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Nice! Thank you all for your advice

Gawrsh! I completely forgot about my other question:

What are the light requirements (direct light, indirect light, etc.) for these two plants?

Awesome, much thanks for the help you two

edit: You, too. VVVVV

Hello,

Today I received two plants I had ordered, sinicuichi (Heimia salicifolia) and sweet flag (Acorus calamus). They are looking great and I was just wondering what sort of soil conditions they need (drainage, etc). I had a sinicuichi plant last year and I assume it died from lack of well-draining soil, so I've got some proper soil ready for this one, but would like it if someone could confirm this for me. Any tips on soil for the sweet flag would also be appreciated.

EDIT: Erowid suggests well-draining soil for the sinicuichi and rich soil (I'm guessing that means regular potting soil) for the sweet flag, does that sound right?

Thanks


(Btw, sorry if this is the wrong board for these two plants -- Mods, feel free to move it if necessary.)

Might be nothing to worry about. I've had small jumping bugs like that, too. Hell, when I came back from uni this summer I discovered caterpillars in my Zacatechichi, but the plant was fine. Also, in newly potted soil I often find small flies breeding, which always become a nuisance indoors.

Wet soil is just a natural place for many harmless (though sometimes annoying) insects to live in.

My only cutting is still very young, so at the very least a year, but I'm patient   I want to do the quidding method anyway, so will need fresh leaves for that. Watching it grow is fun, too.

Okay, I got the article. Unfortunately the authors do not mention the internet vendors (there were three, the other two vendors were head shops), but they do mention the samples tested. I suppose we could email them and ask?

This screenshot shows the only info they had regarding the vendors and samples (forgive me, but I'm a little wary of uploading/emailing it since my uni recently caught me filesharing, so I'm only going to post a screenshot rather than uploading the entire article).

I am very much into self improvement, enlightenment and actualization but so far I haven't had an experience w/ salvia that would add to this goal.

Although it was interesting to rediscover my life after amensia.. that was a bit of a different perspective. Still, it is not causing growth or change.. perhaps with continued efforts.

... What can I do to try to make it a better experience?

Wow, interesting stories

I don't yet have much experience with salvia (well, none actually) but something I'm planning for when I get around to it is to write down the experience, as detailed as possible, coming back to edit it whenever I remember something additional. Writing stuff down can do wonders for self-reflection and such, which is why you might want to try it in addition to salvia. At the very least if you do this for your salvia experiences you can better compare and reflect on them. (Heh, sorry to sound like an English 101 course.)

Personal growth, self-actualization, etc. can be a long process depending on the person. I've read someone here having their outlook on life changed by one experience, but I imagine it's different for everyone, many things are. Gotta give a little to get a little, working on oneself does actually require working on oneself (writing can help); a little plant can't do all the work. Keep at it.

I put in a request with my library for a copy of the full article. I will post the vendors (edit: and samples) here when I get it.

Alrighty, here are three pics from today. The first is just a pic of the potted clone by the window:



(The reason for the zip-loc baggie is just to keep the soil damp longer. I keep my dorm window open all the time so the soil would dry out while I'm in class. Once the clone grows out more I will remove it. I also poked a couple holes in the baggie to allow some airflow -- it never fogs up with condensation so it's fine.)

And here are two close shots of the clone and the two nodes:




The bottom node has slightly overtaken the top node in growth I also removed part of the plastic to give the bottom one more light (it was stretching a little but you can see it has now grown out of the pit's shadow). The rest of the cutting (see third pic of first post) had also died off a little over a week ago; you can see I cut that part off.

Nice. But it seems like a lot of effort to keep that node looking pretty.

Nah, it actually wasn't. Although, it was a little tricky maneuvering the soil, plastic, and cutting into the pot it only took like two minutes. The little difficulty I had was that I had cut the plastic "dam" from a corner-edge of the container, rather than just an edge; that would have made it a little more easy to maneuver into place (but now I know for next time). So circa two minutes' worth of extra effort for double stems on my cutting

I would suggest waiting until the roots are an inch or two long before potting that cutting.

Wasn't an option; the single root had stopped growing, as had the small leaf growth. It was either pot now or let it sit.

Hey all, I'm new here and would just like to share a cultivation method I'm trying at the moment to see what you all think.

I'm still new to s. divinorum cultivation but I've read some others here mentioning how when rooting a cutting in water there is sometimes some small leaf/branch growth at one of the lower nodes (depending on where you made the cutting), but when transplanting the rooted cutting into soil those nodes unfortunately get buried and that growth is lost...

Here's a pic of my cutting rooting in water to illustrate what I'm trying to say:



Here's a pic of the same cutting out of water showing both the node that won't get buried by soil (top) and the one that would get buried (bottom):



(Only the bottom node was submerged in water; the top node met the waterline, and there you can see a single root growing.)

So when that small root had formed and the small leaves at the top node stopped growing I decided to move it into soil. However, I didn't want to lose the bottom growth, and so decided to try and grow BOTH out at the same time (a little background: of the four salvia clones I had ordered almost a year ago this was the only one that had survived -- I didn't have the proper drainage for my soil -- and I had packed its roots too tight when I finally did transplant it into properly draining soil; when it began dying my only recourse was to cut it at the base and try to save that remainder).

So here are the pictures of what I did:






That opaque plastic thingy you see there is from one of those gallon-sized plastic water containers. I cut out one of its edges and just whittled down the sides until it fit into the small pot (I'm keeping the cutting in a small pot for the time being until its roots grow out some more -- then I'll transplant into a normal pot). The idea is like that of a dam: the concave shape holds back the higher-placed soil, allowing the lower node to get enough light and oxygen to also grow its own roots. The top node just continues growing.

I cut that middle part out to allow the stem to fit through (and placed a wood chip on top to block the soil from tumbling down, because I had made the middle cut a little too high), then I just carefully dropped some soil around the bottom node and dampened it to promote root growth.

That's it as far as the set up is concerned. I can post more details if you would like to know more.

Now those last four pics were from August 15th; since then both nodes have grown well ! Tomorrow I'll post some pics of how they're doing now.

(Oh, by the way, that's a Luna clone.)