u/Gem_Supernova

update on my brugmansias, both of my plants are blooming in sync so today was really spectacular. mix of day and dusk shots, this was the first day of multiple blooms with more yet to open on both. bees were going nuts before sundown which was nice to see!

the smell of dozens of fresh flowers at once is indescribable, its soooo good!!

feeling very satisfied with my gals tonight! hopefully I will have time for a third flush of flowers before the first frost this year, I cant even imagine how many blooms that will bring lol

buds are setting up very nicely for the second flush of the year on my brugmansias. started from a seedling last year so by the end of the season late october (zone 6b) the entire plant was nowhere close to where it is now.

the pictures plant grew from a cutting over the winter, it formed a shrub-like structure with 6 main stems instead of one main central stem, about 6 ft tall at its peak including the planter. Not pictured is last year's main stem that I overwintered which is also setting up some nice buds at around 8 feet tall. both of them have at least 2 dozen buds so i am super excited for blooming time!!

will update when the big show occurs, and will definitely post my final flush if i can get another big one in ~2 months

so a few weeks ago a shrimp mail order came with what looked like a pea-sized mystery snail hitchhiker who i decided to give a chance. amongst the shrimps he started growing. and then did not stop growing.

after a month and a half or so he had reached the size of my 1 year old mystery who passed and I became a bit curious that mr. snail was perhaps another type of apple snail. I took him out of the 5g shrimp tank and put him in my 40g community tank where he has absolutely taken OFF. unfortunately he started munching some healthy plants, and after an ID request here confirmed he is a channeled apple snail (who can get baseball sized). his gluttony has grown intense over the last few weeks and his size is expanding every day it seems like, I figured pantagruel was a fitting name for such a beast

anyways I absolutely love my dude but I will admit that he has wiped out my entire foreground, stripped my myriophyllum to the stems, my swords are covered in chomps and he has even started munching on my year-old anubais planta that are really nice and big 🥲

I have a spare 10 G but mr pantagruel absolutely uses the entire 40g and then some. I honestly feel like he needs
more space lol. however i am worried that at this rate I will loose all my plants and in turn create a worse environment for my community fish. He is interested in algae wafers and cucumbers but only for a little bit. he will leave a nice piece of cuke to go back to plant-munching after a few chomps and will eat an algae wafer in minutes and still not be sated.

Does anybody have any experience keeping bigger apple snails in planted tanks? I have yet to try snello, I know that goes over well with snails but will it be enough to keep him off the plants?

Im just worried that a 10g, especially an unplanted one, is a crappy home for a big snail. The mod who helped me out with the ID mentioned they get real big and are pretty much insatiable, but I'm willing to try whatever so everybody can remain happy in the tank.

I know most folks dont understand caring about a snail, but I just want to give this dude the best shot he can have. any advice would def be appreciated

hey everyone,

a few weeks ago I got a shipment of shrimp that had a tiny mystery-looking snail baby like half the size of a pea. i saw it was alive so I let it chill with the shrimp since it was a new tank anyways, and within a week or two i suddenly noticed a dime-sized snail zooming around.

this is a month and a half later and every day i swear it is bigger every day. I've had previous mysteries grow really fast from the dime-size I bought them at, but in 6 weeks this guy is the size of my year-old who just recently passed.

the other thing is, he has been snacking hard on plants. sometimes its decaying plants that all the snails are on, but this one has occasionally started snacking on healthy (looking at least) swords and took a nice chomp out of an anubais stem.

the last thing, every other mystery I have had periods of chilling out or at least sticking to one area but this dude is ZOOMING around all day. I have since moved him to my 40g breeder and honestly it feels too small for him already he is all over that thing day and night

anyways, especially since I am in the US, I am curious if this is a really happy and healthy mystery or a different species of apple snail? thank you!!

No new leaf growth after this leaf popped out but the roots are bursting out of the pot. Definitely needs a repot and this magnificent leaf is already starting to brown so that will probably do it in 🥲

I know it won't last forever but hopefully the leaf goes still goes strong for a while!!

hey everyone, I just received this gerrardanthus macrorhizus in the mail and there is this large gouge in the caudex and you can see the inner layer. this is my first caudiciform plant so I am not sure - is this a concerning amount of damage or will it be/is it healed?

thank you!

year 2 of growing brugmansia and blooms are happening MUCH earlier this year! started this one from a cutting in wintertime and its already leapfrogged past last year's revived trunk

sorry they are tiny so the pics arent great. my adult mystery snail laid an egg clutch but i scraped all of them into a separate container to try and raise them. the eggs in the container haven't done much but i noticed these dudes with weird shells that look like they are pointing right instead of left? one of them is next to a bladder snail it seems different right? like with a more developed face?

anyways I have no idea how they would have hatched unless some eggs fell into the water and hatched but if they are mysterys I'll be happy!

maybe its australian 🤠

found in an old patch of wood mulch. nice shot of the mycelium on the 4th one

over the last few warm seasons I have made many a last word as well as many of the various LW riffs by switching one of the four ingredients out but so far the standard gin recipe has remained my favorite. I have been enjoying this bottle of Leblon cachaça a whole lot over the last few weeks and tonight I figured why not try switching the gin for it.

I've been loving caipirinhas recently for the same reason I like LWs, because they are refreshing and tart while still having a nice complex herbal undertone to it. tonight I figured why not and I'm honestly really happy with the result. standard recipe sub cachaça as the base.

- 3/4oz Green Chartreuse

- 3/4oz fresh lime juice

- 3/4oz cachaça

- 3/4-ish oz maraschino liqueur (using a jigger I filled it a tad *below* the 3/4oz line; its how I like LWs but if you like it fully equal parts stick with what you like)

- shake and double strain into a cocktail glass, poured over a maraschino cherry (next time I think I'll try a lime twist instead to get a bit more bite from the oils)

Weirdly enough the final product wasn't too dissimilar to a gin based one, just with a slight bit of boost to the herbal notes. that distinct grassy twang of the cachaça comes through the chartreuse/maraschino really well for my taste. not sure if I would say its 100% better than a standard LW but it is something I will definitely be making again!

also in my 2 minutes of google searching I didnt really see anything about a cachaça last word so people lmk if there is a proper name for this mix!!