hey I need some advice on cloning salvia... I have a plant that I have been growing for year now. She was really bad when I got her( I ordered her on ebay from florida and i live in canada so it was a longtrip)..

She was yellow with the leaves all brown when I finally got her. I nursed her back to health and she is now a good sized bush..myproblem is that whenever i take cutting and attempt to root them, they alwasy get stem rot.

I have read everythign I could find and tried most methods.. rooting in water, rooting in soil, rainwater, tap water, bottled water, high humidity, low humidity, rooting hormone/no hormones...nothing works, they always get stem rot before they can put down roots..I used brand new soil fresh out the bag every time as well.

Any advise would be VERY much appreciated. I love this plant to death and would like to establish a mini forest of them..but i stopped tryingfro cuttings months ago cusI hate choppping her up to just watch them all rot

Could it just be my plant, cus she was sick when I got her?? she looks good now and a nice emerald green.. also was wondering what the best cutting size would be to root??

I have succesfully cloned other plants, including coleus many times..so i just dont get it

i have been successful in cloning my salvia...you have to make sure that you change the water often and it doesnt need to be in any light...actually out of direct sun light is best..because then nasties dont start growing in the water...the first time i tried it i got the two cuttings i made to grow roots and they are still alive...granted not very well set up yet but alive

im working on two my right now but i need to pay a bit more attention to them...the best length is about 4-6 inches of stem..with 4 top leaves...put them in jars and keep the water clean..you may be able to put just a tad of hydrogen peroxide in the water to keep nasties from growing..the best thing to do though is keep the water clean

I did keep them out of sunlight, but i changed the water every 2 or 3 days.. I will take that into accout and try again, changing the water daily, and giving them even less light..

did you use a humidity tent(last time I did)?.. or jsut leave them in the open air, my plant right now is fine without a tent, i just have her sitting on a desk near my window.

without a tent...ive found you dont really need them for rooting...and i havent had one over my plant

I just cut mine and stick them in water... they are in like 25-30% humidty...

Ok so I finally took a cutting today.. I washed a cup out with bleach, and washed with blade as well. then I got an aquarium ready by also washing it out with bleach and water. I took a cutting about 5 inches and put it into some tap water in the cup, and then stuck the whole thing into the aquarium and covered the open side with some clear poly but left a spcae about 1 inch wide open along one side for airflow.. i decided to do this because I am in canada and its cold here now, I am in a basement with bad heating and its -6 outisde so my air gets very dry...

I left 8 leaves on it, but 2 of them are just small growth tips, the 2 biggest leaves are dropping alot right now, do you think I should take themoff as well??

usually i only leave four leaves on..

I have a good amount of experience growing MJ; I have done a heck of a lot of cloning. I am not 100% sure if salvia and herb clones the same but I assume it does. This is my method:

Supplies:
* Tray and humidity dome
* Spray bottle
* Olivia's cloning gel (not the powdered kind)
* 1 inch rockwool cubes
* Heat mat
* Work light with a compact fluorescent bulb
* Razor blade

Make sure when you take your cutting you do so with a fresh razor blade. Take only cuttings from fresh green parts of the plants, no woody stems!

Take a cutting that is 3 or 4 inches, but I've had experience that the larger they are, the better they do! I pluck all the leaves off up the stem except four at the top so the plant does not have to support many leaves.

When you physically cut, make sure it is done at a 45 degree angle to expose as much of the inner white stem as much as possible. Now the crucial part here is to work fast as you don't want an oxygen bubble to get up the stem!

Immediately dip the cutting into the cloning gel, making sure it is completely sealed!

You should have pre-soaked your rockwool cubes for 24 hours ahead of time to make sure they are fully soaked. Place your cutting into the rockwool cube, and place your rockwool cube inside the tray, inside the humidity dome that has been sprayed with water to keep the humidity high. The tray and dome should be sitting on a heat mat that is set to 75 degrees. Yes this seems a bit like overkill, but using this method I have 99% success rates cloning thousands of plants...

As for the light schedule, some people put clones under 24/7 but that is un-natural; at least give them 4 hours of darkness and 20 hours of light.

Last but not least, make sure to take the humidity dome off at least twice a day to exchange the oxygen inside of it, and to prevent powder mold. After you leave the dome open for about 5-10 minutes, respray the dome and put back. Don't directly spray the plants as they tend to develop powder mold on the places that remain wet on the leaves!

Also make sure the rockwool remains moist, watering every other day most likely to keep them wet enough. If you let the medium dry out at ANY time throughout this process you will most likely kill that plant.

In as little as 5 days, but on average guaranteed two weeks you will have a humidity dome full of plants ready to go!

If you have any other questions, please let me know! I will provide pics of the following if need be!




I think your temps. are your main issue. Buy a humidity dome and tray, ($10 bucks at a hydroponics store) and buy a heat mat ($20 bucks), set it to 70 and set your tray on it. Air out daily and you will have much better results.

Peace

cool man thanx. think i will get some better supplies like heat mat and humidity dome cus il need it anyway for some chacruna n aya cuttings i am getting