Clones dying shortly after being put in soil

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by Tommatt, Sep 24, 2011.

  1. So Ive had a pretty low success rate cloning with soil. Even my tomatoes and such. They get into the soil, get shocked, and most I'd them never recover. Any tips? They've been rooted and growing good in the rockwool. Should I clone and put it directly on soil? I've heard this has a low success rate. Pull the plant and roots out of the rockwool first? I'm worried I'd just end up ripping the plant apart.

    Any tips, tricks, or ideas?
     
  2. Before I started using rapid rooters I used rock wool plugs with good success. I dipped the cutting's stem in rooting gel then placed it in the rock wool plug then planted it all in organic soil, under a dome. That worked darn near 100% of the time......MIW

    Are you using a clone machine?
     
  3. Just running a heating pad and a dome. Had close to 100% success when I was running hydro. The two clones I got from the dispensary were in rockwool and took to the soil pretty good. This clone looked beautiful (way better than the two I got) before going in the soil.
     
  4. The rock wool should not make any difference. I suspect your soil mix is at fault or it's too wet/dry......shredder
     
  5. #5 Chunk, Sep 25, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 25, 2011
    If it were me, I would take your rooted cutting and transplant into a solo cup with 1 part EWC/4 parts Canadian Sphagnum Peat and water it in with a liquid kelp/aloe vera/fulvic acid solution. Then just water it only and let the microorganisms in the EWC inoculate the plant and get it healthy.

    I would also add some endo myco to the mix to provide a further edge to the rooting process.

    chunk
     

  6. perfect.

    jerry.
     
  7. It's the process that I use to root the cuttings in the first place - using CD's mix from the very start.

    LD
     
  8. Did you take the plastic off the rockwool?:eek::eek:

    Just kidding, but it has actually happened.:D

    Did you water in well when you transplanted?

    I found this out years ago. If the medium you're transplanting into isn't as wet if not wetter than the RW cube, it will suck the moisture right out of the cube with bad results for the cutting.

    Having it wetter is actually better. The RW will absorb moisture from the mix, achieve a balance and maintain that balance as the whole is allowed to dry out.

    Wet
     
  9. A large part of a clone's success rate is going to be determined by its vitality/stress level etc. Perhaps you are cutting underlit (usually pale) meristems or from a plant that is already stressed?
    You could always try air-layering too, if executed properly it should be in the high 90% range because of the low stress level.
    -MPP
     
  10. Can you post your entire process? There's so many things that can go wrong when taking and rooting cuttings that it would be hard to narrow down otherwise?

    I've tried everything from building my own version of an EZ Cloner to soil, peat, perlite, etc...

    My favorite method now is to use Oasis cubes (peat pellets work as well, but stay a little bit too wet IMO) sitting in calcined DE (cheap from Napa Autoparts). I find that the DE helps to regulate the moisture levels.

    One mistake I made was too much light. They really don't need much until they're rooted, just some CFL light.

    Also how you take the cuttings (as mentioned above) can make a huge difference. If you have a large plant, you can take more cuttings and then just keep the best looking of the ones that do root.
     
  11. Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm thinking it might have been watering. Under or over, I dont know :(. My GF was actually taking care if
    Them as I'm out of town. At first I thought maybe it was over. As she was watering them twice a day. I thought it might be too much as the rockwool absorbs a lot of water, or at least I though. She thought the soil and such would strip the water from it, and from reading here, that is the case. So maybe it still wasn't getting enough.

    Guess only trial and error will let me figure out a process.

    I would think about going DWC foe the first week or so after the clone roots, but am guessing I'd still go though the same stress/problems when switching to soil.

    The plants I took them from are still healthy, and have some time
    Before flower, so I have a few more shots at it.
     
  12. I'm pretty positive it was overwatering. That sounds like way too much to me! I usually water once every 2-4 days depending on how fast it dries out.
     
  13. Yeah, 2x/day is entirely too much.

    Yes, a medium that is drier than the RW cube, AT THE TIME OF TRANSPLANT can certainly suck the water out of it. That's why I water heavy AT TRANSPLANT.

    But then, as the soil and RW dry out together, a balance is reached and maintained. After that initial heavy wetting at transplant it might be 5 days before I need to water again. Then, it's just regular watering, wet/dry cycle.

    Your GF is loving them to death.

    Wet
     
  14. i have always put cuttings in water with a bit of plant food/root stimulator until the roots seem adequate for planting in soil. tomatoes, willow trees, mj or what ever. of course that is antiquated technology, like hundreds of years old. j
     

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