JARG's First Salvia Grow (Grow Log continues at www.MichiganSalvia.com)

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 43
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 60%
Height: 4"
Lighting Equipment: The big bright YELLOW ball of fusion in the sky
Light Schedule: Eastern direct low in the sky sun, then indirect the rest of the day

It was transplanting time for the H&W control I have at my mom's house. It went from a 6" pot to a 10" pot and I was very surprised that it still looks like it will outgrow this pot very quickly! This plant just won't stop growing...  It may really take off now because when I transplanted I also watered it with a MiracleGro and Neem mix. No more plain water for this little one from here on out. It wants more! Here is my concoction:

1 Gallon of distilled water
2 1/2 TBS Neem oil (For pest prevention)
1 TBS Castile Soap (probably could have left this one out for the soil, but I already had it mixed in for my leaf spray mix)
1 tsp 12-4-8 All purpose MiracleGro liquid plant food (You could also substitute 1/2 tsp of 24-8-16)


So as a recap here it was on day 38 with a 6" pot



And here it is on day 43 in it's new 10" pot


JARG

[Jupe]

good temps and humidity....just like home....nice pics too....

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 44
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 60%
Height: 4"
Lighting Equipment: The big bright YELLOW ball of fusion in the sky
Light Schedule: Eastern direct low in the sky sun, then indirect the rest of the day

I looked at my plant today and it seemed to be considerably droopier than it had been before the transplant. Since my mom lets me grow a plant at her house, but doesn't actually take of them, I brought the plant back with me today to keep an eye on it over the next couple days. The leaves were considerably more pliable and flimsy. Definitely not like the perky self it usually is. Do you guys think this is just transplant shock or do you think it could be from the castile soap I had mixed in the water???




JARG

[Jupe]

Avoid soap in sunlight or fast drying conditions.....(it dessicates and/or smothers the leaves, I've had so much trouble with soap and roses, I never use it anymore ....1/2 strength oils are safer)  I'm guessing here, but I think that plants with large flat no-waxy surfaced leaves, move a lot of water through their leaves, and many of the soaps, and oils too, can somehow smother them......I've never even tried it on salvia, so this is all a guess on my part.

If its not soap///// probably the transplant....... just mist leaves for a bit and back it off the lights for 1/2 days.....let em rest a bit.........

....they perk up so fast when water uptake/outflow is balanced, you can get a feel for which end of the plant...roots or leaves...has trouble....

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I had pre-mixed my Neem oil with Castile soap that I normally use to spray the leaves, but used it to water the plant when I transplanted it. I didn't actually spray anything on the leaves. Would Castile soap be harmful to the roots? I think the only reason to mix it with the Neem is so it sticks to the leaves when foliar spraying. But I used it to water the pot because it was already mixed in a gallon jug and I wanted to give the plant Neem in the soil to prevent pests. Hopefully it is just transplant shock and will come back in a day or two.

JARG

[Jupe]

...yeah..just watch for pouring too many weird things on your soil...you want bugs and life down there.......oil and soap......just be carefull....its hard to wash stuff out  (been there)

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

The plants seems to be doing better, although I swear it is a much lighter color green..... I'll just have to continue to keep an eye on it. I put it back at my mom's place and will leave it alone for a while and see how it does.



JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 113
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 60%-85%
Height: Smallest is 4" (Richters) and tallest is 7" (Hoffman & Wasson)
Lighting Equipment: Two 4' Daylight Deluxe 40 watt tubes. 6500k color temp.
Light Schedule: 18/6

All the momma plants are growing quite nicely. I think they finally figured out all the new room they have to grow roots and are starting to really take off again. It's cool to see them finally grow taller than the point where I pinched the original tops.

Richter's Momma. I can't believe how it is finally starting to grow really fast! I thought this little plant was a gonner not so long ago and now look at her!



H&W Momma



Owens Momma



Blosser Momma



CQ Momma



Here are the H&W clones #1 and #2. They are starting to slow down on growth so I think they are getting root bound. It's probably time to send them out to some lucky person. They are still a little small, but should handle the trip OK.




With this new cloning setup it is much easier to monitor root growth. I am experimenting without the perlite and without keeping the roots dark to see what happens.



Here is the basic setup. I cut off the very top of the upside down 2 liter so I could stick just the stems through and also keep the leaves from falling in the water.


JARG

[black8teen]

Did you just wedge the leaves down there until it held the stem in the middle of the water like that?

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Nope. I'll have to get better pictures of what I did if this works out. If you are familiar with the guide I wrote on the 2 liter DWC it is almost the same thing. The air atone isn;t attached to anything, it just gets dropped into the reservoir. But I cut the top of the upside down 2 liter off so it made about a 1" ~ 1.5" hole. The stem drops through that and since the leaves are wider than 1.5" they keep the plant from falling right through the hole completely. The plants aren't wedged tight though, they sit very comfortably without any pressure on them. The bigger clones just have the leaves turned to the side otherwise they wouldn't fit in the 2 liter bottle.

If you look at the upper of the two pictures you can see the top cut off of the upside down two liter just above the water level. It seems to work really well because I can slide where that upside down two liter fits into the bottom 2 liter to get the stems to be just the perfect depth in the water.

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 53
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 60%
Height: 4"
Lighting Equipment: The big bright YELLOW ball of fusion in the sky
Light Schedule: Eastern direct low in the sky sun, then indirect the rest of the day

Jeez it is still growing fast. It almost looks the right size for the pot at the moment. I hope it doesn't outgrow it too fast! With the light fading more and more each day I expect this thing to start slowing down in growth. There is a yard light that comes on every night so I don't think it is going to flower unless I move it to a more controlled location and i don't have the time at the moment. It looks stunning though doesn't it?



JARG

[Sasquatch]

Absolutely beautiful plant, well done :-).

[apexifly]

JARG.  I noticed that my rooted clones in plain water produce whiter colored roots compared to the beige colored roots formed in perlite.  I think the nutrients in perlite is causing abnormal root coloration.   

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Hmmm, well I have noticed no root formation at all so far in the clones I have in just water and a bubbler with no perlite....They seem to be taking a long time. Still we need to duplicate the process many times before any solid theories can really be brought forth. I am wondering if maybe the stem needs to be dark to think it is underground and should produce roots. Let's keep testing and duplicating and see if the results are the same every time. I have had really white roots from perlite started clones and also not so white and I couldn't tell you what the difference was that caused it.

It may also be that you are getting different results from me because of the rest of the environment around the plant like air temp, humidity, and lighting. Maybe some ways work better in certain environments?

JARG

[Jupe]

Nice plants.......white roots are best.....beige or brown means they are pulling in dirt from the water or stuff is falling on the water....IMHO....or they have stopped growing......roots can seemingly stop at any time...or keep growing white up to 8-12 inches......I put them in dirt at about the 2-4 inch length, zero shock that way...enough roots  to grab onto water in the new soil.

If I leave a cutting out around here for two long, ....if I am not carefull about changing it..it can get rot the first few days.......the water quickly gets all SORTS of weird stuff in it....affter that, plants either strengthen "immune system" or some sort of balance happens, as water can be left alone.  I suppose I should just use a bubbler....native plants root in a  bubbling stream after all, and most likely not a stagnant pool.

Perlite is sterile, which is why its used in planting mixes...no nutrients.....

Nice setup JARG......last pic is textbook quality.....complete with handsome pot