Salvia "Phoenix rises" - pinching works!

[chrishna58]

Strain: Blosser
Lighting: Direct morning light by the window,ambient throughout the day
Grow Media/Soil Mix: Miracle Gro
Fertilizer: None
Temperature Range: 70-75 F
Humidity: 
Started From: Clone
Start Date: 12/17/07

Other Details/Images:

This thread is my first post to this forum, and chronicles a plant that I purchased off of e-bay and almost killed. Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes, but also learn not to give up on these amazing plants.
Added 6/26: The title of this post is not to be confused with Daniel Siebert's Phoenix strain.

My plant arrived in good shape and thrived with daily misting and  morning window sun.


Picture taken 12/17/07

But then I decided to transplant to a larger pot, using Miracle-Gro potting mix. No humidity tent - just misting. Slowly the leaves browned and died from the bottom up.  Eventually (after 2-1/2 months) the top started to grow well, but since I didn't like the long stem, I decided to prune the top and grow that as a separate cutting (I'll chronicle that in a separate thread). I had hoped that the main plant would fill out.

It didn't, and after 2 weeks looked like this:



Picture taken 3/22/08

[chrishna58]

What kept happening was that stem rot would develop wherever I made the cut and then would work its way down. Eventually, there was just this short, brown, dried-up stem.

Just when I was thinking about digging it up and tossing it, I noticed some solid root matter near the surface of the soil right next to the stem, and it looked like some green leaves were developing. So I decide to leave them and see what would happen.

As they grew I got smart and put a glass lid over it to act as a humidity chamber. This helped the growth.


Picture taken  5/12/08

I kept the lid over it, eventually using larger inverted plastic containers for the humidity tent.  Amazingly, the little sproutlings (there are 3 of them) kept growing until they outgrew the containers I was using. So I decided it was time to wean them from it.

So here they are, 5 weeks after they started, and fully acclimated to the environment in my room: 


Picture taken 6/24/08

My wife says that they are doing well because they "volunteered" to grow. My take:

• They seem to take awhile to get adjusted to the soil (Miracle-Gro soil might be too strong at first). During this period of adjustment, they really need to be kept in a high-humidity environment to get them passed the stress.
• I also think that I over-watered the plant in the beginning and didn't allow the soil to dry adequately between waterings, which added to the stress. 
  

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

WOW! That's really cool lady salvia decided to come back and give you a second chance at growing her. This goes to show that mistakes can be made and can be recovered from. Great pictures and good luck with the rest of the grow.

JARG

[longjourney]

Hey Chris,
 Great talking with you the other day!

 Man that is one lttile tough plant to survive that. I'm thinking that one will live forever.

 Great article.

 Joe

[chrishna58]

JARG: Thanks. I think my wife was right in a way.  I do feel that the Eyes of the Shepardess has graced me by giving me another chance - and is teaching me how to let her grow her way.

longjourney:  Hi Joe. Yes, I was amazed when I compared the before and after pictures. I knew she was growing, but my God! I enjoyed our conversation as well. Looking forward to further chats.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

     I was just looking at your last picture where your plant looks healthy....Is there any kind of drainage at the bottom of that pot? I don't see a saucer underneath to catch excess water and was wondering if that pot has drainage holes in the bottom of it.

JARG

[chrishna58]

Oh, yeah. That could turn out to be a mistake on my part. I saw these "self-watering" pots at the store so I picked it up. The idea is that (after the initial saturation of the soil) you would pour water in through this hole along the bottom and it would fill a reservior and wick back up through the soil as needed.

I've heard since then that this isn't good for salvia because the soil needs to drain - although the nylon rope-wicking method is supposed to work fine.  All I know is that when I kept the reservior filled the plant didn't do well, but perhaps the two aren't related at all.

Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

So what I've been doing lately is watering just enough so that I can feel a little water at the bottom so I know that the soil is completely wet, somewhat drained, yet allowed to dry.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Well your certainly on the right track now since your plants are doing well and look very happy. I would just keep doing what you have been doing since it is working out well now. You might consider a different pot for your clones if you plan to take any though.

JARG

[chrishna58]

Fertilizer: E.B. Stone All Purpose Plant Food

It's been six months since I first transplanted into the "3-month" Miracle-Gro fertilizer potting mix, so this weekend I decided it probably wouldn't hurt to add some fertilizer. After reading much on this site's forums about mycorrhizae, I picked up E.B. Stone All Purpose Plant Food and added it to the soil per the directions.

Apply 1 teaspoon of All-Purpose Plant Food for each 6" diameter of the container.

For optimum results water the area thoroughly and allow the plants to absorb the water prior to fertilizing. After applying E.B Stone All-Purpose Plant Food work the fertilizer gently into the soil surface and water.

Now it's wait and see. Since this is an organic plant food, I expect it to take some time before noticing any results.

[Sea Mac]

I accidentally got one of those darned 'put-water-in-the-bottom' type pots.

Pull the bottom part off and let it sit on the upper part alone. Water in the tub or in the sink so the drainage goes down the drain.

[chrishna58]

Yes, the last time I watered I had to pour the water out from the bottom, tipping it sideways to do so. It's nice that it catches its own water, but I'll see about removing that section (it looks pretty much all one piece).

[k2ybugger]

wow that is amazing, it almost seems more pure in a way, you know, starting completely fresh and knowing that the entire stem belongs to that single plant. lol kinda, it does look really nice tho.

[chrishna58]

Well my ultimate goal is to have the plants growing outdoors, without too much fuss. So I put them outside in a  location that gets about 2 hours of direct sunlight a day.  The leaves that were already curling stayed that way, and even developed some browning along the edges. There's an afternoon south SF bay area breeze so I think that's helping to strengthen the roots, but I'm sure it causes a lot of evaporation from the leaves as well.  So another thing I decided to do is to pinch the tops. This has resulted in some good growth and hopefully the new leaves will do better in this environment. My only question is whether or not to remove the dying leaves or let them fall off on their own.

     

[longjourney]

Hey Chris,
 Congrats on your terrific looking sally!

 I would chop those dying leafs off as they can only promote more growth.

 Joe

[Sasquatch]

The plant in your avatar (and above) is the prettiest salvia divinorum I’ve seen in this forum. Very photogenic. Makes me wanna try growing inside... I guess I’ll wait until I can take cuttings.