gold in roots?

[Lowlight]

Ok i have a question some of you more botany minded people may be able to answer.

I have been growing Salvia for a while now and in the winter it is not unusual to lose a few plants through them dying back. This happen to one of my plants. But heres the strange thing...while emptying out the pot this afternoon i noticed a flake of gold material in the soil near the base of the stem just below ground level. I brushed off more soil and bizarrely found literally scores of golden metallic flakes all around the roots of the plant (which was dead/late stage dying. I have checked google but have found no similar stories. Anyone know why my dying plants are seeding golden metallic flakes in their roots?!

[gandydancer]

This would be easy to check out. The reason that I know about this is that I was raised in Colorado and we "panned for gold" all the time *grimace* believe it or not I have a lot of expertise about this... This is what you can do:

Take a small metal pie plate and wash it very well to remove any trace of grease/oil. Wash the gold/roots in the pan and add a small amt. of sand and "pan" it (shake it from side to side to let the heaviest stuff settle to the bottom--pm me if you want more info). Another method to see if it is gold is to mix it with a little mercury, which you could actually find if you can get your hands on an old mercury thermometer. Mercury will pick up the flakes if they are gold. pm me if you want. (this has got to be about the weirdest post I've ever read!) :D

[okster]

You are looking at an ingredient from the soil mixture. Probably vermiculite or mica, commonly used in potting soil. I got fooled with that stuff stuck to the bottom of some mushrooms once. Even then I should have known better. Wow- these are really magic mushrooms! They have like golden crystals in them!

[Lowlight]

Thanks for the reply people. It may well be vermiculite as i think that was added to the original compost the plants were grown in. How good would it be if it were gold though!

Peace

[gandydancer]

I am sure okster is right. But if you want to be certain just use my "panning" method. Gold would go to the bottom as it is heavier and mica would rise to the top as it is lighter.

Speaking of gold, I once saw it used for healing and it was so effective I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. We had a patient with long-standing ankle ulcers as is pretty common with diabetics. The doc had read the treatment somewhere and thought she'd try it. She brought in a few sheets of gold leaf, which can be purchased in a craft store. She carefully covered the ulcer with it, it was about the size of an orange cut in half and 1/4 inch and more deep. Then she wrapped it up and left instructions that we were to leave it alone. After 2 weeks she unwrapped it and it was almost healed.

[nanouk]

Vermiculite: "Coarse aggregate material made from expanded mineral mica having a high cation exchange capacity and high water-holding capacity and used as a rooting medium and a soil additive."

I would have loved to watch you, panning the peat! *lol*

It is the same as my old expression "I want a spliff so much right now, i could smoke the peat it grew in!"

Could a small grow light like the one's for house plants help your plants overwinter? and of course, no overwatering or feeding... ;)