Looking to buy some cacti seeds

This is a very interesting read guys, I would be lost without you's, hehe.

JK, have you ordered any seed as yet?

The AQIS must have some fancy men and women in white coats to be able to determin which seed is what ect.. Imagine the amount of stuff coming to Australian shores that needs checking and clarifying. Jeepers!

There was some amendments to the CITES affecting Australia on 25/10/12

Based on my readings CITES appendix III is not that bad ; it offers the opportunity to protect a native wild animal or plant species it believes are in need of international trade controls. These species are not necessarily "endangered" and may be traded for commercial purposes. All that is required is a export permit in this case. Species on this list are "watched" in case trade does appear to be impacting its survival.

Basically if you want to buy a native wild animal or plant species for export listed on Appendix III; you are required to pay for an export permit. An export permit in Australia cost $75 valid for 6 months. Shipments without appropriate permits risk rejection by importing countries

Thank you for clarifying that Nehme.
I think I will start a new thread and copy these bits into it, or ask HN to move the rest of it to there.

thinking of writing a little excel application that allows searching of plants from AQIS for import. anyone interested? it will take a bit of effort to do, so dont want to waste time if nobody will want it.

Hi didi,
The maintenance from your side is going to be quite high because you have to keep your plants list in sync with the AQIS site unless you can use a web service from AQIS to search for plants. I am not sure how often they change (add/edit/delete) the plants list on the AQIS site.

@Diddi I would use the time set aside to write that to instead plant and grow more cacti

oh blast! ive just bought my fungarid

What price was it, diddi? If you don't mind me asking.

the fungarid or the aqis program?

fungarid about$16.50 bunnings
aqis program... um.....

Haha, the Fungarid. I haden't even looked yet. I need to invest in some. But I haven't been home for a while so I fear the seedlings have perished

thats not good

Hmm, some how they're still going strong! Thank goodness for that. Heaps more have germinated also so so so happy.

what sorts have come up?

Little greenish ones I imagine

Unknown Astrophytum, Trichocereus Bridgesii, Setiechinopsis Mirabilis, T. Thelogonus X E. Seminudus, Unknown Trichocereus hybrid, L. Williamsii and R. Azare. Going well IMO.

Yes Kandahar it is very interesting reading, no I have not yet ordered any seed, still deciding, I think it is still worth to have a go with a small order.

A couple of years back I ordered a few small packets of seed from a dealer in Italy. Not all at once, there were 3 separate orders. For the most part there was no bother at all. I didn't have to do any paperwork. I just sent the money and a couple of weeks later the seeds arrived in the mail box.

But customs did confiscate one packet - Myrtillocactus geometrizans. They sent a note saying that if I didn't do anything about it they were going to incinerate the seeds. I guess thats what happened, because I never replied.

I had assumed that Myrtos wouldn't be a problem. But its listed on their site as an invasive weed.

That was a couple of years ago. But I was looking at their site the other day and it looks like things are pretty much the same. As long as the species isnt prohibited its still possible to import small quantities without any real hassles.

cheers

I had a whole package of 400 Astrophytum seeds burned earlier this year because they were improperly labled.

Ouch. Did they say how it was incorrect - wrong name, inadequate naming or something? I get the impression that sometimes the seed vendors can be a little casual about our import regulations. When I got the seeds from Italy they would throw in a free packet as well. (Some random species of succulent.) Which is nice of them. Mine got through. But Ive heard of these type of freebies being sent to the dreaded incinerator.

I was thinking of ordering from Mesa, and maybe some German mob. I'd like to think that the bigger companies have got their act together regarding these things. A fair bit of their business would involve international orders, including I guess some to Oz.

Moved to a better home

The seeds that got burned were all Astrophytum but they were a mix. That is where the problem came from. AQIS said mixtures not allowed. Didn't matter that they were all asterias. Mixwd cultivars all got burned. They offered me the chance to get them sent back to Germany for sixty-some dollars but that is a joke. Lose another chunk of cash and still not get the seeds.

That is interesting. As you'd know AQIS lumps varieties, cultivars etc under species. So a mix of varieties should logically be seen by them as one species. But I guess they dont like mixes.

Maybe they're worried that there's a greater chance that prohibited seed might accidentally get into the mix. Though its not foolproof. One of the freebies I got from overseas was Trichocereus terscheckii, They weren't all trichs though, a couple of other cacti popped up. They are still very small - I have no idea what they are.