On 2014-08-03 18:01:07 +0000, said:

On Thursday, 24 July 2014 09:43:29 UTC+1, Sacha wrote:
On 2014-07-24 00:58:12 +0000, FrankB said:



"Sacha" wrote in message

...

On 2014-07-23 15:03:18 +0000, FrankB said:



"FrankB" wrote in message news:...

I've been growing a Salvia 'Patens' in a 2L pot and it was doing fine

until

the last 2 weeks some worrying dark brown spots and blotches have

started

to

appear on the leaves, young and old. Any ideas?



Are you keeping it pretty dry and watering only when necessary? Let it

drain between watering, too and don't let the leaves get splashed with

water through which sunlight can burn them.



Hi Sacha.



I have 2 photos of the problem.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/120747...ostream/lightb

ox/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/120747...ostream/lightb

ox/



As regards watering I rang up a nursery today where a guy who seemed to know

about Salvias told me that this problem may arise if they are not watered

enough and that I should not let them get dry in the pot. I originally

suspected it was a fungal problem, but he didn't think so and I can see

nothing on the web that suggests that Salvias are affected by fungal

diseases..I've ruled out siun scorch as some of the leaves higher up the

plant have started to show symptoms whereas I always water with the nozzle

of my can close to the soil surface, so upper leaves don't get splashed.



I showed your photo to Ray and he agrees with your nurseryman that,
unlike most (!) you've let them get too dry but repeats that you
shouldn't over-water and let them drain between waterings. We have a
large Salvia leucantha Santa Barbara and a Salvia guaranitica in two
separate pots and they get a splash once a day. There's a fine
balance between giving them sufficient water and killing them with
too much in this hot weather. Our pots are terracotta and very tall
sort of Ali Baba shaped things. We can see from the outside roughly
where the damp level is. But if you're using plastic pots, as yours
seem to be, it would be a good idea to raise them a little to let the
water drain freely, just to make sure your watering regime doesn't go
too far the other way.

--



Sacha

www.hillhousenursery.com

South Devon

www.helpforheroes.org.uk

My Salvia gauranitica - bought from you ten years or so ago Sacha, is
in the open ground (east coast sand), full sun and gets no watering and
doesn't seem to mind at all. I have never brought it in over winter
and though it looked very poorly during that wet summer we had, it
survived five inches of snow for two weeks and then the following
winter minus five for a couple of weeks. Tougher than it looks if given
drainage I think.

Karen

Well!! How really good to see you! I hope all is going very, very well
for you. Please email me, if you'd like to at the Nursery,
I'd love to hear what's been going on,
how you are etc. But back to basics and yes, S. guaranitica is one of
the toughest, probably the toughest, though we have brought the tender
S. leucantha Santa Barbara through 3 winters here. But it's in a stony
raised wall and the balmy South Hams! I'm so delighted to see you
again, Karen. Last time we met was here when we had an urg meet and you
reassured me that a wasp sting was not going to kill me, as a bee sting
might well have done. The wasp went its way unworried and so - more or
less, did I !
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon