New salvia divinorum plant not looking too healthy

[slewb]

Here's what it looks like. I assume the black leaves are from the cold during shipping. I tried putting it into a humidity chamber but after an hour or so it made the leaves really soft and droopy. Not sure what my next move is here. Is there anything I can do to help it along or should I just leave it alone for a while and see what happens?

 

[changalvia]

How was it packaged? The black thing is normal, apparently... Because they're all supposedly based off the same 3 clones (commercially, I believe)... Some speculate its a disease passed down. Unavoidable. Anyway, I have my own theory, and that's not too many nutrients / plant foods, water every 3 or so days, and mist only once a day. If you all of a sudden put it in a humidity tent but it was used to none, it will go black and die if you don't take it out quick enough.. Found that too much misting and / or rain leaving the leaves (not roots) wet, leads to blacking. Still learning, always, tho.

 

[changalvia]

Also, lighting. Not even in a window sill. That's too much IME. At least 8 feet from a large window is alright, as long as the rays don't scorch it from a distance too. Basically in the corner of a room with natural sunlight instead of lightbulbs to see what you're doing, is chilled. It makes a great houseplant, and it goes almost a blue tinge, with a slight sheen when its happy. If the larger new leaves start tilting towards the light, I would leave it be instead of moving it closer, as long as it grows new leaves. You'll see. Good luck, this one is a keeper

 

[kerelsk]

Looks pretty weak, if it were me I'd keep it in a partially open humidity chamber, unless its environment is humid as-is. A delicate little salvia won't recover well having to pull a lot of water from its roots. It needs hardening off.

It might be that it was too wet in the chamber and just needs more air flow.
Is it getting enough/too much light? Indirect sunlight should be fine to start out with.

In your picture it looks like the soil isn't wet, did you water it after arrival?
Remember, overwatering can easily be fatal as well.

It looks like it still has life to me. I'd try to keep it warm to convince it that that nasty cold shock is over and it's time to put out some leaves again.

Just received my own sage a few days ago, I already feel very maternal about it :lol:

 

[slewb]

EDIT: wow this post looks really annoying to read. In short the photo is what I'm doing now, misting the container frequently and the blue part underneath is a heating pad. Or would the second photo be better (right now I have the top covering about 4/5 of the chamber)? Also, according to the provider this is a Blosser Strain plant - if that means anything to anyone.

thanks for the responses fellas! I have only had this plant for about 12 hours but I would like it to thrive by all means. I've been rather intimated (turned off/scared shitless) with my salvia experiences in the past but that was with extracts and I'd like to develop a relationship with the plant itself and what it has to offer straight up. It'll be a while at least until I will want to try out some untreated leaves.

How was it packaged?

in a box, surrounded in bubblewrap with a wet paper towel taped around the base of the plant/the top of the plastic pot. The soil was very moist when it came.

I have my own theory, and that's not too many nutrients / plant foods

Well once again I haven't had the plant very long. Right now it's in some miracle grow cactus soil, since I read quick draining soil was good. But I have some organic peat moss based soil I can mix some perlite into if that might be better.

If you all of a sudden put it in a humidity tent but it was used to none, it will go black and die if you don't take it out quick enough..

Knowing where it came from, I can safely say that my plant was in a much more humid environment than my house with the heat on (my own lips are falling off).

Also, lighting. Not even in a window sill. That's too much IME. At least 8 feet from a large window is alright, as long as the rays don't scorch it from a distance too.

Not an issue in my house. There is no direct light here. At this time of year there is barely any indirect light.

if it were me I'd keep it in a partially open humidity chamber, unless its environment is humid as-is.

My humidity chambers are tupperware/storage containers flipped on top of each other, as seen in a couple of the photos that I posted. Right now, as per your advice I have the lil guy in an open storage container which I have been misting.

In your picture it looks like the soil isn't wet, did you water it after arrival?

I was worried because I read that black leaves could be a symptom of overwatering, but recently I did spray it so that at least the top layer of the soil is wet.

I'd try to keep it warm to convince it that that nasty cold shock is over and it's time to put out some leaves again.

Well I have attached a pic of what I'm doing with it now. I have been misting the container and the blue thing underneath is a heating pad.

Thanks so much for the advice! When I touch the stem I know that this is in its heart a good plant, I just hope to keep it that way.

 

[Father Time]

Personally I do not recommend the humidity chamber... especially if there is already decay as it can lead to rot. It is in shock from being "acclimated" to quickly. I would put it under a lamp with 2 25 watt bulbs, keep the temp of the growing a read in the mid 70's F if the leaves continue to blacken then you can lightly mist it but ultimately you need to acclimate the plant to the drier climate, that means if you mist the plant then slowly decrease the misting until it doesn't require it. Once acclimated it will thrive. Also be sure to let the top of the soil dry slightly between watering, to much water will cause the leaves to yellow and die back.

 

[jamie]

I advise against those humidity chambers with salvia. They are not needed and seem to promote rot and diseases when proper ventilation/fans etc are not present.

 

[slewb]

mmkay thanks guys. I took it out of the humidity chamber a couple of hours ago and now just have it sitting on my desk. The soil is moist, but I'm worried about rot now so I may mix in some perlite tomorrow. Should I cut off the black leaves or just leave it be?

 

[Animistic]

That plant looks like it can recover easily, what's your climate like? Put the salvia somewhere where she won't get much direct sun but plenty of reflected sun, also mist if the plant is wilting but I wouldn't do it more than once a day. (Even that could be too much).Cut off the black parts of the leaves but keep anything green. Water only if soil gets dry. You've really just got to be patient and let it adapt itself. Plants operate at a slower pace to humans so I tend to think that when a plant is sick you must treat it slowly and give the plant time to respond. Good choice getting it out of the humidity dome.

A.

 

[Orion]

I'm no expert but my own experience found these plants to be a little prone to root rot if they are not in ideal conditions. Sometimes this causes the upper growth to stall out or blacken. This one may be just fine, but I recommend mixing a lot more perlite into the soil for any new cuttings you may take.

Look for darkening at the base of the stem. If it starts to turn dark and soft then it probably is infected, but if not I would say this will probably recover. Plants that have just been shipped are usually pretty miserable after being in the darkness for so long, and I had this exact same problem, but she did recover.

 

[slewb]

Well it's condition has pretty much stabilized. Just about all of the leaves were completely black after being in a humidity chamber that first night so I pulled those off. I think I damaged the smaller branch in doing so though. The tip turned brown, dried out and seemed to be moving inward so I cut of the brown part and a little extra. In the picture you can see what it looked like. It isn't looking good at this point, but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

The good news, however, is that I just received a much healthier plant. I did mix in a lot of perlite with my potting soil this time. I'm hoping this guy will have a positive influence on my other plant. Should I maybe repot the scraggly one with more perlite?

Thanks guys, I was just freaking out because of the rate at which the plant seemed to be dying. Hopefully it will make a recovery now.

 

[adam]

my suggestion would be mainly to leave it alone, plants don't like too much change.

for repotting I would wait a little and let the soil get dry as soon as that happens, then you water the soil enough just to moisten before taking it out of the pot, then when you move it over to the new pot, for the first watering the same as if it were in the old pot, so as not to overwater. also maybe get some mycorrhizae and or some if you can get some trichoderma as well for the transplant.

 

[Father Time]

I would leave them for a while... don't change any more parameters of your grow. Let the stabilize and they will start growing quite quickly. If those are 6-8" pots then they will not need repotting for a majority of their life if at all... NOW once they start to grow normally and are not in shock somethings to keep an eye are:

-Leaf yellowing; which can be cause by a few things. Too much direct light, Too much water, or Not enough nutrients. Sometimes it's a mixture of the 3


-Brown/black leaf tips; can also be caused by a few different things such as; Not enough nutrients (more common then you would expect). Too much nutrients, too much direct light (occurs just after yellowing). Under-watering is a big one.. as salvia like most plants will droop when water levels are to low BUT unlike other plants it does this extremely fast and the leafs will begin to darken and die much much more quickly than almost any other plant you'll have. Last but not least "Shock" will cause dying leaf tips, weather it be to quickly removing or adding humidity, changing Temps (typically at least 10* fluctuations).

It's important to be able to identify these cause to assist you in taking the correct measures to fix the issue.

Also when in shock growth will slow or stop until the plant becomes acclimated.

 

[slewb]

Thanks, as per y'alls advice I have left them alone. Unfortunately I seem to have a minor fungus gnat infestation. I've been finding ~20 little yellowish worm looking things on my leaves per day and have seen a couple of adult flying things that match photos I have seen. I've put sugared coffee around to grab the adults and potato slices and lots of cinnamon in the soil. Apparently the cinnamon kills the fungus and the potatoes draw the maggot thingies away from the plant so you can get rid of them.

Other than that, things are going well. I'm only watering when leaves start to droop. I think the fluorescent light was a bit much for them (the leaves were getting this weird, matte bumpy texture with white splotches) so I put them by a south facing window instead and after just one day they seem to be doing better. Either way, the big one has put forth a lot of effort in the last week and seems to be picking up steam. Definitely doing some major growing. The scraggly one has put out a couple of leaf buds, so I am optimistic.

If these don't sound like fungus gnat babies to you, please let me know: they are maybe 1-2 mm long, surprisingly mobile (they move kind of like inchworms), and seemingly appear on my plant (mostly the big one) out of nowhere everytime I turn my back.

Also, for future reference, has anyone tried the rope-water-wicking system outlined in this article? Seems pretty nifty.

 

[Father Time]

To me your description sounds more like thrips or aphid... as of now I have fungus gnats from MG soil on my peppers they are just little black flies I havnt see the other stuff you've described. It's possible you may have two pests. Any way you could get a better pic?

 

[Orion]

If you think it might be gnats have a look at the soil for larvae. After watering sometimes little tiny worm-like things get rinsed up to the surface. Or try scraping away some soil. They sort of bounce around and are off-white, barely a couple of millimeters long.

 

[slewb]

Actually, thanks to Father Time's post and some research I'm pretty sure the ones crawling around on the leaves are some kind of thrips... although I have caught a few flying things in my coffee traps that I put out when I thought I had gnats. I really hope I don't have both thrips AND fungus gnats. I saw a couple of the flying ones poking around some of the other plants in my room, which really frightens me because as I understand it thrips are almost impossible to get rid of permanently. I have been seeing fewer of the crawly things on my plant since I put down the cinnamon (which I realize will probably not affect thrips anyway) but more of the flying things, which I think maybe just means that the first generation has now grown up. I've been killing them when I see them but obviously I can't get them all. I'm pretty bumbed out that my new plant has brought this into my home.

 

[Father Time]

Mighty wash will take care of thrips in a giff

 

[slewb]

Hopefully it doesn't come to that... I haven't seen any of the thrip larvae in a few days now. In one of the pots I am finding plenty of adult bugs just beneath the top layer of soil. I've moved that plant (the unhealthy looking one) into another room. I caught one of the bugs, but I don't have the right eyepiece for my actual microscope so I can't get a low enough magnification to have a good look. So here's what it looks like through the projection microscope. I'm thinking the body/wing shape definitely points more towards fungus gnats than thrips. Would mixing some diatomaceous earth into the soil take care of it do you think?

 

[BecometheOther]

Diatomaceous earth is a bad idea unless you have a respirator, that will kill your lungs!

Just stop watering all your plants until the soil is bone dry, the larvae cant survive. Definetly worth a shot.

Another thing i have done is taped a plastic bag covering the whole lid of the pot and sealing the bugs in. If your seal is 100% then they cant leave and they will die for sure with no watering....

Good luck keep us posted