q. about rooting S. clevelandii

16 years ago

I have some S. clevelandii cuttings, collected from wild plants. My medium is a 1:1 mix of perlite and vermiculite. I have bottom heat, which varies between 70 and about 78 F, depending upon ambient (i.e., ambient sometimes warms it beyond what the mat would do). The tray is indoors, where it receives light from outdoors but not direct sunlight. I'm using a dome to maintain humidity.

How long should I expect the rooting process to take? My limited previous experience is this: I rooted a Salvia "Dara's Choice" cutting outdoors this winter, where it experienced night temps down into the low 30s and days from the 50s to the high 70s. After about a month, there were no roots; after about seven weeks, there were roots. I rooted an S. apiana cutting outdoors, starting in July, and it was November before it had roots, but that was during the plant's normal dormant season. That plant is pictured in my S. apiana thread. Both of these were done in "peat-lite" type growing media using plastic bags as tents.

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Comments (7)

rich_dufresne
16 years ago
California sages will root faster if the cuttings are taken when the plant is in rapid growth. They can be really slow. If you cover them, please keep an eye out for mold (botrytis) and vascular infection (blackleg).
ccroulet
Original Author
16 years ago
The "Dara's Choice" cutting became available when a tree-trimmer broke one of the salvia's branches. I thought, "What the heck, give it a try."

What are the symptoms of the maladies you describe?
rich_dufresne
16 years ago
Botrytis shows up as a white fuzz on infected parts and cuttings with blackleg wilt, and when pulled out, the submerged stems are black and mushy.
ccroulet
Original Author
16 years ago
Rich, I can report that after 22 days I do not have rooting, even though some of the cuttings look fresh and appear to be adding new leaves. I dug out one of them that seemed to give quite a bit of resistance to a gentle tug (as do several others), and it doesn't have roots. I'll be taking a class on May 3 at RSABG on propagating cuttings, so maybe I'll benefit from some expert instruction.
rich_dufresne
16 years ago
Sometimes cuttings start forming a lot of callus growth at the end. While this diverts some energy, it can also be presage root formation.
ccroulet
Original Author
16 years ago
I spoke too soon. While that particular cutting doesn't have roots (and maybe it never will), some of the others have big, glorious roots. Yippee!!
ccroulet
Original Author
16 years ago
Follow-up: Four out of fourteen S. clevelandii cuttings had roots. On one cutting the roots are just starting, so I put it back in the perlite/vermiculite medium for another week or two. For the rootless cuttings that yet have new growth, I trimmed them shorter to remove the black stems and re-stuck them. Along the way I've lost five cuttings: three simply wilted; two developed (apparently) the botrytis you described. So I'm four for fourteen so far. I have a lot to learn! OTOH, I'm impressed that it took only three weeks or less for good roots to develop on those that succeeded. I now have some S. eremostachya cuttings (taken Mar 29 and Apr 3), so we'll see how they go. The natural populations I've found grow in gravelly soil around granite boulders, often on north-facing slopes. I can post photos if anyone is interested. They are at about 3600 ft elevation, and they experience colder winters and high winds that we don't have here (my elevation in Temecula is about 1140 ft.).