@DonTesla is there anything you would do to encourage a clone to revert back to healthy vegetative growth, should it be displaying single leaves and curled growth?
I took a SSDD cutting at two weeks and she’s struggling to veg.
Any tips or tricks?
My 2 cents, and I don't mean to step on your toes Don, so please let me know where/if I'm off anywhere.
About the weird growth, I wouldn't worry about it. Often, when cloning a flowering plant, I see non-typical growth for a period of time. It probably has something to do with the roots and hormones as the plant transfers back to a vegging cycle from flower. I use 2.5 inch cloning cubes and clones taken with peat cubes. Abnormal growth occurs for the first week or three.
In 2.5 inch cubes, if after a few weeks there is no vigorous roots growing out of the bottom, I'm concerned and may transplant another clone of the same strain. Both clones in peat cubes or rock wool and small transplants appear to grow best with moderate drying cycles; in my experience, letting peat cubes and small transplants dry out can stimulate root growth. Paradoxically, as a soil grower, I do not like to let my larger pots dry out too much for fear of losing my microbial community.
If roots are visibly vigorously growing, more likely than not, the a-typical growth will normalize.
About ways to speed it up, I inoculate the roots with a few types of mycorrhizae during every transplant. I use compost teas to inoculate; no burning has ever been observed from compost tea application. The teas have everything, specifically fresh earth worm compost, and seed sprouted teas.
A few questions: what is the clone in? If it rooted and you replanted, in what size container is it? How far into flower is the mother plant? Maybe think about taking another half dozen cuts. I have observed that, concerning which is more likely to root and grow successfully, vegging plants clone easier than flowering plants; to achieve approximately equal cloning success rates, a batch of clones from flowering plants need to be larger than those taken from a vegging plant.
Common convention is to lollipop significantly. I often leave a few smaller branches tucked down below my canopy, growing but not taking up prime maturation space, should I later need clones of anything.
There really isn't a bad time to take clones in flower. Worst case scenario, harvest and put the pot right back into veg. Otherwise, if before harvest, I like to clone in batches.
