How To Grow Salvia

Items Required For Growing Salvia Plants

• Clear plastic bin
• Cellophane plastic wrap
• Gallon jug or watering container
• Mist spray bottle
• Small fluorescent grow light
• Bag of perlite
• You can pick up these items from Wal-mart or Home Depot.

Note: You Do not need a lot of light for these plants so a big grow set up is NOT needed.

When your Salvia Cutting arrives you should take the watering container and fill it with water and let sit for 24 hours at room temp (so it will be ready when you open your plant). You need let the box sit still for 24 hours (NOT IN A HOT OR COLD SPOT) to let it recover from the stress of shipping.

One hour before you open the box you should take 1 cup of perlite and mix with 1 cup of water and let sit for one hour. Open the box very carefully. There may be a dead leaf or two on it from shipping stress but it is ok. To ensure your plant arrives alive you should order from herbal-x.com. They will make sure you get your plant(s) alive!

Take the cutting out of the cup it came in, be very careful when taking the tape off the cup as there may be roots already inside the cup. The plant or cutting will have a paper towel around the base were the roots are, remove that and all packing perlite. Now take the cup and put some of the wet perlite you have prepared into the bottom of the cup (about one inch). Then put the Plant or cutting in the cup and fill the rest of the cup with the wet perlite you have. Now take the mist bottle and fill with the water from the watering container. Mist the inside of the box well so it begins to drip, but not to much that it pools up in the bottom. Place the plant in the box and spray the inside of the lid and plant with water (MIST SPRAY, NOT jet spray). Snap the lid on good and wrap the lid with cellophane plastic wrap so that no moisture will escape (well best you can). Place the light were the plant gets plenty of light but not too close that it touches the plastic.

For first 12 days you should give it 10 hours light and 14 hours of darkness. You may need to check on it in every couple of hours to make sure the inside of the plastic box is still wet. If it gets dry you will need to seal it better and mist well and often. BUT if it is wet don't change any thing.

IMPORTANT! If water pools in the container you need to poor all of it out! Check on it every day a couple of times a day and mist it at a minimum of once a day to keep it happy.

After 12 days the perlite should have lots of roots. Once the cup has a lot of roots or the plant begins to root out the bottom of the cup you should transplant it into the medium you are going to use (fertilized dirt,dirt, larger pot of perlite (best), hydroponic) whatever you choose to put your plant in to you should find out what it is going to need to survive in that medium, for example if you keep it in the perlite in a bigger pot you should ALWAYS HAVE THE PERLITE MOIST and you will have to use liquid fertilizers for hydroponic. If you need to find fertilizer look at http://indoor-garden.biz/nutrientssupplements.html

Salvia grows to over a meter high, has hollow square stems, large leaves, and occasional white flowers with purple bracts. Botanists have not determined whether Salvia is a cultigen or a hybrid.

email az-maddoc@hotmail.com and ask any questions you have about growing Salvia Plants.