Cultivation - Dead salvia Divinorum Plants?

[nEone]

I bought four little clones - each with say, three leaves.

I repotted them in fresh dirt, watered and spritzed.

One died right away. One flourished and grew new leaves while the other two slowly died. Leaves dropped off and the stick of the stem slowly shriveled and darkened. Now, the fourth and final clone's leaves have all drooped and are about to fall off. I only watered once a week and used a moisture monitor to make sure the soil was moist but not wet. I misted the leaves every day.

All, apparently to no avail.

What the heck happened? Are the sticks unsalvageable? Should I trim them of dead material and do something to encourage new growth?

Any help would be lovely.

Thanks

[Esmerelda]

Hey

I'd really like to be able to help but of course it's impossible to know exactly what caused them to die. Swie has about 15 plants, most of them cuttings from one original. She actually bought two to start with and one died. What she has discovered over the years of growing Salvia is that it is a very sensitive plant, but that also if big and healthy it can put up with a lot of hardship and still recover (not that she has intentionally put her Salvias through anything nasty! But they've caught a couple of frosts and been neglected when she was on holiday and a friend forgot to water them). So althought they can get ill quickly, they'll recover from most things if strong to start with.

They don't like change and when they're weak they don't tolerate extremes well at all. For example, Swie's like a reasonable amount of sun but only when they're growing nice and strong - otherwise it's just too much for them. I would advise against lots of direct sunlight anyway though. You seem to have been doing the right thing with the watering (overwatering doesn't make them very happy ). But my guess is this: that they were small and young and very intollerant of anything that wasn't quite right. I would suggest if possible buying a couple of larger, well established plants that will be able to cope with the first few weeks of you finding out just what they need (which can only really be learnt from experience).

Good luck

Reputation Comments on this post:

very nice and detailed answer

[nEone]

That was exactly what I thought!

So, I went out and got myself three more "established" plants - each about 15" tall. Of course, as luck would have it, I was slated to go on vacation two days after they arrived.

Here's what I did. I took them out of their box, they seemed healthy. I took off their "humidity dome" (aka - a plastic soda bottle) to give them some air.

When I got back from work, they were all three flopped over and limp! Crap! Very quickly, I transfered them into soil - only to discover that the vendor had sent me UNROOTED cuttings (they had roots, but no soil in the cup, just perlite) - I mixed my soil with vermiculite - as I didn't have any perlite on hand. I then set them up with a plastic wrap humitidy tent and hoped for the best. By morning - they'd perked right up!

*whew*

So - then I went away for a week.

I got back and two of the plants were seemingly perfect - and the third was black from the ground to about 7" up. The top part looked fine and healthy, with new growth even. I took the humidity tent off - thinking maybe it was TOO moist - and 30 minutes later, they were all starting to droop again.

I put the tent BACK on and the two green ones perked up - but the 3rd one is still drooping.

So - I think I've resigned myself to the fact that 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Do you think that I could salvage the 3rd plant by cutting off the healthy part and trying to re-root it?

How can I wean these plants off of 100% humidity?

[Esmerelda]

It sounds like your plants were lucky to have found a home with someone who knows what they're doing .

It's tough to know what to do with the one that's not done well. If the healthy bit is still putting out new growth then that suggests that whole stem is still alive and the plant could recover. Your guess is probably as good as mine though. The trouble with using humidity tents when you've got a part-dead plant is that the moisture usually causes the dead bit to go mouldy - it's a bit of an awkward situation! I'm not sure about chopping off the healthy bit and trying to get it to take - you could do that but cuttings take better when they come from strong plants.

I know what you mean about weaning off humidity tents. Swie has got a few of her plants under bags at the moment because they were outside and had suffered a bit in the cold recently. Now she's trying to get them to settle indoors while they're still feeling sorry for themselves.

When you take them out of the bags you just have to be very attentive. Swie finds small of water often is better at first. It's okay to let them droop very very slightly but too much drooping too often and they'll get caught in a bit of a downward spiral and you'll have to put the bags on again. It's a fine balance as if anything they prefer to be a little too dry than too wet. Watch them closely and water a little at the first sign of drooping. Preferably just beforehand once you know the pattern. I'd mist them like you were doing before too.

The other thing is sunlight. When they're at that fussy stage Swie likes to keep them in a light place but with no direct sunlight. The best place she found was next to (not directly infront of) a window that got direct light.

If you're really not having any luck then you can always persist for longer with the tents. But remove dead leaves and watch out for mould on cut stems and dead bits.

I'm sure you'll get there as you're obviously doing the right things. Keep me updated .

Reputation Comments on this post:

very cheerful and encouraging post.

[Cakes]

This advice is a bit late but the one that is shrivelling from the ground up sounds like a root/soil disease and SWAN would have pulled it first thing to keep it from spreading to the healthy ones and she would have put that dirt in the garbage.

Re how to take care of new plants. We are thinking that the growers are using humidity domes for the rooting process and the sudden change to SWIM's house with no dome might be hard on them. Maybe it is best if SWIM just assumes that the plants must be treated as though they have had no hardening off routine before he gets them. and so SWIM would give them a dome and wait for active growth before he begins to harden them off/get them used to the open air.

[nEone]

Very good advice.

SWIM lost the one plant - but didn't transplant the other two. SWIM *did* rig a humidity tent though - with chopsticks, tape and plastic wrap. SWIM is pretty sure that the blackened one just got its roots mashed and it rotted from the ground up.

So far, the two remaining plants are doing well - there was a brief period where they started to wilt - and even though the soil felt wet to SWIM, he watered them - and sure enough - they stood right up.

SWIM isn't sure how to get them used to a drier climate easily as the process of wrapping and unwrapping the plastic wrap tent is a pain. But he's going to try.

SWIM thinks he should separate the two remaining plants into their own pots, but isn't sure how long he should wait to do that to make sure they plants are ready. He might just play it safe and not go around uprooting anyone again.

For now, SWIM has a success rate of 2/7 - not great for a baseball team, but good enough for him for now.

Thanks for your help!

Reputation Comments on this post:

you guys and ur sigs crack me up

[Cakes]

SWIM could wait to transplant until he sees new growth on the plants. And then after transplant, he could wait again and make sure the plant is having continual new growth. Like wait for a new node and set of leaves to develop after transplant, and then start the hardening off routine. waiting for that growth before the hardening off is more important than waiting before transplant.

Even plants that are not getting hardened off will need fresh air.

Air might be imported into the chopstick tent without unwrapping it all the way. maybe SWIM could make a few ventilation holes, maybe with flaps to open and close them. We thought that was a great idea and still think it is a pretty good one but also we are a little paranoid that the plastic would stay moist all the time. all the nooks and crannies of the plastic wrap could harbor disease. The air holes would definitely work if the plant was still periodically unwrapped and the nooks and crannies aired out; like every four days or so.
maybe an air hole low down on one side and another one high up on the other side.

Inconvenient things like the plastic wrap are good bandaids and yea for SWIM getting his MacGuyver on but SWAN is suspicious of it being more than a bandaid because in SWAN's garden, anything inconvenient often means that she will postpone doing things like airing out. She might say she will come back in a few minutes but often she does not come back for a day and that sucks.

It would be nice and convenient if SWIM could find an alternative cover. Like a whole plastic bag he can turn over and use as a slipcover? like a shopping bag or dry cleaning bag. The bag doesn't have to be clear. it can be white or some agreeable color as long as it is light colored enough to let in the light. Or maybe SWIM will find a couple of large jars, juice pitchers, plastic food storage container or other plastic box or even an aquarium.

Yea also for SWIM discovering that soil can feel wet but not actually have available moisture for the plant. SWIM is a good gardener and will have lots of luck in the future for sure.

Reputation Comments on this post:

DRY CLEANING BAG = GENIUS