cloning a top?

yahooman · Apr 21, 2016

i have 16 plants in veg,all are about 10" tall on about the 7-8 node,i want to top at node 4,and it would be very benefitial for me to clone the tops,but i have never tried,in theory it should work,but the thicker stems make me think they might take a while to root
has anyone had past experience cloning a top of a plant?

stoned-trout · Apr 21, 2016

all the time...yeehaw..when I first top seedlings, I use that top for cloning...sometimes its the only clone I get off a plant before flowering

corky1968 · Apr 21, 2016

If you clone the top.

You can either flower the clone or the mother plant it came from.
Once you find out which ones are the males are you can destroy
them if you don't want seeds. Over time, you could be producing
only female plants thereby saving you lots of wasted effort.

Good Luck

justanotherbozo · Apr 21, 2016

...yeah man, i top all my seedlings and then root the tops, they don't root as easily or as reliably as the cuts from lower down but i get like 90% rooted and that is good enough for me.

...i NEVER flower anything i don't already have a rooted cloned backup for.

peace, bozo

chronosync · Apr 21, 2016

I've had good success with rooting big cuts. Ive also topped larger plants than seedlings 3/4 of the way down and rooted that just fine. Either way if you're going to top it anyway why not get two birds stoned and try to root it as well?
Good Luck

Budley Doright · Apr 22, 2016

just one little suggestion....

It may be helpful to make scrapes of about half inch on opposite sides of the stem...

The roots come from the cambium layer and there is no penalty for exposing more of it...

If the cut causes a bit of rot at the bottom...... the scrapes may be a good thing....

It wouldnt hurt antything...

chronosync · Apr 22, 2016

Good tips bud

Betterhaff · Apr 22, 2016

It also helps if you have enough of the top to bury or submerge a node. I also agree with Budley on slightly scraping the stems.

MicroRoy · Apr 22, 2016

If you can brush it with rooting gell a week before you cut the clone.

chronosync · Apr 22, 2016

Burying a node or two seems to help. The branch or stem is trimmed there and by doing that you expose the cambium layer as well. It makes sense to me that roots are more ready to form out of the node, the part of the plant that is always ready to differentiate.

I haven't tried prepping a branch for cloning but that's a good idea. I'll try it. I'd like to do some air layering as well.

Budley Doright · Apr 22, 2016

Betterhaff said:
It also helps if you have enough of the top to bury or submerge a node. I also agree with Budley on slightly scraping the stems.

Its really the same thing.... burying a node.... or making a scrape and exposing the cambium..... does exactly the same thing.....

I never bury a node.....but always scrape opposite sides....

chrosynk... good call

The branch or stem is trimmed there and by doing that you expose the cambium layer as well.

Budley Doright · Apr 22, 2016

chronosync said:
Burying a node or two seems to help. The branch or stem is trimmed there and by doing that you expose the cambium layer as well. It makes sense to me that roots are more ready to form out of the node, the part of the plant that is always ready to differentiate.

I haven't tried prepping a branch for cloning but that's a good idea. I'll try it. I'd like to do some air layering as well.

Im just about to convert my grow to airlayering...... Im also going to full perpetual...... I will be harvesting a plant every other day....

and starting a plant in flower.....every other day...

I will give it a go in about a week....

The thread is in my sig....hope to see you there...

yahooman · Apr 22, 2016

MicroRoy said:
If you can brush it with rooting gell a week before you cut the clone.

i dont understand....

justanotherbozo · Apr 22, 2016

...yeah, cloning is easy peasy, you just need to approach it with the attitude that, first, it's a skill so there is at least a small learning curve and you WILL suffer losses as you climb that learning curve and second, that even once you've aquired the skill, you'll still suffer losses, NOBODY gets 100% rooted 100% of the time, period!

anyway, when i first began the journey learning to be a grower i understood from day 1 that cloning was an ESSENTIAL skill so i did my research and then i built me a DIY bubble cloner that i used very successfully for about a year and a half.

...and then someone turned me on to the passive wick style of cloning detailed in the Walmart cloner thread, i notice they changed the thread title since i first learned the tech.

...

MicroRoy · Apr 22, 2016

yahooman said:
i dont understand....

Wet a rooting compound then use a paont brush to paint it on the stem you want to cut.

justanotherbozo · Apr 22, 2016

...once i started to use the passive approach i quickly fell in love with the simplicity, economy, reliability and ease of use, ...it's almost put-and-forget simple.

anyway, i liked the tech so much that i built me a small cab to do my cloning and seedstarts in and you'll note that the lights are mounted below the shelf where the cloners live, this warms the reservoirs to the required 80degrees while providing enough reflected light for clones to root, ...i do short term vegging of newly rooted clones down below under the lights.

...here's a shot during construction where you can see where i mounted all the electricals.

.

...here's a shot of my closet from back then and note the 2 milk crates on the right, that was where my cloners lived before i built the cab and if you look close you'll see that there is a lamp with a single CFL placed inside the milk crates, ...this was there solely to warm the reservoir of my cloner.

...

Budley Doright · Apr 22, 2016

justanotherbozo said:
...yeah, cloning is easy peasy, you just need to approach it with the attitude that, first, it's a skill so there is at least a small learning curve and you WILL suffer losses as you climb that learning curve and second, that even once you've aquired the skill, you'll still suffer losses, NOBODY gets 100% rooted 100% of the time, period!

anyway, when i first began the journey learning to be a grower i understood from day 1 that cloning was an ESSENTIAL skill so i did my research and then i built me a DIY bubble cloner that i used very successfully for about a year and a half.

View Image

View Image

View Image

...and then someone turned me on to the passive wick style of cloning detailed in the Walmart cloner thread, i notice they changed the thread title since i first learned the tech.

View Image

View Image

...

The original post was sort of a joke...... It used to say 'world class' which I thought was just a little presumptuous....

chronosync · Apr 22, 2016

Bozo. Impressive!! Niiice setups and great to see the evolution. Thanks.

justanotherbozo · Apr 22, 2016

...so, i've been using this passive approach for about 8 years now and last year my ice-tube-trays began to break down and become brittle so i bought me some popsicle molds from ebay and made me some more and i actually like these better, first, they are tapered so getting your clones out is way easier and less stressful for fragile new roots, plus, being transparent you can actually SEE the roots and so with strains that are somewhat tricky to root, i just leave them in until i see roots, no more popping them out and finding either nothing or nothing but nubs.

...also, once you master this passive wick style all other methods of cloning become MUCH easier to master.

...anyway, here is a link to the original thread posted many years ago where i learned the tech and unless that bit has been edited out you'll also learn that this technique was learned on the old Overgrow site and was then salvaged and posted here once Overgrow got shut down.

passive, wick style cloning

peace, bozo

justanotherbozo · Apr 22, 2016

BudleyDoRight said:
The original post was sort of a joke...... It used to say 'world class' which I thought was just a little presumptuous....

yeah bro, while i understand how you feel, if you try it i think you'll see that it really is world class, ANYONE can root cuts with this method, and i mean ANYONE!

peace, bozo

cloning a top?

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