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

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

So I have the 3rd fluorescent fixture in the grow room and it has increased the temperature to about 83°-85°. At what point is it too warm for Salvia? I have the lighting on 24/7 and wanted to drop the lights down about 4 more inches but am afraid that the closer light will raise the temperature even more... I found this quote from Paradoxic in MystryShovl's grow log.

You can definitely do 24/7 light cycles, Salvia will grow quite fast that way. As far as I know that wont hurt the plant as long as it doesnt get too hot as a result of continuous lighting. So if that is a concern you should use compact flouroescents, they stay very cool and give out plenty of light.

So how hot is too hot? I am thinking to use a fan to gently cool the plants, but think that would pretty much kill my humidity... I have some old 120mm fans I could wire up that would blow a very gentle breeze..... What do you guys think?

JARG

[Bayrat]

I started at 24/0 but switched to 18/6 after a week or two because I was told they do need rest.  I don't know if that's true or not, but the plant seemed to like it, plus it saves on the electric bill.  If I had to go 18/6 in order to lower the lights I would, but you may not have to.  Those lights should not burn the plants, and lowering them won't change the heat in the room.  Opening the door and getting fresh air in will keep the temps down and maybe use the fan to help that.  If you absolutely need to you can mount your ballasts remotely to keep the heat away, but I wouldn't waste the time. 

I don't think salvia minds the heat  too much, but mine did most of it's growing around 75 degrees.  It's now at 81 but still fine.  I'm sure Seamac's plants get some 95 degree days outdoors, but have time to rest at night.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Yeah, I guess 24/0 makes more sense than 24/7 doesn't it...haha whoops. Only 24 hours in a day... So I got the third fixture up and going tonight and cut down the bamboo stakes so I could put the lights closer. I grabbed another timer and put a 6" fan in the corner of the grow room to blow out the hot air for 15 minutes of every hour. I pointed the fan so it blew next to the lights and over the top of the foam door. I didn't want it blowing directly on the plants. I will make sure I leave the door of that room of the house open for fresh air and to help stabilize the temp in that room. It's hard to tell right now but I will give it a few days and keep an eye on the temperature. I think it will be OK though now with the fan.  Also I took the saran wrap off the top of the plants and only have it around the outside of them now. Over the next few weeks I will start to cut holes in it larger and larger to lower the humidity more and more so they can get acclimated. 

When I cut down the bamboo stakes I also pulled off any leaves that weren't returning to a rich green color. I hope this helps the plants focus their energy into making new better leaves. I am happy with the setup now and I plan on letting them adjust for a week or two before messing with them again. I watered the plants tonight as the soil seemed to be just barely damp.

3rd light fixture installed and all lights lowered.


5 (hopefully) happy plants receiving lots of light. You can't really make out the fan but it's in the back left corner of the grow room.


JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 29
Temp: 79°-84° F
Humidity: 60%-75%
Height: 4"
Note: Weird browning of stems...

So I noticed that some of my stems are starting to turn brown in color from the soil upwards. The leaves of the plants don't seem to be suffering in any way and they are still turning a more richer color of green every day.... Is this something to worry about? I took a close up of the most severe case, but all of my new plants seems to be doing it. What do you guys think? I almost want to jump to UV damage from too much light because I swear I see the starting of red areas in some of the leaves, but I am no expert.


Here is the overview of the plant and you can see the newer leaves are doing quite well. The older shriveled leaves were that way when I got her and never recovered so I don't think I should judge anything by those leaves.



You can see the browning of the stem which appears to be starting from the soil and moving upwards. The plant seems rigid and not suffering in any way....yet.


Confused,
JARG

[Bayrat]

Hard to tell from the pic, but it looks normal.  My older stems all get a little "bark".  They start out almost a see-through green, then as they get thicker walls they darken up.  It may be a good sign because mine start to really grow after that.  As long as it's not mushy.....

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Yeah exactly, mine aren't mushy. I was going to mention that the stems felt a bit stiffer, like it couldn't be bent as easily but I half thought that was just in my mind because they looked darker. Well I hope they do start to grow fast now because I want see if they start to take on different characteristics and look like the individual strains they are supposed to be.

JARG

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 33
Temp: 80°-88° F
Humidity: 50%-70%
Height: 4"-5"
Note: Starting to grow faster...!

Well since all three fluorescent fixtures are running 24/0 it gets a little warmer that I would hope for but I added some extra fans that kick on for 15 minutes of every hour. It helps keep the temperature down a few degrees and also helps in temporarily bringing the humidity down every hour to get the plants used to a lower humidity. It usually drops from 70% to 50% when the fans kick on. I have watched a new set of leaves come up and spread out over the last 4 days. I am now starting to understand when people write on here that the plant is so wonderful and marvelous to look at. I swear two big leaves on my plant look like they are made from green velvet, and the leaves have such a 3D contour to them. They aren't just flat plain old leaves, they have lots of texture to them!

I have this green stuff growing at the top of my soil. At first I thought it was some kind of mold (and it might be?), but it doesn't smell at all and the plants aren't suffering. Anyone know what it is, or if it's a problem? I scratched the top of the soil and it doesn't go beyond the surface. I have not used any nutrients yet and have been using distilled water.



So I added 3 fans to the "door" to keep the temperature down a bit.





And here are my 5 plants:
The first is the Richter's unknown strain (Probably Blosser)
She isn't doing very well after the last repotting. I think she is still alive though, and just needs more time to adjust to the new surroundings.


Here is Cerro Quemado


And Owens. LOOK AT THAT TEXTURE! The leaves are so 3D....


And Blosser


And finally Hofmann & Wasson. This one has a few damaged leaves, but all the new ones coming in look just fine. This plant is about an inch taller than the rest and has about twice as many leaves. It also seems to be growing the fastest.


That's the report for now. I can't believe how much they have grown in just 4 days, I think they are about to explode.
JARG

[k2ybugger]

beautiful dude! love the look of that Owens!

[bifster]

Hmm when I got my plant I was told it was a blosser, but it looks JUST your Owens!  Wonder if I got a different strain!

[MstryShovel]

plants are looking great man,
just as another add in i agree about the browning, mine got "barkey" around the soil and along the stem started to get brown dots which i was afraid for, but from watching and remembering the dots came from time of either drought stress or waterlogging stress (both happened) and as i recovered them they stopped "killing off" extraineous leaves and stems.
nice setup too
the plants look nice and happy you can tell you give them alot of attention

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 35
Temp: 82°-88° F
Humidity: 50%-70%
Height: 4"-5"
Note: Spider Mites showed up on first plant...

Well one of my fears has come true....SPIDER MITES! Yuck! I thought I was on a roll and everything was doing well. So far, it has only affected my first plant which has been struggling since the transplant.

I am going to read through the articles on here to see how to get rid of the mites, but if someone knows a good solution, please post it!


You can see they have made a web across the leaves and you can see what I assume to be eggs in the web? After I took this picture I quarantined this plant in another room and have sprayed the leaves with soapy water.


JARG

[mayank1q1q]

thanks for such a useful info

[mayank1q1q]

thanks for such a nice info


____________
salvia divinorum

[bifster]

No don't spray with soapy water!!!!  I don't know if you saw my post but about a week ago I sprayed soapy water on a gnat sitting on the stem, hoping the solution would get rid of gnats, and it turned the middle of the main stalk completely brown and now it's shriveling up!  Seriously, wait for some neem oil or whatever you have to get to take care of those pests, but I don't want what happened to my plant to happen to yours!

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Report Day: 39
Temp: 82°-88° F
Humidity: 30%-60%
Height: 4"-5"
Note: First plant still alive and hanging on, others look very good...

Bifster, I saw your post just after I sprayed my plant with soapy water! Luckily it didn't instantly turn the plant brown. in fact it didn't seem to do much, but i used a real mild solution mix to be safe. I sprayed my plant with that petroleum based oil stuff I got (mentioned above) and today I only saw 1 or 2 mites. I ordered the Neem oil and some Castile soap and they should be here in about a week. I don't want to spray my plant with the petroleum based oil again, and the next scheduled application for the mites will be about the same time the Neem oil gets here so the timing should work out well.

The stem is still nice and green but almost all the leaves have fallen off or have turned brown and I cut them off. I still have hope and think this plant will make a slow but steady turnaround from this point on.




You can see some of the other plants are doing really well! this is after I trimmed off a few leaves a few days ago. The plants seem to say "Oh yeah....take my leaf will you? Well I will grow 2 leaves in it's place and faster! Ha! So now what are you going to do!?"



JARG