New Salvia Plant

[mephisto69]

I just recieved my new salvia plant in the mail yesterday.  It didn't look too bad for being in transit for four days, although the leaves are now starting to blacken.  Hopefully it will do well, though.  Currently it is in a soil mixture of 50% organic soil and 50% perlite with a lining of rocks on the bottem of the pot.  I am including two pictures that I took; the second one shows some of the darkening of the leaves.  
http://www.salviasource.org/images/gallery/565.jpg




http://www.salviasource.org/images/gallery/566.jpg

I have watered the plant once when I recieved it yesterday and a little more after the repotting today.  Although it is pretty humid in Wisconsin at the moment, I am misting the plant 3 - 5 times a day.  Hopefully I am not giving it too much humidity!  It in not covered in a dome, and I do not plan on growing my salvia that way if I can avoid it.
I am a little worried about how quick the leaves are turing black, though.  It looked nice and green yesterday, but this afternoon when I got home from work the lower leaf (which fell off as I repotted it) was turning black in the center.  If anyone has any other tips, feel free to put in your two pennies worth.  Thanks!

[Sam Fisher]

If you are using tap water you may want to switch to botteled expecialy the water you are misting the plant with. I dont think you can ever have too much humidity as long as your soil doesnt rot or stay so wet that it cuts off oxygen for long periods of time. When my ultrasonic humidifer turns on in the morning and at night theres so much mist that I can’t even see the plant.

[Paradoxic]

Yeah, naturally Salvia lives in 100% humidity (rainforest), but it can be adapted for much lower. However, if it shows signs of wilting, especially early on, you may want to put it in a temporary humidity chamber (just be sure to open it up at least once a day) until it recovers.

Your plant looks good otherwise, so it should be fine. Did you buy it from here, btw?

Welcome to Salvia Source mephisto69! And if you are going to keep a log for your plant, you should post up a Grow Log

[mephisto69]

Sam, I am using distilled water at the moment.  I want to switch to tap water eventually, but not until she gets healthier.
Paradoxic, I bought the plant on ebay from gambusiamesh.
Here are a few more pictures of my plant, taken two days after the first ones:





She is drooping a bit more (it's making me kinds sad...)  Still misting a few times a day.  Temperature is staying between 70 and 80 degrees.  Soil is moist to the touch, so no watering.  And she gets about two hours of direct sunlight daily (western facing window.)  One of the other lower large leaves are turning black, but so far the small leaves you can see sprouting at the nodes are doing fine, as is the top of the plant (other than the drooping.)  Just crossing my fingers and hoping she is going to get over the shipping-shock.

[Sam Fisher]

I noticed that your SD is next to a window. Is there alot of air flow going over the plant. Alot of air could dry her out like. That seems like alot of direct sun for your plant. The one in my grow log is from gambusiamesh and she doesnt do well with dirict sun. If you dont want to move her but want to cut out some sun, you could buy shade cloth from the garden store. Maby sombody knows what kind of cloth to use as i have never used it myself.

[Poink]

My plant looked just like that (Worse, in fact) until I put her in a makeshift humidity-dome.
After that she, perked up within about an hour.
I highly recommend at least trying it.

[Sea Mac]

Poor baby!

Here is what I would do: remove the 4 largest leaves from lowest on the stem. Just the leaves: not the baby branches just above the leaf on the shoulders of the node.

Your plant has root shock from shipping and it's roots cannot supply enough water to keep turgor pressure in the stem anymore.

She has too many pores and too much leaf surface and all the water that should be stiffening her stem is rushing out of those extra leaves: if you break off the 4 lowest biggest leaves and then give her a one hour long drink she MAY straighten up for you ... By the next day she might even be fine! It's all a matter of gross hydrostatic pressure balance between the roots system and the leaves system with the vascular systems of Xylem and Phloem intermediating.

I've saved several of my plants from death by wilting: by slowly denuding them, in series of steps, until they straightened up again and their few remaining leaves lifted up from drooping.

When you see Turgor pressure returning you know she'll be OK ...

[MstryShovel]

/me points to sea mac and says "what he said"

mine was drooping like that when i got it but, after repotting and a little bit of tlc it picked up in litteraly hours, but it was also a well-rooted cutting.  be aware that once it starts picking itself back up off the ground (the plant recovers) it will start to drop old leaves that were shocked out of life and begin to put out new stems, just notice this when the leaves start to have a creeping brown that starts at the tip and works its way to the stem, trim off the brown as it goes, and you will be fine, just make sure you dont OVER water it (watering it every day) or yu will invite rotting and death. this happened to a cutting i made that i did direct rooting in soil, but i over wattered it when the roots were just wee babies and it eventualy went tits up and died, contrary to what others have said, i would leave it near the window, my plant has done fine outside with a humidity around 30-40% and average of 4hours of direct sunlight that then turns in to failing light (the end of the day) but also be carefull not to shock it too much, (if you have reppotted, snipped leaves in the same week, it would be a bad idea to move it to a new location with even MORE stresses on it. just leave it be, do what seamac said, and tell her you love her

[mephisto69]

I took Sea Mac's advice and removed the bottom two leaves this morning.  As of this afternoon, it seems to have perked up slightly, but it could just be my imagination...  I will remove the other two leaves, depending on how the plant does in the next few days.  I watered it a bit more (I don't want to add over-watering to it's problems!)  And I will make a humidity tent for it to see if that helps.  
Other than that, my only other option is to cut off the lower stem and try to root the top half, but that will be used only as a last resort.  I will give it a week or so and see what happens.  If the top half starts to show signs of turning black and sickly, I would like to try and root it before it turns too bad.
By the way, thanks to everyone who has given me advice!  I really want my baby to do well.

[MstryShovel]

i would reccomend just not touching it any more for at least five days
it should perk up nicely
just resist the irge!!

[mephisto69]

She seems to be picking up slowly after the removal of the two leaves.  I still don't have the humidty tent set up yet, but I should have that done by Thursday.  She has straightened (slightly), and so far no more of her leaves are turning black.  I will post up more pics in a few days to keep everyone posted.

[mephisto69]

Well, tomorrow will be three weeks that I have had my salvia plant, and it is still living!  The stem has perked up - although it isn't totally straight. I am wondering if it is simply growing into the sun.  She is in front of a window, but that window only gets about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of sun per day.  If you look at the two large remaining leaves, you can see that they are both facing the camera (they were facing the window, but I turned the plant.) 

I removed two of the largest leaves about 5 days ago (they were starting to turn a mottled yellow and black.)  I am guessing that my plant is getting used to the tmperature and humidity here, and the larger leaves simply aren't used to the change (from what I have read online, anyway.)

As you can see from the pictures below, she is getting numerous new leaves growing (and they are growing quick!)



The last set of largest leaves are starting to yellow - I think I will be removing them in another week or so, depending on how they look.  Here are two move views of the plant:






Overall, I think the plant is doing very well.  I am watering her about twice a week (not soaking the soil, just some water around the stem until it starts flowing out the bottom); and I am still misting her 4 to 6 times a day.

In another week or two I will start fertilizing her once a month with liquid Miracle Grow - I think she is adapting to the environment here pretty well, so we will see how she will take to that.

[Sea Mac]

Pulling those two leaves off saved her!

Get the kind of Miracle-Gro you mix up in the watering can: Turquoise colored crystals.  (Copper Sulfate colored for you chemists out there!)

You'll notice Salvia plants turn DARK Emerald Green a few days after you water them with that. You'll see the difference!

Mine are overdue for fertilizer and have turned light yellow-green ...

I'll post Pictures soon ...

________________________________________________________________________

I see she's leaning over towards the window. I'll bet she wants more light! Turn her pot 180 degrees so as to straighten her back up. You've got to 'train' them when they are young or else they become a side heavy leaning mess!


Like THIS! Be Warned!

It's Cute when they are a foot tall: It's horrible when they are 7 feet tall!!

I wonder if you could make one grow a graceful spiral twisted stem by rotating the pot 6 degrees a day?

[Paradoxic]

Yeah your plant is looking great, congrats!

Hey, I just realized this would make a good grow log. Would you mind if I moved the topic over there?

[mephisto69]

You are more than welcome to move it.  I thought about writing a grow log, but since I already had this thread, I didn't feel like repeating myself.