SD Office Cube Grow Log

[5010]

Only 1 big leaf alive and over the weekend it turned yellow with brown spots.  I think it is root rot.  There are 3 tiny leaves with brown tips.  The stem is sturdy.  I'll find out about Talia on the 15th.  The only thing I did to prevent it was to only soak once per week.  But I suspect the frequent misting necessary in the dry office was keeping the top of the soil too damp too often.

[Sea Mac]

This is sad news ...   

Is there a chance something happened ... like someone emptying the last of their soda and ice out of the bottom of the cup on it?

Or perhaps someone cleaning the office got careless and some overmist of a cleaning spray?

By all means make cuttings of any branches ... even 2" long branches want to root ...

And perhaps you may even have proved that growing SD indoors in an Air Conditioned environment - artificially dehydrated and cooled air - isn't possible, or, at the least, is "Challenging" ...

But It's clear you DO have sufficient light levels for good growth!

What type and Wattage desk lamp has he been steadily growing towards? Incandescent or Florescent? 27 watts? 50? 100?  I'm sort of hoping IF it's root rot that you get the top off in time to make a healthy cutting ...

Take it home and put it in a mug of water outside in the garden, if it isn't too cold ...

Tell her nothing about it ... If she asks you may use the line I made up.

"Well, I think It's square bamboo ... a friend here in town gave me a slice off of his hedge ... It has pretty green leaves, it makes a NICE hedge and hummingbirds like the flowers, too. It's a very green thing to do ... Plant a tree - ya know?"  Salvia Indica or Salvia Sativa or something ...

(Just don't let her see what you do with the leaves you rake up ...       )

You certainly are a reverent grower who has bonded with the forces of Nature in the form of a common houseplant ...

I wish you could find a way to keep her in an environment where she'd be happy. But you gained MUCH Experience along the way and even taught ME a thing or Two ... so it wasn't a waste!

And either Jupe or I could just send you a box of cuttings, after all ...

I'm hoping you save / start again perhaps / with this one.    

[5010]

There are only tiny baby leaves left.  I don't know what the cleaning people do.  Who knows?  I'm wishing I had tried the peroxide mix or straw idea someone posted.  Oh well.

Something I've noticed since thanksgiving holidays there have been little black grains on the leaves.  The tip has 2 tiny leaves not even 1/4" long, brown tipped, with black grains on them.  The grains are not animal, as they do not move when I mess with them on the dead leaves.  I suspect they are some sort of mildew.

On the last leaf big leaf that dropped, there were 2 cysts stuck to the main vein like glue.  They were just empty shells.

I don't think it can root with such tiny leaves.  Has anyone rooted without even 1 substantial leaf?

Outside it is getting into the 30's at night.  Yep, it gets cold sometimes in the Dallas area.  I wouldn't dare put a Salvia D in that environment.

The next time I try it will be at home, where I can provide a friendlier environment.

Next month I'm planning to start some baby clip daggas at home from seed.  The girlfriend isn't opposed to them because they don't scare her spiritually like SD does.  I think she'll be more accepting of SD over time.  She is slowly beginning to loosen up on my shamanic practices.

[Paradoxic]

I'm pretty sure if you have a live stem, it can root without any leaves.  Tator547 seems to have done it:
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=858.0

If you are having problems with stem or root rot this article may be of use, it has some nice, simple techniques to combat it:
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=759.0

[5010]

I took a cutting of the stem yesterday.  If it survives then I will try additional anti-rot measures.

[Sea Mac]

I wonder what went wrong?

Too much dust? Plants can't live in the house with me because of the thick gray sticky dust that gets all over everything.

Well, you gained quite a bit of experience ...   

[5010]

Dust is not an issue here.  It is smoke free and I rarely have to wipe dust off of anything.  I see that the desk lamp fixture says maximum 13W, not sure how bright that is in terms of lumens with florescent bulbs though.  But if the main lights were off for the 4 day holiday weekend.  Maybe some fungus spores took this lack of ambient light opportunity to get established in the dark undersides.

But another clue might be even more telling.  Julian's growth rate came to a screeching halt about 2 weeks ago.  We were thinking it was because he was going to redirect growth but I didn't see a spurt anywhere else.  So it was as if he was redirecting energy to the roots.  I suspect he was waging war against some subterranean rot monsters that were enjoying the soil never really drying out because of the misting.

So I suspect what happened was root rot started to set in, then the leaves were getting less attention, so they became susceptible to aerial spores.

By the way, the cutting has turned brown and stiff.  I wasn't expecting much though.

[Sea Mac]

Yeah, I've had plants die of root rot before.

The first sign, usually, is all the leaves fall off at once.

By then it's usually too late to save them.

How fares Talia? The last of the 2 redundant backups? Did frost get her? Or is she OK?

Do you feel like trying again (say, if you got a branch off of Talia and rooted it)?

Best wishes either way!  

[5010]

The person I gave Talia to is the leader of a shamanic journey circle I go to once a month.  I will tell her about Julian and ask her about Talia on Dec 15th.  She has other Salvia D plants in her garden too.  Last time we spoke she mentioned Talia's larger leaves had all fallen shortly after bringing her home, but the small ones were still intact.  That was almost a month ago.

As for growing again, I will definitely when I can set up a cushier environment.  Then instead of fighting against bad air I can make the air and light ideal, and with the cuttings from that try additional experiments in harsher environments to find best ritual of care.  My girlfriend is slowly getting relaxed about "spiritual dangers" and I don't really want to hide stuff from her, but it is not yet time to discuss a home plant.

[Sea Mac]

Thus ends this grow log ...

But it seems that you can get Salvia cuttings locally: when you are ready to grow her again.

So, good gardening ...  

[5010]

The last update: Talia met the same fate.  Her other plants are doing fine.  It was a sudden thing so I suspect root rot already progressing when I delivered her.  Agreed I have a local source for cuttings and will just wait for opportunity to take on growing at home and thus make the environment ideal.