Growing your own salvia divinorum plant can be a bit of a difficult task because of the salvia plants unique features. Salvia divinorum is a cultigen, meaning it no longer exists in the wild and has been domesticated by humans. Salvia plants (and most other cultigens) are not able to produce their own offspring. Rarely will a salvia plant produce seed. Most people who attempt to grow salvia from seed end up failing.
Salvia plants blossom with flowers often, and it's fairly easy to cause salvia plants to flower inside a greenhouse, but the hard part is attempting to hand pollinate the otherwise sterile flowers and make good seeds that can be used to grow more salvia plants.
The most common way to successfully grow a salvia divinorum plant is to start with cuttings (live, rooted pieces taken from another salvia plant) and use those cuttings to clone the plant. For this reason, and since it's the easiest way to grow it, I'm going to cover the process of cultivating salvia divinorum plants starting from the clone stage.
The salvia divinorum plants natural environment is in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the plant traditionally grew in remote ravines and highlands, and other almost inaccessible areas that have a lot of sunlight, humidity, and stay warm throughout the year. From there, the plant was taken by humans and moved to a more convenient location for harvest. The natural light cycle for growing salvia plants is half and half, 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light.
It's best to grow salvia plants at 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, although they can survive in colder temperatures, the growth slows down if the temperatures drop very low.
The salvia plant is also accustomed to plenty of moisture in the air in its natural environment, so it's a good idea to frequently spray your plants with a soft mist of clean water. Doing this also helps to keep your salvia leaves clean, which of course improves the health of the plant. Some people have found that salvia divinorium plants also do really well inside of a humidity tent, which is just a small greenhouse tent that holds in moisture and heat and lets in sunlight light to the plants. An easy and affordable "greenhouse tent" can be made by wrapping plastic wrap from the lights hanging over the salvia plants you're growing.
Salvia plants grow very slow right at first, and each time you transfer a salvia plant to a new pot the growth will slow down a little bit until it adjusts to its new home. Yes, moving a plant from one pot to another can be stressful to the plant. A bigger and stronger plant will recover faster than a small plant. A good fertilizer will also help recovery time after moving a salvia plant.
If you're growing salvia divinorum plants for leaf mass, make sure you use a big enough pot so the plants roots will have plenty of room to grow, because if the pot restricts the roots, you will get a smaller amount of salvia.
The plants have weak stems that can break if they get too tall to support the weight of the leaves. However, if the broken stem is in contact with the soil, it will root and the plant will still survive, so don't mess with it.
There are currently two different common strains of salvia plant cuttings available from sellers. The first species of salvia brought back to civilization is called "Hoffman and Wasson." This is the smallest, but strongest salvia strain grown today. Another very popular strain of salvia is called "blosser/palatable" and it is the newest strain brought over from Mexico in 1990. Some people eat salvia, and claim the blosser/palatable strain to have less of a bitter taste than the Hoffmann and Wasson variety.
Salvia plants blossom with flowers often, and it's fairly easy to cause salvia plants to flower inside a greenhouse, but the hard part is attempting to hand pollinate the otherwise sterile flowers and make good seeds that can be used to grow more salvia plants.
The most common way to successfully grow a salvia divinorum plant is to start with cuttings (live, rooted pieces taken from another salvia plant) and use those cuttings to clone the plant. For this reason, and since it's the easiest way to grow it, I'm going to cover the process of cultivating salvia divinorum plants starting from the clone stage.
The salvia divinorum plants natural environment is in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the plant traditionally grew in remote ravines and highlands, and other almost inaccessible areas that have a lot of sunlight, humidity, and stay warm throughout the year. From there, the plant was taken by humans and moved to a more convenient location for harvest. The natural light cycle for growing salvia plants is half and half, 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light.
It's best to grow salvia plants at 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, although they can survive in colder temperatures, the growth slows down if the temperatures drop very low.
The salvia plant is also accustomed to plenty of moisture in the air in its natural environment, so it's a good idea to frequently spray your plants with a soft mist of clean water. Doing this also helps to keep your salvia leaves clean, which of course improves the health of the plant. Some people have found that salvia divinorium plants also do really well inside of a humidity tent, which is just a small greenhouse tent that holds in moisture and heat and lets in sunlight light to the plants. An easy and affordable "greenhouse tent" can be made by wrapping plastic wrap from the lights hanging over the salvia plants you're growing.
Salvia plants grow very slow right at first, and each time you transfer a salvia plant to a new pot the growth will slow down a little bit until it adjusts to its new home. Yes, moving a plant from one pot to another can be stressful to the plant. A bigger and stronger plant will recover faster than a small plant. A good fertilizer will also help recovery time after moving a salvia plant.
If you're growing salvia divinorum plants for leaf mass, make sure you use a big enough pot so the plants roots will have plenty of room to grow, because if the pot restricts the roots, you will get a smaller amount of salvia.
The plants have weak stems that can break if they get too tall to support the weight of the leaves. However, if the broken stem is in contact with the soil, it will root and the plant will still survive, so don't mess with it.
There are currently two different common strains of salvia plant cuttings available from sellers. The first species of salvia brought back to civilization is called "Hoffman and Wasson." This is the smallest, but strongest salvia strain grown today. Another very popular strain of salvia is called "blosser/palatable" and it is the newest strain brought over from Mexico in 1990. Some people eat salvia, and claim the blosser/palatable strain to have less of a bitter taste than the Hoffmann and Wasson variety.
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