Some questions on care of Sally in UK

[JebJoya]

Hey,

SWIM lives in the UK, and has recently bought a small salvia divinorum plant from a well known auction site (not sure if I can name it on here, wasn't quite sure if it fell under the "pricing" tag). Anyway, SWIM is currently living in a small student house with a south facing garden, and SWIM's room has a window that is south facing. Being winter (and one that looks to be pretty chilly) SWIM is obviously not keen on putting Sally out in the back garden

SWIM doesn't have a terribly good history with houseplants - being a keen cook, SWIM managed to kill 2 basil plants in a month through overwatering (NOT THIS TIME...). SWIM would like to know whether SWIY have any tips for growing in the UK - SWIM has read the stickies and a few other posts, but there are some conflicting reports on there (whether to demistify, whether a tent is needed, whether to sheild it from the sun with the net curtain or not, whether to leave the small window at the top open, whether to use an automatic watering system (the 2 strings thing) when SWIM is back at home for xmas, pot size, best fertilizers / plant foods in the UK etc).

General hints and tips would be nice, and SWIM is preparing for SWIM's first experience of Sally's World (with a sitter etc etc, SWIM's been reading a LOT).

Also (although not pertinent for, SWIM guesses, quite a while) the idea of using a quid seems easiest to SWIM, or should SWIM invest in a water pipe (or make SWIM's own)?

Finally (yep, SWIM's still going), what is the sort of grow time of Sally - SWIM has heard it grows pretty quickly (for a plant SWIM means )?

Thanks,

J

[Demonslayer]

SWIM lives in Norway and has had salvia plants for some years now.
SWIM must point out that he has never had his sallys in a humidity tent since they were babies, they grow very well in normal indoor-air-humidity. On the other hand he has not had them outside either.
SWIM tried having them in a window during winter, but quickly realized that the air temperature near the window is very much lower than elsewere in the room. Windows account for most of the heat loss in houses. Sally stood almost completely naked after that experience, poor girl. If you have electrical heaters below the window as is very common in colder countries, Sally will get cold humid air from above and dry warm air from below, SWIM theorizes this will cause Sally to loose more heat than normal.
Having them in your living room in somewhat is better but the effects of heating during the winter months makes the humidity of the air drop drasticly, specially with electrical heating. Having them in your bedroom may help the humidity problem, but not all people like to have it so warm in the bedroom that Sally will thrive. If you have grown up in northern countries you will have grown accustom to slightly lower temperatures than other people (we often go skiing in t-shirts, and bring out the BBQ when the snow starts to melt).
Sally dosn't like very dry air, direct sunlight or large variations in temperature. A humidity tent in a warm room may be your best bet, and if you don't get enough light, fluorecent bulbs or tubes will do the job very nicely (no need for HID's).
SWIM's Sallys are in a basement storage room heated to 20-22 degrees celcius, they are misted every day and the earth is allowed to dry up between waterings. Six large plants and four cuttings are lighted by 4x18w fluorecent tubes (two warm, two cold tubes) pluss 4x11w fluorecent bulbs and they seem almost like normal. They do grow slower than during the summer and they loose more leaves, but otherwise the seem to like it.

SWIM hasn't messured the growth rate of his plants, but it seems they grow at least 30-40cm during the summer without very much extra nutrients or special care.

Having tried taking cuttings the normal way with only a fifty percent sucsess rate, SWIM has found an alternative method of taking cuttings. He wraps a 4x6" pieace of clear plastic around the stem of the motherplant in the shape of an inverted cone (nose down) and secures it with a pieace of wire. This is done at a node and soil is filled into the cone and kept moist for about two weeks. At this time there should be a large amount of healthy roots visible through the plastic, at which time he cuts the new plant from it's mother and pots it. Works every time.



This may be a little off-topic but it kind of explains norwegian weather. The first four points are actually true, but the Norwegian armys survival training is considered to be realistic if it's below -20 C, at -30 C it's considered too dangerous. And yes, some of us do use our barbecues even in mid winter. Some even cut a hole in the ice to go swimming.

THE NORWEGIAN WEATHER

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Norway, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wear winter-coats and gloves.
The Norwegians are out in the sun, getting a tan.

+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Norwegians plant flowers in their gardens.

+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start.
The Norwegians are cruising in cabriolets.

0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in Oslo Fjord gets a little thicker.

-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Norwegians have their final barbeque before winter.

-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Norwegians start using long sleeves.

-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Norwegians end their Midsummer celebrations. Autumn is here.

-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Norwegians start drying their laundry indoors.

-40°C / -40°F
Paris starts cracking in the cold.
The Norwegians stand in line at the hotdog stands.

-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Norwegian army postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.

-70°C / -94°F
The false Santa moves south.
The Norwegian army goes out on winter survival training.

-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Norwegian cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.

-273°C / -459.4°F
ALL atom-based movent halts.
The Norwegians start saying "Faen, it's cold outside today."

-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over.
Norway wins the Eurovision Song Contest.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good post & your description of Norwegian weather made me LOL

[JebJoya]

Right, Sally's been with SWIM for about 5 days or so now, and she's growing visibly already (bit scary :S ), however some of the edges of the leaves are getting a bit black (SWIM did cut off some of the black when SWIM got sally to start with, but the black is coming back) - SWIM thinks that it may be due to overwatering, so SWIM is leaving it a bit but just wanted to check with people here. Touch wood she'll be fine

Jeb

[Demonslayer]

The black patches on your leaves is quite natural and common. It happens when the plant is not very happy, fex if it has experience a climate change. Leaves will fall off at some time. Don't worry, new leaves will apear.