Plant not doing very well...

[locke]

Hello, I just got a plant from here and it's not doing very well.

First, when the plants arrived (there were two), one was broken off a the stem about 2" from the bottom   I took the upper broken half, put it in rock wool and some rooting hormone but it didn't make it.  The rooted 2" stub I kept and planted it in my pot with the other plant, hoping it might gain some new growth.  Anyhow, after transferring the plants from the shipping container to their new pot (well drained potting soil), and watering them, it's just been downhill.

In the first two days, the plant lost pretty much all it's leaves, but started to grow a few new pairs from the upper nodes, so I was optimistic that things were going well.  Not using a specific dome, but have the plant in a room with a mister, so the humidity is pretty good.  Temp is around 68-70.  Plant gets mostly indirect sunlight through the glass windows.  We've been misting it reguarly, 10-15 times a day.  Have only watered the soil directly once (used a light fertilizing tea) since repotting about 5 days ago, it seems to be pretty good.

Anyways, now my new growth has started to go brown, starting at the tips.  Any suggestions?  Is this pretty normal for these plants after mailing?  I grow a lot of plants, and have a pretty good green thumb, but this plant just isn't responding to our tlc.  No growth from the 2" stub, but I remain hopeful!

[darkshadow]

well you do know a plant can be wet without humidity right. take a soda bottle and a vinegar jug and sterilize them both and cut the top off the vinegar jug and a hole just big enough for the soda bottle and gorilla glue them together leaving the cap of mist the inside of the bottle and put under a grow lamp they should perk up

[locke]

I thought of moving them to underneath a grow light, but I thought that would be too much light given what I've read around on the species.  Any particular brightness and light cycle?  Your instructions for the vinegar jug and soda bottle aren't making sense to me either - are you suggesting a construction method for a humidity enclosure, or something else?

[darkshadow]

this is what im meaning and a 13w -15w halogen bulb should be enough light for it place it about 1- 2 feet above plant so it can get a bit of heat on the bottle to make it humiditize <made up word but start it off at like 2-4 hours a day of light if its liking that give it a bit more and build it up to 6-8 hours of light in the end for optimal growth it should get 9-10 hours

[locke]

Gotcha, your diagram made it quite clear, thanks!  I might try that - it's currently sitting in a room with about 70% humidity, which I thought would be enough, but I guess it could use a bit more.  I put a watered pebble tray around it which is how I've usually helped humidity loving plants but doesn't look like that's been enough.

As for watering the soil, it's ok to let it get slightly dry, right?  It sounds like these plants are pretty sensitive to overwatering the roots so I want to be sure I'm not going to drown it.... but I don't want to let it get too dry either (I've had some plants where they HATE having even slightly dry soil).

I'll try and take some pictures tonight and post them to show you what's happening with the plant too.

[darkshadow]

for the watering i take some dirt from the edge of the pot and if its light but still moist i feel its a good amount of water

[black8teen]

With the lighting a 26 watt CFL daylight bulb is so far my favorite. I have not used any tube bulbs, and am on a budget, so it is what I can afford  . What kind of soil did you use? If the soil came pre-fertalized then adding fertilizer within 30 days can be very harmful to the plant. Find seamac's postings on fertilizer, sorry I don't have time to, and see what he says. His plants grow huge so I would not disagree with anything he says unless it was a blatant attempt at making a joke. As for humidity it helps the plant get started, but if the humidity is to high then the salvia plant will absorb all the water it needs through the leaves and not grow any roots. When your plant becomes stable, slowly transition to your normal environment. This can be done 20 minutes, or an hour at a time. Just to take off the humidity tent a little more until your plant is okay with how your climate is. After this a lot of the older leaves will fall off and blacken. The newer leaves, on the other hand, will grow accustomed to the new environment and they will be much better. Salvia wastes no energy to save its old leaves, it only focuses on what is currently growing. My plants are just beginning to flourish and my humidity for them is around 30%, so they can grow in almost any climate once they are use to it. If you have any questions let us know, and congrats on your new plants. Post some pictures for us when you can. You post using the green "gallery" link at the top and using the URL. Good luck and happy growing.

[darkshadow]

you should convince my plants that i took them out of the dome and over a 2 week period to get them use to my environment and they started ok and then it went to hell and stopped growing so they are back in my cutridome which is huge and now have alot more leaves that are growing. apparently they dont like my 68% humidity and got really pissy with me so i sent them back 2 75-86%

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

68% to 86% humidity should have not made a difference. Ambient humidity changes more than that day to day. I would look for other reasons why your plants didn't do well, I don't think it was the humidity. Get some pictures so we can get an idea of what your setup and environment is.

JARG

[darkshadow]

i dont know but they are happy now

[locke]

With the lighting a 26 watt CFL daylight bulb is so far my favorite. I have not used any tube bulbs, and am on a budget, so it is what I can afford  . What kind of soil did you use? If the soil came pre-fertalized then adding fertilizer within 30 days can be very harmful to the plant.

I'm actually not sure of the wattage of the growlight I'm now using to help the plant regain it's legs, I'll have to check it tonight.  It's been a year since I got it - it's a HID lamp though, I do remember that.  I used a custom soil mixture I make myself, basically just the same as I use for bonsai (it's a high draining soil).  I added a little fertilizer as i mentioned, but not much - shouldn't have burned the roots with it.

After a day now under a humidity tent the plant appears to be holding stable, I'll keep you guys updated!

By the way, would having the grow light on 24/7 be bad for salvia? Darkshadow mentioned 9-10 hours for optimal growth - that seems REALLY short for a tropical plant.  Typcially I thought around 18 hours of light was customary for good vegatative growth.

[black8teen]

Many who grow on this site do use the 18/6 light to dark. It all depends on how you grow. Some of those who use that yellow thing in the sky only give their plant a couple hours of sunlight per day and get maximum growth out of it. You just need to experiment slowly with your plants to find out where you can have optimal growth. Still excited to see some pictures when you get them up.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I tried asking around what the minimum light requirements were a while back and really didn't get a good straight answer. Basically the gist of it was the fewer hours of light the slower she will grow. And anytime you have at least 12 hours of uninterupted darkness for a few months the plant will try to flower. I would think that the plant would stop growing bigger if you had 12 hours of solid darkness and it was flowering. But if it has some light during the night it may continue to grow. Also the temperature can afect the growth. The colder it is the slower it will grow. I was looking at putting my plants into a hibernation type mode by making it about 40 degrees and not a lot of hours of light over the winter. I ultimately decided against it though and are keeping the plants in the house over the winter.

So I guess the answer to your question is lots of people have good luck with 18 hours of light per day and she will survive with 12 hours of light and may ever try to flower. I didn't see any difference in growth speed when I grew 24/0 vs 18/6. Sea Mac swears these plants can grow a foot a month in the shade outside.

JARG

[darkshadow]

yea well seamac has some crackplants cause they are almost as insane as yours jarg. yours are super addicts i think

[black8teen]

I've come to the conclusion from seeing Sea Mac's plants that he is some more human form of the Green Man. I say this on a light side, but if he's hitch hiking the cars must just speed past him because his thumb is way green.