Weird leaf shape, no growth, help needed

[alexbern]

Hello all,

My Salvia plants were doing fine until about a month or two ago the following happened:

1. Growth stopped;
2. Leaves have weird narrow shape (1/2 inch wide) with sides curled inwards;
3. Very few leaves in general and all are rather small;
4. Tall stems with long sections;

I leave in NC, humidity is generally between 40-60% (or more), pretty hot outside. Plants had enough light, water and good soil. What can it be? Over-fertilization, over-watering, too hot?

I have pictures, but have no idea how to post them on this forum.

Help appreciated!

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Could be root bound.... That would explain the doing fine and then no more growth.... You can upload pictures by clicking on the big green "Gallery" button at the very top of any page.

JARG

[alexbern]

I thought it might be root knot, but I just planted them this spring... plus the pots are pretty large. There was also lots of browning both at the edges and tips, I cut that off before taking pictures. Btw, I have seen images with plants looking like mine at the gallery, but could not find any explanation.

Here are some pictures (thanks for the tip about how to upload; I was using non-default theme which did not have that button(??):

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I am not sure. The plant looks otherwise healthy. It's just all the leaves are curled in on themselves and narrow.... Maybe some of the more experienced growers on here might have an idea of what is causing it.

JARG

[darkshadow]

mine was doing the same thing when i got my plant i still have very slow growth but i cut all of the older leaves off and it helped make a bit of an improvement but my plant was alot younger than yours id still try pruning a bit cause yours doesnt have many leaf shoots out of it


so yea im kinda at the same question cause i have 1 plant in a 1 gallon bucket and its defiantly not root bound and it has extreemely slow growth

[alexbern]

I have plated these in spring. They are cuttings I made from the older plant in the previous fall (they sat indoors in cup-size containers through winter). After planting they started to grow pretty fast (I made a good soil mix, plus found very good fertilizer). The only thing I can think of was temperature that went to 90F and above during summer. I have made a shade and they were only getting about 2 hours of direct sunlight anyways, but the ambient temp was too high. This is about when they stopped growing. Otherwise, what the heck is wrong?

As a side note, I put them indoors for two weeks in August while I was away. There was a humidifier set to 70 and folks came over to wet them too. The temp in the house was around 78F... They did not improve at all during this period... weird.

[darkshadow]

well they was getting only 2 hours of sun a day maybe you should try getting a filtering net for the plant that way it gets about 20%-35% sun all day long for adequate growth plants need ample light it just depends on what the total enviroment is set at that its use to, think of the time it grew super fast and dry to replicate the living conditions like i found my problem was not enough light for my plant and lacking of rich soil

[Jupe]

 i think roots get burned by too much heat, in your case, perhaps from the deck...if its 90F, then the deck in the sun is much hotter...... maybe keep them on the ground when it gets hot,  ground temps are consistently lower than air temps, and much much lower than objects in the sun....like porches or floors....

just something to add to the equation...

[alexbern]

Good suggestion, definitely worth a try. Thanks!

[alexbern]

Speaking of root getting hot, what are the pros and cons of terracotta vs. plastic pot? I am using terracotta because I have read one that it allows the soil to dry faster since it can "breath". However I see on many photos here that folks are using plastic ones.