Research Laboratory Grow

[Paradoxic]

Strain: Blosser
Lighting: Fluorescent tubes
Grow Media/Soil Mix: Perlite, vermiculite, peat, and soil
Fertilizer: Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed
Temperature Range: ~85F
Humidity: 70-80%
Started From: Clone
Start Date: September 25 , 2007

Other Details/Images:
This is my second time growing Salvia. Its tough growing here in the desert, but now I have a good place I can grow. I'm growing it in the basement of the lab where I will be conducting my research on Salvia d. Right now I have my 8 plants set up in a small humidity chamber. However, soon I am transferring them into a large grow chamber that self-regulates humidity and temperature.

Everyday I mist my plants with purified water and also spray their leaves them with a low-strength Maxicrop fertilizer solution (foilar feeding). Every 10 days or so I have been watering them with a Maxicrop solution.

Here is my setup (Oct 11, 2007):


Here are some more pictures (Oct 11, 2007):




I'll keep this updated, as well a keep you all updated on my research. As of right now, last Wednesday I took some samples and ran them through the LC-MS (tells you what compounds are in your sample) to do some playing around. 

[Salvianaut]

what does LC-MS stand for?  Does it just identify which compounds are present, or could it tell ratios?  I'd be very interested to know the average potency.

Nice plants, btw, very healthy looking, especially for a jungle plant growing in the desert  

[Paradoxic]

Thank you 

LCMS stands for Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer. It works by taking a sample (usually an extract suspended in a solvent such as methanol) and then it gives the solvent/extract a charge (either positive or negative) and traps all the charged ions. So it actually measures the mass to charge ratio of the molecules. And yes, it does tell the relative abundance of each molecule in the sample. Whats also really neat is you can home-in on a certain molecule and apply energy to it to break it apart. Then the computer shows you the new mass/charge ratio for the molecules that were formed when you broke it apart. You can look at the patterns created when you break things apart to help determine what they are. Here is a picture of what the computer displays when analyzing a sample with the LCMS:

Each peak represents a compound (the position on the x-axis is basically its molecular mass) and the taller the peak, the more of that compound there is in the sample (relative abundance).

[MstryShovel]

pretty effin cool man  

[Arcygenical]

May I ask what you do to have access to an expensive LCMS machine? It takes me weeks of paperwork to get access to one at my school...

[Paradoxic]

May I ask what you do to have access to an expensive LCMS machine? It takes me weeks of paperwork to get access to one at my school...

Well I am not allowed to use all by myself quite yet, but soon I will able allowed to, I just need to get more experienced with it. As far as access I just got involved with research at the university in town through an old teacher of mine. I presented my idea to research Salvia and right away the head scientist working with plant physiology was very interested, so he gave me a place to grow my plants and start my research. So I'm basically a volunteer at the university.

[5010]

That's excellent.  Your plants look really good.  I know it's different but my Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food says "We do not recommend folar (leaf) feeding for houseplants".  I wonder if I should get some maxicrop and try folar.

[Paradoxic]

Yeah, chemical fertilizers are not good for foilar feeding, I think it burns the plants. However, I think in all cases organic fertilizers are fine. I'd definitely recommend getting Maxicrop, its really good stuff. I use it for both foilar feeding and regular feeding. Whats cool about foilar feeding is even if you don't want to water your plant because you worry you might be overwatering, but you think it needs nutrients, you can always foilar feed.

Heres their website where I ordered it from: http://www.maxicrop.com/pages/products_1_seaweed.html

I just noticed they added a new product: Liquid Fish fertilizer. It says it works well in combo with the Seaweed (which I current use). I think I might try it out and see how it goes.