Light Requirements

[Paradoxic]

Salvia divinorum will grow best in filtered sunlight. Direct sunlight should be avoided, but a strong plant can deal with some. Lighter colored or deformed leaves are common signs of too much light.

If you are growing outdoors a 60% shade cloth works well for shading an area outside or humidity tent for your plant. Plants can be grown indoors as well; ideally by a window, but you can also use artificial HID (High Intensity Discharge) or compact fluorescent lighting.

If you are using artificial lighting a HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lamp is probably the best option, but MH (Metal Halide) and compact fluorescents also work. A 400 watt HID light will be enough for 6 ft² (2 m²) of growing area. A 250 watt light is fine for 1-3 plants.  Keep the HID lights at least 2 feet above the plants so you don't burn the leaves. If leaves appear to blush or start to turn reddish the lights may be too close. Here is an example of a plant under a light that was too close:

Image by Schizo-psykick

Compact fluorescent lights can be kept much closer than HIDs, but no more than a few inches from the tops of the plants. You should use at least 20% more wattage (than HID) if you are using compact fluorescents.

[sunsnail]

They can take a few hours of direct sunlight a day, but nothing more to maintain good growth. I've left one plant outside in full sun, mid summer, and its alive. It has deformed growth, and its leaves feel like leather, but it's alive.

[MstryShovel]

A 250 watt light is fine for 1-3 plants.  Keep the HID lights at least 2 feet above the plants so you don't burn the leaves. If leaves appear to blush or start to turn reddish the lights may be too close.

about the reddish thing dunno if its bad or good but a friend of mine has marry under some HID 24/7 the are abour 4 inch from the light from how its growing now, but the leaves are huge(he also has it hydroponicaly to an effect) but anyways the leaves are almost purple, its crazy and so weird to look at, the plants almost look plastic how strange they are.

[JDogHerman]

How many watts of florescent light is best?

Right now I have 2 light above my tent and I'm wondering if its not enough.

[Jupe]

Looks Ok for now, but you could move them closer.  Lining the box with white cardboard or reflective panels can hlep capture the lost light, plants love the white light.  Lights can be also stood on end,

[Salvianaut]

A 250 watt light is fine for 1-3 plants.  Keep the HID lights at least 2 feet above the plants so you don't burn the leaves. If leaves appear to blush or start to turn reddish the lights may be too close.

about the reddish thing dunno if its bad or good but a friend of mine has marry under some HID 24/7 the are abour 4 inch from the light from how its growing now, but the leaves are huge(he also has it hydroponicaly to an effect) but anyways the leaves are almost purple, its crazy and so weird to look at, the plants almost look plastic how strange they are.

By mary do you mean mj, or is it the name of a sally plant?  If it's MJ, there are a couple of extremely potent strains whose leaves are a dark purple.  Never grown one myself, but seen pics in high times.  If that's what he's got, I envy him  

[MstryShovel]

lol yeah i mean MJ, turns out that plant was a boy so he had to euthanise him but i dont know and neither does he about what type of seed it was, he truthfully got it from a bag of midis and started, its in its veg state now woo hoo;)

[JDogHerman]

So back to Salvia's Light requirements...

As a quantitative level of light how much is best?

I have a light meter and have found my plant to be receiving:

1452.6 lumen or 135 Foot Candles


She get this for 12-13 hours and when it is off there is a kitchen light on that I hope will keep her from flowering.

[Arcygenical]

15w of fluorescent light is generally enough for 1 plant... Provided you can concentrate it properly on said plant.

If you have a few plants, you can easily increase this to 30w per square foot of growing space. My 3sqft planter receives 42w of CFL omni directional light and it's doing wonderfully.

[ASL]

Clarifying a few things with HID Lighting:

High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights are very efficient bulbs that produce up to 140 lumens per watt.  As you can see from the chart bellow they produce light predominately in the red spectrum.  Salvia Divinorum requires light from the red spectrum to flower.

Metal Halide (MH) produce up to 125 lumens per watt.  They produce light that falls under the blue spectrum (as the chart bellow indicates).  Light in the blue spectrum is for plant growth especially for leafy plants.

It is goal of most Salvia growers to harvest the most leaves possible.  The type of light that is most important for leaf growth is Metal Halide OR Blue light LED's.  If you want more leaves and to see your plant flower get a ballist that supports HPS and HS as you can switch the type of light used when your plant is large and wish it to flower.

[Paradoxic]

Thats a cool graph, but I'm confused as to what K is (on the x-axis)...is that lumens?

[Arcygenical]

Thats a cool graph, but I'm confused as to what K is (on the x-axis)...is that lumens?

That graph actually shows the temperature or colour of light that's more easily absorbed by Plants. Since plants are green (chlorophyll) they reflect green light (around 4000K) and absorb red and blue lights (2000 and 6000K respectively). Leafy plants NEED blue light as this promotes stemming and branching.

K is the Kelvin value for that specific colour of light. Light colour can be described in degrees Kevin, where lower numbers (in the 2000s) are red and higher numbers (in the 6000s) appear blue.

This value is very closely related to luminosity of hot objects... As things get hotter and hotter they produce bluer and bluer light (Blue flames are hotter than red flames, and blue stars in the sky are burning at a hotter temperature than red or yellow stars etc.) as blue is a shorter wavelength. Shorter wavelengths contain more energy, which is what makes ultraviolet light so powerful (very short wavelength, and therefore high energy thoughtput).

This "temperature" roughly coincides with the actual temperature of some sorts of lamps. A regular incandescent lamp puts out light at around 2700K, and their filament hovers around 2400'c (which is about 2700K if you do the conversion). Kelvin values for non-burning lamps (like CFL's etc.) are approximated based on their relation to actual burning lamps (yes, that incandescent lamp IS burning away it's filament slowly!)

Aha... And you'd need a TON of Blue LED's to produce enough light for plant growth :p. If a high power 5w led pushes 120lumens, it's right on par with an MH lamp

[JDogHerman]

Thats a sweet table.

[Cakes]

When charts like that show a bulb as being a certain color, what they mean is the bulb produces more of that color than it does of other colors; it doesn't produce that color exclusively. only LED bulbs have a narrow enough band of emissions to be considered in that respect.

here is a chart for a 400W HPS. it produces many kinds of light and the wavelengths of 590 nanometers (nm) is what gets produced the most.

the other peaks tell how much of those wavelengths the light makes compared to the 590.

here is a chart for a 400W MH.


do those charts look backward? afterall, the MH is supposed to produce more blue. but no they are not backward. it's just that bulbs can vary a lot.

some chlorophyll need more than one spectrum. like chlorophyll a.



Chlorophyll a has two peaks. The funny thing is that it needs one spectrum first, and then the other one, and then back again to the first.

Keep the HID lights at least 2 feet above the plants so you don't burn the leaves.

a friend of mine has marry under some HID 24/7 they are about 4 inches from the light

Both statements could be true depending on light type. like a certain kind of 400W MH HID will be so hot, that without a cooling hood it must be kept at least 18" away from the plant surface or the plant will get burned. but a different kind of 400W MH HID might be able to be placed less than half that distance away. Some are manufactured that way. also some bulbs get significantly more plant friendly if they have heat shields, but other bulbs actually get hotter with the use of a shield. The bulb might be tested by the use of a plant that is more expendable than your salvia. Water cooled light hoods are not always more effective than air but usually they are. Using them would mean not only grower's choice re distance but also little or no heat/dry air.
idk about salvia but for marijuana, the old standard recommendations for non-cooled lamp heighths are:
400W - 1.5 ft (1/2 m)
600W - 2 ft (2/3 m)
1000W - 2.5 ft (3/4 m)

cfls (compact flourescent lights) can come in all colors too, with 2700K being old school/common. and various heat levels<<heat is usually according to wattage, just like other bulbs. Strength of bulb also affects penetration. An 8W bulb might penetrate 2 - 4in/5 - 10cm. A 24 or 28W can do good for vegging marijuana that gets up to 2 feet tall and then some of those growers switch to 42W for flower. 125W is good although the envirolites/groluxs and such can give varied results. and there are even 200W i think.

rule of thumb is 50W per square foot with 20 - 70W per being common and other variances successful too.

the sun is 10,000 - 20,000 lumens and plants are said to reflect anything over 5000.

If mary growers use regular fluorescents, they only keep them one inch away from the plant tops to prevent stretching. sorry i don't mean to actually talk about marijuana instead of salvia, it's just that i want to make it clear my information might need tweaking depending on what species is being grown. i don't have practical salvia experience but i think y'all might want to hear this info anyway.

She get this for 12-13 hours and when it is off there is a kitchen light on that I hope will keep her from flowering.

Just as a possible help I will say that marijuana is said to have it's flowering disrupted if it's dark period is interrupted with a light as bright as two full moons. it only takes a flash but it may take repeated/successive nights. it is only disruptive to the actual parts of the plant that the light falls on. Disruption of the light cycle on plants that have yet to begin flowering cycle will help the plant to maintain vegetative cycle. disruption of plants that are in flowering mode can result in hermaphrodites.

Salvia Divinorum requires light from the red spectrum to flower.

Does this work independent of other stimuli? got any other specifics?

Light spectrums can also influence psychoactive properties in mj. There was a grow at hg420 where 660nm made the weed's effects very exaggerated. for some strains it brought out the tryptamine qualities but for others it made the body stone twice as strong and twice as long. The red made for small plants that would not put on any size though. yield was like 1/9 of regular.

[Paradoxic]

That graph actually shows the temperature or colour of light that's more easily absorbed by Plants.

Oh, ok that makes sense. I would assume then they must design HID grow lights according to those charts.

Light spectrums can also influence psychoactive properties in mj. There was a grow at hg420 where 660nm made the weed's effects very exaggerated. for some strains it brought out the tryptamine qualities but for others it made the body stone twice as strong and twice as long. The red made for small plants that would not put on any size though. yield was like 1/9 of regular.

Thats interesting, I wonder if the effects of Salvia could be at all altered by a different spectrum.

This is something I've always wondered about. When something like mj has different effects depending on strain, environmental conditions etc. what is it that causes the alteration. Is it varying levels in mildly psychoactive compounds other than THC or is the THC itself different. Does anyone have any insights?