Watering/Fertilizing

[strangeworld]

Also, when should I start fertilizing the potted salvia cutting, as its potted in fresh potting mix which says on the bag it contains 4 months worth of slow release fertilizer already? Do you think I should wait several months before using any nitrosol liquid blood & bone?

[Paradoxic]

Yeah definitely do not start fertilizing, you will run the risk of over-fertilizing. Yeah I would recommend against slow-release ferts for Salvia because it can be pretty sensitive. However, it should be ok, but in the future avoid those.

Nitrosol seems like some good stuff, I've never heard of it but it seems like a good choice. When you start using it I'd be curious to see how well it works.

[strangeworld]

Oh right, so some potting mix doesn't have any slow release fertilizer in it? I kinda assumed it all must, as the 3 or so brands I saw at the garden centre all had it written on the bag. Maybe I need to open my eyes

[strangeworld]

I'm concerned I may have overwatered afterall.... I just noticed some white dusty marks creeping up the base of the stem from the soil, and while wiping them away with a damp cloth I moved away some of the top soil. After moving some more topsoil away I noticed what looks to me (untrained eye) like mildew amid the damp soil. Like a very fine white fuzz on some of the chunky organic lumps amongst the soil.

So.... no more watering for some time to let it dry out decently. I suspect my constant misting combined with humidity chamber for quite a long time meant that the roots weren't drying out the soil at all...

What else, if anything, can I do to help it? I've left the top soil moved to one side to help aid the evaporation of any excess water...

Maybe its being overprotective once more, but I just don't know - sure don't want sudden root rot to set in!

[Paradoxic]

There definitely is some soil options that are not slow-release. Although it does seem like many are now advertising "feeding for up to  3 months" so I guess it might be harder find alternatives. But any soil thats organic is fine, so you can always get that.

Your plant should be alright, its definitely a good idea to let her soil dry out before you water again. If you ever need to let your soil dry out and are worried about nute deficiency you can mix up a low strength nute solution and foilar feed (spray on plants leaves).

[Jupe]

 Just what you need.  Nitrosol seems like a good company, from a glance at their site.

At one end of the spectrum is pure chemicals, usually derived from petroleum or other industrial sources.. at the other end, is pure manures and cover crops, with zero "chemical" input. They often can take 2 seasons to release their chemicals, but soil is gradually built stronger with each application.

In the middle are all the various products with a little of both, the fish emulsions, blood and bone meals,  seaweed extracts...and then the various mixtures, depending on what your goal is.

8-6-3 is a good lower strength number..(as compared to 60-0-0 Nitrogen, which burns your fingers, but is great for breaking down  cellulose piles, like dry leaves)  you shouldn't have any troubles with Nitrosol.

20-10-10 is somewhere in the middle....but you can burn plants if you don't follow measuring instructions carefully.

[strangeworld]

Ok good stuff. Thanks for the advice guys - there may be hope for me as a gardener yet

[Paradoxic]

Damn 60 Nitrogen would be intense. I use a very low-strength fertilizer, Maxicrop seaweed. Its 1-0-1, but Salvia seems to love it. It works really well for foilar feeding.

It would be really sweet if they had something similar to GH 3-part except with organics. This would allow you manipulate the N-P-K ratio and see what Salvia responds to best. Does anyone know if anything like this exists?

[Cakes]

The best all organic company might be Grotek.net.

I have been using foods and yard material for fertilizers; like oats, rice, fruit, etc. I haven't used it on salvia but for rampant marijuana growth it works good. I've used it on seedlings and all the way through bud (i have a legal med garden in california). we put the foods in a blender with water and then use in a solution straight on the soil. It seems like 8 tablespoons of material per gallon of water is comparable to a full strength feeding of commercial ferts. We give plain water every 5 - 6 feedings.

Apple, fruit  .05 - .02 - .10
Apple, fruit pomace (what’s left after squeezing)  .20 - .02 - .15
Apple leaves  1.00 - .15 - .35

There are databases where you can see the N-P-K values in foods and plants.
(protein=nitrogen, all others called by "real" names).

here is the database for plants, it gives ppm of each chem:

http://sun.ars-grin.gov:8080/npgspub/xsql/duke/listchem.xsql

here is for food, to see the % of N-P-K, use the option that says "100 gram" servings. so that way if a food has 1 gram potassium, it has 1% potassium. If it has half that, 500 mg, then it = .5% K.
or 5 mg = .005%

www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

and this page is good:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/   

[Paradoxic]

Damn thats sweet. I didn't know that you could put food straight into the soil with good results, I thought you had to compost it first.

This might make a good article for organic fertilizing. Would you be interested in posting one, I'd be happy to make you a contributor.

Oh, and I was looking at that Grotek site, looks like some badass organic fertilizer.

[Cakes]

Fox Farm is also good. They have a veg formula (6-4-4) with all the micronutrients in it called "Big Grow".

That stuff is all good if you have the cash, but I'm telling you dude, cheap ferts have bailed me out. and they are totally customizable.

I'd be happy to post up a bigger text if you like; wherever you want.

[Paradoxic]

Yeah, you should post a new, big article on organic fertz (w/ the real fruit and such). I made you a cultivation contributor so just post it in the General Indoor/Outdoor Growing section.