We had some kindergarten homework to finish this weekend, but I’m there in spirit. Everything in Chantz lecture is new to the hobby except for maybe Eriocaulon compressum.
Hopefully you can come next time. Chantz's talk was excellent. I've never been interested in collecting myself, but even though he didn't speak as much about the collection process itself, it made me interested in heading to the coast in NC and seeing what I can find. I've seen a dozen plant collecting talks and never wanted to go get out and do it before. He had good pics and info on the plants, but not too much so that it was overkill. A great balance of collecting, some science, growing tips.... etc. It was just really well done.
There was also talk by Michelle Conrey about plant nutrients. I was awesome as well. It was different from most approaches as it wasn't as much about you need X amount of a nutrient as from the point of view of plant physiology and nutrients gradients, ratios, transport,
pH, etc. One example, with the disclaimer that there are many mitigating factors, was describing Mulder's Chart of Nutrient Interactions where it shows that Ca and Mg compete with
K for uptake in plants. So if your plants appear to be K deficient, and your
GH is very high, the solution might not be to add more K, but to just reduce your GH a bit. (again with emphasizing there are many factors at play in these systems)
Its lunch time here. I'm going to post a few more pics and then see what I can find.