Salvias

[Salviador]

All this talk of salvias makes me reminisce. When i grew sd back in the good ol days where it was legal and what not, whenever it got cold the leaves would curl and turn a dirty green. I was pretty sure that it was the cold but not 100% has anyone else had these problems? Just out of dumb curiosity and solutions?

[Ed Dunkel]

This talk about salvias has reminded me that I have some PDF's of Salvia papers that people might want to download and print:

C. Giroud Forensic Science International 112 (2000) 143–150

D.McKenna Behavioural Brain Research 73 (1996) 109–115

D. Siebert Phytochem. Anal. 10, 22–25, (1999) 22-25

J. Valdes ORGANIC LETTERS 2001 Vol. 3, No. 24 3935-3937

Feel free to browse and copy. :D

[ 09. April 2003, 20:05: Message edited by: Ed Dunkel ]

[Fractalhead]

brentor, i'm not sure if we had the same leaf-deformation problem because mine happened during summer. But... Hmmm... yeah, when i used to grow it, i had an experience where the plants were putting out fairly healthy looking leaves (apart from scorch and caterpillar damage). Then when i repotted them, i repotted into various different mixes of potting media (some just normal potting mix, some potting mix with 50% sand, some with potting mix and ~50% vermiculite etc.) At that stage i didn't know that salvia preffered acidic soil and made the mistake of adding lime to most of the mixes. Not long after repotting into this mix, the plants started to go a real sickly pale colour and my natural response was to give them a hit of liquid fertiliser (Thrive). This sure got rid of the pale yellow look. Most leaves returned to a deep green. The problem was that the new leaves developed into these really deformed, dark, dark, green things that were all curled inwards and down like a cylinder curved downwards. Yuck. I thought it might be nitrate toxicity due to an excessively high pH caused by the addition of lime to the potting medium. The weather was quite warm around this time but the plants were kept in a shadehouse and watered everyday. The thing i noticed was that the plant in vermiculite/potting mix/river sand was the healthiest looking plant through the ordeal but did eventually show the same leaf deformation upon a second feeding of liquid fertiliser. The problem was, abstaining from fertiliser made the plants stop growing (and get more and more shabby) whereas feeding brought on these warped looking leaves. Interestingly, housing the potted plants in individual coathanger-wire/plastic bag humidity domes seemed to alleviate the symptoms somewhat and encourage normal-looking growth. I am curious, has anyone else come across this leaf deformation problem? Has anyone seen deleterious effects of high pH? Azalea/Camellia mix might have been a better mix to use?

Details on any more experiences would be much appreciated

[Salviador]

When i did grow salvia, the deformation was a curling of the long side of the leaf so that the end product was a smaller ver narrow leaf. Also the veins were more visible and the green was sort of dirtier. It could be the humidity as that comes with cold weather, and because the grow slowed i put more fertiliser in, so i should have reduced the fertiliser and increased the humidity. Its all very confusing, salvia d was definately one of the hardest plants i ever tried to grow.

[Salviador]

I didnt see the last bit, when i got my salvia, it the leaves were healthy looking but almost yellow. The reason the person who gave this to me did this was because supposedly most salvias like a slightly acidic soil. A natural way to fix this is to chuck some pine needles into the soil, giving it both nutrients and more acidic soil.

[Salviador]

I didnt see the last bit, when i got my salvia, it the leaves were healthy looking but almost yellow. The reason the person who gave this to me did this was because supposedly most salvias like a slightly acidic soil. A natural way to fix this is to chuck some pine needles into the soil, giving it both nutrients and more acidic soil.

[Tripper]

Does anyone in Victoria have any cuttings of information about taking salvia

[gerbil]

Back in the good old days, a friend had one plant in a good potting soil, in about a 15 litre pot.

The exact deformed leaves and curling occured, aswell as fluctuations in colour.

Watered with a high nitrogen fertiliser once in a while, didn't really seem to do alot. They added a 3-4cm layer of good rich garden mulch to the pot, and moved the pot about 3 feet from the original position, which gave just a little bit more direct sunlight during the afternoon. At this time the plant started to shoot healthy shoots, and lots of them. Shoots even started on a stem that was being really resistant to sprout.

The Ph was around 6.5-7

At first i thought the problems were from compacted potting soil, so lack of oxygen, so thats why the mulch was applied, this seemed to loosen the soil and give nutrients.

What Ph were the people with acidic soil running at back when they had the plant?

[Salviador]

How does one test ph? litmus paper?

Also the clockwise effect previously mentioned refers to the common feeling people get that they are being pushed in a certain direction, sometimes it clockwise sometimes its anti clockwise, v v strange feeling.

[Salviador]

How does one test ph? litmus paper?

Also the clockwise effect previously mentioned refers to the common feeling people get that they are being pushed in a certain direction, sometimes it clockwise sometimes its anti clockwise, v v strange feeling.

[madhva]

Back in the good old days when I has some salvia plants I found that they grew best in a clay loam soil in a shady spot.they grew healthy leaves that very rarely got attacked. And they grew tall and quickly I don't think humidity has much to do with it as i used to grow them in both shaded & unshaded areas one plant the biggest and oldest used to lean up against a brick wall exposed to the hot Northern rivers Sun for half the day and as long as it's roots were well watered never had a leaf curl problem I think the plant works itself out eventually. one set of plants I used to have were grown in another sheltered spot during the summer and produced the leaf curl you mentioned they were watered every day but still had trouble growing healthy leaves then the rain hit for a couple of weeks nice & solid & bingo new growth good fresh & healthy leaves, maybe it was the Nitrogen in the rainwater who knows certainly not a pig ignorant punter like me but my suspicions are that it likes heavy soils with drainage as opposed the sandy light soils and doesn't mind a bit of shade and regular pruning to encourage new growth & new leaves.

[occidentalis]

BITGOD :

My salvias also had the leaf curl and leaf browning problems. Foliar feeding with a high N liquid food seemed to keep the leaves a nice dark green colour however the other problems were harder to fix.

Perhaps playing around with pH would have been the way to go.

[Trip Dr]

Hello there all,

this is to all who used to grow salvia. Pls see my post else where on this board:

http://www.shaman-australis.com/cgi-bin/ub...t=001118#000001

Hope you can help!

Trip Dr