Recently I had a strain turn into junk. My process has been, 2 weeks or so before I flip to flower, I take a few cuts from the bottom and use rooting powder and keep them moist in promix, with very good success. This cycle has been good, but recently the strain no longer produces worthy results. What might have happened, and or how do you keep your genetics worthy? Peace
Also, I am thinking about trying to get some seeds from the strain to see if I can unlock the previous goodness I once had, any ideas on this?
Genetics don't change, period. It simply must be something that you're doing differently or an environmental factor. Good luck. J
I think I took my cuts when it was stressed. Based on the genetics don't change, then it wouldn't matter where I took the cut from. It has been explained to me that if I want the closest genetic match, I should take my cuts from the top. And I can reason with this thoughts, based on as the plant is growing the new growth would be most effected by what ever change is occurring, and thus being that things adapt, the newest growth is the most likely to have changed. I would love to hear more info about this
The only thing that's going to change genetics is mutation. If your plant is alive, odds are it hasn't undergone any significant mutation. Also, adaptation doesn't work like that nor does it work that fast. You'll be long dead of old age before any of your plants "adapt" to anything. There's not going to be any observable genetic drift in any of the plants in your lifetime either. DNA doesn't "degrade" either. DNA transcription doesn't really work like that. The only benefit of where to cut your plant would be the younger stems as the cells are younger and can handle more stress, respectively. All of the cells have the same identical genetic makeup. If genetic drift occurred half as rapidly as everyone seems to think in these forums, we'd all be dead because life would have a horrible success rate at perpetuating. Fortunately, it's quite successful.
http://forum.grasscity.com/outdoor-grow-journals/1245053-american-dream-white-picket-fences-marijuana-so-cal-sun.html/page-21 Post 418 has a fair pictorial of my cloning method.. My 4th set of 4 base strains I've been running since Aug.. I take the lowest branch or 2 right before I flip to flower.. Section into roughly 2 inch lengths each with a fan leaf trimmed down to about thumbnail size.. This set looks like I'll hit 48 of 50 cuttings.. Haven't seen any loss of vigor on my base strains.. I just added a few more store clones and I've sprouted 4 seeds I'm cloning as well.. I tend to side with jerry on this.. A clone is not just identical to the parent it IS the same plant.. Just my 2 cent take on things..
the health of the mom is paramount i've found. weak, underfed, .....any kind of stress is bad news for strike rates IME
the bottom branches have the most rooting hormones in them..I have a bubble cloner and my technique is real simple..all i do is take the ones long enough to cut the bottom 2 leaves off so they're long enough to go in the foam collars then cut a 45 degree angle with a scalpel and scrape a couple light layers off the outside bout an inch from the bottom of it and thats it...no clone solution, cutting leaves, misting, covering or anything...just low light and have roots around 10 days