Steve's Blossers-Grow attempt 1-Help me out-(New Pictures Every Week)

[offspringfrk316]

Yea, Thanks for the advice guys they seem like theyre doing ok.  And Spearmint that sounds like a cool idea but i'd rather not take the chance in bending them over.  So I think once theyre doing great and used to their environment and show some signs of growth ill pinch and prune them and cut the tops off both so i can root the cuttings and therefore making the plants make more branches and leaves...Is that correct?  Im a noob at this so i need as much advice as possible.  How do you get the plant to make as much foliage as possible and to make it grow out and bushy instead of up.  I dont want it to be too tall and i want as many leaves as possible.

[Hero4Evz]

You only get one leaf per node, but obviously the more nodes you get the more leaves you get. Obviously each branch that grows adds more total nodes thus increasing leaf total. Pinching and pruning add to outward branching thus increasing this. Pinching causes the plant to grow outwards instead of upwards while pruning allows more light to hit the nodes and small developing branches causing them to grow quicker.

[offspringfrk316]

Thanks Hero that really explains a lot.  I'm starting to understand a bit.  When and how often should I do this?

[|if3]

Thanks Hero that really explains a lot.  I'm starting to understand a bit.  When and how often should I do this?

Once you have substantial foliage, there is no "start date"; it starts when your plant is mature enough .

I know moonbeam uses LST on his plants, but I think he does it too hard, what I'd do is firmly pull the plant in one direction, and it'll grow in that direction, then to the light source, that way every time it grows substantially, you can tie it down further. That's what I'm doing with a couple of my plants, seems to be working great so far. Causing as little stress as possible, the better, even slanting your pot a bit *make sure it can still drain properly*: you'll get the same effects if you lst it in combination with this method. The stems are resilient, but not nearly as much as MJ is. So in which case you have to be delicate, and the only way to do that is by 'trial and error', hopefully avoiding error as much as possible .

Pruning means to cut back foliage so that you can let substantial light hit the plant, such as removing slow growing leaves, or leaves that are growing from where you want to grow a new branch.

'Pinching' refers to cutting one branch to make it split into two. The plant will grow two shoots where you have severed the plant, but only when it's mature enough to support this kind of new growth.

Happy Growin',
James

[offspringfrk316]

Alright, Unfortunately, when I was misting the plants the other day one of the lights fell and hit Sylvia and snapped her stem.  I salvaged what I could from her and am going to try to root the cutting in the soil and see how it goes.  I've cut off some of the leaves to keep them from sitting on the ground and have stored them for later use ..Its been a couple days since it happened and the cutting is still alive and seems to be sprouting new leaves so hopefully all is well.  And for the bottonhalf of Sylvia the the leaves look extremely wilted and are a little dry, Iv been misting it a little.  I dont want it to die.  Any suggestions?  Also, I saw someone else on this forum using aqua globes and thought what the hell ill give it a try and if it doesnt work out it doesnt work out.  On a good Sally seems to be doing quite well, except her leaves are still wilty a little but she seems to be doing better.

Sally, Sylvia, and Selene
Day 7



Sylvia snapped...

Sylvia cutting...




Sally

[retro_killa]

looking good what is your grow box set up consists of ?

[offspringfrk316]

Thanks, can only hope they'll live.  I went to target and bought 2 66qt plastic containers for about 8 bucks each.  Bought 2 15w (510 Lumen each)18" Phillips plant and aquarium for about 6 bucks each at home depot, also got 2 18" light fixture for 9 bucks each.  And thats really about it.  I stacked them both on top of eachother and keep them held together using clips i had bought at a pet store.  I own a snake and use these clips to hold the lid on tightly to the tank so i figured it would work to like clamp the 2 containers togethrr and it did  Hope that helps

[offspringfrk316]

Ok so when I looked at my plants this afternoon i notices Sylvia (the plant I snapped) is starting to have bigger new growth at the nodes. Also, when I looked at Sally I noticed "white spurs" coming out from two of the nodes...Are these new branches/leaves/etc. or what? Im new to this game so I'm not sure what it is.

Sally and Sylvia
Day 9

Sylvia



Sally

[Hero4Evz]

BRANCHES!!! Salvia will only produce (typically) one leaf from each node. After that point it will then from a branch if that node gets proper lighting! Congrats. Looks like she's doing great!

[offspringfrk316]

Woohoooo!! Hahah thanks Hero.  You really made my day  .  This is exciting!

[offspringfrk316]

Is it normal for the leaves to be curling so much?  I know I just got the plants, but just asking...

[Hero4Evz]

My leaves curl a lot too! I'd love to hear an actual reasoning for it!

[offspringfrk316]

Yea i wonder if its a humidity thing..oh and also are you sure theyre branches and not roots forming?

[offspringfrk316]

I was searching on yahoo and why salvia leaves curl and stumbled upon this reply on actually someones grow log on this site...

"...they are curling due to stress/dehumidifying (which is stress) the reason being that the leaves were "made" in (for example) 80% humidity, when you open the tent you are dropping RH to 50%-ish so the leaves that were made for 80% will have more trouble maintaining thier shape and structure (more moisture will evaporate out of the leaves rather than the leaves being able to absorb moisture. So she will begin to make new leaves suited for the 50% RH and eventualy drop the 80% ones"

So pretty much the leaves that were present during the shipping were use to the environment to which they were grown in and now its in a different environment with different lighting and different watering patterns/humidity etc.. so I guess when new leaves form they will be use to my environment to which they were born and not curl and droop so much..hopefully that makes sense and answers both our questions.

[Hero4Evz]

I should clarify (I didn't notice the roots the first time). All the pics show branches forming, but the bottom 2 also have slight root formation from such a high humidity environment.