Salvia Divinorum

[Alan]

Yeah, the plants are very healthy minus a few tissue burns here and there from adapting to the greenhouse and the trip through the mail in the cold weather, however I think given a couple of weeks to get adapted they will do just fine. I'm expecting the other strains that I ordered as well as the seed to arrive here at the house sometime this week. I really hope I have success with these plants and can pass some cuttings and possibly some new strains and seeds onto other interested parties here on this site.

I got these two "blosser" strain plants from the acclaimed Daniel Siebert and his Sage Wisdom website. They are pretty darned expensive but I think they are also well worth it.

I can't imagine any cop here in Pekin ever being able to identify these plants, I just don't see it happening without some major retraining that neither Pekin, Washington County, or the state of Indiana are going to pay for. If they ask what they are I'll tell the truth "Sage".

[Alan]

So last night marked my first major learning experience with the Salvia Divinorum plants. In my haste while working on another project I had moved the salvia plants to the center lane of the greenhouse with all intentions of moving them back at the end of the night. Unfortunately I forgot to do so. At this point in my story you should be saying "No big deal, their heated." Aha! Therin lies the problem. While they were on the side of the greenhouse they were in an area that stays relatively cool and where the breeze from the fan and the blowers on the wood stove is soft, however in the middle of the greenhouse the wind from the fans and the heat from the blower on the stove was directly on top of them.

So, lesson learned now, Salvia is very delacate when it comes to hot air. Salvia likes a lot of humidity so you are supposed to keep it misted quite often, however 8 hours over night of nothing but hot air coming from the stove blower was enough to de-hydrate and brown out several of the leaves, particularly on the smaller of the two plants. I do believe they will come out of their funk though due to all the research I've been doing on them and how resillient they can really be. Afterall they are perinials and folliage plants.

Today after I found them I immediately moved them back to their old spot and have been keeping them heavily misted, I also pulled some soil up to the stem to stimulate new root and top growth and fertilized them with some high nitrogen bloodmeal which should make them hurredly grow some new green folliage.

Lesson number one learned!

In other news I just ordered five new strains of Salvia Divinorum.

will keep you updated on the progress of the poor little plants and the new plants coming in this week.

-Alan

[flowerpower]

Are you putting them outside at some point or strictly for the greenhouse? Least the plants didn't die. I think mounding around the stem was a good idea. Garden sage would definitely put out new growth if you did that.

[plantsnobin]

Most people give up on perennials too easily if they have had a catastrophe-you should never assume they are dead too early. Most times they will be ok at the root level. I haven't grown divinorum, but I have many perennial sages, and if this is like most others, I wouldn't go too heavy on the mist, or the high nitrogen fertilizer.

[Alan]

Karen, do you think that I should prune back the tops of the plants where the browing folliage is? I can see along the base of the stems where the nodes are that there are some new starts coming on. I figured since the plants where fairly large cuttings it probably wouldn't hurt to cut them back some since they have a really nice root system, I also highly doubt that they have any root damage whatsoever.

I got four more plants in todays mail, one each of, Luna, Quadrato, Blosser, and Wasson and Hoffman. They are much smaller little plants but I think they will do just fine.

-Alan

[plantsnobin]

Yep, cut them back to healthy tissue and they will be fine. I actually like to receive smaller plants in the mail, generally speaking. When larger plants are sent, you will often have leaf drop anyway, due to differences in temp and humidity, and some plants just don't like being in a box if they are in active growth. Especially silver leaved plants. I wouldn't push soft growth with fertilizer either, since you are going to want to take cuttings. If the growth is too soft, your cuttings will rot instead of root. I don't know if you have grown much from cuttings yet, but you get the 'feel' for it pretty quickly. Just like Goldilocks, not too soft, not too hard, just right. I much prefer to grow plants from cuttings than seed when I have a choice.

[jessieinmo]

I will have to check into MO law and make sure they are not illegal here. But once you have them established I would love some cuttings. I grow all sorts of "wierd" stuff and those would be a great addition and I would of course help others with cuttings if they needed them.

Jessie

[starchild]

Hi Alan,
I'm new to the site, and would like to know if you could send me some clippings before it might be scheduled. I have been searching for someone around here...


Please feel free to email me directly. Thanks! ;D
Starchild

[flowerpower]

Alan, how are the plants doing? Make the cuttings small for those you are mailing. They'll ship better. I also think the best time for shipping will be the autumn when its a bit cooler.

Starchild, Welcome to HG! You have to let us know where you are located before Alan can even think of sending this plant in the mail. There are restictions on it in some places.

[Alan]

Hey Starchild, it will probably be later this year, close to fall, once the plants have grown some more and the weather has shifted a bit before I start shiping out any cuttings, that way I can ensure that my plants grow to their maximum potential and your cutting will make it in the mail without becoming to dehydrated. Flowerpower definetly makes a good point, I'll definetly have to know where you are before I can ship you anything to cover both myself and you.

Flowerpower, the plants are doing really great, starting to size up very nicely, very beautiful nice big leaves, lot's of new stems and growth. I'll try to get some pics up on the net tomarrow to show everyone. I gave Plantsnoobin a plant as well and need to check up with here on how hers are growing for her. I'll definetly be sending smaller cuttings, the ones that I got which were smaller definetly have adapted more quickly than the larger cuttings and I think that is definetly the way to go.

[plantsnobin]

The plant is doing fine, surprised it didn't blow away night before last. Did you get any damage in Pekin? There are trees down everywhere here. As for cuttings, I think smaller is pretty much always better. Up to a point, of course, but generally I like to plant smaller plants rather than bigger. As far as planting perennials go, I would rather have a 4 inch pot than a gallon or larger. They seem to settle in much better for me.

[flowerpower]

If I have a gallon pot, I split whatever is in there if possible. But I do buy smaller plants when I can.

[flowerpower]

[underline]The United States[/underline]
"Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Delaware, Maine, North Dakota, Illinois, and Kansas are the only states in the USA that currently have state-wide laws prohibiting possession of Salvia divinorum. Begining July 1, 2008, Salvia divinorum will also be illegal in Virginia and Florida. Louisiana and Oklahoma have provisions in their laws that allow possession of the plant when it is not intended for human consumption. In Oklahoma, plain Salvia divinorum is legal, but extract-enhanced leaves are not (however, a new law goes into effect in Oklahoma on November 1, 2008, which will make all forms of Salvia divinorum illegal). The state of Maine only prohibits possession by minors. Possession remains legal for adults in Maine; however, it is illegal for adults to sell or transfer Salvia divinorum to anyone under 18 years of age. A local law prohibits possession and sale of Salvia divinorum in Suffolk County, New York. A city ordinance, enacted in April 2008, prohibits the sale of Salvia divinorum in the town of West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. To the best of my knowledge, Salvia divinorum is entirely legal in all other states. However, law makers in several other states are currently considering legislative bills that seek to ban Salvia divinorum in those states"

Here is the link to the page. Looks like lots of good info. Suffolk Cty, NY made it illegal. That is in Long Island.

www.sagewisdom.org/legalstatus.html

[sammyqc]

Interesting stuff! I wonder what the legal status of this is in Canada. I'll have to look it up. I just can't fathom the thought of making plants illegal. It goes beyond the ridiculous!

[canadamike]

As far as I know it is legal here