cloning questions

i am using stinkbuds perpetual harvest method. now, i admit, i did not read all 876 pages of the thread. but i do have a cloning question perhaps someone here can help me out with.

i've never cloned before, and most of the how-to's i see on youtube and whatnot show pulling clones from a large, dedicated mother. however, the stinkbud method has you pulling clones from your veg plants. at what time can you start pulling clones? when is too early? i have 4 unsexed plants i started from seed. now, i know the normal routine is to flower them, pull the males, and force them back into veg for cloning. however, i wanted to pull and label clones before i flower, and pull the clones from the male plants from the cloner and continue with 100% female from that point.

my problem is this. in my mind, they won't be ready to clone from until around 5 to 6 weeks. without keeping the first set of plants in veg an additional 3 weeks and pulling another set of clones, or dedicated mothers, i won't be able to get into a 3 week cycle.. any advice?

IME it depends on your cloning method of choice. I use a bubble cloner and I am able to take good clones as soon as they reach about 3 inches or so. Just beware that if the plants are not yet sexed you might just be cloning more males. good practice either way. I usually let the clones sit in the bubble cloner for a little over a week, then transfer to my veg dwc for about a week and a half or so. They grow just enough to give me a few clones each before i throw them in the flower room. I also like to take a clone every now and then and put it in some soil to use as an acting mother if the others don't produce any viable clones in time. hope this helps.

3 inches? mine are about 5", but i don't see anything but fan leaves. i'm 3 weeks from when i put the seeds into rockwool, with 3 more weeks before they are scheduled to move to flower...

this is them at 4am this morning..




oh and i'm using an aeroponics setup similiar to the stinkbuds design that i had already built when i stumbled across his thread, but with 3.75" net pots. i germinated in water for 24 hours, then in a wet towel for 2 days, plugged them into the 1" rockwool cubes in a tray for 10 days or so, and transplanted them into the system on the 24th. i am almost finished with stinkbuds veg table, and will be building the cloner to be ready for 3 weeks after that, and the first flower tray with his design 3 weeks after that.

By far the easiest and most hands of method.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/363807-bubble-cloninng.html

rockwool was just used for the seedlings... the clones in the future will go into neoprene collars and into 2" net pots, as stinkbud designed.

the grow area has a 600W MH conversion in a vented hood with glass bottom centered over the grow table and clone table.

the flower room has 2 600W HPS in the same style of hood spaced over 3 flower tables. the cloner, veg table and flower tables will be designed after the stinkbud how-to.

each hood has a 6" duct fan pulling the air through the hood and pushing it down the vent. there is another 6" duct fan at the end of the system, pushing into a carbon filter.

I didn't read Stinkbuds perpetual harvest method but I do run a perpetual grow. Before you begin, you need to asertain which plants will be your mothers. Then take clones, root them and then veg them (if so desired) or go straight to flower like I do. Then let the mother either revegitate new growth for the next batch of clones or have another set of mothers to take clones from for the next step of your perpetual. It's rinse and repeat. Then it's up to you to setup and get into a routine and time line of clone harvesting and rooting that will dictate the time line between your perpetual harvests. It does take practice and patients because not everyone is on the same knowledge level or has the required skills at the begining.There are a lot of variables to consider doing a perpetual grow like how long it takes to propagate clones, veg time (if any) flowering time, amount of time between clone harvest and regrowth on mother for next clones harvest. It will most likely take several grows to get every thing to fall into place. And in the future if you purchase new seeds, save yourself some time and trouble and go with feminized seeds.

i will be purchasing quality genetics in the near future. as of now, probably blueberry and white rhino. right now i'm growing bag seed. i just want to make sure the operation runs smoothly before i go trying to push $100 worth of seeds through it.

stinkbuds setup seems to make perfect sense to me as far as the timeline. i have never cloned before so i'm slightly uncertain of what i need to look for. for instance, i know that you can't pick just any branch and cut it and expect to get a good healthy plant. you need 3 nodes, which i'm uncertain my plants will produce in the next 3 weeks.. i mean, if you don't clone fan leaves, what is there to clone on a month old seedling?

I use clonex gel in a seedling tray that is heated. I have had only one strain that consistantly doesn't root within 7-8 days. But in your case with your 3 week old plant, to me it looks like you have the light right on top of it preventing it from stretching a little to give you branches to cut for clones. If you raise the light a little and let it stretch some you should have plent of plant to take clones from.

shadow. stinkbuds plants have branches to clone from in veg because they themselves are clones and that means they are actually older than 3 weeks. the clones branch sooner than a plant grown from seed. the first plants you grow from those seeds you should let them grow for a while and then clone them and flower them to see which ones are female. kill the males then start cloning off the moms your left with. when you have those clones you can start stinkbuds cycle.

here's a pic of my setup thus far. i'm only running the one light because i only have 4 plants currently.



@irishdoc: as you can see, my hood is about 18" above my plants. MH conversions seem to run hot as hell, so i can't put it lower because it will burn my babies.

now, to make sure i have the right concept...

in the following pic:


the thicker branch is for the fan leaves, right? i need to be waiting on the branch that's just starting to grow 3 nodes before i clone it, right? or am i way off track...

@andar: so what you're saying is it might take 6 or 8 weeks to get these plants clonable, but i should be able to clone off the clones after 3 weeks? am i understanding correctly? i grasp the concept that the genetics in the clone have already matured, where the seeds take some time to come to maturity.

i'm just anxious to get this going. i did a dirt grow that yielded 5 females i harvested in july and august that i was very happy with, but i'm dying to start my perpetual harvest...

just let them grow another inch then u can clone those if you want. should take too long maybe 3 or 4 days...

man as soon as u see a decent clone size clone it it that simple!

I didnt say that it would take 6 to 8 weeks. I said that from seed; it will take more than 3 weeks. you can clone any plant that has a branch on it. I know you want weed now but if you let those mothers get bigger you will have: more clones, stronger clones, better plants in the long run.

ok.. let me ask this question.. how tall should my clones be, ideally, before i start cloning off the mothers? for example, right now, i have a few branches with 3 nodes.. but they are very small.. if i cut them now, the clone would be 1-2".. i'm thinking 6" would be roughly the right size branch to clone?

I like anything over 3". Just my opinion though