clonemediums Thanks Res. I always appreciate it when you drop knowledge. Clearly this is something that I'll need to monitor very closely. The atmosphere here is extremely dry. I'm thinking that when roots start showing is when I'll start weaning them off the dome. Right now I'm trying to be as consistent as possible with misting the clones and venting the dome. There is a mid-point here that I'll have to find. Thanks for telling me about that 6-week clone. The last ones I did took about 6-8 weeks to be rooted enough to transplant. I dont feel so inept now. Shit, maybe I should just get an airoponic cloner. The rooter plugs are drying out FAST. The rockwool and the jiffy pellets retain and lose their moisture at a much more even rate than the plugs. The wool and peat pellets have a more steady decline in moisture. The plugs just seem to dry out overnight.
Try making 3 different type of humidity domes. One with no holes, 1 with a small drilled hole (like 1/16-1/8"), one with about a 1/4" hole. Use the 1st one for like 3-4 days, then switch to the next, then to the last. Should be acclimated and rooted at the same time. I just shove my clones right in a solo hempy cup with a damp verm/per mix. When you take the domes off each day to swap air, shake the excess water out of the dome if there is still moisture in the cloning medium. I find its a great way to reduce the moisture slowly over time.
asexual Thanks ICC. I appreciate the help. Now that's a technique I can sink my teeth into. Question: Should I let the mediums get dry? For example: should I let my rockwool cubes dry out and just keep misting the cuttings?
dont mist the cuttings. I have never misted any cuttings, if you have to mist. You need higher humidity. Keep the Rockwell cubes moist but not wet. If they are to wet, the stems will rot. If they are dry new roots will not grow. My average is 11days from snip to roots poking out the sides of the cubes.
yin & yang Thanks for the advice Murph. It seems to be details such as these that help the most. Damn, it's such a delicate balance b/t swapping air and having the mediums moist, but not wet. OK..I'll keep tending them...watching and reporting. I'll throw up some pics on my next post. Thanks for now! assit:
It is hard, but once you get it down you don't even have to think about it. I just act like i dont give a shit, and I have dang near a 100% survival rate. I will even go two days with out looking at them. I use a different method then I have ever seen before thou. I pre soak the cubes, and take the cuts like normal. I don't do that cut under water bull crap. I put the clones in one end of a tray. pour in the water until its just below the ridges. and elevate the end that the clones are on. Once a day or so. I rotate them the other way, so they can soak up some water. 5 min is about all I let them soak. Then I tip it back the other way. This allows for 98% humidity, and the cubes are not soaking in solution the whole time. I put another tray under the top tray with Tap water in it. and put a fish tank heater in it. This gives the same effect as a heat mat. But I already had a tank heater so no $ out of my pocket. It works for me*. * your experience may vary. Results may not be typical.
regional climate Nice disclaimer!:thumbsup: I live in an extremely dry climate. I do believe this variable factors into the challenges I have cloning. If this were the desert instead of the arctic, you'd say it's "arid". Shit dries out FAST up here. It's not unusual here for people to have humidifiers in their offices. In my grow closet, there is almost never any humidity registering on the hygrometer. Plants need to be watered more often. The extremely dry indoor climate contributes to the rooting mediums drying out so fast. I have a pretty small window in which to achieve and maintain that air-to-moisture balance. The rooting mediums and the clones themselves aren't able to lose moisture at a slow, steady rate. Instead they dry out in less than 24hrs if the vents are left open. It's tough to manage that.
the air up here is dry as can be, at these cold temps. The relative humidity outside is about 20%. You have to have a humidifier going as soon as it hits freezing, or you will have nose bleeds every damn day.
Bump-date What's up y'all? OK, so I've got the cuttings stablized in terms of moisture/air ratio and moisture management under the dome. The cuttings can now spend hours without the dome and they do just fine. My issue is that, while the cuttings are very green and upright and healthy looking, they are not sprouting roots. They aren't dying or wilted, but they aren't sprouting roots either. How is that even possible? WTF? :icon_scratch:
Hey scottyg420, The reason they are probably taking so long because the were wet then drying out then wet again. Now that you keep enough water in the tray so the stay wet all the time will get things going. Just make sure the water you are using to add to the tray is PH adjusted.
cuttings Mr. GJ & Toker2 Thanks for stopping by and THANK YOU for the help. I'll get this right eventually. :icon_scratch:
clone from top? Hey everyone, I just noticed that after I pinched the top of one of mine, ( to allow bottom growth to explode ) that after few days the top had split into two separate stems, it doubled...:thumbs-up::thumbs-up:. So I was looking at it and had an idea... What if I clone it from that point. I would have a clone with a " Y " formation in it. Would this be a good place to take a clone from? Basically I'm topping my plant but it's to tall and lanky anyways...heard that it is not a good place to take clones from...is it ok from this point, or is it better to take one from the bottom?
It's a good place to take a clone from if you want a dual stem? It won't affect the health of the clone if that's what you mean.
yah i do want a double stem think it would be a good start for Lst training, Mom is long and lanky and i have been training her to stay shorter. pinched top, major branching. I think it might be a Sativa/ cross? But I'm not sure...def looks different than the other one!
I can say with absolute sincerity that I had near perfect cloning rates using techniques I gave in this thread. I think I lost a clone once due to mishandling but outside of that 100% success. That is quite a bit better than 50%.
I know my success ratio has always been way higher. Agreed.I have used the methods i have detailed aswell as simpler ones like just cutting a branch and planting it in water then planting in soil or simply planting in soil.No razzmatazz or gimmicks just TLC and a 'rub of the green' is all thats required to promote root growth in a clone. The simplest way to clone many plants is to cut off a piece of a plant and toss it in a glass of water. Stick the glass in the window, wait a few days and presto roots will sprout from the bottom of the cutting. At this point your cutting is now a clone of the plant it was cut from. For plants cloning and regeneration are a process that is completely natural. It happens to them regularly during the simple rigors of existence. Now its all down to personal preference but i would never clone from the same mother for more than a couple of years but others have and do successfully.I also would never take a cutting from a cutting from a cutting,etcbut again,this is done regularly and successfully by others.Its all down to YOUR personal preference:thumbsup:
How can you say "you'd never take a cutting from a cutting"? How do you think all the clone only strains are surviving? And you say you wouldn't keep cutting from a mother more than a couple of years. How would you keep it going if you really liked it? Obviously it would be from a cutting that came from a cutting.
Im not advising people NOT to do that,just saying if i can help it i wont do it.... Yeah i didnt quite explain my school of thought behind that did i,lol. What i mean is,i will always take a cutting from a pheno i like rather than keeping a mother in stasis and constantly cutting from it.Its the old xerox copy of a copy of a copy scenario that im referring to.After time your gonna lose some of the traits that inspired you to clone it in the 1st place. Well iv never actually had a mother growing for several years constantly cutting from it but i have heard valued members refer in the past to how a copy of a copy of a copy can degenerate a bit.I WASNT by any means advising people NOT to take a cutting from a cutting OR keep a mother for several years.All i mean is my personal preferences would be to only ever take cuttings from a nice pheno.If iv got a grow of 6-8 plants then a few cuttings from each plant will keep me going for a while and i can pass the strains on,etc.Taking a cutting,growing then cutting it again then growing that one and then cutting that too,a copy of a copy of a copy,its not MY personal preferred choice but if i had to of course i would,just not by choice. .For my purposes id never need that many clones so i can take all he cuttings i need from one plant. In a nutshell i meant i wouldnt take a cutting,grow that clone then take a cutting from it and grow that then take a cutting from that and so on.Id keep a mother going for a year or two maximum and even then only if it was a rare strain like a landrace not easily aquired. Each to their own as i always say when it comes to growing. Its just the same as eating and cooking,theres certain things i wouldnt cook that you would and vice versa.Theres no definitive rulebook.Just personal preference for my needs says i dont need to keep a mother for several years and clone the hell out of it.Not saying thats wrong or you shouldnt,just that i wouldnt.Mainly because i wouldnt need to unless like you mention,its a rare strain.If i had a nice Transkei landrace pheno growing then yeah i would cut and clone and keep it going for a while but having a seperate vegging room purely for a mother plant is a luxury i cant afford. Jeez i cant even grow in my home,im looking to do my first outdoor attempt this year but i dont hold much hope for it due to our shitty climate and the fact iv never went down this outdoor route before.Im hoping to pick the brains of a few GKers and will be posting lotsa pictures cos i think im gonna need a bit of help if i do this.Iv only ever really done indoor closet grows.Iv been around friends who do amazing hydro/dwc set ups but its just summit i never got round to trying out.Peace:jj:
Next time I clone in a few weeks I'll post it with rockwool and powder....if someone else does it a different way post it also...that way new comers can see the different options and what to expect when cloning as there are many many different ways to do it. I can say I see what LVS is saying though, I usually do clone my plants right before flower, then clone those clones before I throw them into flower...etc etc Some keep moms though...to each their own. Each of us grow a different way either because it suites our needs, or we are forced to grow that way because of circumstances...let people decide what fits their needs best
Cloning is not the same thing as xeroxing a copy of a copy, making a copy of a copy of a file, or the like. Your aren't copying anything. The clone is genetically exact to the host. A DNA lineage may age with time, but you aren't losing genetic traits because you aren't copying, you are cloning.
