Complete Newbie-First grow ever

Your clone's roots are looking awesome! That made me glad to have decided to clone my lovely girls. Perhaps you can share with me your technique for cloning, and how you are keeping your clones fed. Do they need nutrients? or does the CloneX supply that? I also noticed that you snip you tips. You must find this to be a fairly helpful thing to do to your clones?

Thanks for listenin',
-Fish

fishern3 said:

Your clone's roots are looking awesome! That made me glad to have decided to clone my lovely girls. Perhaps you can share with me your technique for cloning, and how you are keeping your clones fed. Do they need nutrients? or does the CloneX supply that? I also noticed that you snip you tips. You must find this to be a fairly helpful thing to do to your clones?

Thanks for listenin',
-Fish

Click to expand...

The particular plants I am working with, have proven to be hard to clone, hence the reason I made the bubble cloner. Originally I cloned them in ROOT RIOT cubes. I had what I consider good/reasonable success, however it took on average 3 1/2 to 4 weeks before they were ready to transplant. Most people expect to see clones ready to transplant around the 15 day mark.

Here is what I did using the ROOT RIOT method.

YOU WILL NEED:
Sharp scissors or a razor blade. Either will work...it depends on preference.
Cutting board or similar work surface
Rubbing alcohol or boiling water
Cup of room temperature water
Medium to place cuttings in (ROOT RIOT, Rockwool, Root Cubes, Jiffy Pellets, etc) I have used all and dont see any notable difference. So basically use what you have to hand or what you can easily obtain.
Toothpick
Spray bottle/Misting Bottle (This should spary as fine a mist as possible)
Propagation tray with humidity dome

OPTIONALS
Rooting hormone (CLONEX, JUICY ROOTS, ROOT JUICE, GEL4PLUGS, etc) I have used both CLONEX and ROOT JUICE, again no notable difference in my opinion)
Rooting stimulator/booster (I use RHIZOTONIC and can recommend it)
Heating mat for propagation tray
Drop or two of liquid dish detergent (FAIRY, DAWN, etc) or other wetting agent

BEFORE YOU START
Clean your gear with the rubbing alcohol or place them in boiling water for a minute or two. Wash your hands and anything else that will come into contact with your cuttings. Make sure you have everything ready to hand before you start. You dont want to be running after something whilst you have your cuttings wilting.

TAKE THE CUTTINGS
1. Decide how many cuttings you want to take and identify the sites on the donor plant where you will take the cuttings. I would advise taking twice as many cuttings as you actually need/want in the event not all cuttings root successfully. Once you feel the donor plant is ready for cuttings, feed it only water for the feeding prior to taking your cuttings. What this does is forces the plant to utilize its stored nutrients (nitrogen specifically). It has been suggested that when the donor plant has less nitrogen, it speeds up the rooting process in the cuttings, as they will be seeking out nitrogen.

2. Now its time to take the cuttings. Ideally you want at least 3/4 of an inch (2cm) of the stem of the new cutting to be in the medium you are using. For this reason you should take cuttings that are long enough to allow for this. Count at least 3 nodes from the top of the new growth and then you will make your cut just above the 4 node. So basically after you have taken your cutting, you will have a node at the end of the branch that you cut from on the doner plant, and a cutting with at least 3 nodes to place into your medium. VISUALISE before you take your cutting. Now cut just above the forth node at a 45 degree angle. Place the cutting in the cup of water. Repeat this step for all of the cutting syou will need, or until there is no more room in your cup to hold the cuttings.

3. You need to prep the cuttings and medium to receive the cutting. Using the toothpick, gently create a hole in the center of rooting medium to place the cutting in. Be careful not to make the hole too deep or too wide. You want the hole deep enough to allow the cutting to be placed without being loose. If you are using a cloning gel or powder you will need it now. Place a small amount of the gel or powder which you will use for these cuttings into a shot glass, dixie cup, or anything else you have to hand. Any excess that remains you will throw away. You dont want to use the gel or powder directly from the original container as this could cause cross contamination. (NOTE: The use of gels or powders is not necessary. I have taken cuttings both with and without. I have no imperical evidence that using them makes any substantial difference. The added benefit is, it helps to reduce the shock to the cuttings. Again, this didnt make a measurable difference in my experience.)

Info: There are many opinions regarding preping a cutting. Many choose to scrape the outer stem, others cut small slits, split the stem,
and some do nothing more than the initial 45 degree angle cut. It's important to note that new roots emerge from the "armpits" of the
cutting. The armpits are the nodes, or where the fan leafs meet the stem. For this reason you want at least one nodal site under the
surface of the growing medium. This is where the first roots will emerge. Over time roots will continue to develop along the rest of the
stem. Scraping, scaring, splitting the stem, etc are matters of preference. However at least one node must be placed inside the medium.
Otherwise you will have a very high liklihood of failure.

Use your scissors or razor to cut the bottom two fan leafs even and flush with the stem. If you are using a gel or powder, cover the portion of the stem to be inserted with the gel or powder. Gently place the cutting into the rooting medium. Push it deeply enough that the node is at lease 1/4 inch (1cm) under the surface. If you find that the stem is too long to allow for this, simply shorten the stem by making another 45 degree cut at the bottom until the length is suitable.

4. Trim the remaining leafs. The new cutting have no roots. As such, they will only be able to offer limited support for the leafs. Cut the tips about halfway on all the remaining leafs. This will allow enough leafs for the limited photosynthesis required, whilst at the same time limiting the amount of energy required by the cutting to support itself.

5. Place the cutting into the tray and lightly mist it with water. No nutrients are required. Ph'ing the water is also not required. The cuttings are not taking any nutrients at this point, therefore Ph levels are not relevant. You can add a drop or two of liquid dish soap to the water to make it "wetter". If doing this, you will notice that you get a thin sheeting of water on the leafs rather than beads of water. Cover the cuttings with the dome. Repeat the above steps until all cuttings have been completed.

6. Once all cuttings have been placed in the tray, spray the inside of the dome with a light mist, and cover the cuttings. Open the air vent slightly to allow for air exchange and place the cuttings under a subtle light. A typical flourescent is fine. The ideal light cycle is 18/6. The 6 hour dark period gives the cuttings the chance to send stored energy down to developing roots. If you use a heating mat, set the temp for 75 degrees farenheit (24C). If you dont have a thermostat, be careful the heat doesnt get too hot and cause the rooting medium to dry out. A light timer set to 15 minutes on/15 off would also work just as well.

7. Your cuttings are now on their way. You want to remove the dome once or twice daily and wipe away the excess moisture from the dome. This will allow for an air exchange, and also allow you to monitor the humidity level. If you have enough humidity, you will notice that small droplets of water form on the dome after replacing. Adjust the air vent to allow for this humidity. You can now mist only once every 2nd day, or sooner if the cuttings show signs of distress. NOTE: It is perfectly normal for the new cuttings to be droopy and wilted for the first 24 hours. Usually by the second day they are pert and lively.

8. After one week you can remove the dome completley to allow the cuttings to acclimate to the new environment. You can also add 2-3 mls of RHIZOTONIC to your water sprayer. This will definitely give the new roots the boost they need.

Thats it. Job done. Leave the cuttings alone. It's very tempting to fiddle with them or investigate. But this does more harm than good. During your daily removal of the dome, just check that your rooting medium is damp (not wet). As long as the cuttings have a damp medium, soft light, 6 hours of dark, thats all they need. Just be patient and wait for the roots. You will know rooting has fully started when you see the tips of the leaves beginning to yellow. Generally speaking you will see the first sight of new roots emerging from the medium in about 7 days from when the yellowing starts.

I will add my bubble cloning method next.

Very good stuff there fly. Thanks again for even more information haha.

machnak said:

Very good stuff there fly. Thanks again for even more information haha.

Click to expand...

No problem bro. Happy to help when I can.

Ok, this one is short and sweet. End of day 6 on my bubble cloner.

Anita1

Another day, or maybe two and she is going to her new home.

Anita2

The roots have started much more dense than Anita1. I can't wait to see how they look in a couple more days.

The other clones arent showing much yet. I have no idea why there is so much variance among the clones. Time to do more research.

Looking good fly.

baddfrog0221 said:

Don't let water get on the leaves of the seedlings it can have adverse affects. They need to be more mature before they get misted or wet.

Click to expand...

Damn where were you 3 days ago when my sprout came up?! I've been misting and she looks severely deformed Now I know.

Oh no! Fingers crossed she pulls through!

Brilliant, Fly +rep. Thank you for the in-depth cloning procedure. I have written most of this down and plan to do some cloning after I have transplanted my mothers into 5 gallon pots. I will be watching for the bubble cloning method

-Fish

fishern3 said:

Brilliant, Fly +rep. Thank you for the in-depth cloning procedure. I have written most of this down and plan to do some cloning after I have transplanted my mothers into 5 gallon pots. I will be watching for the bubble cloning method

-Fish

Click to expand...

Hey Fish, thanks for +.

Wait a week after transplant before you take your clones if you can. You will need to let the plants recover. When you transplant, I assume you will be doing a nice watering, and maybe some superthrive? If so, you want to give the mother the chance to utilise the nutirents, recover, and then a small flush before taking your cuttings. The alternative would be to take the cuttings, and then transplant. Its a little stressful for the mother, but providing its an healthy plant, it would be ok. And for what its worth, I do recommend superthrive. I use it only at after tranplanting, and a little bottle goes a LONG way, as it only requires a drop or two.

Bubble cloning method coming up...

If you have ever attempted cloning using the cube or soil methods, and if you have had any success at all (even 50/50), you will find the bubble cloning method to be easy-peasy lemon squeezy!

The first part of this method is identical to the standard method, and some of the same tools are needed.

YOU WILL NEED:
Sharp scissors or a razor blade. Either will work...it depends on preference.
Cutting board or similar work surface
Rubbing alcohol or boiling water
Cup of room temperature water
Medium to place cuttings in (I use neoprene collars for my net pots, but you could also use clay pellets, or Rockwool) I prefer the collars, as theis allows the water direct access to the cuttings stems and developing roots

BEFORE YOU START
Clean your gear with the rubbing alcohol or place them in boiling water for a minute or two. Wash your hands and anything else that will come into contact with your cuttings. Make sure you have everything ready to hand before you start. You dont want to be running after something whilst you have your cuttings wilting.

TAKE THE CUTTINGS
1. Decide how many cuttings you want to take and identify the sites on the donor plant where you will take the cuttings. I would advise taking twice as many cuttings as you actually need/want in the event not all cuttings root successfully. Once you feel the donor plant is ready for cuttings, feed it only water for the feeding prior to taking your cuttings. What this does is forces the plant to utilize its stored nutrients (nitrogen specifically). It has been suggested that when the donor plant has less nitrogen, it speeds up the rooting process in the cuttings, as they will be seeking out nitrogen.

2. Now its time to take the cuttings. Ideally you want at the stem of the cutting to be submerged in water at least 3/4 to 1 inch (2-2.5cm). Some of my stems have an inch and a half in the water. For this reason, I take cuttings with more length than those I would take for use in soil or rooting cubes. Count at least 3 nodes from the top of the new growth and then you will make your cut just above the 4 node. So basically after you have taken your cutting, you will have a node at the end of the branch that you cut from on the doner plant, and a cutting with at least 3 nodes to place into your medium. VISUALISE before you take your cutting. Now cut just above the forth node at a 45 degree angle. Place the cutting in the cup of water. Repeat this step for all of the cuttings you will need, or until there is no more room in your cup to hold the cuttings.

3. You need to prep the cuttings to go into the collar. I find its easiest to do this one at a time. YOu should ensure that when you place the cutting in the collar, you leave enough length on the underside so that at least one node is underwater or at least just above the surface. This is where the new roots will begin, and if they dont have access to the water, then chances are they will never root. The end result will be cuttings that look quite healthy, almost forever, but roots may never form. The cuttings will just continue to take up water to support the few leafs, but never grow, or establash a new root system.

Info: It's important to note that new roots emerge from the "armpits" of the cutting. The armpits are the nodes, or where the fan leafs meet the stem. For this reason you want at least one nodal site under the collar, and ideall under the water. This is where the first roots will emerge. Over time roots will continue to develop along the rest of the stem.

Use your scissors or razor to cut the bottom two fan leafs even and flush with the stem. Gently place the cutting into the collar. The cutting should have the leafs just above and the trimmed node and stem underneath. Place the collar into a net basket and place the netbasket into your bubble cloner. The cloner should have enough water that at least an inch of the stem is submerged.

4. Trim the remaining leafs. The new cutting have no roots. As such, they will only be able to offer limited support for the leafs. Cut the tips about halfway on all the remaining leafs. This will allow enough leafs for the limited photosynthesis required, whilst at the same time limiting the amount of energy required by the cutting to support itself.

5. No nutrients or additives are required. Ph'ing the water is also not required. The cuttings are not taking any nutrients at this point, therefore Ph levels are not relevant. You can add a drop or two of superthrive to give the cuttings a boost, but this is not necessary. If doing this, you will notice that water will begin to grow algae or get "slimy" after a week or so. This is because the base ingeredients for these types of additives is algae and seaweed. You will also need to keep a close eye on the water condition and change as needed. Because I dont use any additves, I can simply top up the water level when it gets low. I have yet had to change the water in my cloner and it is very clean and clear.

6. Once all cuttings have been done, place the cuttings under a subtle light. A typical flourescent is fine. The ideal light cycle is 18/6. The 6 hour dark period gives the cuttings the chance to send stored energy down to developing roots. IRoom temperature water is fine. If you heat the water keep an eye out for algae.

This is by far the easiest method I have found for rooting cuttings and clones. In my experience I have seen results in a matter of a few days. Some cuttings still take longer to root than others, but overall the success rate is 100% (so far) and the time required is cut in half on average compared to using rooting cubes or similiar.

This is short and sweet. Here is a picture of my Anita clones. I've also got some tomato's and sunflower in there with them. The fan is too big for purpose, and will be replaced later this week when my supplier gets new stock in. The yellow bowl of tap water serves two purposes, One is added humidty (although not really a problem), and it also sits there over 24-48 hours to de-chlorinate. I then use that as a base for my waterings. Once the clones get a bit bigger and start to really flower, I will remove all of the other plants and re-organise to get better use of the space. But for now its early days into flower, and they havent really started to develop any noticeable buds yet.

Another quick clone update. Two of my clones have fully rooted and have been tranplanted to soil. Two others are are well on their way to being fully rooted, and two more are at the "pre-root build up stage". This is where you see alot of brownish plant material on the stem just before the first root shows.

No pictures this time, we all know what roots look like.

I have to say, this plant never ceases to amaze me. Two of my cuttings were rooting within the first 4 days. The others seemed to be dragging their feet (roots). I was beginning to wondering if perhaps I contaminated or maybe did something to hurt or stunt the cuttings. I reviewed my steps over and over in my mind, and didnt come up with anything. This didnt explain why some of the cuttings were extremely quick to root and others seemed to be considerably behind.

Last night before tuning off the lights, I gave a quick check to the cutings that still hadnt rooted. I do this pretty much every night and every morning just to check progress or any unwanted/adverse conditions. So last night, things were pretty much as they had been, cuttings were healthy, but no new roots or "pre-root build up".

This morning I do my checks and this is what I see.

I was shocked. I never would have thought this possible. This much root growth in literally hours???? If someone had told me, I would be quite skeptical, and find it hard to believe. Yet before my very eyes, there it is. A near complete root system over night!

I guess it just goes to show, that they will root...in their own time. Some faster some slower, but boy was I amazed!

The remaining clones are all showing the first small roots, except one. I took a cutting that was quite short, and after placing it in the foam collar, there was hardly enough length to get the stem to the water. I didnt expect it to root, and I have to see it is nearing its last days and its very likely it wont survive. I say that, but there is "pre-root build up" (I dont know the correct term for this). The leaves on top are very yellow, shriveled and small. Not much left of them at all. Who knows, maybe it too will surprise me and recover. As for the rest, I fully expect to be able to transplant them sometime Sunday or Monday. That means I will have a total of 16 known female clones. I dont have space for that many in either my veg or flower areas combined. That means I will have to make the tough decsion of culling the weakest ones.

I am thinking about putting a couple in the fridge and see how long I can keep them is stasis. It would be cool to be able to go to the fridge in a couple of months and just pull out a clone to flower.

^^^^^^^^^^
I have a small drinks fridge. The cool thing about it is the door is glass , so it allows light in. I also have a small battery operated light. I am now very curious to know if I could store my rooted clones in there for any period of time. I would guess that if I adjusted the temp so it wasnt too cold, allowed for air exchange every so often, and enough light to keep photosynthesis, that the plant would just have a really slow rate of growth. Question is how long could it survive like this?

\\Just thinking//

In the interest of those who are curious about early sexing, I am posting a few pictures of my latest plant. For those of you who have been following thisjournal, you will remember that one of my seedlings, Erykah, died very early on. I have since started a new plant from seed, and named it Erykah II. I put Erykah II into the 12/12 flower cycle exactly 4 days ago. And much to my surprise, Erykah is already showing signs of gender.



As you can see, Erykah is a male. I am going to leave it to flower for a day or two more, just to get a couple of pictures a little further along, when the pollen sacks are really defined.

I may even let this one grow in a separate area for breeding purposes. I havent decided yet.

Anyway, there is a good example of what to look for when early sexing your plants.

As the title suggests, this is a bit of bummer. My bag seed isnt showing me great results. I have about 4 plants in various stages of flowering. The oldest one is just about 4 and a half weeks. So far the plant has grown very tall, with alot of internode stretching. The flowering/budding is EXTREMELY slow. Where flowering has started, there is at most 5 or 6 pistils at the bud site. By now I should be seeing some nicely formed buds. However if you didnt know how long the plant had been flowering, and had to guess just by looking at the bud sites, you would think its just starting its second week.

The plant is definitely a sativa dominant, there is no question about that. Its also a very slow flowerer (sp?). I suppose this is why the plant was grown outdoors in Jamaica.

I have started some super cropping, simply because at the current rate the tops will reach my ceiling in another week or so.

I have some other plants started from a bag which I believe was an Indica dominant strain. When they are ready to flower, I will mostly like just cut or remove the Anita (sativa) plants. I doubt there would even be enough bud on it to even bother with drying out and smoking. It's a major bummer....but not the end of the world. I have 12 other Anita clones well rooted and vegging right now (thanks to my clone-o-matic).

I will take some pictures of my super cropping efforts, and post them either tomorrow or the day after.

As I promised a few days ago, I am posting a couple pics of the super cropping results.
Basically, the seeds I grew from this schwag bag of Jamican dirt weed have proven to be less than ideal for indoor growing. Because I of that I have been less than careful or concerned with what effects my actions have on the plants. The bud production is very limited (more pictures of that coming soon). The plants are very tall and show lots of stretching. And I have a dozen and a half clones that I will never be able to flower in my environment. So in a nutshell, I am not really bothered by the outcome of these plants. I have started a couple seeds from another bag I had (another strain as well), so when they need the space, all of my Anita plants/clones will either be early harvested or destroyed and made into compost.



The red arrows show the point where the stems were bent. One of them was so flemsy after I bent it, I thought for sure it would die. The outer fibers were in tact, so I just left it. To my surprise, the stem is much stronger now, and the branch is still growing toward the light. These plants are getting really tall and the buds are puny. So I just keep bending them over. They are starting to grow up the sides of the wall like a vine. Once my other strain needs the room, these plants are done.

BTW for those who are interested, I am working on grow software to track your grows. you can see it here: Garden Monitor
There is a link in my signature as well. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Damn Fly, other than nutsacs everything looks great!

You don't use anything but tap water for bubble cloning?

machnak said:

Damn Fly, other than nutsacs everything looks great!

You don't use anything but tap water for bubble cloning?

Click to expand...

Thanks man. Thats right. Just plain tap water. Nothing else. I just let it sit for an hour or so with the pump running. This is mainly to bring the water to room temperature. Then I just wait to transplant. I dont clean the cloner or anything. The water looks and feels the same as when I filled. Its not slimey and doesnt have any odor. Works great and saves me TONS of aggro with the soil/rooting cube methods I was using before.