylon doesn’t handle your area, as it is generally very cold hardy.

Acacia oxycedrus is known to survive temps down to -7 degrees C.. but remember in Australia all of these extreme temps are just in the very early hours of the morning. Not prolonged like where you are. Acacia mucronata is cultivated successfully in the UK as well.

Hope that is of some help.

 

[acacian]

I almost forgot Acacia retinodes..

 

[_Trip_]

Now, I've done a small amount of searching in the forum and was still unable to find much information on cold-resistant acacias beyond obtusifolia and phlebophylla. What options, if any, might there be for a damp dark region of northern Europe where melanoxylon dies of misery? Temperatures of late rarely go much below -8C and freezing only occurs for a week at a time.

Maybe look into what acacias grow up in the snowy mountains or nearby towns like Jindabyne or Charolette Pass, mean temps are lowest in the state of NSW and the lowest night time record I think is -13.9c. A quick search indicates it does seem hard to find information but it'll be somewhere.

 

[acacian]

Good point Trip. I think important not to discount species that occur outside alpine areas as well. Acacia mucronata for example is successfuly cultivated in the UK, as is retinodes and floribunda. Aside from phlebophylla, I am aware of one successful test on Acacia obliquinerva and Acacia dallachiana/Acacia alpina show promise based on subjective bioassay.. they'd be nice to grow as well, although their alkaloid content is not confirmed.

Here is a clip of a floribunda grown around the Cornwall area..

 

[acacian]

I don't want to get too off topic here, but @inermis .. curious t know if you've tested the leaves/twig of your mimosa?

 

[inermis]

I havnt...
Kind of been under the impression that the root bark is where the goodies are at.
Is there something I'm missing?

 

[acacian]

It is, but haven’t seen a lot of research on other parts of the plant. Fortunately mimosa doesn’t die from rootbark harvest like most Aussie acacia but would be interesting to see what is in the twig/leaf.

 

[inermis]

A couple weeks back I had to heavily prune my trees and unfortunately just threw all the branches away
I'm sure in the name of science my future purnings can be kept for some tests.
I did recently have a branch that broke on one of my A.courtii that I made sure to keep for this exact reason.

 

[acacian]

From your mimosa or your acacia? I would definitely keep those! Branch bark of mimosa will almost certainly have DMT in it.. same goes with acacia

 

[inermis]

On my mimosas.
I did peel back the bark on a few of the twigs but very little purple was showing.
Not sure if this is a good indicator but next time I'll save the bigger stuff and fo some tests.

 

[acacian]

I wouldn’t judge on colour.. stem and twig bark is usually green but certainly in the case of the “good” acacia is highly active.. if testing bark stem/twig is my go to

 

[Phyllode_Pickler]

At this point I'm thinking I can't tell the difference between the floribunda and the acuminata, I did label them and probably lucky too their growth patterns are very similar at a couple of months old.

Is there any point where you need to start feeding them and if so anything in particular?