Proper age for to start mothers?

Realbax

Well-Known Member
I've been reading a fair bit on cloning and was hoping for some clarification on proper age before taking clones from mothers. I've read that should wait at least two months but a few places have stated that a month is enough or that its growth dependent (certain amount of nodes, over all height and health). Is their a golden rule for this one? Cheers
 

stoned-monkey

Well-Known Member
Two months not a bad rule to go by as any strain should be more then ready. I try not to give to much thought to time in my garden, so i always wait for preflowers, and large enough plant where it needs pruning or topping and the clippings would make good clones. As long as you dont completly hack the plant, ie take way too many clones, she will recover and give you more chances to clone. So dive in its not hard and find your method.
 

Realbax

Well-Known Member
If I pull a few for safety before the flip, would you pull those from the bottom? Still looking for 3-4 modes staggered offshoots etc.? If you can't tell up till now I've had a fall back for this strain and will be the first time cloning it. I would hate to lose it due to an oversight on my part
 

BleedsGreen

Well-Known Member
If you want to top you can use that just expect it to take longer to root then a lower branch. Jorge's Encyclopedia states 6 to 8 weeks but if you feel the plant is ready to flip I say go for it.
 

Realbax

Well-Known Member
I had read about the longer expectancy for rooting. I was also thinking the final crop count would be less negatively affected if I could pull them from where smaller popcorn usually forms. My concern with pulling low is the overall strength and resilience wouldn't match and would ultimately increase my odds of failure
 

stoned-monkey

Well-Known Member
I had read about the longer expectancy for rooting. I was also thinking the final crop count would be less negatively affected if I could pull them from where smaller popcorn usually forms. My concern with pulling low is the overall strength and resilience wouldn't match and would ultimately increase my odds of failure
Actually lower branches tend to root faster, and easier
 
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stoned-monkey

Well-Known Member
How do you plan to clone? Good enviroment, clean water, plenty of o2, and time. If you can do that the cut WILL root for sure. I like to limit light intensity for fresh cuts, seem to root faster.
 

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
I put seedlings into the budding table when they crack their shells. You'l have plenty of time to take a snip from all of them before any males show their balls. When doing multiple unknown seeds I code the snip to the seedling using colored thumb tacks. All the clones that will be moms will be chosen according to strain and health, the rest will go to the next grow. By that time you'll also get a few snips from the selected moms.

I don't top the cloned budders, just the seedlings for a clone for a potential mother plant(s).. I run the seedlings for twelve weeks and the snips for ten weeks.

The seed plants are less hardy than the clones because their stalks are hollow, unlike clones, so take care not to break stalks on the seedlings. This happens most frequently when the buds get dense and heavy.
 

SchmoeJoe

Well-Known Member
I had read about the longer expectancy for rooting. I was also thinking the final crop count would be less negatively affected if I could pull them from where smaller popcorn usually forms. My concern with pulling low is the overall strength and resilience wouldn't match and would ultimately increase my odds of failure
Lower growth is easier to root but once you've got your method down upper growth will always develope into a stronger and faster growing sooner.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I grow mainly from regular seed and often take the tops off new plants once they have 5 nodes or so and toss them under 12/12 light to force flower to determine sex. Sometimes in a glass of RO water or dip them in cloning gel and plant into screened ProMix. They all end up with roots and if I want to grow them out I up the hours of light to 18/6 and let them reveg or toss them out.

I've been cloning for 20 years at least and one thing I can tell you is almost anything you do will get a plant off a cutting. I've hung cuts into a DWC at 1200ppm and it roots. Drop one by accident into a bucket of scummy dugout water and a week later there's a root happening.

I do take good care of cuttings I need to root but long ago stopped worrying about them. For great results . . .

#1) Make sure there is a cleaned node going under the dirt/rockwool/?

#2) Use low light levels but make sure they get 18+ hours per day.

#3 Keep them under a dome but spray the dome and not the cuttings to keep RH high.

#4 Take the dome off twice a day to make sure they get lots of fresh air.

#5 Don't be a helicopter grower! Leave them alone to do their own thing. They want to grow!

I've used cloning gels, powders and nothing and it all works. Cloning gel then dipped in powder for the win and it works too.

Tiny little cuts from dying plants that looked dead themselves but came back to be robust plants a few weeks later.

It's the genes in those bits that determine a plant's life and not it's condition when you decide to make it a new plant.

A clone's age is the same as it's mother so clones are always ready to flower at full strength unlike plants grown from seed. They can still be flowered early but will be less able or as vigorous than an equal sized clone.

Just try rooting any piece of plant you are going to toss in any way you want for practice if you're new to cloning. Lollypopping your girls gives lots of cuts so stick some in water and put them on the shelf and some will likely root.

The scummy water clone. A broken off tiny lower branch that fell in the bucket of dugout water that was there to add moisture to the grow room. Probably at around 2000ppm when that sprig fell in. Grew into a great plant.

Bucketclone.JPG


The kind of clones I get from my DIY DWC cloner in a couple weeks. 1ml each of my 3-part nutes in RO water and a dash of 29% peroxide under a fluoro light. Just bare stems. I scraped the last inch of each stem but the scraped part turned black and all the roots you see grew out of the clean stems above the scraped areas. Didn't seem to matter if there was a node or not. 4 out of 5 bare cuttings gifted by a friend rooted and two are flowering now in 4gal pots of ProMix. Critical Mass. The other two are vegging in a spare bedroom/veg room. Never grown them out but hear good things. :)


Rooted08.jpg


The main thing about cloning or growing in general is just chillax. Too much tender loving care kills a lot more plants than neglect. I should know because I neglect the hell out of my plants but haven't run out of killer bud in 40 years, :)

:peace:
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Damn, I am WAY overthinking this whole thing. This sounds perfect for me. How far away from the surface did you keep the stems?
For mine the stems are right down in the water. I used RO water with about 1/4 ml/L of all 3 of my 3-part nutes and 5ml of 29% hydrogen peroxide.

Going to do the same with my next batch but put them in a pot the minute I see a real root start growing from the stem. Letting them grow lots before using allows root rot to set in unless temps are low.

You pretty much have to drop a cutting in your kitty litter box to kill it and if your cat pisses on it, it will likely sprout a root. :)

:peace:
 
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