Hello,
I am a new member here to share and find information on propagating and growing salvia from seeds.
I have recently germinated 2 seeds I generated through self pollination of a mature salvia plant. Apparently the odds are stacked up against this happening, but I'm here to say do it, don't listen to the nay Sayers - salvia Divinorum can be pollinated to set seed, whether or not they will germinate is up to other factors.
I managed to propagate 2 seeds and those 2 seeds both germinated and are now fragile little seedlings. It's now been over a week that the little guys have been growing

http://www.salviasource....mages/gallery/161806.jpg

More pics and info to come!

Cheers

can you tell us what secrets you have to growing them? i'd like to start some but thought i could only get them going from cutting. what advice would you give someone who wants to grow salvia seeds? i'm interested!!!

Dawwwww lookit the cute little babies

Can you explain a little moar about what you did to get the mature plant to flower and how you pollinated it?

Thanks for sharing.

try to pay attention to their traits. only reproduce from one's that grow faster and stronger from seeds. keep reproducing from that specific offspring and you'll have bred your own strain of salvia divinorum.

now if you could share your secret it would be wonderful! because many of us wouldn't have to rely on cuttings alone. this means that people who want to grow salvia where it is prohibited could go about this from using seeds.

but i hope this post becomes popular. it seems like a very interesting theme.

"Since Salvia divinorum is usually propagated from cuttings, most plants in cultivation are genetically identical clones derived from just a few introductions—primarily the 'Bunnell' (a.k.a. 'Wasson/Hoffman' strain. When you start new plants from seed you are establishing new, genetically unique individuals and thus doing important work to help expand the genetic diversity of this rare species. Should you obtain plants from seed, please maintain them very carefully. By propagated and sharing new strains with others, you help insure their future survival because you are making sure that their continued existence does not depend on a single individual. Please be careful to label your seed-raised plants so that they do not get confused with other strains in your collection. Most Salvia divinorum plants are indistinguishable from each other, but occasionally a seed-raised plant will be visibly distinctive in some way. If you do obtain an unusual plant, I would like to hear about it, so please contact me at: dsiebert@sagewisdom.org "

-- http://www.sagewisdom.org/salvgrow.html we should grow salvia from seed more often if we can. this way it strengthens the plant itself. join share the seeds and try to grow your seeds to increase viability and share that strain that you've bred.

also i realize asking about your "secret" is a loaded question because it's probably a rigorous process that newbie gardeners shouldn't attempt. i realize that you have to take care of the seedlings very carefully.

here's to hope that salvia strains from seeds will grow to be more popular.

Those are SD seedlings?

Uh-oh, I see those in my salvia pots all the time, and pull them out, thinking that they're some tag-along plant taking root. Mine have never flowered, but maybe it's like rhizome propagation?

Here is a guide for getting saliva divinorum to set seed. I found a while back. http://seamac.info/sageseeds/index.shtml

I Have yet to give it a try. I'm new to salvia growing, and it's not going so well yet ..Haven't found a nice rhythm.

I acquired 3 small salvia clones 3 years ago, and they grew at a slow rate despite my efforts at keeping the humidity level up. Two of the cuttings didn't make it after an episode with spider mites and the third one was not looking good. The good news was that I was able to eradicate the mites with a strong solution of capsicum extract and neem oil but the bad news was I lost 2 of 3 plants and the 3rd one was looking sad. I gave it a good soaking with water and put it in a corner beside a bright southern exposed window.

A couple weeks went by and I noticed new growth starting from the bottom of the stem. The plant was about 8" tall and was basically a greenish brown stem by this time. For some reason the plant starting growing with vigor. Within 2 months she was over 2 ft tall, healthy and growing nice big fat leaves. This growth continued throughout the summer months receiving only natural light from the bright sunny window. Care was taken to only expose her to indirect sun for the exception of direct morning sun for a couple hours a day. Water was given when visually needed, she would wilt a bit telling me to water. I learned to know when she required water after a while before wilting began, lots of attention was given to this. Daytime temperatures never exceeded 27c before the air conditioning kicked in, and at night 16c would be the low. Room humidity ranged from 20-95 with the average being 35-50 %. No special feeding was given other than 20/20/20 houseplant fertilizer every 6 weeks or whenever I found the leaves turning a bit yellowish. She was grown in regular houseplant soil in a 8" ceramic pot, standard depth.

At night never was she given any light, never, ever. I was able to remove the lights from the room so no accidental light was given during the dark period. She grew totally on natural light, and care was given to limit the amount of direct sunlight. If given too much light she would physically turn away from the light and wilt.

Late in the summer I noticed a change in growth at the meristem, she was beginning to flower!
The fall season came and she was in full bloom and that's when I started hand pollinating the flowers. Every morning for a few days I pollinated with the fresh flowers that fell on the ground that night or early morning, or the odd one that fell from the plant during pollination. I would basically gently stick the flower, that was picked up from the floor into the flowers on the plant and rub them in and out (it was good for me too lol )

During the process I really didn't expect much as a result. I read so much about salvia not really being able to set seed, and if seeds were set the viability would be real low so that most won't germinate and the ones that did manage to sprout would probably be too weak then die. This made me want to try, but my expectations were set in the reality of that I was probably wasting my time. Some time later, about 2 or 3 weeks I notice a dark spot inside on of the flower pods...seeds!!!

I placed a 2"x2" plastic zip bag over the flower(carefully) to catch any seeds that might fall out of the calyx, they point down and are flute like, so the ripe seeds have a chance of detaching and rolling out on the floor. A couple weeks pass and I decide to harvest my seeds. It turned out I didn't really need the bag over the flower pod because no seeds feel out from the pod.
I removed the pod from the plant, opened it up and found 2 nice looking seeds!!

I carefully take the 2 seed and place them in the 2x2 bag zip it and label it. The seeds were kept at room temperature in the dark. Again I didn't have much confidence anything would come from these 2 seeds because of what I read previously, and that's partially why I was in no hurry to plant the seeds, so they sat for 4 months or so before I decided to plant them.

Around 10 days later I was shocked to see 2 little, very fragile looking seedlings

That was about 3 1/2 weeks ago since I planted the seeds together in a pot with soil consisting of a mix of regular commercial houseplant soil, perlite and cactus soil.

Today is day 9 since they sprouted and for the first time, you can see in the picture that one of the little guys are showing its first true pair of leaves! I'm very excited to see this progression


I am hoping these 2 survive to be strong enough to clone and share with the world!

Thanks dude,
I did really nothing other than letting the plant do its thing. It really liked being beside the sunny window in the indirect light and it grew with the seasons. In the spring it started growing and into the summer until the sun got less intense and more red into the autumn, signaling the plant to normally flower on her own. The key may have been the strict night cycle where I didn't allow ANY light ever other than the light of the city and the occasional full moon.
I hand pollinated with the flowers that fell on the floor every morning for a few days.

I am in a northern climate and it was able to thrive naturally, so there is hope that many people will be able to use a similar method for themselves.
I have taken cuttings of the mother and hope to reproduce everything this year to produce more seed. Now that I know this mother is capable of seed I plan on being more thorough when hand pollinating this year.

Thanks for the info and the link. My purpose is to spread my methods and information to everyone, encouraging others to try this for themselves. I too hope others will be successful propagating seed, and I hope to help.

I have contacted Mr. Siebert and informed him of my work, he was curious and very interested. He gave me some valuable advice on caring for the little seedlings and I plan I keeping him informed and updated on my progress.

If those are true SD seedlings, then you should join the Share The Seeds forum and document your progression from seedlings to maturity on there, that forum is chock full of people wanting to know info about getting the Diviner's Sage to seed.... also I'd hate to break it to you... but you've sown them too close together I fear... they may or may not compete for space, and the stronger one might kill off the weaker (which could be in your favor genetically), or they could choke each other out.... just keep an eye on the health of them. If they both survive to transplant size, they might end up being too entangled to separate.

Thanks for the link, I have used the guidelines put forth in the link myself to help propagate my seeds and recommend the method described, it works.

Yes they are genuine 100% Salvia Divinorum, time will confirm this. I appreciate the suggestion to join the other forum I will check it out. Yes I admit they may be close together and I'll have to hope they can co-exist, but when I planted them I really wasn't expecting 1 let alone both to germinate, it was sort of unexpected. In hindsight I should have planted them alone in separate pots.
I don't have any intentions to separate them, my goal is to take cuttings to ensure their survival and eventually then propagate seeds.
I'm somewhat excited about the future that may come from these two, and I try very hard not to overcare.

Sweet! I hope your seedlings will survive thru to flowering! If they flower around the same time as your current mature SD does, then cross pollination between those should help make even more seeds

Welcome! I look forward to learning more about these plants, if at least to attract hummingbirds! What USDA hardiness zones can S. Divinorum survive in?

make sure to selectively breed them for viability if you can and then send me one to propogate! i'd love to start breeding salvias that seem to carry the genetics for viability in seeds i'm truely excited about your salvias being able to carry on a new strain unknown to the world... but maybe it's just that we need to pay attention to strict lighting cycles; idk. but i am sure if you selectively breed the offspring to produce more viable seeds you'd have quite a miraculous and unique salvia divinorum on your hands

personally; i will be trying to recreate what you've done with them and hope to achieve seedlings!

Thanks
That would make some interesting offspring

I know that this strain, which name I'm unsure of is hardy in zones 11+. I have seen a short vid of a hummingbird and a salvia flower.

I agree and it would be special to be able to share more diversity, I hope this works out. My main goal is of course to nurse those seedlings to maturity as well as multiply the mother plant thru cuttings to ensure her future, as I now know what she's capable of.
I encourage you to try this yourself, not to be vague but it wasn't that difficult and nothing special was used in terms of substrate, water, nutrients lighting, humidity or any extra aids. Certain rules were strictly adhered to like absolutely no lights turning on during her natural dark period. I Never used water direct from the tap, always used tapwater that sat out for 1- 2 days at room temperature. I let the soil surface dry before watering and was careful that she didn't get too much direct hot sun.

I'm going to list all of these variables that happened, so we can all go through them in detail to try to figure out which factors aided with seed propagation and which didn't.

i will be paying close attention and will be replicating this one day SO excited!

Quite impressive, When! Well done.