Need help! Special plant very sick!

[Trip Dr]

Hey all,

im posting this on behalf of a friend in New Zealand. He has this salvia d. in a green house. Apparently its had spider mites or something attack it. I cant tell whats wrong with it or how to fix it because when it was legal all my attempts to grow it failed miserably!

Can someone out there help out? People must remember from growing it before sheduling a few problems and remedys. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Trip Dr

[Trip Dr]

Whoops better add the picture hey!

[ 20. September 2005, 14:48: Message edited by: Torsten ]

[Trip Dr]

Well that didnt work as planned... the link still works though.

[2b]

looks like shit I would not use terracota pots for Salvia as it almost likes it a bit to damp (but not so damp it rots the stem , collar rot )So next time try plastic.

Second cut a bit off , place it in water and let it sprout for further generations.Are you sure it is not a light/fertilizer thing ? Eg: to much of either , the way it seems to be browning from the tips makes me think this could be your problem. When a plant gets a good dose of mites the leaves look kind of red from a distance and then most leaves fall off. This is not the case for your plant.

[Trip Dr]

Well apparently it was going alright for a while and then all the leaves fell off. I'll try get some more info from my mate so we can get a more accurate diagnosis. Cheers

[planthelper]

spidermites like to attack weak and stressed plants...

sally does not forgive you if she was too dry for a period of time.

aswell spidermites are worse in glasshouses.

1, spray with pyretrum, than after 3minutes wash of the residue with water, using a mister.

2, put the plant outdoors into semi shade.

3, once it came back to life (she looks newly repotted anyway) feed her with liquid fert in smallest doses. spidermites as said attack undernourished plants.

4, maybe foliar feed her, allthough you have hardly any leaves to spray on,lol.

don't fert a lot as a sick plant with damaged roots will not be able to take much advantage of the fert.

aswell consider to take a cutting and start from scratch. a cutting doesn't need much leaf surface anyway.

good luck!

[Rev]

Spider mite is best controlled with water

just wet the leaves every day especially underneath

spider mites hate being wet and die off in wet weather (note: humidity is no help - water must run over the and under the leaves to drown the suckers)

if a heavy infestation try pyrethrins by all means but water is the best control chem

also try foliar feed when recovering

this plant doesnt liek many ferts - just seaweed emulsion as a foliar feed and wood and straw mulch around the roots

they do apprecaite much drier weather when its cool,. gom once said treat it like a cactus in winter - a trichocereus anyway

much reduced waterings so the soil is just damp

and more light

soon as spring comes on and the light is more intense you reduce it to dappled shade, up the watering and start foliar feeding with seaweed

or at least thats what we used to do

anyway tell your friedn that plants looks well recoverable - maybe put a little humdity dome around it to slow airflow and up the humdity and temps - in cold places the cold can make the air a bit raw

keep the soil just a little more than damp

and start foliar feeding with kelp - she'll come good

[ 20. September 2005, 11:43: Message edited by: Rev ]

[Trip Dr]

Thanks for the tips all. I just got a message from my mate. He said when the spider mites attacked he cleaned the leaves with water then sprayed with pyrethium. He said soon after this the leaves dropped on mass. When it was still legal the best sally plant i ever had going was one inside next to a window. Loved it there! I had to move it outdoors for a few days, she got knocked over in heavy wind and unfortunatly never recovered. It was a sad day, and one i dont want my mate to have to go through. Cuttings will be taken to maximise chance of success. Many thanks everyone. Will keep you posted as to how it goes in the future.

[Trip Dr]

Oh and i forgot to ask, what methods did people here find was a good for taking cuttings? I think i used to just do the old cut on a bit of an angle, stick it in water and wait till you see some root growth. This may be totally wrong as my success with cuttings was not very good!

[Torsten]

the pyrethrum probably was too much for the weakened leaves. Chances are the plant will regrow new leaves as soon as it warms up a bit. stay on top of the spidermite problem.

[Salviador]

Way to wet imo. put it in direct sunlight, the lack of leaves means it wont burn, wait til the soil is dryish at least 10 cm into the ground

Maybe cut back some of the growing tips just so the above the node so node is still there.

Maybe mist the leaves but dont water the plant

[Torsten]

Direct sunlight can burn stems too if they are not hardened off.

[Jack]

Befor its scheduling I found SD the easiest plant that I have ever tried cloning.. I used to use the method on the site, but I also had good success with a glass of water or just cutting a piece off and puting it straight in ground and keeping the water up. like this I was able to have little ones pop up all over the place.

[Benzito]

Yeah, back in the day I had an S.D. plant.

Occassionally, in handling or something, I'd snap a leaf off the plant accidentally. I'd just stick the leaf in the soil of the pot, and as long as there was a node attached to the leaf, it would grow into a cutting!

This plant very rarely sets seed in the wild, and actually multiplies by 'cuttings'.

Eventually when the plant gets too large to support itself, the stem will break, or bend over and any part in contact with the ground tends to just grow upwards as a new plant, at every node it can.

Kind of like a 'raft' style Bonsai, I guess.