Step by Step: Acquire How To Clone Your Marijuana Plants

The seedling growth phase lasts for nearly two to three weeks after seeds take germinated. Once a strong root system is established and foliage growth increases quickly, seedlings enter the vegetative growth stage. When chlorophyll product is full speed ahead, a vegetative plant will produce as much dark-green, leafy foliage every bit it is genetically possible to manufacture equally long every bit light, C02, nutrients, and water are not limited. Properly maintained, marijuana will grow from half to two inches per day. A establish stunted now could have weeks to resume normal growth. A potent, unrestricted root organisation is essential to supply much needed water and nutrients. Unrestricted vegetative growth is the key to a healthy harvest. A establish's nutrient and h2o intake changes during vegetative growth. Transpiration is carried on at a more rapid rate, requiring more water. Loftier levels of nitrogen are needed; potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and trace elements are used at much faster rates. The larger a plant gets and the bigger the root organization, the faster the soil volition dry out out. The key to potent vegetative growth and a heavy harvest is supplying roots and plants with the perfect surround.

This bulb is in the early stages of vegetative growth.

Speed Rooter Canabis

This 'Euphoria' female has been in the vegetative growth phase for more than two months.

Vegetative growth is maintained with 16 or more hours of tight. i used to believe a point of diminishing returns was reached after 18 hours of lite, simply further inquiry shows that vegetative plants grow faster under 24 hours of low-cal. Marijuana will keep vegetative growth a yr or longer (theoretically forever), as long as an 18-hr photoperiod is maintained.

Cannabis is photo periodic-reactive; flowering tin be controlled with the light and night wheel. This allows indoor horticulturists to control vegetative and flowering growth. In one case a plant's sex is determined, it can get a mother, clone, or breeding male, and tin can be harvested or even rejuvenated.

Note: Plants show early male or female person "pre-flowers" virtually the fourth week of vegetative growth. See "Pre-flowering" in Affiliate Four and the sections here on pre-flowering male and female.

Cloning, transplanting, pruning, and angle are all initiated when plants are in the vegetative growth stage.

Clones and Cloning

Marijuana can be reproduced (propagated) sexually or asexually. Seeds are the product of sexual propagation; cuttings or clones are the result of asexual or vegetative propagation. In its simplest course, taking a cutting or clone involves cutting a growing branch tip and rooting it. Technically, cloning is taking one cell of a plant and promoting its growth into a plant. Marijuana growers unremarkably refer to a clone as pregnant a branch of a cannabis plant that has been cutting off and rooted.

Cloning reduces the fourth dimension it takes for a crop to mature. Productive growers take two rooms, a vegetative/cloning room, virtually a quarter the size of a 2nd room used for flowering. Smaller vegetative plants accept up less space than older flowering plants. For example, a 250- or 400-watt metal halide could easily illuminate vegetative plants and clones that would fill a flowering room lit by 3 600-watt HP sodiums. If the halide is turned off, fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps are more economical and work well to root clones.

Combine viii-calendar week flowering/harvest cycles with continuous cloning to form a perpetual harvest. 1 piece of cake-to-implement scenario is to take 2 clones every iv days, and harvest one ripe female every other day. Every time a plant is harvested, one or two rooted clones are moved from a constantly supplied vegetative room into the flowering room. This regimen gives a grower 30 flowering clones that are on a 91-day schedule. It takes 91 days from the time a clone is cut from the mother plant until the day it is harvested. Using this schedule, a grower would have thirty clones, x vegetative plants, and 30 flowering plants growing at all times. Encounter chart next folio.

Swiss retailers sold clones over-the-counter until the law inverse in 2001. At present, Swiss growers have gone hugger-mugger.

Clone production room in the basement of a Swiss retail store

Growth Phase

Time

Number of plants

Clone

3 weeks

thirty

Vegetative

ii weeks

10

Flower

8 weeks

30

Total

seventy

A sea of ciones share all genetic characteristics. They will all grow up to look like their mothers.

Ii 'Queen Mother' plants will soon conduct many, many clones.

Induce clones to bloom when they are iv to twelve inches tall to make about efficient use of HID light. Bogus light diminishes to the square of the distance, which means that leafage 4 feet away from the bulb receives one fourteenth every bit much low-cal as if information technology were 1 foot away! Foliage that is shaded or receives less light grows slowly and looks spindly.

Curt crops of clones in small containers are much easier to move and maintain than big plants in large containers. Short clones are as well like shooting fish in a barrel and efficient to grow in greenhouses and outdoors.

Well-illuminated, strong clones grow fast and have less chance of beingness afflicted by pests and diseases. Fast-growing clones develop more speedily than spider mites can reproduce. By the fourth dimension a spider mite infestation is noticed and sprayed, the plants are a few weeks from harvest. Clones are likewise easy to submerge in a miticide when minor.

Experiments with clones are consequent and easy to command. Genetically identical clones reply the same to unlike stimuli, such as fertilizer, light, bending, etc. After experimenting on several crops of clones from the same female parent, a grower has a very practiced idea what information technology takes to brand them grow well.

Mother Plants

Whatsoever plant tin exist cloned, regardless of age or growth stage. Take clones from mother plants that are at least ii months quondam. Plants cloned before they are two months sometime may develop unevenly and grow slowly, Clones taken from flowering plants root apace but require a month or longer to revert back to vegetative growth. Such rejuvenated clones occasionally flower prematurely, and buds are more prone to pest and disease attacks.

Any female tin can become a female parent. She can be grown from seed or be a clone of a clone. 1 interviewed several growers who fabricated clones of clones more than 20 times! That is, clones (C-50) were taken from the original female person grown from seed. These clones were grown in the vegetative stage, and clones (C-2) were taken from the starting time clones (C-l). Blooming was induced in (C-l) two weeks later and (C-2), grown in the vegetative phase. Then, clones (C-3) were taken from the second clones (C-2). This same growing technique is withal going on with clones of clones well past (C-twenty) and there has been no apparent breakdown in the potency or the vigor of the clone. However, if mothers suffer stress, they produce weak clones. Mothers that are forced to blossom and revert dorsum to vegetative growth not but yield less, they are stressed and confused. Clones that grow poorly are by and large the result of poor, unsanitary cloning practices.

Week Old Cannabis Clones

A clone is an exact genetic replica of the mother plant. Each female parent's prison cell carries a DNA blueprint of itself. Radiation, chemicals, and poor cultural practices tin can impairment this Deoxyribonucleic acid. Unless damaged, the Dna remains intact.

A female person found will reproduce 100 pct females, all exactly similar the mother. When grown in the exact same environment, clones from the same mother expect alike. But the same clones subjected to distinct environments in unlike abound rooms volition frequently look unlike.

A six-month old plant produces more than cannabinoids than a one-month one-time plant. Past cloning, a horticulturist is planting a THC-strong found that will continue to grow in potency at a very rapid rate. A month-old rooted clone acts exactly like a 4-calendar month-old plant and tin be induced hands to flower with a 12-hour photoperiod.

Go along several mother plants in the vegetative phase for a consequent source of cloning stock. Start new mothers from seed every year. Give mother plants 18-24 hours of lite per day to maintain fast growth. For all-time results, requite mothers about ten percent less nitrogen, because less nitrogen promotes rooting in clones.

This young 'Shaman' has already shown female pre-flowers and tin go a mother plant.

Swiss greenhouse grower nurtures clones in lower beds and keeps mothers in vivid low-cal in upper bed.

Mother plants are growing in big, individual hydroponic containers for easy culture and maintenance.

The root organization on this heavily producing female parent found is white-very strong and healthy.

Female parent plants must stay very healthy to be able to produce many clones. The roots on this female parent are very good for you!

Negative points

Clones grow slower than Fl hybrid plants grown from seed. An Fl hybrid is the heterozygous first filial generationpollen and ovule. Fl hybrids have "hybrid vigor" which means that this cross will grow about 25 pct bigger and stronger than cuttings. Hybrid vigor also makes plants less susceptible to pest and disease problems.

Ever commencement with the best mothers you can observe. A female parent establish yields clones in her image. If the mother found lacks potency, harvest weight, or is not pest and illness resistant, the clone shares her drawbacks. These weaknesses are compounded when growing only one strain. An unchecked pest or disease infestation could wipe out the entire crop,

Some growers have a difficult time learning to make clones. If this is the case, continue to work through the fiddling bug one pace at a fourth dimension, and y'all volition learn. Some people have a niggling longer learning bend when cloning is involved. Have 5 to ten do clones before making a serious cloning. Yous can besides work with strains that are easy to clone, as illustrated in the chart below.

Plants that are easy to clone

Virtually Skunk and Indtca strains are easy to clone.

Growers and ill plants cause virtually clone rooting issues. Weak plants that lack vigor provide slow-rooting weak clones. Poor growing atmospheric condition as well affect clone strength.

Harder to clone

Ruderalis Itidica and Ruderalis Skunk practice non brand suitable mother plants due to their auto-llowering capability. Outdoor strains with a slight trend to pre-sexual activity in an 1Bhr photograph period include: Early Girl, Early Skunk and many others. Check with seed companies for details. But early flowering does not exclude them every bit mother plants.

Getting Ready

Cloning is the almost traumatic incident cannabis plants can feel. Clones go through an incredible transformation when they change from a severed growing tip to a rooted plant. Their unabridged chemistry changes. The stem that once grew leaves must at present grow roots in social club to survive. Clones are at their almost tender point in life now.

Clones quickly develop a dumbo system of roots when stems take a loftier carbohydrate and low nitrogen concentration. Build sugar levels by leaching the growing medium with copious quantities of water to affluent out nutrients. The growing medium must drain very well to withstand heavy leaching without becoming waterlogged. Reverse foliar feeding will leach nutrients from leaves, especially nitrogen. To reverse foliar feed, fill a sprayer with make clean water and mist mother heavily every morning for three or four days. Older leaves may turn light green; growth slows as nitrogen is used and carbohydrates build. Carbohydrate and hormonal content is highest in lower, older, more mature branches. A rigid branch that folds over quickly when aptitude is a expert sign of high carbohydrate content.

Clones from lower branches root the easiest because they comprise more than of the proper hormones.

Integrity in parents

  1. Maintain 18-24-60 minutes day photoperiod
  2. Keep plants healthy
  3. Grow for vi-9 months
  4. Repot
  5. Crow hydroponically

Hormone content is different in different parts of a plant. Root growth hormones are full-bodied virtually the base of the plant close to the main stem. This is the oldest portion of the plant and is where most root hormones are located. The meridian of the plant contains older hormones; cuttings taken from this part root slowly.

While rooting, clones require a minimum of nitrogen and increased levels of phosphorus to promote root growth. Sprays should exist avoided during rooting every bit they compound cloning stress. Given good instruction and a lilliputian experience, almost growers achieve a consistent; 100 percent clone survival rate.

Large cuttings with large stems packed with starch grow roots slower than modest clones with small stems. The excess starch in moist substrate besides attracts diseases. Thin-stemmed clones accept fewer reserves (accumulated starch), but they only need enough reserve energy to initiate root growth.

Small clones with few leaves root faster than big cuttings with many leaves, At first leaves contain moisture, just later on a few days, the stem is no longer able to supply enough moisture to the leaves, and the clone suffers stress. A modest amount of leaf space is all that is necessary for photosynthesis to supply enough energy for root growth.

These 'Ortega' clones were taken on August 25. Now they are rooted and ready to transplant.

Cut from Young

Cut from Old

Jail cell division starts

Day 4

Twenty-four hours 6

Get-go root nubs grade

Twenty-four hours half dozen

Day 10

Roots start to abound

Day 7

Day 20

Enough roots to transplant

Day xiv

Day 28

This nautical chart shows average times for roots to abound from the cambium. Note clones taken

from younger growth root nearly twice equally fast equally those taken from older growth.

Precautions

An embolism is a chimera of air that gets trapped in the hole in the stalk. Embolisms occur when you have large clones and lay them on the counter before placing in h2o or a growing medium. When an embolism happens, fluid flow stops, and clones die. Afterwards taking cuttings, immediately dip them in water or a growing medium to foreclose air from getting trapped in the hollow stems. Eliminate the threat of an embolism past taking cuttings under water.

Clones root well within a pH range of five to six. Aeroponic clone gardens ordinarily do best with a pH of five to five and a half. Most diseases abound poorly below these pH levels. E'er make certain there is plenty of air in the rooting medium; this will stimulate root growth.

Exercise not kill clones with kindness and fertilizer. At all-time, giving clones an excess dose of fertilizer causes rooting to be delayed. In fact, a good dose of ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, volition stop root hairs from growing.

If an infestation occurs, utilize aerosol pyrethrum. Remember, all pesticides, natural or non, are phytotoxic. Spraying cuttings is a bad idea in general. If you must use sprays, employ natural organic sprays, utilize them when information technology is cool, and proceed their use to a minimum.

Use anti-desiccant sprays sparingly, if at all, and merely if a humidity dome is unavailable. Anti-desiccant sprays clog stomata and can impair root growth in clones.

Practice not over-water clones. Keep the medium evenly moist, and practice not let it get soggy.

Any kind of stress disrupts hormones and slows rapid growth

Keep the cloning area make clean. Practice not take clones where fungus spores and diseases are hiding! Pythium is the worst! Pythium flourishes in loftier temperatures and excessive moisture. Mites, whiteflies, thrips, etc., honey weak tender clones. Remove infested clones from the room. Libation conditions, 65-78°F (18-25°C), tedious mite and fungal spore reproduction and allow you to avoid an infestation.

Do not use fertilizers on clones or seedlings

Rooting Hormones

Root-inducing hormones speed plant processes. When the stalk of a cutting develops roots, it must transform from producing green stem cells to manufacturing undifferentiated cells and, finally, to fabricating root cells. Rooting hormones hasten growth of undifferentiated cells. One time undifferentiated, cells chop-chop transform into root cells. 3 substances that stimulate undifferentiated growth include napthalenaecetic acid (NAA), indolebutyric acrid (IBA) and 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acrid (ii, three DPA). Commercial rooting hormones contain 1, two, or all of the above synthetic ingredients and often include a fungicide to help prevent damping-off.

Rooting hormones are available in liquid, gel, or powder form. Liquid and gel types penetrate stems evenly and are the most versatile and consistent. Powdered rooting hormones adhere inconsistently to stems, penetrate poorly, spur uneven root growth, and yield a lower survival rate.

Rooting Hormone

Algimin ii Maxicrop

Contents

Dry out kelp product Liquid seaweed

Notes

NO IBA or NAA. Soak cuttings overnight in a solution of two ounces AlgimilWi' to one gallon of water. Change planting, go along watering with this solution.

CI on ex if

First cloning gel

Blend of vii vitamins, eleven minerals, two antimicrobial agents, 30O0 ppm rooting hormones. Gel seals cut tissues, reducing hazard of infection and embolisms.

Dtp-Northward-Grown Earth Juicc Catalyst north

IBA, NAA, anti-bacterial

Cost is 1 penny per loo cuttings. Organic, derived from oat bran, kelp, molasses, vitamin B complexes, amino adds, hormones, barren low levels of nutrients.

Norm ex

IBA based powder

Available in 6 different strengths ranging from 1000 ppm to fifteen,000 ppm.

Hormodinii

IBA

Powder available in 3 strengths: 1000, 3000, and 0000 ppm.

Nitrozyme fl>

Natural production

Seaweed extract, contains cytokinins, auxins, enzymes, gibbcrejlins, and ethylenes. Spray Nitrozyme on mothers two weeks earlier taking cuttings.

Olivia'due south Cloning Solutionx Olivia's Cloning Gel

IBA, anti-fungal agents, nutrients

Very high success rate.

Rhizopon AA H' (Rhizopon B.Five.)

IBA

Globe's largest company devoted to inquiry and manufacture of rooting products. Powder and water-soluble tablets in strengths from fiOO to 20,000 ppm.

Rootex

IBA vitamins, hormones

From Tecknaflora is i of light favorite products in North America.

Vita Grow

IBA NAA.

Customers say "you could root a popsicle stick"

Alert! Sonic products ¡ire not recommended for use willi edible plants. Head the Libel carefully before deciding (o use a product.

Liquid rooting hormones can be mixed in different concentrations. Ever mix the nigh dilute concentration for softwood cuttings. Apply whatsoever rooting hormone containing IBA only once. If exceeded in concentration or duration, IBA applications impair root formation. As soon every bit cuttings are taken, clones start dispatching rooting hormones to the wound. They go far in full force in about a week. The artificial rooting hormone fills the need until natural hormones take over.

Requite cuttings a v-fifteen second dip in concentrated solutions of IBA and MA A, 500-20,000 ppm. With a quick dip, stems evenly absorb the full-bodied hormone.

Relatively new to the market, gels take caught on everywhere. They are easy to employ and practical, but are not water soluble. Once applied, gels hold and stay with the stem longer than liquids or powders.

Rooting powders are a mixture of talc and lliA and/or NAA and are less expensive than liquids or gels. To utilize, ringlet the moistened end of your cutting in the powder. Use a thick, fifty-fifty coat. To avert contamination, cascade a modest amount into a separate container, and throw away whatsoever backlog. Tap or scrape backlog pulverization off the cutting; excess hormones tin can hinder root growth. Make a pigsty bigger than the stem in the rooting medium. If the pigsty is likewise small, the rooting pulverisation gets scraped off upon insertion.

You can also spray clones with a single foliar spray of dilute 1BA (50-90 ppm). Be careful to spray just enough to cover leaves. Spray should non drip off leaves. An IBA overdose slows growth, makes leaves dwarf, and could even kill the clone.

Some growers soak their cuttings in a dilute solution (xx-200 ppm IBA and/or NNA) for 24 hours. But I take seen few growers apply this time consuming technique.

To determine the rooting hormone concentration in parts per million, multiply the percentage listed by the manufacturer by ten,000. For example, a product with 0.9% IBA contains 9000 ppm IBA.

An all-natural, root-inducing substance is willow (tree) h2o. The substance in all willow trees that promotes rooting is unknown, but repeated experiments take proven willow water promotes about twenty pct more than roots than apparently water. This willow water is mixed with commercial rooting hormones for astounding results.

To brand willow water rooting compound, find whatever willow tree and remove some of this year's branches that are near one and a half inches in bore. Remove the leaves, and cutting the branches into 1-inch lengths. Place 1-inch willow sticks on cease, and then a lot of them fit in a water drinking glass or quart jar. Fill the jar with h2o, ard let information technology soak for 24 hours. Afterwards soaking, pour off the willow water, and employ it for rooting hormone. Soak the marijuana clones in the willow h2o for 24 hours, then plant in rooting medium, If using a commercial liquid rooting hormone, substitute the willow water in place of regular h2o in the mix.

Cef all cloning supplies ready before starting.

Canna products and several other commercial products contain Trichoderrna bacteria. The bacterium causes roots to abound and absorb nutrients better. To acquire more near

Avert problems:

Continue the work area clean. Launder piece of work surfaces and tools before starting. Have grow medium ready.

Prepare mother establish (scion).

Take clones.

Store unused clone.

Insert (stick) cutting in growing medium or aeroponics organisation.

Place clones under humidity tent.

Expect for root growth.

Transplant when roots emerge from root cube or medium.

Harden-off by gradually exposing to new surroundings.

This cute 'Stinky Pinky' female parent is but two and a half months erstwhile.

Crow More than Roots

Split the stem of clones tn expose more of the cambium layer just under the "skin" of the stem. 2 is the merely place that generates new roots.

Exposing the cambium layer causes many roots to grow there. Lightly scraping away the outer layer of the stem to betrayal merely the cambium allows hormones to concentrate where roots showtime. Splitting the clones' stem exposes more surface area to grow roots. Both practices increment the number of healthy roots, only rooting time is a few days longer.

Afterward the cut has been trimmed and scraped, dip the bare stem into a rooting hormone. Mow it is ready to "stick" into the substrate.

Carve up the stem to initiate more than surface expanse for roots to grow.

it, check out the Carina web site www.canna.com.

Before Making Clones

Making clones or cuttings is the about efficient and productive means of cannabis propagation for small growers, both indoors and out. One time females have been distinguished, you are set to do the simple, productive art and scientific discipline of cloning.

Disinfect all tools and working surfaces to impale bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other diseases already nowadays. Use sharp pair of scissors, razor, or razor blade dipped in booze, vinegar, or bleach (five to ten pct solution). Wash your hands thoroughly beforehand.

Make sure to have all cloning supplies inside arm's reach-rooting cubes, hormone, razor or scissors, humidity dome, etc.-before you start to take clones.

Cloning: Step-by-Step

Step One: Choose a mother found that is at least two months one-time. Some varieties give not bad clones even when pumped up with hydroponics and fertilizer. If a diverseness is hard to clone, leach the soil with two gallons of water for each gallon of soil every morning for a week before taking clones. Drainage must be adept. Or mist leaves heavily with plain water every morning. Both practices aid wash out nitrogen. Do not add fertilizer.

Step Ii: With a sharp blade, make a 45-degree cut across firm, healthy 0.125-0.25-inch-broad (3-6 mm) branches, two to four inches four inches (3-5 cm) in length. Have care non to smash the end of the stem when making the cut. Trim off 2 or 3 sets of leaves and growth nodes so the stem can fit into the soil. There should be at least ii sets of leaves above the soil line and 1 or ii sets of trimmed nodes below footing. When cutting, make the slice halfway between the sets of nodes. Immediately place the cut end in h2o. Store cut clones in water while making more clones.

Trim off one or two sets of leaves

Hold cutting clones in a glass of h2o until y'all are prepare to dip in hormone and constitute.

Step 3: Rockwool and Oasis'''ane root cubes are convenient and easy to maintain and transplant. Fill small containers or nursery flats with coarse, washed sand, fine vermiculite, soilless mix, or, if zilch else is bachelor, fine potting soil. Saturate the substrate with h2o. Use an unsharpened pencil, chop stick, nail, etc., to brand a hole in the rooting medium-a little larger than the stem. The hole should stop nearly ane-half inch from the bottom of the container to permit for root growth.

Identify a tray containing rooting cubes or plugs into a standard plant nursery rooting flat. If none exist, make holes through three-fourths of the cube for clone stems.

Fill up rockwool tray with h2o, pH 5-6. Ever use stiff plastic trays.

Crow clones until they are well-rooted. Ever remember to label clones when planting.

Dip trimmed stem into the rooting gel or liquid hormone. Make sure stem is covered with the proper amount of rooting hormone.

Place the stalk covered with rooting hormone into the root cube.

growing medium is in total contact with the stem.

Pace Four: Use a rooting hormone, and mix (if necessary) just before using. For liquids, use the dilution ratio for softwood cuttings. Swirl each cutting in the hormone solution for v-xv seconds. Place the cuttings in the hole in the rooting medium. Pack rooting medium gently around the stem. Gel and powder root hormones require no mixing. Dip stems in gels every bit per instructions or roll the stem in the pulverisation, Wiien planting, take special care to keep a solid layer of hormone gel or pulverisation around the stalk when gently packing soil into place.

Footstep V: Lightly water until the surface is evenly moist. Continue cuttings moist at all times. Clones take no roots to bring water to leaves. Water arrives from leaves and the cut stem until roots can supply it. Water as needed to continue growing medium evenly moist. Practise not allow it get soggy.

Step Six: Clones root fastest with eighteen-24 hours of fluorescent light. If clones must be placed nether an HID, set them on the perimeter of the garden so they receive less intense light; or shade them with a cloth or screen. A fluorescent tube six inches above clones or a 400-watt metal halide lamp 4 to 6 feet away supplies the perfect amount of low-cal for clones to root. Cool white fluorescents (or a combination of warm and absurd white) are excellent for rooting.

Humidity domes fit over flats of clones to retain humidity. The domes on the right are covered with lightweight Agronet to lower light on new clones.

Hooting Clones

Hooting Clones

Roots/Air

A fogger in the cloning room will ensure humidity stays in a higher place 95 percent.

To lower transpirationi, cuf clone leaves in half before sticking.

Footstep Seven: Clones root fastest when humidity levels are 95-100 percentage the starting time two days and gradually reduced to 80-85 percent during the following week. A humidity tent will help go along humidity high. Construct the tent out of plastic bags, rigid plastic, or glass. Remember to leave openings for air to flow in and out so lilliputian clones tin breathe. If applied, mist clones several times a twenty-four hour period as an culling to the humidity tent. Remove any sick, rotting, or dead foliage.

Cutting leaves in half to lower transpiration surface and to keep them from overlapping. Moisture that could foster fungus is ofttimes trapped between overlapping leaves. Keep the grow medium evenly moist so there is enough moisture to forbid cutting leaves from haemorrhage out constitute sugars that attract diseases.

Step Eight: Clones root faster when the growing medium is a few degrees warmer than the ambient air temperature. A warmer substrate increases secret chemical action, and lower air temperature slows transpiration. For best results, go along the rooting medium at 75-fourscore°F (24-27°C). Crowing medium temperatures above 85°F (29°C) volition cause damage. Keep the air temperature 5-ten°F (iii-v.5°C) cooler than the substrate. A warmer growing medium coupled with cooler ambient temperature slows diseases and conserves wet. Misting clones with water besides cools leafage and slows transpiration to help traumatized clones retain moisture unavailable from nonexistent roots.

Put clones in a warm identify to adjust air temperature and use a heat pad, heating cables, or an incandescent low-cal bulb beneath rooting cuttings.

Stride Nine: Some cuttings may wilt only regain rigidity in a few days. Clones should look close to normal by the terminate of the week. Cuttings that are stil! wilted after seven days may root so slowly that they never catch up with others. Cull them out, or put them back into the cloning chamber to abound more roots.

An incandescent lite bulb attached to a rheostat provides exacting command of lesser heat,

This large clone has been rooting for a calendar week. The practiced grower makes certain the climate is perfect, so clones suffer no stress.

Strong clone in an aeroponic clone garden has a mass of roots and is ready to establish.

Step Ten: In one to three weeks, cuttings should exist rooted. Signals they have rooted include yellow leaf tips, roots growing out drain holes, and vertical growth of the clones. To check for root growth in flats or pots, carefully remove the root ball and clone to see if information technology has skilful root development. For all-time results, practise not transplant clones until a dense root system is growing out the sides and bottom of rooting cubes.

Cuttings are always strong and salubrious-looking afterward y'all accept them. Afterward five or six days, leaves may start to change color, Leaves stay small and ofttimes turn a deeper shade of green. After about a calendar week, lower leaves may start to yellow if their nutrient levels misemploy.

A week after being taken, clones' stems will develop chubby callused roots called primor-dia. The primordia are semi-transparent to white and should wait healthy. Clones produce very trivial green growth during this process. One time the root and vascular transport system is in place and working properly, clones are able to experience explosive growth with the proper intendance.

Rooting clones can handle increasingly more light every bit roots grow. Movement the fluoresced lamps to two to iv inches above plants when roots grade. Fertilize with a mild fertilizer solution when all clones take started vegetative growth.

Whatsoever sign of slime, pests, or disease means at that place are problems, and clones should be removed from the garden.

Transplant but the strongest, well-rooted clones. (Meet "Transplanting" beneath.) Slow-rooting clones should exist kept in the cloning chamber or culled out. Practice not movement clones below brilliant light until they have fully developed root systems. In one case transplanted, clones are set to harden-off (see "Transplanting" below).

1. Make 2 cuttings

2. Label each cutting

Cloning the apex of the tip

Swiss cloning skilful is removing the tip of a mother institute to clone in an agar solution. Such clones are easy to maintain for long periods.

Setup a vegetative pre-growing area that is lit with an HID or bright meaty fluorescent lamp for the rooted clones. Place them in this area to allow them abound the commencement week or two of vegetation. This area needs to be just big enough to accommodate plants from the time they are a few inches alpine until they are about a foot tall and ready to he moved into the flowering room.

Sequence of cloning for sex

  1. Make two cuttings
  2. Label each cutting
  3. Requite 12 hours of light while rooting
  4. Cut will determine sex in 2-iii weeks

Air layering

At that place is a good sequence of air layering in Marijuana Botany, by Robert C Clarke. To date, I take never seen anybody apply this technique. It is interesting, just normally not necessary. Cannabis is easy to root or clone.

Cloning for Sex activity

Determine establish sex accurately, 100 pct of the time, by "cloning for sex." To clone for sex, take two cuttings (in example i dies) from each parent establish in question. Utilise waterproof labels and an indelible marker to place sets of clones and corresponding parents.

Give rooting clones a 12-hour light/dark regimen. After a 12-hr day, ready clones in a nighttime cupboard, or place a box over them. The dark period must be total and uninterrupted to induce flowering. Clones commonly show sex within two weeks. Choose out all males except those used lor breeding. Flower trivial females, and keep their mothers growing nether 18-24 hours of calorie-free.

Growers with only one room root clones in a nursery flat, and comprehend it with a light-tight cardboard box for 12 hours every dark Remove the paper-thin box after the lights go out to increase air circulation and ventilation.

Clones from a Flowering Female

You can clone a favorite flowering plant, merely information technology is difficult. Clones take longer to root, and results are not always the all-time. Powerful flowering hormones must be reversed, and rooting hormone signals must be sent. Now is the time to requite plants 24 hours of low-cal to bespeak them to grow.

Cut clones from the lower greenish branch tips. Cutting a one to two-inch-long (3-five cm) stalk. Trim off flowers and lower leaves. Keep 2 or three green leaves. If leaves have yellowed, survival chances diminish exponentially.

Yous can have clones from flowering plants and revert them to vegetative growth once rooted.

The earlier in the flowering stage cuttings are taken, the more than rapid the rooting and the re-vegetation charge per unit. One time a plant reaches the senescence point, growth hormones have dissipated, leaving not enough to initiate roots.

Storing Clones

To store cuttings for later use, wrap recently cut and trimmed stems in a damp textile or newspaper towel. Put the wrapped clones into a plastic bag, and store in the fridge. On a daily basis, remove the water that condenses inside the pocketbook in the absurd refrigerator. Keep the temperature in a higher place 40°F (5°C). Temperatures beneath this level may cause establish cells to rupture. Cuttings should last in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.

Clonex Root Matrix, a Growth Technology product, is a gel that allows cut clones to root and be held until they are needed.

Transplanting

When plants are too big for their containers, they must be transplanted to continue rapid growth. Inhibited, cramped root systems grow sickly, stunted plants. Signs of root bound plants include dull, sickly growth and branches that develop with more distance between limbs. Severely root-leap plants tend to abound straight up with few branches that stretch beyond the sides of the pot. To cheque for root-jump symptoms, remove a plant from its pot to see if roots are securely malted on the bottom or surrounding the sides of the pot.

When growing short plants that reach full maturity in 90 days, there is piddling need for containers larger than three gallons (xi L). Large mother plants will demand a large pot if they are kept for more than than a few months.

In this container, roots are growing mainly around the sides and forth the bottom. This plant is ready to be transplanted.

Transplanting

Mix the clone dip, and utilise a rag to cover and contain soil when dipping.

Submerge the entire clone in the dip to ensure miticide covers all foliage.

Remove the clone, and shake off backlog dip before transplanting.

Dip rooted clones into a miticidal/fungicid-al solution before transplanting and before moving into the flowering room.

Mix a miticidal/fungicidal dip (I like Einstein Oil) to disinfect clones earlier sticking them in the growing medium. Fill a container with low pH water (five-half-dozen) and add a natural fungicide such as hydrogen peroxide in a 2 percent solution. Or include a x percent mix of chlorine or vinegar. Practice not mix vinegar and chlorine! The resulting gas is chancy. Encounter "Transplanting."

Transplant into the aforementioned type or similar growing medium; otherwise, a water pressure differential could develop between the different mediums, which slows water motility and causes boring root growth. Starling seeds and clones in root cubes or peat pots makes them easy to transplant. Set the cube or peat pot in a hole in the growing medium, and brand sure growing medium is in firm contact. Remember to keep root cubes and substrates evenly moist later transplanting.

Transplanting is the second most traumatic experience later on cloning. It requires special attention and transmission dexterity. Tiny root hairs are very delicate and may easily be destroyed past lite, air, or clumsy hands. Roots grow in darkness, in a rigid, secure environment. When roots are taken out of contact with the soil for long, they dry up and die.

Transplanting should involve every bit little disturbance to the root system as possible. H2o helps the soil pack around roots and keeps them from drying out, Roots need to be in constant contact with moist soil in order to supply h2o and food to the plant

Subsequently transplanting, photosynthesis and chlorophyll production are slowed, equally are h2o and nutrient absorption via roots. Transplant belatedly in the mean solar day so transplanted plants will have all night to recover. Transplants need subdued light, and so foliage can grow at the rate roots are able to supply water and nutrients. Requite new transplants filtered, less-intense light for a couple of days. If there is a fluorescent lamp handy, motion transplants under information technology for a couple of days earlier moving them back nether the HID or outdoors to harden-off.

Ideally, plants should be as good for you every bit possible before being traumatized by transplanting. But, transplanting a sick, root-leap found to a bigger container has cured more than than one ailing plant Once transplanted, cannabis requires low levels of nitrogen and potassium and increased quantities of phosphorus. Any product containing Trichoderma bacteria or Vitamin B, will help ease transplant shock. Plants need a few days to settle in and re-establish a solid flow of fluids from the roots throughout the establish. When transplanted carefully and disturbed petty, there will be no signs of transplant stupor or wilt, within ii inches (5 cm) of the top.

Roots showing through a rooting cube means cuttings are set to transplant

Double potting is a unproblematic transplanting technique that disturbs roots very lilliputian. To double pot a plant, cut the bottom out of a root-bound pot, and set on top of another bigger pot of soil. Roots grow down into second pot.

Transplanting Step-past-Step

Step One: H2o clone with one-half-force Trichoderma leaner Vitamin B two days before transplanting.

Step Two: Fill the 3-gallon (11 L) container with rich potting soil or soilless mix to

Step Three: H2o growing medium with a mild, quarter-strength hydroponic fertilizer solution until saturated and solution drains freely out the bottom.

Step Iv: Carefully remove the root ball from the container. Place your hand over elevation of container with the stem between your fingers; turn it upside down, and allow root ball skid out of pot into your hand. Take special care at this bespeak to keep the root brawl in one integral slice.

Half Strenght Tricoderma Bacteris Mix

Carefully remove seedlings from containers. These seedlings were kept moist and moved rapidly to minimize exposure to air and light. Growers used Vitamin S, solution to ease transplant stupor.

Step Five: Carefully place the root ball in the prepared hole in the three-gallon (xi I) container. Brand sure all roots are growing down.

Footstep Six: Backfill around the root ball. Gently, but firmly, place soil into contact with root brawl.

Step Seven: Wiiter with half-forcefulness fertilizer containing Trichoderma bacteria or Vitamin Br Soil should be saturated-non waterlogged-and drain freely. If rooting cube and new substrate are not identical, pay special attention to moisture levels. Let stone-wool dry out out enough so that roots penetrate new growing medium in search of moisture.

Stride Eight: Place new transplants on the perimeter of the HID garden or under a screen to subdue sunlight for a couple of clays. In one case transplants look strong, motility them nether full calorie-free.

Footstep Nine: Fertilize soilless mixes after transplanting with a complete hydroponic fertilizer that contains soluble chelated nutrients. New potting soil usually supplies enough nutrients for a couple of weeks earlier supplemental fertilization is necessary.

Week Vegitive

This clone grew in a 4-inch (ten-cm) pot and is ready to he transplanted

Week Vegitive

Transplanting this clone grown in rockwool into soil or soilless mix is simple and piece of cake. Remove the rockwool'south plastic covering before setting the clone in a pre-made hole in substrate.

Footstep X: Minimum Container Size chart below.

Minimum Container Size Plant age Container size

  • 1-three weeks root cube
  • ii-6 weeks 4-inch (10 cm) pot 6-8 weeks 2-gallon (vii.five 50) pot
  • 2-3 months 3-gallon (11 L) pot
  • 3-8 months 5-gallon (xix L) pot half-dozen-18 months 10-gallon (38 L) pot

Seedlings and clones tin likewise be transplanted directly into a three- to five-gallon (eleven-19 L) pot, a arrangement which requires fewer containers and involves less work and less possible plant stress. The larger volume of soil holds water and nutrients longer and requires less frequent watering. When clones and seedlings are transplanted directly into a five-gallon (xix L) container, the roots grow down, out, and effectually the container walls and bottom. In fact, the majority of roots grow out of the soil and form a layer behind the container wall.

To encourage roots to develop a dense compact organisation, transplant only before they have outgrown their container. Transplanting a well-rooted clone in a root cube into a four-inch (10-cm) pot and transplanting the iv-inch (10-cm) pot into a three-gallon (11 50) pot or abound handbag causes roots to develop a more extensive arrangement in a modest ball of growing medium. Successful transplanting causes minimal stress. Most marijuana crops are in the ground for such a brusque fourth dimension that bungled transplanting costs valuable recuperation time and loss in product.

Transplant clones and seedlings into raised beds and large planter boxes directly from iv-inch (10-cm) pots. Every bit many as 20 plants can be transplanted into a 24 x 24 x 12-inch (6 ! ten 61 x 30 cm) planter, but vi to twelve plants will yield about the same dry out weight of buds. In one case plants start crowding and shading i another, bend stems outward and necktie them to a trellis attached to the planter.

This clone was transplanted directly into a large container at the Cannabis College in Amsterdam.

Large planters crave less maintenance. The larger mass of soil retains h2o and nutrients much longer and more evenly. One downside is that all plants must receive the aforementioned water and diet.

3-gallon (11 50) containers are the ideal size for ii- to 3-foot-tall (60-90 cm) plants. Larger pots are usually unnecessary because plants grow no longer than a week or 2 in the vegetative stage and six to ten weeks flowering. Smaller three-gallon (xi L) pots are piece of cake to movement and handle. Roots likewise abound less during flowering. By the fourth dimension a plant is potbound, it is set up to harvest. I used to recommend upward to a five-gallon (19 L) container for plants that are harvested later ninety total days of life. i now believe this is a waste matter. While the smaller containers crave

Hardening-off

Hardening-off is the process of tough-ening-up clones and seedlings. During the rooting process, leaves supplied much of the moisture for the clone. Mow, healthy white new roots are supplying wet to the clone. Check for root harm. Brown roots are rotting and lack oxygen. Thin hair-like night roots are dried out. One time damaged, roots remain damaged. New roots must grow to replace damaged roots. Choose out whatsoever clones with damaged roots, because they will grow slowly. The protective wax coating must besides grow back on leaves. It is best to acclimate rooted clones to the abound room over the course of a week.

These beautiful little seedlings were started indoors nether a fluorescent lamp.

Gradually hardening-off clones will assure moves them outdoors for a few hours every they suffer a minimum of stress and con- day to harden-off and acclimatize to the out-tinue to grow rapidly. door surround.

Harden off the strong ones, and introduce them to the real world-the grow room where they will meet photosynthetically active response (PAR) at total value and nutrients that make their cells quiver. Now is the time to pre-grow clones before placing them into the flowering room.

Foliage loses its protective wax coating when it is pampered during cloning, so it is very tender now. New roots must start to transport water via the stems to the leaves. The roots and moisture-ship arrangement start to work on strong, healthy clones first. Clones that lag behind at present should be tossed out, because they volition ever be tiresome. You can let them root longer and not transplant them until adequate roots develop.

This female was pruned and aptitude to go on a low contour and open upwards the heart of the plant.

Female parent plants are much larger, grow longer, and can require containers up to 30 gallons (115 50) in size. Withal, mother plants grow quite well in v or ten-gallon (19-38 L) hydroponic containers for a twelvemonth or longer. If you plan to keep a female parent constitute for more than than a few months, abound it hydroponically in its own container for best results.

Pruning and Angle

Pruning and bending a plant redirects growth hormones. Pruning affects the institute more drastically than bending. Selective pruning and bending let u.s.a. to dispense auxin hormone levels in branch and (lower tips. Removing or bending a branch or branch tip causes hormonal balances to shift. Cutting the meristem (top growth tip) of a cannabis plant volition diffuse auxins and cause greater concentrations in lower co-operative tips. Bending a growing tip changes hormone concentrations less than pruning.

Pruning

Ever employ dean instruments when pruning. A straight razor, unmarried-edge razor bract, a sharp pair of pruners, or a pair of scissors all work well. Sanitize clippers and blades between cuts by dipping in rubbing booze. Use indoor pruners only in the indoor garden. Pruners used outdoors have everything from spider mites to fungus spores on them. If outdoor clippers must be used, dip in rubbing alcohol to sterilize before making cuts.

Afterward pruning, the open wound invites diseases and pests. Wash your hands and tools before and after pruning. Brand cuts at a 45-degree angle to discourage wet from sitting on wounds.

Avoid pruning upwards to a calendar month before inducing flowering. Since pruning diffuses floral hormones, flowering is retarded. If heavily pruned shortly before flowering, acme maturation is delayed for a week or longer. It takes a month or longer for hormones to build up to pre-pruning concentrations.

Leave leaves solitary! Removal of healthy leaves hacks up a healthy plant. Removing large fan or shade leaves DOES Not make plants more productive. This exercise DOES NOT supply more light to smaller leaves and growing tips. Plants need all their leaves to produce the maximum corporeality of chlorophyll and food. Removing leaves slows chlorophyll production, stresses the plant, and stunts its growth. Stress is a growth inhibitor. Remove simply dead leaves or leaves that are more 50 percent damaged.

There are a few bones techniques to pruning marijuana, including:

Clip off the peak of the plant below the first set or two of branches to drive hormones to lower branches. Pruning off more of the master stalk will increase the effect.

Prune off the tip of plants lo diffuse hormones and make lower branches abound more than.

Prune the tips of all branches except the chief tip to make plants tall.

Remove lower branches that do not receive light. Plants will directly energy into buds.

Pruning off all lower branches makes inspecting irrigation fittings like shooting fish in a barrel and diminishes problems associated with weak growth.

Remove spindly branches and growth that is not collecting lite energy, including dead and dying leaves. Pruning lower branches concentrates auxins in upper branches which forces growth upwardly. Cut lower branches off cleanly at the stalk so no stub is left to rot and concenter pests and diseases. If you must harvest a little smoke prematurely, removing a few lower branches will diminish the harvest the to the lowest degree.

Pruning out spindly branches and growth inside plants opens up the interior and provides more and improve air circulation. Information technology likewise allows light to attain deeper inside plants.

Not pruning has several advantages. Floral hormones are allowed to concentrate in tips of branches causing buds to grow stronger and denser. Unpruned plants are crammed into a small area. Crowded plants have less space to bush out laterally and tend to abound more than upright. Clones are fix into the flowering room after ane-30 days in the vegetative room. All the little clones are packed tightly together in three-gallon pots. Each one of the plants is taking up the minimum amount of infinite for the minimum amount of time to produce the maximum amount of marijuana. Calorie-free is much more than intense, and the entire plant grows flower tops with few fan leaves.

No pruning was done in this room. Buds were so large in this room that plants were staked with bamboo sticks.

Pruned plants often seal themselves, just problems can still arise when there is an appealing opening for pests.

Virtually successful growers do not prune at all, especially if growing a short clone ingather that is only two to iii anxiety (61-91 cm) tall. Brusque clone crops require no pruning to increase light to bottom leaves or to alter their profile. "No pruning" is the easiest and most productive method when growing short crops.

Pinching back or pruning tops (branch tips) causes the 2 growing shoots just below the cutting to grow stronger and bigger. This increases the number of pinnacle or main buds. Pruning tops as well diffuses floral hormones, These hormones (auxins) prevent the lateral buds from growing very fast, All lower branches develop more rapidly when the concluding bud is removed. The further a branch is from hormones at the institute tip, the less effect the auxins have.

To pinch dorsum a branch tip, only snip information technology off beneath the last set or two of leaves. Pinching off tender growth with your fingers helps seal the wound and is ofttimes less damaging to plants than cutting. When the main stalk is pinched back, side and lower growth is stimulated. When all the tops are pinched dorsum, lower growth is encouraged. Continually pinching dorsum, as when taking clones from a mother, causes many more piddling branches to form below the pruned tips. Eventually, the institute is transformed into a hedge-similar shape. Most growers do not pinch plants dorsum, because it diminishes the yield of prime, dense tops; but information technology may not affect the overall weight of dried smoke.

Supercropping is a form of pinching back or pruning branch tips. We are non sure who or when the term or buzzword was coined. We practice know that there are several dissimilar versions of supercropping "invented" by innovative growers.

The main growing tips of this large patio institute were pruned off, which stimulated lower growth.

Supercropping can as well incorporate FIM pruning which is explained below. It tin can be combined with bending, too. Some people go to the bespeak of mutilating plants by breaking branches a few inches below main buds. Removing healthy leaves and then that "budding sites get more light" is also skilful by some supercroppers. Encounter "Stress" beneath for more information.

Floral hormones are concentrated in four main branches.

Pruning all the branches or removing more than 20 percent of the foliage in a brusque time frame stresses plants too much and diminishes harvest. But if taking clones, some growers effectively prune a mother down to stubby branches and let her recuperate for a calendar month or longer.

Pruning too much over time may modify hormonal concentrations, causing spindly growth. This is often the case with mother plants that provide too many clones, The mother must balance and proceeds girth, because pocket-size, spindly branches root poorly.

Remove all just the four main branches. The meristem (cardinal stem) is removed just

higher up the four lowest (main) branches. Removing the central leader concentrates the floral hormones in the four remaining branches. Fewer branches are stronger and bear a larger quantity of dense, heavy flower tops. Remove the stem above the four main branches; practice not remove leaves on the main branches. Select plants with three sets of co-operative nodes about six weeks old, and compression or clip out the last set of nodes so that two sets of branches remain. Motility plants into the flowering room when they are near 12 inches alpine. 'Skunk #i' and similarly robust bloomers should be set in the flowering room when about six to 8 inches tall.

The FIM Technique was coined by an anonymous High Times reader from South Carolina in the July 2000 issue of the magazine. The technique has get legendary on world wide web.overgrow.com, e'er since the grower wrote; "this pruning technique could revolutionize indoor gardening." The South Carolina grower tried to pinch the tip of a found and said "Fuck, ane Missed!" when he did not remove the unabridged bud and coined the acronym FIM.

FIM Technique

The drawing on the left shows the traditional method to top a plant. The entire growing shoot just beneath the bud is removed. When the unabridged growing shoot is removed, the two buds located directly below the cut grow faster and stronger. The drawing in the center and the close-upwards on the right testify the FIM pruning technique - the bottom ten percent of the bud remains intact. This is the key to FIM pruning. Many different flowering tops form as a consequence of this single pruning. According to FIM afficionados, final buds put on much more weight and are more dense.

Bending

Angle is like to pruning, in that it alters the flow of hormones. Angle efficiently neutralizes the effect of the growth-inhibiting hormone. Bending is much easier on plants than pruning. To curve, lean a branch in the desired direction and tie it in place. Branches can take a lot of bending earlier they fold over or break. Even if a branch folds, tie it in place; if necessary, employ a wooden splint. The stem volition heal itself. Young, supple branches take bending much improve than old, potent ones. Bending branches horizontally volition encourage the buds to grow vertically towards the lite. Each bud volition

plough into an impressive peak, because they all receive more lite A wooden planter box with a lattice trellis alongside makes a great anchor to tie bent plants to.

Wire ties, the kind used to close staff of life sacks, can be purchased at a plant nursery. Wire ties are either pre-cutting or cutting to length by the grower. Plastic-coated electronic and telephone cablevision wire also work well. They are fastened with a uncomplicated twist and stay rigid, leaving the stem animate room. Merely if applied too tightly around a stem, the liquids cannot catamenia, and death could consequence.

Be gentle when angle, fifty-fifty though cannabis can have much abuse. Sometimes a crotch will separate or a branch will fold over, cutting off fluid flow. These mishaps are easily fixed with a pocket-sized wooden splint snugly secured with wire ties or duct tape to support the split and cleaved stem.

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