Taking cuttings from pre flower plants

I recently took a bunch of cuts from plants that had begun their flowering cycle. They have preflowers and seem ok after 5 days. I am curious if there are any concerns or facts I should be aware of? Any help would be great. Thanx in advance

- Burgertime

if they aren't truly flowering, they'll respond normally. if taken after they have truffula tree tops, they'll reveg after rooting with weird single bladed sucker branches. after a few weeks, the suckers will begin growing normally.

if you started feeding a flower nute before taking cuttings, you're ahead of the game; phosphorous promotes root growth and results in faster rooting from cuts. nitrogen impairs rooting, as the plants attempt to keep putting out foliage instead of roots.

trimming leaf tips also aids rooting.

No problem in pre-flowering, even after flowering they just take a bit longer to root and sometimes get weird initial growth as they re-veg like cat mentioned above. I typically will take cuttings when they begin pre-flower and give them a week or so to recover before beginning the flip to flower. It saves on having to maintain mothers and works well, just take some extra in case some don't root or aren't as hardy as you like.

They have a little pre flower action...will rooting take longer? I am concerned about humidity pooling in those areas and really trying to let them breathe as they root.

burgertime2010 said:

They have a little pre flower action...will rooting take longer? I am concerned about humidity pooling in those areas and really trying to let them breathe as they root.

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no. mother plants have preflowers at every node. reveg happens after tops look like this...

burgertime2010 said:

They have a little pre flower action...will rooting take longer? I am concerned about humidity pooling in those areas and really trying to let them breathe as they root.

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you want high humidity and low lighting to root cuttings. too much light encourages foliage growth and inhibits rooting.

cat of curiosity said:

you want high humidity and low lighting to root cuttings. too much light encourages foliage growth and inhibits rooting.

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Good point, no heavy lights needed until they root. I have some 5 day old clones going right now, down to 2x 10W LED Tubes which would equal say a 60W incandescent light bulb as far as light output. I have 4x 10W tubes per panel normally used for side-lighting in veg, disconnected tubes as I went because res temps were getting too high for my liking. Normally I have the res in a tent, sitting on a concrete floor and keeps the res cool through the 2 weeks of rooting but that tent is tied up with some breeding so using my veg cabinet and it's up off the floor. Should be interesting to see if the low light conditions slow it down or speed it up. I'm usually 10-14 days to root in the typical environment so will have some reference to compare to, I'm thinking this lower light condition may actually speed things up.

Hey thanks, I take cuttings often but these were just farther along. I will reduce the light and keep it humid...should be like normal.

GroErr said:

Good point, no heavy lights needed until they root. I have some 5 day old clones going right now, down to 2x 10W LED Tubes which would equal say a 60W incandescent light bulb as far as light output. I have 4x 10W tubes per panel normally used for side-lighting in veg, disconnected tubes as I went because res temps were getting too high for my liking. Normally I have the res in a tent, sitting on a concrete floor and keeps the res cool through the 2 weeks of rooting but that tent is tied up with some breeding so using my veg cabinet and it's up off the floor. Should be interesting to see if the low light conditions slow it down or speed it up. I'm usually 10-14 days to root in the typical environment so will have some reference to compare to, I'm thinking this lower light condition may actually speed things up.
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It makes sense that photosynthesis is not a major concern of a rooting plant. It would need roots to establish faster in lower light to make energy. In a relatively low moisture zone roots seek out water and grow faster. The abundance of light might signal roots to grow slower.

Makes sense, usually just use a small LED panel that runs 60W on veg switch and keep it 24-30" above the clones and they still root fine but I'm thinking even the 20W I have on them is more than enough during rooting. Those clones in the res are from 3 different "mothers", all pre-flowering, just started the flip on those plants to 14/10 yesterday. Even if something goes wrong with a bunch of clones, I'd take some additional clones at about 2-3 weeks into flowering. They look weird when you do that and take longer to root but eventually they root and grow out into bushy/hardy plants.

GroErr said:

Makes sense, usually just use a small LED panel that runs 60W on veg switch and keep it 24-30" above the clones and they still root fine but I'm thinking even the 20W I have on them is more than enough during rooting. Those clones in the res are from 3 different "mothers", all pre-flowering, just started the flip on those plants to 14/10 yesterday. Even if something goes wrong with a bunch of clones, I'd take some additional clones at about 2-3 weeks into flowering. They look weird when you do that and take longer to root but eventually they root and grow out into bushy/hardy plants.

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I am gonna try that for sure. It seems like a good way to deal with the bottom stems anyway.

Should be ok...

Flowering hormones take up to 2 weeks to build up to "full throttle" blooming mode. Key words, "up to". So figure that you took the clones just about in that window of "beginning full throttle mode"...

Hope that makes sense.

BenFranklin said:

Should be ok...

Flowering hormones take up to 2 weeks to build up to "full throttle" blooming mode. Key words, "up to". So figure that you took the clones just about in that window of "beginning full throttle mode"...

Hope that makes sense.

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Sure, I am going to get a few more before full flower hormones are achieved. Great timing. Thanks

burgertime2010 said:

Sure, I am going to get a few more before full flower hormones are achieved. Great timing. Thanks

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Precisely, take them sooner rather than later....

Funny how different strains clone (or not) though, it's usually worth a try if you're stuck, even a few weeks into flowering, specially if it's a strain that clones easily. The last round I had cut a bunch of clones from a couple of different plants, I misread one's sex, the "mom" ended up being a "dad" and I had to cull 6 male clones. To make them up, because these were for outdoor and the window is short, I cut 5 more from a 3 week flowering female Jack The Ripper. I didn't have anywhere to run the cloner properly but did have some seedlings at 24/0. I did nothing but cut the clones, no gels, no scraping, just stuck them straight into a party cup with PRO-Mix and into the seedling station 24/0, 4 of the 6 rooted within 3 weeks and are now growing outdoor. Prior round I had some Blueberry and tried the same thing, got 1 of 5 clones to root in soil. That's also why I use the aero cloner whenever possible though, it's like 95+% success, with any strain I've tried so far. Fortunately this Jack The Ripper clones super-easy, and it's killer weed, will be in my rounds for a while

Ha, maybe I'll try a single 10W LED tube next round of clones - lol I checked for the hell of it, they're at 9 days today, all except 1 have rooted, meaning at least one off-shoot clearly visible. A couple are doing quite well for 9 days. Too many variables but will try again next round with these same conditions to see if it's consistent. These are 9 days, leaves were trimmed back at 3 days into it, 20W of LED tubes for light. 1 example of the better ones from each strain in order, Blueberry, Pure Power Plant (PPP), and my favourite, Jack The Ripper, killer smoke, easy to clone, sativa-dom that finishes in 8 weeks, nice choice if you like sats but hate waiting 12 weeks