So I've got rooted clones planted, and a couple of them are developing, but they're doing so VERY slowly. The lighting in their little veg room isn't very good, but I didn't think clones needed much to get going. I figure they need more light to start stacking on some weight, but these little girls are moving along at a snails pace so far. I've also been VERY careful with nutes, and haven't been feeding them much, but from what I understand this would have more of an effect on the health of the plant rather than the rate of growth. The temperature in the closet seems more than adequate for growth imo, too. Any little pointers people could offer me on caring for freshly planted clones would be great. Once they've developed roots through the rockwool and are planted, can I start treating them like a 3 week old seedlings in terms of feeding? Or keep it light like week #1?
What's your medium? Are they in soil or hempy, hydro? If they have some good roots developed, you should start feeding them at 1/2 strength nutes. Adequate lighting is important but if they are just not showing new growth they are probably hungry. This is all assuming that your pH is within proper range.
Givem time. I know my clones take a week or so before I see new growth, and then they begin to take off.
Ras - Hempy buckets in 100% perlite. pH is still a little bit of a pain for me. I find it drifts very quickly. I adjust my pH the night before and allow it to sit until the following day, at which point I readjust (usually have to add some more pH down) to 5.8 and immediately go ahead and water my plants. For feeding, I try to mix the nutes the night before, or at least in the morning, and feed them in the afternoon after the buffers have done their thing. Sometimes at this point they need some slight pH adjustment, but not usually. I'll admit I have been a little lazy with my garden logs lately, due to being pretty busy otherwise, which has led to some erratic feeding. I do check them every day though and in doing so I've been learning a lot about reading my plants and what they need rather than sticking to a tight schedule. I do need to pick up on the logs though, so I can remember exactly when I've done what!
pH is very important for Hempy. When I was doing hempy I would use R/O water and mix my nutes, that always dropped my pH really low. I added pH up until I got to about 5.7-5.8 and would only let them sit for a short period like 15 minutes and retest the pH. If it was in range of what i wanted I would use it immediately. You want to avoid using both pH up and pH down in the same bucket of nutes. Personally I almost never use any pH down. I use a ton of pH up though. What strength nutes are you feeding? The hempy system requires nutes to be added at regular intervals since the medium will retain only a very small amount of nutes between waterings. I usually start feeding at 1/2 strength for the first couple feedings with a plain watering in between those first 2 feedings. Then I bump it to 3/4 strength as soon as i see a good bit of new growth. I give nutes evry 3'rd watering after that at full strength. As long as they have good roots they should respond well to a 1/2 strength nute solution. Until the roots reach the reservoir you will need to water a little more often to keep the roots moist and fed. Let me know if you have more questions. Good Luck Spink! You'll get it down.:thumbs-up:
To be honest this is the first time I've heard of "hardening off" my clones. I would have been under the assumption that it wasn't necessary when cloning in rockwool cubes anyway, though, would that be correct?
I have used General Hydroponics pH up and down. Right now I'm using Techna Flora pH up, I want to try Earth Juice pH adjusters. I think they are dry crystals and are supposed to be pretty potent and I believe that they are also organic. Right now the only thing that is not organice in my regimen are the pH adjusters.
Plenty of fresh air I start at 10 to 25 minutes 3 to 4 times a day of top off and mist before I put the top back on, I have close too 100% root ratio, just pick out the ones that are straglers and throw them out usually sometimes I give em a chance. How long it takes for them to show roots depends on cloning method, and strain IMO.
I use superthrive. It will get the root system a great jumpstart. Also make sure your water is 6.0 PH, no higher or lower.
