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sugi_c

Planting depth of Salvia spathacea

It shouldn't be this difficult to find the planting depth required for a handful of hummingbird sage seeds.

They're so much bigger than pineapple sage that I'm loathe to lay it on top and have it not work out -- or bury them twice their size only to find out later that I should've laid it on top.

But after searching for the last 45 minutes, I can now tell you everything about the plant but not the depth of planting.

Can anyone help?
Do I sound irritated? LOL

Grace

Comments (9)

  • rich_dufresne
    9 years ago

    If you can get this one to germinate, let us know the details.

  • Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I planted a few seeds today -- just messing around because I have no patience to wait for spring when it's 85 degrees outside and hitting 90+ over the weekend. It still feels like summer so I shall act like it is...even if that means I'm clamoring come December, haha.

    I just laid it on top of the soil - Promix HP.

    Have you had problems germinating this before, Rich?

    Grace

  • rich_dufresne
    9 years ago

    Oh, yes. In general, I've had better luck using GA-3 (gibberellic acid) for California sages, shaking the seed for 30 minutes to swell the seed coat then allow the GA-3 to penetrate it. That vastly improved both the time and percentages of germination.

  • Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Gosh...I didn't even think of doing anything special.

    Two came up yesterday and I think I see one cropping up in the cell to the left. Like I said, I'm just messing around so I just planted four seeds.

    They are in ProMix HP with additional perlite, about 5:1 ratio. I've been spritzing them (3 full spritzes) once a day in a western window with additional light coming from 50 feet away in an eastern window. I keep the blinds on that one closed until 1pm or so (because I'd bake in my office), so I thought the western window was better as it is left open all day. My house is almost always at about 80 degrees. They're on a cookie pan, unheated...as I don't have a bottom heater.

    My evening stock seeds germinated the day before the spathacea, and for what it's worth, they're already a tad etiolated. I took the whole spread outside today because of that....it's 90 something outside right now, though. I really want this heat to quit already!

  • rich_dufresne
    9 years ago

    How fresh was your seed?

  • Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi Rich,

    No idea when it was harvested but I just received them about 10 days ago. So, to me, they were fresh, haha, though I am certain that's not what you were asking.

    The two seedlings are growing nicely today. I moved them to the eastern window for the morning and will move them west for the afternoon, though I don't know how long I'll keep up with that. The two in one cell came up; the two in the other cell have not emerged yet.

  • Sugi_C (Las Vegas, NV)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Incidentally, one thing I didn't mention is that I'm watering only with filtered tap water in the spray bottle...one of those under-counter drinking water filtration things with the spout next to the faucet. I normally would use distilled water for the seeds but didn't have any and thought I'd give that a try. It's supposed to be good enough to drink, though I don't like it much except in emergencies if I've run out of my delivery water.

    Our water here is supposedly not very good and in past years, there was some issue with the water. I believe whatever that was has since been fixed. Anyway, that's what's being filtered and used on the seedlings.

  • Phylis
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Hi Grace,

    Can you please send me a message from my profile page? I'd like to try growing Salvia spathacea from seeds too. :) I see you have it listed on your trade list. I have lots of flowers and hot pepper seeds for trade.