Arcy's Indoor Growlog - 4th generation.

[Arcygenical]

Strain: Blosser
Lighting: (2) 15w fluorescent grow bulbs. (1) 42w blue-daylight CFL. (2) 32w warm-white CFL.
Grow Media/Soil Mix: 50% organic soil. 10% sterilized compost material. 20%/20% Perilite and Vermiculite
Fertilizer: Miracle Grow
Temperature Range: 24-26c constant
Humidity: Very low. 30% typical peaking to 45% on occasion
Started From: Clones from a seed-born plant
Start Date: October 10th 2007

Other Details/Images:

I'm going to be chronicling my fourth generation of clone grown plants. I recently gave away my only seed-grown plant (after taking three cuttings of course :p) as it was by far the most resistant to temperature and humidity swings. The new owner knows about it's peculiar weakness to insects, but that's a whole other matter for a different thread .

First off, the elder three plants (remaining ones from my third batch of clones). You can see the 2 15w T8 grow bulbs, as well as the huge 42w CFL. That thing is by far the most powerful bulb I've ever used. It rivals some of the 120w floodlights I've seen!

Even with my misting setup, you can see the older plants curling about their main vein. They don't appear to be harmed by the lack of humidity (still put out up to an inch of growth a week) and their salvinorin content is fairly consistent with estimates (about 2.5mg a leaf extracted accounting for a 30% extraction inefficiency).
 
However, This is a thread about the clones, so let's get onto the new guys!


You can see three healthy cuttings in their humidity bottles (regulated at 90%... any higher and you risk molding of the soil surface in my experience). They will remain in these tents for 2 weeks while their roots develop, then they'll be acclimated to the very dry conditions in my apartment. They're set in 25L of soil, which should be enough for the size of plant I'm going for (IE: indoor-friendly).  I've decided that this generation of clones will be an experiment. I'll be pruning new growth religiously, to promote as much lateral branching as I can. You can see the parent generation is quite tall (reaching almost 5ft before I took a cutting from the largest one) with incredibly long inter-node lengths. They were grown almost exclusively under red light, as part of an experiment for one of my classes (What better thing to grow for school than Salvia eh?).

A closeup pic of my conditions. You can see the incredibly low humidity... 31%.


The last thing I want to show you today is the effect of insecticidal soap on new growth.

Safer's soap, (and even a dilute castile and IPA solution I made myself) causes tissue necrosis almost on contact. Where the new growth dies, there's an almost immediate branching effect; as smaller leaves shoot up around the traumatized area within 48 hours.

I'll be updating this weekly for the first two to three months, up until my new cuttings are well established plants. I figure at that point I'll get another 30L tub and continue on with a fifth generation. Anyone have any ideas for my next experiment :p.

Any comments, questions and criticisms are welcome, and thanks to everyone for looking!

[Paradoxic]

Its great to have another Salvia cultivation enthusiast, welcome to Salvia Source! Congratulations on getting your plants to produce viable seeds. Do you have a picture of any seedlings?

What exactly are you testing on Salvia for school?

[Salvianaut]

other experiments?  Try grafting a Salvia cutting onto a MJ rootball
If you are capable of getting them to seed, I'd say the greatest experiment would be in increasing the potency and diversifying the species.  It'd be nice some day to have plain leaf be suitable for high level trips. 

[Arcygenical]

other experiments?  Try grafting a Salvia cutting onto a MJ rootball
If you are capable of getting them to seed, I'd say the greatest experiment would be in increasing the potency and diversifying the species.  It'd be nice some day to have plain leaf be suitable for high level trips. 

Yeah, sadly enough these guys just don't produce viable seeds to well... Only about 50% of the seeds I collected germinated, and 10% of those survived. The one that did survive was terribly anemic for it's early life, and very susceptible to insect damage... It did, however, really make a come back when I kicked up the fertilizer, and took it out of a humid environment. It was the one I gave away to a good friend. If I had access to the chromatography lab for the rest of my life, I'd definitely make this a project, but alas, I don't... so I'd have to guess. And that's lame

Its great to have another Salvia cultivation enthusiast, welcome to Salvia Source! Congratulations on getting your plants to produce viable seeds. Do you have a picture of any seedlings?

What exactly are you testing on Salvia for school?

Well, to answer the school question first, we just needed a plant that produced a large amount of biomass very quickly. Most other students used lame plants like parsley, but my salvia, grown under red light, put out almost 300g of dried stem material alone. We were studying the genetic properties of our specimen using electrophoresis and later looking for choice active chemicals with LCMS... I just wanted to have a more interesting project really.

I do have pictures of the first seedling somewhere... They were about 1 month at the time of the picture... However, I'm not quite sure where I left them. Eh, I'll be producing seeds again with my three main plants before chopping them all up for more cuttings. It's a dilemma though, Im not sure whether to feel bad or to feel good about propagating them so destructively...

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

[Arcygenical]

First week update time

These things are growing like wildfire. 1 inch roots in heavily pre-fertilized soil. In a week, I've gotten an entire new node developing on EACH plant. Development of the terminal bud is starting too, which is great seeing as I pinched them off while the cuttings were on the donor plant!



And what do we have here? Some Aerial roots forming? Wicked.




These are progressing *so* well, that I'll be transitioning them to low humidity conditions way earlier than I expected.

[5010]

They are looking great!  My soil is a very mulchy compared to yours.  The top leaves are curled too.  I agree those aerial roots do look wicked, like little legs to walk about the pot with.

[Arcygenical]

If my soil's mulchy, it's probably because I added ground vermiculite into the soil. I don't like leaving it in the little balls, because wet soil  really cements them together... Can't be good for the plants .

I'll be aerating the soil soon with some skewers, before the roots get too big and I risk damaging them.

[5010]

Interesting idea.  I wonder if I should use skewers to aerate the original soil 1.5" around the base.  When I transplanted from the pots received by sea mac, I forgot to loosen the roots and have left them as-was.  I wonder if that will bite them in the long run or if it even matters.

[Arcygenical]

Nope. It won't matter at all. The salvia should start to sprout out into the looser surround soil. The only reason I like aerating the soil is so i can insert my secret weapon: Aeration straws.

Take a regular 4" long straw, poke about 100 pin pricks in it in random locations. Use a skewer to clear a hole and place the straw in. Do this about 5-6 times around the various portions of the planter... A great way to stave off stem and root rot.

But you can always add a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide to each quart of water you use for watering to accomplish the same effect... Just water with this mixture every other month or so.

[Paradoxic]

Take a regular 4" long straw, poke about 100 pin pricks in it in random locations. Use a skewer to clear a hole and place the straw in. Do this about 5-6 times around the various portions of the planter... A great way to stave off stem and root rot.

But you can always add a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide to each quart of water you use for watering to accomplish the same effect... Just water with this mixture every other month or so.

Great idea: Genius+

I decided to add this to Pest/Problems section. I changed it so it says you added the article:
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=759.0
Also I added you as a cultivation contributor so you can add articles to the cultivation section whenever you like.

[MstryShovel]

are those cotton balls in your soil? if not what are they, did you start these cuttings directly in soil? or water root them. i havent had much luck with making cuttings, accept one in 8 ive done, do you use any chemicals or adidtves when water rooting? the one cutting that i water rooted (tried earth rooting which took off for a while then rotted aswell as other ways, anyway) the cutting took about a month to produce any kind of visible roots, although it was clearly still alive. any advice?

[Arcygenical]

Great idea: Genius+

I decided to add this to Pest/Problems section. I changed it so it says you added the article:
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=759.0
Also I added you as a cultivation contributor so you can add articles to the cultivation section whenever you like.

Hey, Thanks! Any idea what you want me to write on?

are those cotton balls in your soil? if not what are they, did you start these cuttings directly in soil? or water root them. i havent had much luck with making cuttings, accept one in 8 ive done, do you use any chemicals or adidtves when water rooting? the one cutting that i water rooted (tried earth rooting which took off for a while then rotted aswell as other ways, anyway) the cutting took about a month to produce any kind of visible roots, although it was clearly still alive. any advice?

They're actually treated rockwool sheets. You can get them at any hydroponics store. I had a few lying around at work that I "borrowed"

Synthetic cotton would work fine too. They're just a moisture barrier between the lower leaves and the soil. Leaves in contact with wet soil tend to rot, and rot really hurts new cuttings...

I rooted them in water. I've never had a water root go funky on me... I've done about 18 and they all took within 2 weeks. Place them in a large bottle of distilled water and cover them with a blue ziploc bag. The light blue colour helps to filter out light. If your cuttings arn't rooting in water make sure they're not in direct light, that you're not using tap water, and don't spray them. I breathe into the bags daily until there's a noticable fog, but I've just heard that misting can really hurt them. You can see how well the roots are developing in this pic

''

Literally, they're trying to get into the rockwool for it's moisture.

[Sea Mac]

That's really cool!

What did you mean when you said that you "forced" your plants to set seeds. Did you purposefully reduce the plants photo-period and make them bloom?  Did you do this in mid-summer: trick them into thinking it was winter so soon?

Also: you said you hand pollinated them with a Q-Tip. I am curious how many flowers you
hand-pollinated and how many seeds you got.

50% germination is much higher than average: you did well!

We can always use another expert researcher here. Glad you joined!

Say! Do you think the fellow you gave that rare plant away to would send a cutting? I'll be glad to ship him cuttings of "Aquarian" and "Moon Maiden" when they get big enough.  Salvia divinorum Genetic exchange program! 

[Arcygenical]

That's really cool!

What did you mean when you said that you "forced" your plants to set seeds. Did you purposefully reduce the plants photo-period and make them bloom?  Did you do this in mid-summer: trick them into thinking it was winter so soon?

Yep, thats exactly what I did. Dark room with 10 hours of light a day!

Also: you said you hand pollinated them with a Q-Tip. I am curious how many flowers you
hand-pollinated and how many seeds you got.

Each of the three plants that started to flower set out about 36 flowers. 6 sets of 4 on each.

50% germination is much higher than average: you did well!

It was closer to 35% actually, I was just rounding up for simplicity

We can always use another expert researcher here. Glad you joined!

Say! Do you think the fellow you gave that rare plant away to would send a cutting? I'll be glad to ship him cuttings of "Aquarian" and "Moon Maiden" when they get big enough.  Salvia divinorum Genetic exchange program! 

Yep, I can take another cutting from the plant in a few months when she can recover I see this guy daily so there'd be no reason he wouldn't let me take one.

[MstryShovel]

oh yeah also, arch, when u said you grew the plants of yours under redlight, was it a strait red bulb? was it 24/7ect did it promote faster growth, ect, mabey more bushie growth or more vertical growth?arrrgggg ima pirate