Growing Salvia Divinorum

Illegalizing for the common good- Salvia Divinorum on the Planks

Considering yesterday's uproar of a blog, I felt i had better and more eloquent points to make about the issue of illegalization. What kept coming back to me about my blase post yesterday that 13 states in the US have now banned use of Salvia d, was my statement, why do they care so much about my worm hole?

Worm holes as we know them in science class are space/time tunnels in our space and time continuoum that allow us to travel the universe. This is scifi and our real world, real time technology has not allowed us to PHYSICALLY experience a worm hole in real time and space and so the curious individual has dared to create the worm hole themselves. Technically, in this kind of word framework, theres nothing wrong with exploring and trying to find a worm hole. If we could explain the great discoveries of our mind and its vast conclusions when it is pushed to its psychoactive imagination limits, would we not describe amazing and terrifying experiences?

The list in The Psychedelic Encyclopedia of the 7 most common experiences while engaged with Salvia d, inhaled or chewed, causes a lot of the same effects that other natural plant derived drugs do: loss of vision and feeling of body, loss of time and space, soluble change of environment, visions, becoming objects, revisitation of past, being pulled into motion by another force, and uncontrollable laughter (Daniel Siebert). I think thats eight but two are probably the same thing. If you notice the 'symptoms' i can say mushrooms and acid have done just about the same for me. I have never experience DMT or Ayahuasca or Mescaline (in high doses) and as i have been told those experiences are very similar as well.

Is it our brain rerouting plant compounds to generate an experience all humans can tap into? Or is there a common element in the plants that have the same affect on the human brain and body? I say its both. I like the story of the first Indegenous people of South America that at first, could not see the ships for the sails, men, and movement on ocean was so unfamiliar to their brains and eyes that they could not SEE them. Almost unbelievable. How do we not see things, our eyes are our visual intake, why would it choose not to see something? What if those eyes didn't have the ability to download the image in front of it. Nothing in the Ram memory related anything it had previously known before and like any good computer that doesn't like what it sees, deleted it. His brain could not relate anything of his own experience, words, pictures, memories, could configure the image before him/her.

Imagine then if a plant like mushrooms who have the ability to transform a perfectly clear sky into a kaleidoscope of images, were stubbornly a human experience instead of the plant. I have laughed hysterically on mushrooms and then had skeletons walk right of my closet. Couldn't get any clearer than that. What if my brain couldn't 'uptake' the plant knowledge of the psychedelic experience that the plant fully had to offer and my brain related the only images and tools it could use to make a parallel of the plant's journey as well as mine.  Well, duh, you say. Anything we eat or drink, will not necessarily transform us, although we can be transformed momentarily by the experience. A bad pizza can make my gut hurt for two hours and I'm crabby, but then its over. I haven't necessarily changed, but for those two hours my mood, thoughts, and emotions were transformed, by the pizza. But did i think thoughts of a supernatural nature, or was i thinking about cheese and grease and tums. Have I really experienced a plant's real psychedelic experience if i don't have the language of plants?

And then we come to Terrence McKenna, a genius of plant and human forms. And he did a lot of drugs. Plant drugs are not the same as Rush Limbau's drugs. Shoot, at least Georgie liked a plant based drug, eh Georgie? And a conclusion Terrence Mckenna came to and i'm touching on this lightly, is that humans must learn the language of plants to fully understand their role and meaning in our life. And maybe not even that, that perhaps they exist in their own realm and to get a glimpse we must change our understanding of language.

So i come back to my original question, why does anybody care about my space and time continuoum? My worm hole?  Let us think to the first images and experiences (you) I had when i first experienced psychedelic drugs in my early teens- colors, quick movements of stars, nauseating feelings, laughing nervously, paranoid, frightened, and lost. As i got older the stars not only moved but danced for me. Did i take more or was my brain more able to see the stars danced after my first initiation, small bursts of movement. Stars moving? My little fifteen year old self was held captive for probably 3 hours, at the least. The next summer I could watch them dance and the trees move with them. Soon I could hear the whole world hum with energy. I became less afraid of the world. The mystery of humanity was not so cold and scary.

For what do we humans search for when we drink, smoke, or take a Xanax? Is it just to relieve stress? Or is it to shake our mind up a little, think about something else, Anything else, and while your at it, gin, make me have some fun too. And after that, after the moments of gleeful fun are gone, in those solitary moments when our brains are depleted of fun, what thoughts do we come to, human origins, purpose, meaning, reasons, Gods and Goddesses. And don't these thoughts, sometimes get answered by the drugs we take? Alcohol makes me laugh at the small stuff. And forget most of it. I learned to feel real Earthly love with Salvia. I saw Krishna in a million spheres in the night sky on acid. I thought I could fly, but because of ego, but because if i put my thought to it, to every cell in my body, I could actually fly. I could spread my wings and fly. I learned to let go on mushrooms. And these were all realizations that my brain needed to come to. Did i need to think i could fly? no, but my brain FELT the whole world of possibility open up. What that enlightenment does can do wonders for the soul.

And so i say we to converge and learn plant language we must experiement over and over and over. We can't learn Spanish in one sitting! We must come to class everyday and learn the discipline of verbs and conjectures, pronouns, adverbs, or we'd never be able to speak with a Spanish speaker. And so it is with plants and their messages.

And why we come back to the worm hole. Why stop me? Because a world full of people that thought they could fly and therefore never be enslaved, by The World Bank, sex traffickers, government right wingers that take education away from our young ones, well, wouldn't be our world. And thats the point. To keep in power one must keep the masses afraid. For the only thing that Salvia d could be a criminal for is taking me out further than i had ever been before. But i'm not pressing charges, for what is so wrong with feeling eternal love?

Nationwide Illigalization?

Holy Sacramonial cross to bear! People getting high for five minutes and falling over, a critical addiction in the streets of America is underway! Dangerous zombies falling all over the place, can't seem to see or speak, and they might come to your house soon!

What the F*&^%$K is going on! As i last checked in my Psychedelic Encylclopedia Salvia D had no restrictions on it. That was when only 550 lbs of Salvia were exported out of Mexico. Now the measurement is 8 tons to the US and Europe. And how many countless sites are selling Salvia? Too many people having fun, finding the black worm hole of their brains. Why does the government feel a need to extinguish my worm hole?

13 states have now banned the use of Salvia D. 13/50 is not a good ratio, dear enlightened congress of which i voted for. You damned bafoons, what do you get paid to do?! Of which countless officers of the court have been elected, I'm sure, by illegalizing this plant. Good work you monkies of Fishism. Darwin eats you for breakfast! Yayhoos.

FREE SALVIA 4 RESEARCH

I will send nine plants, nine different strains to an accredited genetic scientist that will publish his/her findings on this blog. You pay for shipping. should be 20.50 for nine plants. USPS is paying for their diesel too.

And anyone wishing to order plants from Theatrum Botanicum will recieve a 10% discount if you mention this blog on the Comments section of their order page.

Seed Viability of Salvia Divinorum

I believe that in their natural environment Salvia D rarely makes seed and why perhaps when we grow it ourselves, it is a rare occasion Salvia D will seed.

If you read Daniel Siebert's account he was able to retrieve 75-85 seeds in one instance. The plant hadn't produced seeds before and it hasn't since. It is believable that under strained conditions Salvia D could make seeds just like the above- probably what happened to the plant in the first place- somehow it was either pollinated by insects or the plant somehow believed it was going to die and had to produce seed for future survival. And possibly why we come to the thinking that Salvia D in its natural environment doesn't need to create seed to multiply, regenerate, etc.

Accounts of its natural growth in its original habitat, find that once the plant gets to be about eight feet tall and thus too heavy to stand falls on the humus groun and 'dies'. Salvia D has an amazing regenerative property- the plant can root all along its stem. Therefore when it falls on the ground, on that very moist and humid ground, the plant roots all along its eight foot stem and creates a plant at each leaf node. Salvia d can flower, but it doesn't need to create seed.

A plant will often create seed at the end of its life cycle. Annuals are such that once the winter comes, they must let go of their seed in hopes of coming back the next year. Many hybrids lose the ability to make seed through the hybridization process (biology 101). Perrenials make seed but rarely need to make them as they know they will come back the next spring (plant knowledge and thought have been widely recorded). I make the conclusion that because Salvia D has created a method of procreation, or asexual production that doesn't rely on seed production, pollination etc, the plant has no natural instinction to make seed.

If one were to read (and the name of the book is forgotten) but quite famous on the method in which some plants have survived and made themselves important to human life thereby making their genetic and growing vital to themselves and humans. The life cycle of orange?  In this book the author Michael? correctly states that Cannibus sativa in the 1970's moved indoors and in so doing creating a flower product unseen in outdoor conditions. In a strained environment Cannibus sativa has reached its utmost potential. And this idea was also brought up by a comment posted for another blog of mine but that in essense a seed from the Paradox plant (the only strain to come from seed) should have a potentcy that in conditions of a strained variety should outreach regular levels of Salvanorin A. 

While i agree it is possible to produce seed from Salvia if the right strained conditions were put upon the plant, but whether their viability is true, is questionable. Of the 85 seeds that were produced from a friend of Daniel Sieberts, only 10 survived germination and six of those that went on to grow as successful plants. And while those six plants, strain not mentioned, were successfully grown from their seed and their genetic code must be pure, these plants technically should be able to produce seed again under the same conditions. But this is all hypothesis. For biology 101 will tell you, the viability of seed goes back to the mother plant. Crossing genetics can provide more offspring but whether their genetic code is healthy, is again questionable.

For what i have learned from seed pollination of Cannibus sativa (second hand knowledge) it takes six generations to produce a seed that is viable to the strain of the mother plant. Six generations! With statistics like those seed pollination and production of Salvia D could create more and more genetic variations and possibly create a real viable seed for growth, but with lots of variables. But we must also attribute the method in which Cannibus sativa in its natural environment reproduces itself.

Plant knowledge and instincts go back to its evolutionary process, much like our own. How we know to make babies comes from hundreds of generations and it didn't take long for humans to figure out the best and most profficient way to make offspring. And so has Cannibus. Seed. Cannibus can be made from cuttings but after 22 generations of cuttings the plant is now a retarded genetic variation of its mother plant. With Salvia D, seed production is not the method in which it regenerates. Though research into the mint family and genetic proficiency with cousin strains should be analized. Salvia D falls and generates itself from its stem, which in its environment knows that this method is the fastest and easiest method to survive.

So while i believe in seed generation in Salvia D plants, I do not rely on seeds to further its evolutionary process. Although i feel as i write this, i am wrong in this thinking. But grafting? Could we graft Salvia D to a plant that produces seed with efficiency? Would we lose Salvanorin A potentcy?  And could we physically graft Salvia D onto another plant? With its soft stem, i'm afraid of rotting, but then again we can graft cactus' on to each other, another quite rotty plant element there with success. We'll have to wait and see if Salvia D can spread itself genetically to survive into human evolution further- is it as vital as tulips, potatoes, Cannibus, and the apple?

Which Strain is most Potent- Hofmann? Blosser?

With so many hybrid crossings these days it is hard to find the heirloom to your garden plant. But the exoticness of field flowers have been amped and fortified. So have fruits and vegetables- tomatoes with fish skin to ensure durability- or a plum branch grafted on an apple tree- all kinds of new science have invaded the garden and kitchen. But what if any genetic difference is there in nine strains of Salvia d?

One of the most important questions i get from consumers, which strain has more potentcy of Salvinorin A? Most stores only sell the main two strains of Salvia d, Hofmann and Wasson and Blosser Palatable. The Blosser so named for its less bitter taste than the Hofmann and Wasson and consequent later strains found in Mexico, Luna, Cerro Quemado, Paradox, Owens, La Fuerza, Resilence, and Julieta. 

Having grown all nine strains for five years I could definitely tell you I could not pick (except for the Luna with its serrated and wide leaf looking like a moon) one from the other. In different environments ranging from light shade to full sun and freezing temperatures each strain has never grown the same. One plant of deep green leaves can a produce a cutting that doesn't behave in the same way- perhaps why finding seed stores are so important.

I can tell you all strains can survive at freezing greenhouse temperatures and survive through a summer of full sun (though a bed of hofmann's died within three weeks but came back the next season with proficient shade). I can tell you they're all fussy, except maybe the Julieta. And that Paradox can act like a weed, and that Cerro Q has a vigour for growing, or that La Fuerza often gets bugs, but grows quite beautifully, that the Hofmann is always dependable, that the blosser can be a real biatch sometimes, buggy, unwilling to grow, and most of all turning yellow in the shade. The animacity of that plant is beyond me. I leave it alone and it finally grows. But then again I could be wrong.

I've had the Resilience last incredible freezes (perhaps the name fits well), the Luna recede from all growth (for what reason, i have no idea- but again once left on its own, came back fine), and in essence test every conclusion i've ever had with any strain of Salvia d. I couldn't tell you which grows best for your house or garden. All i know are in the archives and its not much, i tell you.

Now, do I know which plant has more potentcy than any other? It would make sense that not all strains were equivocally the same when it came to Salvanorin A content. That's my hypothesis and since many scientists have been buying plants for research (which any accredited invidual can receive free plants from Theatrum Botanicum for research) I expect the findings to be out soon.

I have noticed that hairs growing on the leaves occur in the spring and the fall. I imagine that in these seasons measuring Salvanorin A would be most valuable. And measuring the content in the MORNING versus noonday or afternoon times, would actually measure the Salvanorin A when it is most in the Plant. As for collecting leaves for potentcy, I suggest as well spring and fall picking. But i believe that the compound Salvanorin A is always in the plant but as we home scientists would like to conclude, there are times of greater harvest than not.

So while I may not have come to ANY conclusion, I look forward to our scientists to solve this one.

How To Make A Salvia D cutting

Items you will need:

cutting box (many holes on the bottom, good depth for roots) can be found in most garden stores

pearlite- a light compound that does not hold water- this is your rooting medium

KLN - we recommend this solution- we've tried them all, expensive gels, really cheap root tone, and finally our stand by liquid rooting hormone by far for cost and result exceeds most other products

GLEO- expensive rooting hormone, applied only when the cutting has roots- not necessary but for fast results and EXCELLENT root growth use this- follow instructions carefully-

water - easily accesible- cuttings must have either misting or any good watering (one gallon per cutting box) in the morning and evening will suffice (this scenario is NOT in a greenhouse. in a greenhouse cuttings would NEED constant misting to survive the high heat of summer.)

clear plastic - to cover cuttings- helps keep moisture and is a great rooting environment- great humidity encourages roots to seek open air for they seek moisture

Your house- Think of a warm, dark corner, under cupboard, under bed, in your closet- you will want to put your cuttings in the semi-dark for the first 2 days- with regular watering under the plastic dome which after 2 days you can move your plant to a light bulb that will provide 12 hours of light. Plants will be covered by the plastic with regular watering.

Gloves- using rooting hormones, fertilizer, bug spray or any solution for gardening is not good for humans. please please please always wear gloves when using such products. Our skin is very porous and we don't want rooting hormone in our system, then we'd like Incredible Hulk. ick.

To Start-

Your mother plant (what any plant is called that you take cuttings from) should be at least two months old. Of course to ensure that there is more than one shoot, pinch the new growth (2 leaves) at the height of 8 inches (trust me).  It will seemingly not grow for a week, but more leaf shoots will appear as well as hopefully two more spikes. To make more than three spikes, wait until your plant is 12 inches and cut first cutting at the third set of leaves from the top (leaving two sets of leaves for your cutting- extremely small and light green leaves don't count) From the bottom of the plant as many as five spikes will appear. To stop overcrowding maintaining your plant is now necessary- this means taking regular cuttings (every four-six weeks) Or not. You choose. Then the plant grows up and is 'bushy'. You can creat more widespread 'creeping' if you take cuttings- we'll talk about this later-

What you have for a cutting is 2 bright green very small leaves just at the center of the cutting. 2 more leaves of regular size, stem of 2-4 inches, 2 more leaves of bigger size, stem 2-4 inches(where you cut). The biggest set of leaves, strip them from the stem, with scissors or your gloved hands suffice. These bald spots or NODES are where the roots will first appear or at your cut (45 degree angle).

With your mix of K-L-N and water, let the plant soak for 15 minutes. My coworker believes it is best for the plant if only the cut stem is standing in water, but I've found if the cutting is completely immersed bugs will drown as well as eggs- mostly. Less bugs in your cutting box. Don't spray new cuttings. We'll talk about this later.

Take the cutting box and fill it 3/4 full of pearlite. Soak with water. Ph-ing your water is always a good precaution- is not so important with garden cuttings or even Salvia d, but is VERY important with another plant that is much sought after (origin INDIA). Perfect Ph is 6.5-7.5

The pearlite is somewhat 'hard' now. Take your scissors or gloved finger and make holes in the pearlite where your cuttings will go. Doing this in a line is better rather than random. This way more cuttings can take root in your box maximizing the pearlite use (its expensive). The pearlite can also be used three times or more if dying leaves, green chunks and dirt are removed either during or after the cuttings are transplanted.

After 15 minutes- up to 3 hours- though success rate of rooting is less after the 'cut' has softened- place your cutting up to the first node where you had stripped the biggest set of leaves. You might have to 'pat' or 'fill' the hole ( you can also make a line from one end of the box to the other thereby not creating individual holes). After all cuttings are placed in box, take a sprayer, a hose is not recommended or have an attachment that disperses the harsh flow- watering will 'cement' the pearlite around the stem. Cover with your clear plastic. Place in dark corner with warm heat for two days, watering regularly. 

When watering your cuttings it is not necessary to fix K-L-N with your water- but if you wanted fast results, you can water once a day with K-L-N. Without the rooting hormone the cutting will root in two weeks. Make sure to water ONCE a day, in the morning is better. With the KLN i hav seen results in 7 days. Though there are only four GOOD roots, planting in peat moss will make slow growth. The cutting will produce roots faster in the cutting box than a cutting with four good roots. Leave your cutting in the box until a good ball comes out. Growth and transplanting results will LOOK much better if the roots are balls rather than singular growths.

You can find any clear plastic bag, rip it open til it can lay flat and place it over your cutting box. This is a simple way to make a 'greenhouse'. If your plastic touches the plant, place sticks (clean- not from your hard) in the pearlite and make a tent of your clear plastic.

If using one cutting box is too much, take a regular one gallon or 45 inch pot (?) and fill it with pearlite. you could place 1-5 cuttings in the pot and continue with the regular instructions. When placing your cuttings in light, place lamp 8-12 inches from plants- light bulb- if using grow lights, a thousand watt light is TOO much. Salvia hates light. It will survive, make roots, but it will be yellow and your PGE bill will be too high. A six light fluorence was used, makes great green leaves, though place two feet-three feet above cuttings. This is unneccessary because salvia d could make cuttings with a light bulb, cheap, easy, no hanging of heavy equipment, etc. Place it under a lamp with a timer. Needs 12 hours. If the plant has to endure more than 12 hours, it will suffer-yellow, get bugs, etc. If the plant gets less, it would root in four weeks.

Use a light bulb, a timer can be expensive but if you turn on the lamp when you get up and turn it off when you go to bed, that would be fine. Remember to Water. Pearlite doesn't hold water. Whatever moisture you give is what you get How much you water

You can choose to remove the plastic but the plants love it. Though if you keep the plastic on for the whole duration of their rooting, one must be careful to cover them as well in the first few days of transplanting, making sure the cover has air holes. No air flow at this stage could rot the roots. In watered dirt, the plants will create a lot of humidity and stems can rot at this stage if your dome or cover doesn't have air holes, but it is important to cover them. If you don't cover with plastic in these first few days to one week of their first week of dirt (peat moss) they will be fine but look kind of peaked. Which any plant will look like this in the first few days of transplanting. I have never used B-1 on Salvia d transplantings, and can't imagine they would be okay- they are highly sensitive to base fertilizer. Sensitive as in die.

If curious and would like to check the status of your root growth it is posible to check. At 7 days, choose one strong cutting and lightly pull at the stem. If it holds, it has root growth. Don't touch again until you are ready to transplant. If you take it out of the pearlite to check how much root growth you have, expect that particular cutting to suffer and take 3 more days than the other cuttings. Now, find your weakest cutting. VERY lightly pull on it. It will probably not be as strong as your pull on the stronger cutting, but it might if you have been religious about your KLN.

When you are ready to transplant, use small pots with peat moss. A plant will send its roots out first and when it touches the edge of the pot will start to grow up.  If you use a one gallon pot, don't expect the plant to grow well. It might stay the same size for a long time.

In a small pot your Salvia d, in perfect conditions and dirt (see other June Blogs), will have fuzzy white roots at the end of 1.5 weeks. It is ready to transplant to a one gallon pot or bigger. Though i like using the one gallon before the squat five gallon, with the same idea previously stated. It will be easier for the plant to grow with smaller restrictions. If you have spindley brown roots, you are giving it too much water.

By this time you have to be vigilant about watering because your salvia d is in a small pot. It can die if not watered because the roots are sensitively providing the cutting with its own nutrients. From here you can fertilize (after the plant has been in the small pot for two weeks- which it should be transplanted then or you can have stunting) with ACID FERTILIZER. You can cause severe damage at this stage if you feed it base fertilizer.

If you accidentally do this you can flush the plant out with water. Over and over and over. Water it the next day and the next, til it looks like a Florida swamp. You might come away with just two burned yellow leaves, two weeks of no growth, but your plant will survive. and in this instance, NO SUN. You don't want your plant to have to endure any other hardship than the wrong fertilizer.

And if you didn't want to take your own cutting, which if you test this with any other garden plant, non tubers, bulbs etc, you will have great success, you can order your Salvia from Theatrum Botanicum. The 'problem' with Salvia d, is that the root is semi-soft. A good cutting is a woody cutting, though not real wood, Mate for this reason is HARD to root for this reason.

If the stem is too new, bright green, flimsy, the stem does not have enough growth to sustain the cutting and create new roots. A good square, half inch stem is perfect. I've done much much smaller but it takes two months. This is good to do when you need your plant to 'surge'. Small snips of decent size, four sets of leaves, counting the new growth, takes two months to root and even longer in dirt to grow up. However, these kind of 'pruning' measures are great when you want to stimulate your plant to grow. If you witness a stagnancy with your plant, for reasons unkown, no real growth or happy big leaves are coming, your plant needs incentive to expand. Small snips let its survival instinct to turn on, thereby making the plant rapidly create more shoots to ensure survival. This must be done when your plant is stuck or it will not do anything. Maybe a good top dressing of peat moss would jump start it, but i've seen fertilizer do nothing if not harm the plant. Sometimes if we start taking from the plant it can get confused as to its function.

I heard from a conservationist that every time she took a plant for research the plant always came easier AFTER she had permission to take it. If you have problems, take a moment, be silent and say, I'm going to take a cutting. Then youre set.

Good luck, easy cuttings. They will survive during anything.

Which Strength Salvia d extract to get

When you buy and extract I believe the differing values are 5x,10x,15x,20x,25x, and maybe a 30x. I would of course start with 5. I have heard an elder man say 15x was too much, 10x was just right. Younger men retain heavy hallucinations at 10x. Good luck.

Legal? Salvia D and its political endangerment

Yes, i've heard of all the good reasons to make guns, marijuana, weapons of mass destruction, eight feet fences in the suburbs illegal, but can we really illegalize a plant? Well, they have with poppies, though you can sell the seed. Cannibis is illegal, except in some counties in this great country. Some guns are illegal. Things they supposed would kill us, or inhibit overal sociall growth are banned for general use. But growth into what, must be asked.

A society that illegalizes those things that are good for us, are they really looking out for our best interests? Absinthe (the powerful drink that can cause severe hallucinations) is outlawed in the US. The plant wormwood is not illegal, but i suppose making absinthe could be. A native american woman i know makes a solution out of wormwood that when drunk can subdue any spider or insect bite. I'm not saying anything new, any thinking, common sense individual can make out we live in a society that is derailing the human race into extinction.

We must discuss then the specifics of why salvia and plants like it are so feared by the institutions that govern our daily lives. Recently, a boy committed suicide after he had induced a Salvia d hallucination and wrote a note that "Salvia had shown him the way." The mother, obviously distraught, has taken things into her own hands going so far to the high courts to save other mother's and children from the same occurence. Now although i pity the mother and could not imagine my own son dying from a seemingly innocous substance as a plant, i don't think any other person's ability to explore and test his own consciousness should be inhibited. This is the first account of anyone dying from Salvia d.

If one person doesn't like cannibis, it doesn't mean i shouldn't be able to try it myself. But this is the most mundane issue though it is an important one. The fact is the boy died. Facts also didnt' come out that the boy was on a lot more than a quick Salvia d hallucination. And i agree that anything that could harm my child should be challenged- candy from China? killed two children in Australia. No, thank you. But i know about their candy. Lead paint in the colors, on trains, on my computer probably. Do i know all there is to know about everything my child will do?

Rollercoasters can cause death, and for damned sake that car he will want when he is sixteen will probably see the curtains of death far more than any salvia d hit. But again, thats not the point. We teach our children about cars- how to drive, what the consequences are if they go too fast, drunk drive, get sleepy on the wheel. And that ladies and gentleman is the greatest point of all, if we are taught how to do something, and do it well, with common sense, safety-precautions taken, then we can do most anything, yes?

I will not suppose i know the young man that was overcome with things we will never know. I will not suppose to know how much he knew about salvia d. But how much did others around him know? If the mother had been open to her son's curiousity about drugs, natural at a young age, would he have been saved from this catastrophe? And neither am i blaming the mother. How was she to know about Salvia d? Is the plant a regular dinner conversation? Is it in the birds and the bees talk? Is it even in the drug talk- "Don't do drugs, pot, ecstacy, opium, and especially heroin. All these things can kill you- crack, cocaine, anything you have to use a needle for- oh and don't do Salvia d either." Probably not.

Salvia d like any other natural drug comes to us in our late teens along wtih mushrooms, acid, and marijuana. Is not the american youth experience loaded with images of teens drinking, stumbling in the creeks high on mushrooms? But this is the liberal experience probably. I know nothing of the suburban or city life- though my roomates in college went to to high school in Chicago on acid and one bottle of 180 proof vodka. Everymorning for home period. And she wasn't alone.

East coast college students came to school with an arsenal of over the counter pills, and not so over the counter pills too, their mother's cancer pills ranging from low opium doses to pills that felt like heroin itself. Drugs, unfortunately, come in all different shapes and sizes. And what we find is that all natural compounds and hallucinatory compounds come from nature- plants, trees, roots, seeds, and shrubs. Fungi can get you high too. Shoot, its almost like the natural environment wants you to get high, or die.

Your much loved garden plant, Foxglove, a gorgeous spike of purple flowers, if eaten is highly toxic. Not to be touched. Your Salvia d, if you were to gorge on your plant could probably send you into a cacaphone of mind disturbing or mind pleasing images. You choose. A not so common garden plant though fast becoming a staple in high end gardens, is your Brugmansia of many colors and its shrub sister plant, Datura, can take your mind completely away if digested. Completely gone. Do we not allow these plants to grow? Can something from nature be ultimately bad for us? Yes. But is it our duty to teach ourselves what roots not to eat, which to use for soap, which to smoke to relieve a stressful day.

But do we know how to make our own soap? I don't. But if we did we wouldnt' have to need a grocery store. Don't get me wrong, i'm not out there hunting with my bow and arrow. I like getting my chicken cut up, breasts and thighs seperate. My grandmother taught me how to kill, skin, and gut a chicken but you don't see me demonstrating this to my children on our dining table either. But perhaps if i were stuck on a farm, i would know how to chase a chicken and make it into soup in one hour flat. I could go out into the woods and recognize a potato leaf. I could survive and have a good time too, with a mushroom book in hand, I could continue to see Krishna himself everynight of my apocalyptic life.

But someone out there makes it so I have to FIND everything i need to know. There was a cold fusion car in the 50's. A man discovered gold molecules in Arizona in his dirt that would disappear at heightened temperatures (two dimensions?) but his land was bombed to high heaven. What do we really know about each other? And what do we really know about our plants?

Find out who is telling you what. What are they saying, and who is saying it. Because it matters. If a high school principal told me i should never try Absinthe, well i'd probably go out right then and there so i could drink a whole bottle (and wish i hadn't the next morning). For how much does that principal really care about me if my books are ten years old? If it was my parent telling me I couldn't take heroin or cocaine, I'd ask what they knew about it. They might go show you the bums and their riddled teeth and arms. But your parent might not tell you then and there that lots of people function on such drugs. Wallstreet? Actresses high on herion, high in publicity pictures.

And then you can talk about the ethical and moral issues about drugs. They might tell you there are appropriate times for everything. A wine glass at a family dinner? A must. A cigarrette during a funeral? hell yes, please. Drinking while in the car? Not the best time, young man or daughter. But that is because we care for you, we want to see you happy and loved.

Can we say the same for our government? The FDA approves drugs that are pushed by Pharmaceutical companies. They have side effects that make your butt run with diarrhea. They make your hearing go away but give you a boner. Which i will  not judge, for when i am old, i will probably hail the great progress of medicine. But so far, medicine has been in the dark ages of our new century. They are archaic.

So give me new, give me learned, give me safe Salvia d.

Fertilizing Salvia divinorum

What basic information and any simple test will tell you is that Salvia divinorum needs acid fertilizer and soil. Acid soil versus basic soil comes down to ph- a balanced ph for a plant is 6-7 ph (hydrogen ionic activity measurement minus a decimal logorythmn). Any measurement higher than 7 is considered to be basic or alkaline and any measurement of 7 or lower is considered acidic.

When i look at a plant to determine whether it needs acid or basic fertilizer i think about their natural environment. What is happening with the canopy, covered or open? How is leaf fall, heavy or light? Full sun or shade? Dry or marshy? A plant from the Amazon will most likely need acid fertilizer due to the constant addition of humus matter to the ground. With continual moisture in the air, almost 100& canopy (no sun to dry the ground), the dirt becomes a microcosm of organic matter deteriorating into highly active plant food. With numerous bugs and animals naturally fertilizing the dirt and with air almost like water, the atmospher itself seems to constantly compound itself, shrinking to the ground, turning itself over and rising again as rain and humidity.

Kratom, which came to me without specific growing instructions (the previous owner had been giving it both acid and basic fertilizer), needed exactly this type of questioning. I don't know the exact rainfall, flora growth of Thailand (its natural home), or type of plant Kratom is, but for it to survive, it was vital to figure out whether it needed basic or acidic fertilizer.

The wrong fertilizer can ruin a plant if not kill it. I've seen ferns die almost immediately after a normal does of basic fertilizer. Salvia d can withstand low doses (low ratio of fertilizer to water) of basic fertilizer for almost a month before it will turn yellow, and turn brown. It is by this time too late to save the plant, unless serious measurements like continual flushing and transplanting the plant (with all dirt washed from the roots) were taken in to effect.

The information i did have about the Kratom (Kratom rifat (strain)) was that in its natural environment it was a decidous plant- meaning in the winter it would lose its leaves and in a sense, hibernate until the high heat of a Thailand spring. However, a winter in Thailand is nothing like any winter in North America or the UK. Living in the Philippines as a child, i understood somewhat the type of environment Thailand could be in winter- 70-75 degrees at night, with full sun in the day. Rainfall is a fall and spring event, with spring rains reaching temperatures in the eighty's.

The Kratom's first winter in California inside a greenhouse was heated to 65 degrees F with snow on the ground outside, lost all its leaves (expected), but began to grow a black fungus starting at the base of the plant. Whether this happend in Thailand in its hibernation state was unknown. Whether it would come back in spring was also unkown. And giving it fertilizer in winter would be unkind to the plant, and so was left to be watered regularly with the others and we watched with hopeful eyes.

Salvia d needs acid fertilizer and has been killed with regular dirt that was packed with 'good nutrients.' Of course the plants were not properly shaded, with only 60% shade cloth but with the right soil, Salvia d could survive the harsh sun (shade) just fine. 

As nursery owners we were beginning to tire of the plastic bottles of fertilizer. We had heard of their damage to existing ecosystems, dirt, rivers, and water tables. Not to mention the adverse effects of plastic bottles in our landfills for thousands of years. So in a move to become more aligned with our peers who were revolutionizing everything from plastic forks to hybrid cars, we decided to go Organic. And perhaps align ourselves with the plant in the process and give it soil and nutrients to enable it to grow and produce leaves with a high content of Salvinorin A. For do we not as humans gain great strength and wisdom when we practice eating and exercise at our best? And so we thought for our Salvia d plants.

This not only meant the type of soil, but the type of fertilizer we would use. This meant not spraying leaves so that we wouldnt' kill frogs and worms around the plants. We had to think of our cleanliness, waste practices and ultimately our whole way of growing plants. Did we buy plastic pots as if it was biodegradable? Yes. In essence, going organic wasn't just about not buying plastic containers of organic fertilizer, it was about going to the source of organic, using dirt and natural nutrients without packaging or non-biodegradable ingredients. (Slow release fertilizer will ultimately change the overall ph of the natural soil in your garden. While it may fertilize your plant now, the plant will not be self-sustainable). The plant will be like a crack addict, needing its weekly dose of fertilizer otherwise it will look yellow and stunted. The plant will rely on the fertilizer to grow whereas a self-sustainable plant will continue to thrive without too much attention once fertilized with the proper dirt and mulch. And with dirt and mulch the plant takes on its natural cycle and growth, usually with great results. A plant that depends on itself creates its own surge, while hands on feeding gives the plant a different psychology altogether. It will not grow until it has been fed. Without it the plant doesn't know what to do.

To go organic acidicly is almost impossible with box or plastic fertilizers. My salvia d's are in pots (making it easier to get an Organic license) and so in the first stages of our organic endeavor i looked for an easy solution, perhaps there was an organic acid fertilizer in a recyclable cardboard box? Yup. And not to mention a much cheaper solution to buying 10 yards of organic dirt (a minimum order of $400).

When i sprinkled the contents of the cardboard box, the shaking seemed unnatual but i was hopeful that the plants would like their new organic food. And as with all dry fertilizers, the effects would not be visible for two weeks at the earliest (compounds must first break down in the soil and then be taken up by the plant which then must translate the new food to growth). And the growth at the end of another breathless week, (had i found the secret, at last?) was small and ineffectual. I saw no real successful growth of the plant, and felt that i would be at the mercy of the sprinkle box every week, very much like a liquid fertilizer- i wasn't making any real headway to the road of organicness.

So we switched the dirt. And they all died. So then we put them back in peat moss, covered them like vampires (see blog Oh! The Sun!), and watched the plants transform from weaklings into giants of their own right. Although the peat moss is not made organically, does a company  make it? and are you shipping to Northern California? my practices are. I mulch with redwood chips. I topdress with more peatmoss. I don't use fertilizers. And i can produce plants for sale with ease. As the plants grow I revitalize the earth by adding more dirt with nutrients. I gain by watching a healthy specimen of Salvia d and the earth is not raped of her natural nutrients. We trade, she gives, i give. And we all win.

Oh, the Kratom came back, the fungus died and it continues to do this every winter so far.

Lady Salvia's Mystique

Some say they have seen her. Others swear they never have. Who and what exactly is she?

In the five years i have grown, cultivated, and sold the phsycial entity that Lady Salvia resides within, the great and amorous plant, Salvia divinorum, I have found a mystique that is hard to put to writing. I have asked the people that met her, in their clouded vision, "What did she say?" I wanted words of wisdom, the key to life, words from a distant god. They could never say exactly what she had said or if she had spoken at all.

when I have taken salvia d i was not aware of a Lady in great robes, flowing and glowing in silver embers. I had to lie down and shout how much i love the world. Perhaps she was there.

Over the years however i have collectd a multitude of stories, whether about Lady Salvia herself, or of the plant itself (are they one and the same?). One man was actually driving in San Francisco with a lady friend in the passenger seat. While he was flying around corners and feeling the greatness of the earth, his friend was shuddering with fright. What she saw she did not say, and the feeling she did not want to discuss, and has never taken Salvia d again. We are warned about these type of encounters. Will she welcome you? or will you be relagated to grasp for consciousness inside a dark hole? And let us not ponder how the man could have been driving on Salvia d.

A man i know of serious pscyhological disabilities, too much psyche drugs taken at a young age, given to him by his father, says he saw her immediately. Considering his lack of honest character i doubted his account but the picture of her robes, her peaceful if not terrifying expression resounded with a true encounter. How could this be? Does she choose at random, or is there a meticulous order in which she admits us into her house of knowledge?

Being quite troubled myself i was weary of meeting the light goddess. Would i see skeletons of my past, would they dance around me with helllish delight? I was surprised to find that when i smoked the cigarrette role, three to be exact, shared with two others, i was not affected in so much a way that i felt i had entered into a land of a different structure. There was a party of at least seven people which is ill advised if you want to meet the grand lady. One must have a dark room, concentration, purpose, intent, and a willingness to open your mind beyond any expectation. Could I do that? I was not sure. I soon found after the third and seemingly non-existent affects of the cigarrette, i found myself crawling to a bed wisely made on the floor. I could not stand, nor did i reason i needed to. And while i had distant recollections of fear, I only felt the waves of love and felt the range of its travel, from one end of the sphere to the other, and back out to space again. It was fleeting, it was indescribable. Perhaps i am romanticizing a simple anesthetic to my legs and forebrain.

Lady Salvia visited a priestess in California regularly and Salvia D grew in her garden with much vigour. The relationship was easy, Lady Salvia came, the priestess smoked, they communed, but perhaps not all visits had been cordial. The priestess, though acknowledging the gift of communion, also acknowledged the darkness, the secrecy, and terror she felt at times in the presence of the silver lady. So, Lady Salvia can be in a mood to frighten, perhaps those are moments she must tell us something, she must change the world just then and there, and do that by taking our pants right off us. For how else could a spirit entity physically move the living? What does the spirit have for tools to communicate with us? Memories, ideas and dreams we have stored, and while they might not exactly mean the memory or dream, can we take something with us, a message from the other world?

There are many that have claimed to have only met her once. And never again. And not because they had tried and she remained in the silvery shadows. No. They had never wanted to meet her again. And these people did not look damaged or ill begotten. Nor did they look like they had stalled in self-growth. They were normal individuals that could not align themselves with Lady Salvia.

And thats the point isn't it. If one were to read any Psychoactive plant book with the emphasis on shamans, their training, plant knowledge etc, one would find that every shaman has a different plant for a guide. Whether animal spirit within a plant, or the plant spirit itself, a shaman must be guided to the powers and message of each plant. This guardian is a protector of the psyche and body of the learning shaman. With the guide, the shaman can ask questions, make mistakes, learn not to eat a root or stem and how, most importantly, to cook and treat the plants for their medicinal properties. And some plants like Tobacco are purely ceremonial. (The first maintained crop of our ancestors, before food!) But how does a man learn to inhale, stew leaves, roots, and stems? In the book Plants of the Gods, a shaman speaks that it is the guide that shows the shaman. But only after years of communing with the particular guide, which the shaman had chosen or plant had chosen him, could the guide learn about OTHER plants. It may take the shaman years to learn all that his guide has to say, or in fact make his spirit align with the plant.

So if one were not endowed to speak with the lady, like myself, who felt the outer reaches of her kindness, perhaps Salvia d is not my plant guide. I have a thing for flowers. And while Salvia d has beautiful purple flowers very similar to its flower sage cousins, i am partial to a  peony or a honeysuckle. My thoughts are simpler than world expansion to universal stars and big bangs. Although these thoughts have puzzled my ancestral soul. For the banalities of life, the comfort is that there is a higher spirit, a bigger calling than our concrete jungle. And Lady Salvia has an opening, quick and easy in which we can expand and answer our broiling questions about meaning, life, world, universe, and SPACE! Does she know it all?

Maybe. But this knowledge is base root. Our goddess is a powerful entity. She is to be reckoned with, or implored upon. But so do our roses and begonias. Our ferns and gladioulas. I have heard them moan too when water is scarce. Or rejoice with the bright sunny morning. Lady Salvia I'm afraid likes a cool misty dark mountain range. She recedes from the sun. Perhaps why it takes her so long to travel to us.

But if, one can imagine, one were to touch and nurture a plant, her plant for years and years with dutiful ears and soul, could she teach us how to speak with her? Could we learn to align our souls with the plant, her window to her soul? I have noticed after years of growing Lady Salvia, she is finicky, angry, quick, and aloof. But on the other hand, she has been kind, whispers of secrets float in the air, when she is in her canopy, her leaves and plant content.

I have not learned everything, nor do i think i have heard everything she has to say. And the only picture i have of her is from an account not my own. I have not learned enough. I feel like she is a puzzle and i am missing a crucial piece, but what is it?