Yo. So another question. This time it's about clones. For months I have been watching videos, reading books, and trawling forums like a phedophile at the beach, and still, I am having troubles cloning my plants. I have a plant box, growth hormone and all the blah blah blah, yet my clones are still not taking. I am however planting into a seed cloning, "soil" I want to transplant later to clay balls. What should I use to clone, rock wool? Do I need to give the rooting clones light? And so fourth. None of thaws questions are ever answered, some say yes light some say no, either way how do I know they have taken? And they are ready for transplant!!! masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
Are you scoring the bottom of the stems? Scoring them will let you cover more surface area with your cloning solution, and encourage a stronger rooting response. I've always had great success with STG Hail. Easy to deal with, pH neutral, and cheap as hell. EDIT: Hit them with something soft at the beginning, like some CFL's or floros. You want to try to avoid hitting them with HID's; they are stressed enough as it is.
Yep. Defiantly scoring, scratching all the tricks, how do I know they have rooted. Should I just check the bottom of the tray and yeah I have had them under an light so I might move them out and wait a week or so. Maybe bigger cuttings. Geez I don't know. But I'm desperate. I have no seeds left : (. masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
Well, there's a rather large problem I see right off the bat... You aren't cutting any of your leaves. All that extra weight and plant matter is going to make it really hard for them to get a healthy start. Do you only take cuttings from the tops of the stems?
Sometimes I'm cutting whole stems and then cutting in between to nodes, (as instructed) by many a tutorial, damn Internet, so in short all that veg matter has to go? Can I do it now? Or wil I stress the plant to much. These clones only went in today. masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
A lot of it needs to be trimmed, yes. I'm fairly sure that is your problem right there. Cut them now, they will be ok.
I'm curious as to how much light they are under and what lighting cycle(24/0-20/4-18/6 etc...). I've found that keeping several clones under just a couple of CFLs or fluorescents under a 24/0 cycle gets pretty good results. And are you using an sort of humidity dome? This could also benefit them in the pre-rooted stage of life so that they cannot transpire so much of their moisture into the air and dry out. As far as cloning medium I like thoroughly rinsed (with ph'd water) coco coir in 16 oz. solo cups with several small drainage holes in the bottom. I've found a old soldering iron works great for making the holes but recommend doing it outside as it tends to smell a little. I don't mean to change your entire approach to cloning but just wanted to get the basic approach that I take out there as I tend to get really good results. I always take 1.5 to 2 clones for every plant that I intend to grow out and I've always ended up having to kill healthy clones because I've had no room for them. AskEd's Coco guide was basically my introduction to the basics of coco but also covers cloning. Maybe you've seen it but just in case you haven't and you're even remotely interested... http://forum.grasscity.com/coco-coir/620656-askeds-coco-guide.html#post7736458 I don't mean to use your thread to post a tutorial but one more thing. When taking cuttings I like to keep a cup of water(ph'd for good measure) right next to the mother. When I take a cutting I immediately drop the stem into the water to wait while I take the remainder of the cuttings. I do this because I've read in various discussions that more than limited exposure of the cut stem to air could cause an air embolism and result in the pretty much inevitable death of the clone.
Ahhh yes back to the light lol they are in a done ad they are under an 18/6 light cycle. I think it might be the soil approach. I'm so dead set I. This approach as the clones I get from this plant will be going into a dwc and I don't want to spend a lot of time changing pots or transplanting into different mediums masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
Err...thats not really quite what I meant when I said 'cut'. With what you've told me about your research, I'm really surprised you've never come across this. The idea is to basically cut the larger leaves in half, perpendicular to their stems. They couldn't care less about photosynthesis after you plant them; they are focused on root growth. Cutting the leaves decreases the amount of plant matter, which in turn decreases the amount of water lost through transpiration. A plant with no root system has no way to absorb water, so if they lose enough it will be fatal. Cutting like this also makes the clone expend more energy into rerooting as a physiological response to being damaged like that.
Haha lame, rah I always knew that I could cut the leaves and have seen a lot of people doing it but I always just imagined it was the same as "trimming" the bigger leaves off. I have researched a lot believe it or not. But videos and book will only show you so much, most of the things I have done are a lot of monkey see monkey do!!!! masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
I had problems for years till i figured it out. Rock wool small cubes, roottech gel, domed pan. Cut clones, at an angle. soak in gel 10-20 secs. Shove into cubes. Make sure you get the stem in far enough to keep the clone from spinning around. Itll sheer off the theroots. Mist once or twice...No more. If you see condensation in the dome ...leave it alone. Less is best. Overmisting rots the stalk. gH maxi bloom powder 100% of the time veg and flower and clones all full strength Transplant to larger rrock wool...then to hempy buckets. t5s work fine.
UPDATE: ok over the last couple of days I have been bitching a out my clones not taking. So here is what has happened with a batch off small clones. I had them in the cloning tray for about 9 days. They looked and felt strong so today I transplanted the two that took into bigger pots that I could take outside. Any steps or tricks to keep them alive would be appreciated. I'm losing my freaking mind. Should I maybe keep them domed for a few more days?? masturbation is overrated. Get a fleshlight!!!!
I've had luck with vermiculite, may want to give that a try. I find that you can keep the cutting alive as long as the medium is moist ... Then when you see new growth you can transplant into your soil mix
Rock wool cubes 1.5x1.5 inches. Are great. I use root tech gel. After you see roots coming out of the bottom of the cube transplant to soil, larger rock wool, coco and perelite 50/50'is great.
Patience is key my friend. It can take a couple weeks or more to get roots and in the cold weather they can be more stubborn. The key for me though is, after about a week in the dome I start removing the lid. The first day just for a few minutes at a time. The next day leave it off for a couple hours. The third day leave it off overnight. After one or two nights without the dome they almost always root for me. Taking away the dome makes them shoot out roots looking for moisture that the dome was providing.
