Hey guys, I've only got one SCROG grow under my belt, it went well but I have slightly bigger plans now, a perpetual SCROG grow. One plant in veg and one in flower at any given time. My plan is to veg a plant under a screen and right before sending her to flower, take 2-3 clones (if that many is needed? I just want to make sure I actually get a viable clone), send those clones into veg, choose the best one and veg it under a screen, take clones again/send to flower, rinse and repeat. I made a nice little mister for clones that can take 3 clippings at a time, based on the DIY misting cloner in that 5 gallon bucket (just a smaller version). I've got a couple concerns: 1) Taking clones right before flower.. is this a bad idea? Should I do it 2 weeks before flower, giving the plant time to recuperate before going into flower? I imagine I should grow the plant out slightly larger than I plan to flower to make up for the clippings taken. 2) I'm hoping the timing works out where the flowering plant is done before needing to send the veg plant into flower. I've only got a veg and flower chamber. My fear is that I will need to keep the vegging plant in longer than I want to, but I suppose I can always trim it back if needed. 3) The number of clones taken.. Not sure if I should do 3, maybe 2, but I've never taken clones before so I definitely want to make sure it's done right, or else I will have to start over from seed again.. I don't have room for a mother plant unfortunately.. I imagine after a while I can confidently take a single clone and send it to veg. Also, the box is pretty small so I don't want to overwhelm the smallish plant with taking 3 clones at a time (plants are in 5 gallon smart pots) 4) Genetic mutations.. I'm still trying to find info on this but I've been reading a lot of conflicting things on it... Hopefully taking multiple clones and vegging them out a bit, and choosing the best one will help prevent this from happening. I do have multiple seeds so in the worst case scenario I can start the process over if the plants start getting deformed or changed somehow. I can always get more seeds so that might not be the biggest issue.. I would imagine I could get many generations of clones before this starts happening, but I've never done it before so I am not sure. It will be straight Northern Lights plants, at least for now (same as I grew last time.. scrogged really well)... If I had the room I would build a small box for a mother plant, but maybe one day I can do this to make things easier on myself. In the meantime, this is what I've got to work with. Do you guys see any issues with this plan? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Will it work? Yes, many say you will see some degradation of genetics, others also say as long as you take the clone when the plant is healthy you won't lose anything. My friend bought some pot of gold from Flying Dutchman in 2003, never kept a mother, just took clones off each batch before flower, it only started showing signs of yield loss last year. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I basically did the same thing you are speaking of. I took my clones 1 week into flower. By the time my scrog was ready for harvest the clones are ready for the screen. I think the scrog will do better with the clones cause i kinda trained them for the screen before hand so i got them nice and bushy. Im thinking more tops. I have not put my clones under the screen yet but my plan is to harvest and then start a new screen. Thus way it will finish up in time for my new meds to be ready. Hopefully all goes well
Nice.. ok then I will not worry about that for the time being and just keep comparing yields, when it gets too low I can start a new plant/strain to clone. That should at least keep me going for a while!
You take the clones 1 week INTO flower, interesting - is there a reason behind that? Would the clone not need a little more time to get back into the new veg light schedule? Or is 1 week not enough time for the clones to really notice?
Kinda just how it worked out. Yes i will take in veg mode prob from now on cause they do have to revert back. I have read people taking them long into flower and being successfull on reveging them. To me its too much stress on the plant. Here are my clones that will go under the screen this time opposed to starting from seed under the screen. I believe i will save my self at least a month on my cycle with this method. We will see.
Awesome, lookin good! Yeah I've also read people who basically put their whole plant into flower to sex it, then put it back into veg.. Not sure how much time would be lost doing something like this, though. I actually have feminized seeds, and I kind of regret getting those, was reading some iffy things on using fem seeds.. I think next time I will get regular seeds and just find a good female and use that as my starter plant to clone. Plus if I really wanted to I could always pop a male in there on one cycle to get me a bunch of seeds for the future. I got these seeds about a year ago, and I'm hoping they actually sprout (they were stored dry and in the dark so I have faith), but next time I am definitely going to grab non-fem seeds. I think there will probably be a higher chance of some funky shit going on with my clones using these fem seeds but I will play it by ear and see how it goes. My last plant using these seeds did very well, though! Hopefully it goes smoothly. Actually, does anybody know if, say I get a hermie plant from a fem seed.. will those seeds also be screwed up or will they be "normal" Northern Lights seeds? If that is the case I don't even think I would be mad.. free seeds! I do wish I knew then what I know now, though! I wouldn't have gotten fem..
works great honestly, my last 2 seeds I planted I started In 12/12, both showed sex within 3 weeks of sprouting. Got 1 male and 1 female. Male was given to my cat and female got 24 hours of light then back to 18/6 Here is a pic of original seedling at time of sexing and a clone from her that is vegging. The clone is the bigger plant. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Baked that is a great idea. I always used fem seeds but i have some of the freebies i may try that with
I put my plants into flower then reverted back for sex and I regret it. They don't want to bounce back and are stressed out. Wish I took clones and set up a mini temp room for them. I have removed my netting before to spray plants and it works ok so if you need to switch screens/rooms that works ok. You can also use stakes to put at each corner to make individual scrogs by attaching the net to each stake. Then you can put them in there like a puzzle since they're square. I tried transplanting into a 100 gallon bed with other plants and I felt that the shock of transplant combined with simultaneous switch to bloom. They just didn't stretch like they did when given the opportunity to get over transplant shock before bloom. Now I veg and bloom in the same room and the perpetual part is multiple rooms ready at different times. Now that I do that, I'm having much better results and a thick full scrog.