Aero-cloning in a 2.5' Mom space

So, I'm gaining the respect of some senior growers, so I thought I'd throw something up here. This isn't a how-to, but a pictorial with some words of how I keep my Moms at 12" tall in a tight space and make my clones for my perpetual. I use no gel, powder or anything. My Mom area has 5 CFLs... four 6500k and one 2700k in 'Y' connectors under a custom made 'hood'. Here goes...

My pics are all out of order, and I'm too lazy to re-sort them, so I'll document as I go, even if flow is way off.

Every 9 or so weeks, I scrub out my cloner, then fill it up with 7.0 pH tap water...



Under my breakfast bar is a space that is less than 2.5' high. Here lives my Moms and my cloner. I have two moms per each strain I am currently growing. These strains, which have been stabilized exceptionally well by a long-time grower I know are Chemdawg and Jack Herer.



This pic looks like my Chemdawg Moms after I've chopped them significantly. In the cloner I have ten Chemdawg clones.




Here's my prized Jack Herer Mom. I've had her for about six months. I torture her every time I snip clones. I have to clean out a lot of inner foliage, as this strain grows *very* tight.



Some random pics of me topping my plants in a major way while I'm doing my cloning process. When maintaining Moms that need to stay at 12", there is a lot of collateral damage every couple of weeks.




Here's my darling primary Jack Herer mom after a thorough clipping.






Always use alcohol to clean your cloning tools.



...fuck it. The pics are all out of order, and I'm too tired to try to move them around in this small space. Enjoy. If you have any questions, well, you know.








-spek

You seem to be doing just fine.
How long have you be cloning this way?

Nutes and Nugs said:

You seem to be doing just fine.
How long have you be cloning this way?

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A couple of months I'd say. I have very near 100% success with my clones, and for every 25 I root, I only keep 8 for my perpetual, so there's a major gap that I can afford to lose. Mostly I'm throwing well-rooted clones out at each cycle. The odd ones I keep as candidate mothers, and throw them into soil just in case one of my good moms gets sick.

I'm now in the process of making fem seeds of both of these stabilized strains, and after I've got them secured, I'm going to breed them together.

-spek

Sounds like you have a good method.
Keep up the good work.

Nutes and Nugs said:

Sounds like you have a good method.
Keep up the good work.

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Your acknowledgement is very much appreciated. Thank you very much

-spek

Thanks for posting this, I am hoping I can set up a similar system in the near future. I am growing several strains right now and the Jack Herer is one of my favorites, tight nodes, strong branches, and nice big healthy buds.

Cascadian said:

Thanks for posting this, I am hoping I can set up a similar system in the near future. I am growing several strains right now and the Jack Herer is one of my favorites, tight nodes, strong branches, and nice big healthy buds.

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You're very welcome. If it helps one person, it was worth it You might be interested in peeping my 12/12 sig thread. After the first half of the posts, I get going on schedules and details.

JH is spectacular I've found for going from clone to flower, as it is exceptionally predictable in its growth phenotypes. As you said, tight nodes, and essentially when I harvest, the bud is one big cola, from the bottom of the stalk right to the top. On a 10" JH plant with no veg and 63 days of flower, I can get nearly a full oz dry (on my best plants).

The plants constrain themselves, and I never have to do management. They just stay in their tiny 2L space, and cause no trouble. In fact, I find that it often seems that they work together side-by-side as to not hinder each other.

If you're going perpetual like I am, I'd also recommend a good stable Chemdawg. They grow taller, but the height is very predictable, and I know for fact that with the way I grow, my Chemdawg plants will all be within one inch of height to each other after initial stretch. They too have buds that aren't off-shutes (but not whole stem like JH), and has a wonderful aroma in the garden. Accents the spicy JH scent nicely.

Just my $0.02.

-spek

Hey Spek...

Plants look wonderful!!

You said you use water ph'd at 7.0. What else if anything is in the water? What is your average time frame to see roots?

Thanks for the .02 I will looks into the chemdog for a future purchase. Sounds like a nice predictable plant. I have a jillybean and a local strain sugarplum going for my sativa dominant currently.

ButchyBoy said:

Hey Spek...

Plants look wonderful!!

You said you use water ph'd at 7.0. What else if anything is in the water? What is your average time frame to see roots?

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Thanks Butch!

I put absolutely nothing at all in the water. At the beginning, I would pH it down to 6.4, but realistically, it isn't like there are any roots to suck up nutes, so it is irrelevant and I stopped doing it. I also stopped using rooting gel. I'm sure it just gets washed off anyways, but side-by-side testing shows absolutely no benefit whether I use it or I don't.

As soon as they are rooted and they go into flower, they start getting full dose of nutes right away. I haven't had any issues with this, but I was hesitant to try it at first I must admit.

Typically I see roots anywhere between day 4-10. By day 14-18, I sometimes have roots that are 20" long. On average, when I put them into the medium, I have 8-10" roots.

-spek

Have you had any root issues with transplanting the 20" roots into soil?

I had four plants in a flooded tube with 24" roots and decided to get away from Hydro. After transplant they went down hill fast. after harvest, if you want to call it that, I looked at the root balls and they had not grown beyond the original mass. The plants were yellow for the entire life in soil and went into the hash pile.