Buying
The most expensive part of growing salvia divinorum on a organic / semi-organic basis is actually buying a cutting or whole plant. I managed to get my plant for £8 with £4 Postage And Packaging and that was the biggest expense. After this follows compost and a suitable size pot.
To start with in this article i am going to talk about growing your first salvia divinorum plant. The best place to obtain these is the Internet, These can some times be very expensive, but very cheap also, there will be no difference in the quality its just some sites want to make allot of profit, so before you make your purchase google around for about a week and click on every website you can and bookmark the cheapest ones. EBay is the place to be sometimes, this is where i got my plant already grown, but you can also find cuttings on there for as cheap as £5 .
Growing A Cutting
OK so we are assuming your cutting has arrived, open it up EXTREMELY carefully and put it in pot about 20cm wide, with loam based compost(loam based compost can be obtained at 'Focus', your local Garden Center or any other such store). The pot should have holes at the bottom to allow drainage, and if you can put about 3 inches of broken crockery and gravel at the bottom for extra drainage. How deep to put your cutting in should be easy to figure out as it all depends how long the roots are, what ever you do don't put the compost higher up then it needs to go, in other words don't bury part of the stem.
Now that it is in the pot, give it a good watering until the water starts coming out the holes in the bottom of the pot, then stop. Your cutting has just been on a long journey and it will need water. From here i advise you to put the plant in a humid environment, i suggest a bathroom with a windows facing West. Salvia LOVES as much indirect sun light as it can get, but not to much direct sunlight. If you don't have a bathroom with a window facing West, put in anywhere in the house that gets the majority of the days sun light, but put it in a place where it wont get direct sun light for more then a couple hours.
Leave it a few weeks and your cutting will start turning into a full blown plant. Keep an eye on the soil / compost and make sure it doesn't go dry. Try in the summer to water the plant once a week, but don't over water it otherwise you will get root rot, and in the winter, water in once every two weeks.
Growing A Plant
Growing an already growing plant is almost the same as a cutting, but a little more care should be taken into consideration. Salvia Divinorum can be VERY flexible with the conditions its being grown in but a quick change can really shake the plant up a bit. What has to be taken into consideration is the fact its a plant that is already growing, so who ever owned it before you had it growing in certain conditions, possibly different soil etc.., For this reason get as much information as you can from the previous owner, even how often he watered it, how much light its used to etc.., Aim to build up the best profile of your soon to be plant as you can.
When buying a plant make sure you buy it in your country, and if you can, a place as close to home as you can, my plant was sent in great packaging, but it spent 3 days in the mail service system wrapped up, I can tell you the plant did not enjoy this attal. It was suffocated of fresh air for 3 days, light, and humidity. It did manage to survive, as will yours if it is sent first class from the country you live in.
As for growing the plant, it will likely arrive in a small pot, just turn it upside down, and dig a whole in your bot, and put in the plant, in its old soil in the hole. Cover over in YOUR compost and immediately put it in the conditions the seller had it growing in., The plant can be adapted to live in the conditions you want it to, but over a course of a few weeks, so let it recover FULLY and then start adapting it to conditions that suit you.
The growth of the plant at first will be slow, remember it has been confined to a small pot and suffocated of its proper conditions for a few days so it wants to recover and then start growing. If you have your plant in the right conditions you will start to see new real growth after about two weeks.
Look out for the leaves and edges of the plant turning brown, this means it is NOT in the right conditions, it is scary at first and almost feels like a baby crying, there are many things it could want and need, but humidity is going to be 99% the reason for the Browning. The stem will go back green but the leaves possibly not. If they don't change back to green after two weeks, cut them off at the stem. NEVER cut the stem off unless it truly is a goner for sure.
Taking Care Of Salvia Divinorum
As discussed above, if the leaves or stem turn brown at the edges, immediately put it in a humid environment, I advise a bathroom where people take showers often, and is exposed to the majority of the days sun. If this is not possible, create a humidity tent, put it in another room that gets allot of sun light and watch the fast development.
Sometimes the leaves might turn a yellowish color. This is a simple and quick fix, all it means is that the leaf is not gaining enough sunlight. This could be because other leaves on the plant are shading the leaf from the sun. Just try and adjust the plant so the leaf gets sunlight, Or pick the leaf that is shading the other leaf off the plant and use it for extracting or in a quid.
Salvia Divinorum will also need water, specially if it is in great growing conditions it will grow fast and thus need water. Over watering on the other hand is going to kill your plant. so i advise in the summer months, watering your plant once a week. In the winter months, water it once every two weeks, but of course if your plant says otherwise then water it more then once every two or one weeks. You can tell the plant needs water as it wilt.