A few of the usual questions about my first plant

[jokergrin]

I would probably just cut the one really bad leaf off and get a 10 gal aquarium to put the bad plant in...seal it up to increase the humidity (this will be a temporary solution) but dont water the plant too much.  The increase in humidity will decrease the rate of transpiration.  Water the soil at the outsides of the pot to keep water away from where the stem and soil meet.  Put the plant in bright light, but be sure not to cook it in the 10-gal aquarium.  As an alternative, you can get chicken wire or even coat hanger wire and make a humidity tent for the plant...but definitely increase the humidity a bit...I think the last person to have this plant had it in VERY HIGH humidity and it's being shocked now.  Water on the leaves or stem will cause rot, but a little more in the air could benefit the plant....then when it's stable, wean it off the humid air little by little...

Hope this helps...

-Steve (jokergrin)

[Bongo]

The problem is the pot is too large so the soil doesn't dry out quick enough.
When I first started growing SD I used pots that size or maybe even slightly smaller with horrendous results. Then I switched to about a  3 inch pot and had no problems. If you do this and wait for her to get root bound, then only move her up to the next size pot, do this  or times and then you can pot her in a barrel if you like and she won't complain at all.
SD likes to get a good solid root ball and feel the sides of the pots for some reason.

You really want the soil to dry out well in 4- 5 days.

[Old_Zircon]

I was thinking last night about trying a humidity tent, but I figured that it would do more harm than good at this point, since the plant has been in open air for over a week.  I will try replanting in a smaller pot with a better-draining soil today, though.  Fortunately, the other plant seems to be doing great still - maybe just a tiny bit of browning that wasn't there before, but it's hard to say, since it was so tangled up when it arrived - I might have just not noticed all of the brown leavs in the beginning.  Either way, none of the new growth is affected, and only two or three of the older leaves have brown edges, so I'm not worried.  On the down side, the soil was almost completely dry and the plant was drooping the other day so I watered it, and now there are a lot more gnats, so I guess the pot that it is in is too big to dry enough for the gnats to die without also making the plant upset.  It's smaller than the one the sick plant is in, at least.

Anyone have any experience/luck with beneficial nematodes?  I saw them mentioned once in an old post, but not much was said.  What about luring the larvae onto potato slices and throwing those away every morning?  That sounds insufficient to me, but I've seen it mentioned in general gardening forums.

[Old_Zircon]

AHA!

I opened up the bag of soil that I had used to pot my healthier plant and it is full of gnats!  So they came in with the soil, not with the plant.  I saw a few mentions of Miracle Gro having fungus gnats a lot recently, I guess it's true.  I microwaved the soil for two minutes this time around, hopefully that will fix it up.

[Old_Zircon]

Alright, I've repotted the sick plant in a smaller pot (about 5").  I used approximately 50/50 perlite and Miracle Gro cactus mix that I microwaved for two minutes and then cooled to kill the fungus gnat larvae, with a thin (1/2") layer of local, homemade compost in the middle of the pot.  The good news is that the root ball has definitely grown since I got the plant, and looked healthy, although I didn't wash it or anything so I couldn't inspect it too closely.  I also removed one of the leaves that had a cracked stem, but decided to let the others on for now.  

After repotting:


Its home (the plant to the right of the SD is in a pot bout the same size as the one I just took the SD out of):


The other plant, still no signs of trouble but still full of gnats:


edit: fixed last photo.

[jokergrin]

I like where your plants are...I think they'll do just fine there.  I also think that repotting is a good idea.  Now, your best bet is to just let them be still for a while.  I've found that messing with them (moving, clipping, watering, etc) can stress them out at an early age.  Just sit back, look at them, sing to them...water when wilty, but no touchy for a bit.  
I'm glad you're so interested and careful about your plants...the world needs more people like you!    

Of course, I think almost all of SPiritplants is that way...

-jg

[Old_Zircon]

Yeah, that's been working great with the healthier one, I think this one just needed a smaller pot and better soil.  I worry a little about the winter, since we keep it on the cold, dry side here (oil is expensive these days) but it shouldn't drop below 55 or 60 often, and that will mainly be at night.  By then I can move it away from the window and switch to artificial light in a warmer spot if I need to. and can mist.

[Jupe]

Average temps in Huatla de Jimenez(salvia birthplace) is 61 F..........so no worries!!!  With almost 100 inches of rain per year (421 cm or something)   There has been a bit of trouble for people in too hot weather.  This summer, many cuttings have died over the US in the heat wave through July....hopefully it wil start cooling off again.

 Mine outside have made it through multiple frosts, down to 26 F, but they are in the ground, which usually won't go below 45-50.  

Jokergrin is right , just keep a close eye, and don't change  too many variables too rapidly, slow and steady.

[Old_Zircon]

The sick plant arrived on the last day of the heat wave, it was about 100F here in Massachusettes.  I guess I'm lucky it even survived shipping.

[Phungivore]

the other day i took about a liter of distiled water, put in it about 2 table spoons powdered cinnamon, and about 1/2 a talbe spoon garlic powder, then i poured about a cup of mixture in there then topped the rest up with more distilled water then i gave each of my plants a cup of that each. it has been a week. when i first looked at my plants i would see about 40-or 50 gnats, over the last week since treatment i have seen about 3 gnats. also i have a cape sundew in that terraium too,(natural fly paper ,lol). this combe seems to reek havoc on the gnats.  not a bad job for some stuff from the spice rack.  the basis i used for this mix is the fact that i have seen miticides that used cinnamon oil, and another product that used garlic oil.


if you would realy like to make this mixture work to its full potenional add some sort of plant safe oil(ie castile soap, murphys oil soap, olive oil) i do recomend since theses oils have not been tested on sally d do so with caution. the oil should draw the oils from the garlic and cinnamon out along with suffication of the insects.

[Old_Zircon]

I ended up flushing the soil with a neem oil solution about a month ago, which pretty much eliminated the gnats (I followed it up with a second flush a week and a half later, but they were already mostly gone at that point).  I still see a few of them, but never more than two or three at a time, and they have deifnitely not increased their population since the neem treatments.

[Old_Zircon]

Update:

Plants are doing great.  The one that was having a rougher time initially has taken off and is growing maybe 1/4" to 1/2" a day on sunny days (which have been few and far between this week).

The bigger one hasn't been able to get quite as much light, so is slower growing (harvesting the occasional leaf from it hasn't helped) but it's still doing quite well, and has grown about 4" total.  Produces fairly small leaves so far (1" to 2" long) but lots of them.  I'd imagine they're probably windind down for the winter.

Next spring I plan to top all four of the main shoots on the bigger plant and root them in separate post.  If the mother plant survives, I'll end up with six, which will put me only a generation or two away from being forced to give away tons of them because of space limitations.

As long as this winter doesn't kill them, I should be set for life (or until it becomes illegal in the US, at which point I, like all other civic minded, law- abiding US citizens here, will destroy all of my plants in order to be in full compliance with the law).

[Jupe]

or until it becomes illegal in the US, at which point I, like all other civic minded, law- abiding US citizens here, will destroy all of my plants in order to be in full compliance with the law).

liar liar pants on fire....... :lol:  :lol:   Don't worry about the plants...its more likely the use of them will be outlawed, not the growing......heck , you can still grow poppy plants...how weird is that???

[Old_Zircon]

Yeah, I figure that's probably what will happen.  I'm generally not in favor of more laws, especially drug laws (which at best are just a convenient way to stir up support at the polls), but a law like that would be the closest thing to a rational prohibitive drug law I can think of, since people who take the time and effort to grow this stuff themselves are probably a lot less likely to use it irresponsibly.  Still, better to not prohibit any drug, in my opinion.

[Jupe]

...I flip flop alot of this one...but usually come down on the side of Education and Rehab for folks that get in trouble....I hate laws against behaviors, but seeing the carnage alcohol causes when mixed with transport etc.....at least thats kinda turning around a little bit....Man...when I dimly remember some of the stuff I did when I was a kid. :oops:  :oops: well, I didn't kill  or maim anyone....just got lucky....but so many don't.

  Perhaps a drug boot camp for wild youth...." ok listen up punks, this week its Heroin for 7 days, then Meth for next week"..."no whining about your  hangovers punks....get outa' bed and finish that last highball...swallow those cigarette butts, you'll be needing the nutrition" haha