Spindrifter's Dungeon and Phytolab

[spindrifter]

Strain: Blosser
Lighting: GE Ecolux Chroma50 20W x 4, Sylvania GrowLux 20W x2 and CFL 42W x2
Grow Media/Soil Mix: 1:1:1 Special Orchid Mix, perlite & vermiculite
Fertilizer: Epsoma Bio-Tone Starter Plus 4-3-3, MG
Temperature Range: 83.4 F
Humidity: 74%
Started From: Clone
Start Date: 4/30/08

Just waiting for my first plants to arrive. Everything's already sort of pre-set-up, because I already grow plants in the Dungeon year round under extended spectum fluorescents and HPS/MH. The plants already in here are cacti, wildflowers, veggies, and native shrub and tree seedlings.

My goal right now is just not to kill my new arrivals, get them on a firm footing. I think my biggest challenge will be humidity. I have an aquarium down there someplace that I'll dig out when the plants arrive. Maybe I'm wrong, but for most plants that I've grown, humidity is critical only when the plants have not yet established a widespread root system, and if there's a lot of moving air. So, I'll baby them for a couple of weeks and then gradually get them used to the not-too-bad ambient humidity of the Dungeon.

Later, I want to manipulate the photoperiod to try to provoke inflorescence. I am hoping to try and develop a series of hybrid cultivars with other Salvia species. My progress will be reported in this log. My first target will be S. lyrata, a native weed which is currently popping up all over my lawn. If you can't beat 'em... do twisted experiments on them instead. This line of research is probably a dead end, but hope springs eternal.

This seems to be a friendly community. I hope y'all will dig my growlog.

[MstryShovel]

looks like youve got a nice setup there man, im laughing to my self at "the dungeon" anyways hope your cuttings arive in good shape. what you assume about the humidity is completely correct, where did you get your plants from? more than likely if its one of the "plants in the red cup" one then it will need humidity chamber, untill it gets established enough, then she will be good, just look up the acclimatization techniques that are posted on this board and you should have no problems!
good luck man

[spindrifter]

Thanks MstryShovel. I really appreciate the feedback.

I've made some modifications to my growbench to try to make the lighting more efficient, namely adding some foil sheets.



I think I have the humidity problem solved. So many pics on this site show humidifiers in use, so I picked one up too. This is pretty low-tech: I just inverted a fishbowl over the humidifier outlet. Instant fogchamber.



Everything is going according to plan.

[spindrifter]

They are here, and they look great 



I watered them immediately and popped them in the fogchamber, with the fixture directly above them deactivated. Now we wait a week to repot.

[JDogHerman]

looks cool...

keep the pics coming

[skagardener]

DAMN i wish i had a growroom like that! lol at the humidifier. that may be a little too much, not saying it will hurt it but it might be too mush as in she doesnt need that much, and it will only make it harder to get her back to a point where she needs no artificial humidity

o yes, are you growing any peyote?

[ka0sx]

not to derail this from the topic of saliva, I'm totally liking the humidifier btw.
but where did you find peyote?

[Paradoxic]

That is a dope grow room. I can't wait to see your Salvia start growing.

Thats sweet that you will be trying to hybridize. I am really curious to see if you can get anything to do it. Have you been successful in hybridizing any other plants in the past?
 
Glad to have you here    Keep us updated and good luck.

[penumbra]

If you are going to try to hybridize salvia divinorum, i would look for a salvia that lives in similar conditions to divinorum. when i was at the UC berkeley botanical garden a few weeks ago, i saw all sorts of salvias in the "cloud forest" section that looked and felt a lot like S. divinorum. Salvia karwinskii, Salvia chiapensis and Salvia mexicana look alot like salvia divinorum. you can see karwinskii here: http://www.robinssalvias.com/gallery14.shtm

[penumbra]

what are the dusenostachys salvias? i cant find that information online. all i know is that there are ten of them

[JDogHerman]

When you create a hybrid, is that only done with seeds or are there other techniques?

Only thing I know about hybridization is in 6th grade science, a monk who had way too much time on his hands and some beans. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel

[spindrifter]

Penumbra, I found one species for sure, and one definite maybe. The 'for sure' one is actually in widespread cultivation in the US!!!! It's called Salvia madrensis (Forsythia sage), and it seems to be able to survive in zone 8b (where I live). Here is a link:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/586/

The 'maybe' is Salvia cyanea.

JDogHerman, I've also heard of something called a 'graft hybrid', where one species is grafted onto another in the same genus, and somehow the tissue where the two are fused gives rise to shoots that can be rooted and grown into plants that have characteristics of both species. I thought that was very cool when I read that.

[JDogHerman]

WOW the more i learn about plants the more they seem so crazy.

Imagine getting an organ donation and a few weeks later getting features of the donor. Wicked crazy.

[penumbra]

i did some research myself and came up with salvia cyanea too as a possible "sister plant" of SD. unfortunately, no one grows or sells cyanea. ill have to look into salvia madrensis (im planning a shade garden anyway).
i think graft hybridization would suit salvia well because it so readily reproduces asexually and has thick meaty stems. im intrigued...

[spindrifter]

Here's another pic.



The original leaves seem to be wanting to curl up under themselves. The roots must be doing well, because I don't have to augment the humidity anymore to keep the plants from wilting. Also, new leaves seem to be growing at the stem apices and in the leaf axils. I am pleased.

Penumbra, from what I understand, graft hybrids are not true hybrids, but sort of a chimera. If you were to isolate individual cells from the tissue, they would still be either species A or species B, genetically distinct from each other. The cells of the different species are differentiating cooperatively with one another into tissues and structures. So, on a graft hybrid plant, you might have blue flowers on one branch and yellow flowers on another... on the same plant!