Question

[Hero4Evz]

Last Wednesday I recieved 2 10-12" plants. I left them in the packaging cup they were in for until this Sunday to help them recover from shipping stress. They looked great and I kept them under a clear plastic bag to keep humidity high misting once daily. The smaller leaves looked great but the bigger ones stay wilted and never opened. At the same time the stem was and always has been very sturdy and never wilted or drooped. When I replanted them today I did it in a 50/50 potting soil/perlite mixture and removed the large leaves figuring I could up the hydrostatic pressure as these leaves appeared to be doing nothing. The plants recieve minimal direct sunlight in the morning from the east and just ambient light in the room they are in for the rest of the day. I also have removed the modified humidity tent due to the reminence of Ike hitting Michigan right now and leaving our humidity around 90%. I was just inquiring as to if I'm doing everything correctly or there would be something else I could do to increase they're chances of survival. Unfortunatly I cannot provide pictures as I do not have a digital camera so sorry for that lack of additional information in my inquiry.

[darkshadow]

as of now they sound fine i would use about 1/2 the outdoor merical gro potency in a gallon jug if you have non fertilized soil and id build something for humidity until you slowly get them used to your humidity levels

[Hero4Evz]

I'm using miracle-gro products so they do have the prefertilized soil. As for humidity I need to work on that because they're tall enough that 2 liter bottles don't work. Ike's reminence should be around for a couple days for me to dig something up. Any cheap suggestions for something of that size?

[black8teen]

A big garbage bag? 

If you want you can get a large rubber maid storage tub from somewhere and use that. That is what I transitioned from when I first got my two plants. If the humidity is up so high let them see if they like their new home. They will tell you if there is a problem. If Ike's humidity drops slow enough you might get a natural climatization process going. It would save a lot of time on your part. It would also lesson the bonding experience with your plants....     You decide. If they only get a little sunlight in the morning and normal room lights, maybe you would want to supplement that with a CFL daylight bulb. Salvia needs a lot of light to make a healthy root system and to grow like mad. You can get them to grow at just about any humidity if you work at it long enough. Just realize salvia does not save its older leaves. Once they curl or go black that is pretty much it for them. Once your plants are a little more stable, then these leaves should fall off naturally. Those are the keepers.  Happy growing and Congrats on your new plants. Any questions just ask and get some pictures up when you can. It's always nice to see some new plants.

P.S. Careful on fertilizing too soon after using miracle-gro soil. You don't want to burn your roots out from under you. Sounds like you have a handle on things though.

[darkshadow]

super glue a couple 3 liters together

[Hero4Evz]

Thanks a lot. For now they're cramped under the same bag that I remove when I'm around. Unfortunatly the night after I posted this the temp and humidity dropped some and they keeled right over so on the bag went. They aren't looking bad they just aren't improving so today after class I plann on going out and getting the CFL bulbs because being on the East side of the building I've decided there just isn't enough light. I'm hoping to get some pictures up tonight after I get them setup.

[darkshadow]

look at this set up its meant to grow roots but we've found it to help kilter plants
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/hydroponics/yet-another-2-liter-dwc-system-by-jarg/0/

kudos to jarg

[Hero4Evz]

I just went out and got a growing bulb for my plants to hang out under. Still trying to dig up a computer to get some plants. As for Jarg's setup I love it but I'm already in the ground with mine. Although once I post the pics I'll have to ask an opinion as to whether I need to remove a lower stem on one of mine and re-root it or just let it keep growing and monitoring it.

[black8teen]

Make sure the CFL's you got are "daylight" and not soft or white light. The daylight uses more of the spectrum of light that salvia absorbs and is thus pretty much essential. Until I got 2 daylight bulbs (one for each of my plant) I had next to no grown over 3 months of having these plants. I'm surprised I didn't kill them with all the stupid things I did when I first got them. I have them growing at 29% humidity with just those lights and watering every 3-4 days. Just get them set up and acclimatized a little and then give them time. If you get all the variables right your plants should grow. Salvia is just picky sometimes.

[Hero4Evz]

So I couldn't find CFL bulbs, but did find incandecent bulbs designed for plants. I'm aware of a deffinate decrease in bulb life and heat output, but aside from eliminating those negative side effects are there any others I need to worry about? I do need to hit a hardware store to get a socket splitter for my lamp so I'm going to look for the CFL's there but I was just making sure the incandecents would work for now. Rigth now I have one that remains looking good when out of the humidity tent for a while. The other is just a little too small and weak still though to be out for more than an hour.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I personally would order the daylight CFL's from the internet then instead of using the incandescents.

JARG

[Hero4Evz]

Thanks. Hopefully my local hardware store will carry it otherwise internet here I come.