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

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

You have to be careful with the Perlite purchased from Home Depot as it has MiracleGro plant food on the perlite. That may be the cause of the brown roots. It could be the shock of too many nutrients all at once. I noticed the last batch of clones I just potted tonight that I did in only distilled water and a bubbler had nice white roots. Although I had started them in Perlite I switched to a setup without it after a couple days. I am still waiting for roots to form on my other set that I started without the Perlite. It seems to be taking forever to initiate root formation when only using water and a bubbler from the first day. My only guess is that the light is preventing roots from forming as the plant thinks that part of the stem is still above the soil? But then I have also seen roots push out of a stem way above the soil in a high humidity environment.....so I don't know. I'll give it another week I suppose.

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

My mom had some ever bearing strawberry plants that give fruit all year long. They needed to be split up into many pots so she gave me some to grow here. Mmmmmm, who doesn't like strawberries all year round!?



JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 142
Temp: 64°-74° F
Humidity: 50%-70%
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

So I am in the middle of moving houses and today was the day of the move for all the plants. It wasn't far (about a 45 minute car ride) and I went shopping so they were in route for a few hours. The temperature outside today was cool, and it was overcast & drizzly so humidity is real high. I figured that would help them during the move. Here is the last day in the old growing area:


And here is the make shift grow area for a while until I get the new room setup properly. I will be expanding getting ready to launch full production soon. So if anyone is interested in how much stuff you will need and how to do this as a secondary income, follow along as I get going over the next few months. I will probably setup a dedicated website with my complete grow log offering a Salvia divinorum buy/sell/trade forum. That way anyone wanting to post they have plants for sale can do so. If someone runs out of plants they can just update their original post. People would also be able to post any strains they are looking for. I would also be selling my personal clones with a store front on the site.


JARG

[breakingp0int]

oo i'll be really looking foward to seeing your site

[breakingp0int]

oh also. what do you use for your reflection thingy? mylar?

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Yes it is mylar. I buy the thinnest stuff possible because it is still fairly tough and just as reflective (over 95%).

JARG

[Burkhart]

I see your mylar lines the bottom of your grow area.  Does that extra light directed underneath the leaves affect the plants negatively at all?  I've heard that some plants can't take heavy light exposure on the bottoms of their leaves.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I haven't seen any negative effects from the mylar on the floor......but then again I haven't really tried growing without it for comparison.

JARG

[breakingp0int]

do you just have the mylar on the bottom and one wall?

[Arcygenical]

JARG, if I ever find myself living near you, I'm probably going to buy you a 10 bulb strip, and wire it up so you can have 10 26w CFLs... Your garden is magnificent with 80w of Fluoro light, I can only imagine what you'd experience if you were to triple that figure

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Funny you should say that Arcy, because I just happen to find myself with a bunch more fluorescent fixtures and was wondering if tripling the light would make a huge difference... Maybe we will find out soon...

bp, I have a removable wall made of foam that is also lined with mylar (it can be seen in some earlier grow log photos). I put it back after I am done taking pictures. I wanted to make all 4 walls and the floor mylar, but it is actually only 3 walls and the floor for this entire grow so far.

The new garden should be setup by this weekend and it will have all 4 walls and the floor lined with mylar.

JARG

[breakingp0int]

dang your like a master at this stuff hopefully i can expand it. i just need to make up some good lies or something for my parents. how does mylar feel like? is it easy to move around like foil but stiffer and doesnt wrinkle?

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Mylar is kind of a pain in the ass to work with in my experience. It feels like really thin plastic although it is pretty resistant to tearing. It doesn't crinkle as easily as foil but it scratches and gets scuffed up REALLY easily. The mylar that I have on the floor probably only reflects 50% as well as it used to from sliding pots around on it. It's best to install it where light will be the only thing touching it. Once it is installed, leaving it alone is the best practice. I find it is much easier to cut it with scissors vs a razor knife. Getting it flat can be tricky too. I find it is best to vacuum my floor and then roll it out to cut it.

PS Don't lie, it'll just catch up to you eventually anyway.

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 83
Temp: 64°-69° F
Humidity: 50%
Height: apx 12"
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

WOW! I haven't looked at this plant's older pictures in a while and today I noticed it is still growing like mad. I figured it would slow down growth once the sun was getting lower in the sky but it just keeps on growing! Cool...

Here are pictures without and with a flash for comparison. You can see some of the leaf edges have turned a little brown in spots because the humidity is still dropping as it gets colder here in Michigan.




JARG

[black8teen]

Textbook plant. It looks beautiful and as if none of the leaves have ever dropped off. Give your mom some [Genius +] for taking good care of it.