What in your honest opinions is the best method for feeding your mothers prior to taking a batch of cuttings.. I am really having a hard time with achieving successful results with cloning. I know there are tons of ways and methods. I am currently using pro-mix bx with fertilome root stimator and rootech gel, a home made humidity dome, and heating mat. 18/6 light cycle and room temps are 70 thru 80. I think my problem lies with the care and feeding of my mums. Can i get your feeding schedules and what works and is proven.....REALLY FRUSTRATED. I dont want to go from seed every stinking time. Thanks in Advance Cav
If your mom is healthy, you shouldn't be focused on your mothers feeding to improve your cloning success. I've gotten loads of great cuts off of mothers that were really ragged looking. I would bump your light schedule to 20/4 for your cuttings and vegging. My biggest issue was just trying to keep the cuts alive, until the root tips had poked out. Generally this required very high humidity levels for the first 3-5 days. I use a dome and mist if needed. If you watch your plants closely, you can start to figure out what water wilt looks like. Another thing. Since you are having issues with cuts, you need more practice doing it to get it down. This happens with most folks. Since you are having issues, you should take at least as twice as many, I would say three times as many depending of course what your actual goal is, cuts as what you want to grow out. If you want to grow out 2, take 6 cuts. If you want to grow out 12, take 24 cuts. This gives you more that will survive and you get to practice your skills more. Also, take a look here for a lot of different ways of taking cuts. All valid. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/965372-organic-cloning.html
fertilome root stimulator doesnt look organic and its npk has 4% nitrogen- ammonical nitrogen. As far as i hear that's not so useful to plant it needs to be converted by microbes first. Could very well be wrong. however I am sure, that you dont want nitrogen in your plant while cloning. branches should look more lime-green, instead of very dark green. Try cloning in fine grain perlite and EWC i had good success this way. No root gel just soak the dirt and plant your cuts. Also everything weedroid wrote. if you spray the dome instead of your plants it will retain humidity without soaking them too much. Humidity should be around 70-80 and when you mist plants that's more like %90-100.
hope2toke I know how to root extremely difficult plants using the most extreme organic processes I have been able to ferret out. But it takes an investment and it's a fairly complicated process. And cannabis doesn't even hit the radar on difficulty - it's a friggin' annual! How hard can it be? But if someone is this upside down on the basics then showing them a path of least resistance is the best starting point. With or without the weeds. "Progress - Not Perfection" - Bill W.
I have 7 mothers all are very healthy and i take an obscene amount of cuttings just to ensure i end up with a few that i can put into the chamber. I have both, i also have 1' grow cubes that have been an absolute disaster. Elaborate please? Please right my ship, i need to see the light, I need to be edumacated. Thanks for everyone's quick insights. I knew i came to the right place. And yes i know the fertilome isnt organic but it is only used to assist with root establishment. After a good system is formed its all Dr. Earth, and blackstrap and 24hr water all the way thru to finish.
I would guess that LD means you are possibly over heating your root zone. Given your ambient temps, I would not use a heating mat. edited to add the oh so necessary NOT in there. doh!
Cav There are no organic rooting products, per se. The Fertilome company has 2 products with 'root stimulator' in the name but both use some derivative of Ammonium Phosphate - there's part of the problem. The Techniflora Rootech Cloning Gel is formulated with Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) @ 0.5% - this agent is widely used commercially in a product called Dip 'n Grow which was originally developed for cloning Christmas trees for the industry. The IBA level in this product is 1% It'll work. Blow off the Fertilome and the heat pad. With the temps that you're running and by adding additional heat that you absolutely do not want or need, you're creating a perfect environment for pathogens to hit which will result in damping off, yellow leaves, etc. Sound familiar? Use the RapidRooters and don't add anything. If you need to hydrate them then just use dechlorinated water. The rooting gel that you have is no better and no worse than any other rooting product - they all come down to one of the following: IBA, IAA and NAA - check it out for yourself. Have the clerk at the grow store line up every cloning product that they carry and start reading labels. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can root a cannabis cutting with RapidRooters - the Ammonium Phosphate and the heat are the source of your issues. HTH LD
^^^^^^THAT^^^^^^ I use rockwool cubes just because thats what I'm used to, since 1991 or so along with the clonex gel and solution. It's worked for ??? 21 years or so, so why reinvent the wheel? To be really brutally honest, for long term host plants (6 months + in the same container), the best so far is Jack's Classic Bloom Booster and has been for over 20 years, for me. The 10-30-20 is perfect for host plants/cuttings, used at 1/2 strength and frequency. I'm still trying to duplicate it organically. Close, but no cigar yet. I keep 2 sets of host plants working on this. Don't let dogma over ride common sense or results. Wet
Just chiming in......how much light are you using? I noticed you're using an 18/6 cycle which is fine, but I always try to use very low level light. It you're cloning with HID lighting, try to keep them on the edge of the light footprint. My little cloning chamber uses a 19w (actual) cfl. If your lighting is excessive, it will inhibit rooting IME. HTH chunk
I am using a 2700k and a 6500k each are 26w actual. Should i reduce, and which spectrum has proven best?
I use rapid rooter cubes and water. No hormones, no heat mat, no real humidity dome, under fluros (4 32w 6500k.) From what I found out in my attempt to learn cloning is to try a lot of methods and styles. Where I was going wrong was keeping the cubes too wet and too warm. I've never had luck cloning in EWC and/or peat. The cut's stems always rots in about 60 hours.
I have noticed certain strains have a tolerance to environments when it comes to cloning. I am trying to keep an older diesel alive and going and it seems to take for ever to strike. They tend to just sit suspended in time. Never wilting browning yellowing, nut never dieing either. No signs of stem rot or dampening off. I do notice that the stems turn brown and harden if anything. I have "re-cut" and re planted and i still get no results. more of the same. On my first run i got some of the diesel beans and out of 10 i think 5 were fems. I also ran an unknown bag-seed and got herms. I i was blessed to get a seed stock from the diesel. ever since then i have sprouted a few and all have been fem. Each of them having different traits or characteristics. But the one thing they did keep and show is the inabilaty to clone and root with ease. I am hoping the the rapid rooters that i picked up will assist with this difficult strain. Here is a pic of another strain i got from a buddy that couldnt finish it. This is a clone of the original plant. It cloned in 7 days with my previous methods. And i must say it is looking very promising. It is in the 6th week. Any idea what it may look like? If it turns out to be a smash ill prob keep it perpetual and just keep the Diesel when i happen to get one to root. Here is a link to the images of the Diesel at 6 and 7 weeks. nods spaced out more but very very dense and sticky nuggs.http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-grow-journals/982283-photographic-picture-book-perpetual-1gal-sog.html#post13639572
Peat plugs, Olivia's cloning solution, and clear dome cake trays(the thin clear plastic ones) with holes drilled in have done me well since day 1. All the fancy machines make me lol. The only other plant I can think of easier to root than cannabis is tomatoes, but both are quite simple. Edit: agreed there are certain strains that take far longer than what is considered normal to root. Just give them more time.