Do you have any tricks to keep your cuttings green and healthy?

[ice minus]

Good evening ICMAG! Novice grower here

Took some cuts off a Cotton Candy Mom I haven't grown out yet, but is giving off insane Terps just on leaves and stems, in simple Canna coco plugs.

Took like 7-10 days or so, nice roots shooting out of the plug

I just moved them into some lightly amended recycled soil now. already know it will rebound from here as soon as it starts taking up the nutrients - been down this road a bunch of times already - but - the point of my post: how can I keep them happier until they get to this point?

This is the worst looking one of the bunch, so chose it for visibility

I should've taken the picture while it was in the plug for less confusion sorry, I literally just transplanted it now so disregard the media in this pic !

Does ICMAG know any tricks for keeping cuttings green until they're nicely rooted ?!

I know a suggestion might be less fan leaves and foliage, I've been experimenting with that aspect too, but even ones I keep really trimmed down can end up getting angry like the pic above

Do you have any interesting tips to stop them from fading out so much?

I'm all ears

Also a good sport so feel free to laugh lol

Thanks as always for your guidance

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Raise the light.

 

[ice minus]

Raise the light.

Hi Mean Mr. Mustard and thanks for the zippy reply!

When you say "raise the light" do you mean it as in "increase the light intensity it's rooting under"

Or do you mean it literally & physically -- raise my grow light higher from it's surface?

Thanks for your expertise!

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Decrease the intensity by raising the light physically.

 

[ice minus]

Decrease the intensity by raising the light physically.

Thank you, will try that right away! Lights already so far above though, maybe I'll just turn it down even though it's not maxed out either !

Much appreciated for the idea

 

[mean mr.mustard]

You want the cut to be in survival mode and spend energy growing roots... not trying to vegetate new meristem growth.

Less intense light will lead the clone to root instead of die trying to use roots it doesn't have yet.

 

[ice minus]

You want the cut to be in survival mode and spend energy growing roots... not trying to vegetate new meristem growth.

Less intense light will lead the clone to root instead of die trying to use roots it doesn't have yet.

All makes sense and I thought I already had such knowledge but I guess I still put it under something too intense.

Appreciate the knowledge and suggestions, will totally change it up immediately

Thank you!

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Best of luck... it could be other factors like pH but more often it's light or nutrient burn.

 

[ice minus]

I've never had one die yet after I get them into some nice fresh soil with roots sticking out so I hope this is the same. I just cut off the mottled or fading leaves soon and will re bury it deeper next transplant

Fingers crossed indeed, thanks again

 

[mean mr.mustard]

No worries. They usually just burn up a bit more of themselves under normal growth parameters but still make it... just taking a bit longer to fully recover.

Best of luck!

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Thank you, will try that right away! Lights already so far above though, maybe I'll just turn it down even though it's not maxed out either !

Much appreciated for the idea

Turning it down will do the same thing and use less power. Using a light nutrient solution or something like Clonex Liquid will keep them fed. Those Canna coco plugs look nice. I've been using Canna coco with Clonex Liquid added to the water. I always use Clonex gel on the cut too.

 

[ice minus]

Turning it down will do the same thing and use less power. Using a light nutrient solution or something like Clonex Liquid will keep them fed. Those Canna coco plugs look nice. I've been using Canna coco with Clonex Liquid added to the water. I always use Clonex gel on the cut too.

Mr Padawan! Thank you for popping in as always!!

Interesting, I've had success cloning both with and without the gels, and occasionally I've come across vocal critics of it claiming various things, so I've bounced back and forth between using it or not

I have this stuff here

I didn't realize they have any nutrition in them! That's cool indeed

Thank you for checking in !!

 

[ice minus]

Turning it down will do the same thing and use less power. Using a light nutrient solution or something like Clonex Liquid will keep them fed. Those Canna coco plugs look nice. I've been using Canna coco with Clonex Liquid added to the water. I always use Clonex gel on the cut too.

Forgot to ask, when cloning in the Canna, what are you pHing to?

And dome? Or no dome?

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Forgot to ask, when cloning in the Canna, what are you pHing to?

And dome? Or no dome?

I've never pH'd much. I usually just add some liquid Clonex to the well water I use. It's probably about 8. Maybe I would have higher success rates if I adjusted it. I should test it out.

 

[DARKSIDER]

Good evening ICMAG! Novice grower here

Took some cuts off a Cotton Candy Mom I haven't grown out yet, but is giving off insane Terps just on leaves and stems, in simple Canna coco plugs.

View attachment 19081431

Took like 7-10 days or so, nice roots shooting out of the plug

I just moved them into some lightly amended recycled soil now. already know it will rebound from here as soon as it starts taking up the nutrients - been down this road a bunch of times already - but - the point of my post: how can I keep them happier until they get to this point?

This is the worst looking one of the bunch, so chose it for visibility



View attachment 19081430

I should've taken the picture while it was in the plug for less confusion sorry, I literally just transplanted it now so disregard the media in this pic !

Does ICMAG know any tricks for keeping cuttings green until they're nicely rooted ?!

I know a suggestion might be less fan leaves and foliage, I've been experimenting with that aspect too, but even ones I keep really trimmed down can end up getting angry like the pic above

Do you have any interesting tips to stop them from fading out so much?

I'm all ears

Also a good sport so feel free to laugh lol

Thanks as always for your guidance

Hi ice minus not a trick but a helpfull tip make sure the mother plant is green and healthy and after i take my cuts i at most times, cut back on the leaves the bigger ones that is of the cuttings, ie scissors cut leaves in half by cutting leaves in half, you limit the amount of water that can be lost through transpiration also helps with more light and air movements..

 

[ice minus]

I've never pH'd much. I usually just add some liquid Clonex to the well water I use. It's probably about 8. Maybe I would have higher success rates if I adjusted it. I should test it out.

Wow! Another person naturally at 8!

I had to do a bunch of calling and emailing, but finally got to the head engineer at our regions water treatment plant. Sent me a whole aggregate of their year of testing and my town fluctuates between 7.8-8.2 or beyond! Most often I've noticed around 8. And INSANELY hard. Quite literally I've heard it competes for the hardest water in the entire country, except maybe like Manitoba. Our water is sourced from a huge linked system of 100+ groundwater wells all around the area, since we have no body of water out here besides the Grand River (which is gnarly -- and they do use a % of water from there as well)

Tad from KIS, creator of the Black Swallow Mix, said he's familiar with our areas crazy water somewhat as Black Swallow Living Soils is not far away and said as good as the soil is, and as much as they almost always can tell people "Don't worry too much about pH, the living soil will fix it" that ours is simply too hard and too alkaline and he told me always now try to reduce it to 6.6-6.7 if possible so it's just within a few points of where it needs to be, and then the soil can make easy work out of it.

My water also resists it like crazy.. If I don't water with it right after adjusting, I can check it a few hours later or even worse the next day and it's WAY out of whack again, fights its way back up to the high 7's

I will say though after thinking I would never figure out cloning and having a bunch of failures in my learning stage, I seem to have really gotten the hang of it as I haven't lost a clone in a long time now. The one I posted in this thread was for my own education and definitely the worst looking one, and I *still* think it will make it no problem as long as I stay on top of it.

Fingers crossed!

 

[ice minus]

Hi ice minus not a trick but a helpfull tip make sure the mother plant is green and healthy and after i take my cuts i at most times, cut back on the leaves the bigger ones that is of the cuttings, ie scissors cut leaves in half by cutting leaves in half, you limit the amount of water that can be lost through transpiration also helps with more light and air movements..

Hello Darksider and a huge thanks for visiting my thread!!!

The mother plant is definitely not as green as I suppose it could've been, to be honest the strain seemed almost from the get go to just simply grow "lighter" in color than a lot of my other minature moms

In fact I'd say I've never really figured out my green colors even to this day -- proper deep lush greens on the leaves seems to be something I constantly struggle with -- I can never maintain proper greens the entire time. Either my stems end up turning red in flower, or they fade out too early, or all kinds of things

I also actually religiously used to clip the ends of my leaves when I first started and actually through a bunch of trial and error testing started not seeing the need for it -- leaves left whole and intact maybe even seemed to root a bit quicker. Maybe just in my head, but also started hearing other people say the clipping leaves wasn't necessary and only useful when tons of cuts are crowding eachother for airflow

I actually think every failure I've had when I was learning had clipped leaves

I haven't had a clone failure in a while now luckily, knock on wood

Even the gnarly pic in my OP is the worst looking one and I am STILL confident it will make it

Thanks again for the help!!!

 

[Jellyfish]

I agree with mean mr.mustard about your Cotton Candy cut. "Decrease the intensity by raising the light physically." That's really in all likelihood, the "root" of that plant's problem.

Here are a couple things I do for successful cloning.

I always cut the tips off every leaf of a cutting before I put it in rockwool. The idea being, the plant will send less energy to the leaves and more into root making. It's something I read on ICMAG about ten years ago, and I've tried it both ways, and I believe cutting the tips off the leaves DOES 1. accelerate the process, and 2. give a better overall survival/success rate. EDIT- I see you have done this too, and reached a different conclusion. Maybe that's all bro science.

I use cloning powder, but I stick the powder to the stem by getting saliva on the cutting and then dipping it into the cloning powder and into the cube. Yeah, I put it in my mouth and get as big of a gob of spit as I can on that stem. Then I roll it in cloning powder, then into the rockwool. I read somewhere on ICMAG that there are enzymes in saliva that might be beneficial to the root-making process. That might very well be bro science, too but it doesn't hurt, and even if it just makes the cloning powder stick better, then there's a benefit.

Also- in the original post, there's a product called Canna Rootplugs that I'm gonna have to look into. Like I said, I use rockwool for cloning. Has anybody had any experience with the Canna Rootplugs? Maybe that's an issue, or maybe I just found something better than rockwool, eh?

 

[Dime]

Wow! Another person naturally at 8!

I had to do a bunch of calling and emailing, but finally got to the head engineer at our regions water treatment plant. Sent me a whole aggregate of their year of testing and my town fluctuates between 7.8-8.2 or beyond! Most often I've noticed around 8. And INSANELY hard. Quite literally I've heard it competes for the hardest water in the entire country, except maybe like Manitoba. Our water is sourced from a huge linked system of 100+ groundwater wells all around the area, since we have no body of water out here besides the Grand River (which is gnarly -- and they do use a % of water from there as well)

Tad from KIS, creator of the Black Swallow Mix, said he's familiar with our areas crazy water somewhat as Black Swallow Living Soils is not far away and said as good as the soil is, and as much as they almost always can tell people "Don't worry too much about pH, the living soil will fix it" that ours is simply too hard and too alkaline and he told me always now try to reduce it to 6.6-6.7 if possible so it's just within a few points of where it needs to be, and then the soil can make easy work out of it.

My water also resists it like crazy.. If I don't water with it right after adjusting, I can check it a few hours later or even worse the next day and it's WAY out of whack again, fights its way back up to the high 7's

I will say though after thinking I would never figure out cloning and having a bunch of failures in my learning stage, I seem to have really gotten the hang of it as I haven't lost a clone in a long time now. The one I posted in this thread was for my own education and definitely the worst looking one, and I *still* think it will make it no problem as long as I stay on top of it.

Fingers crossed!

I have hard water. Have you tried filtering the water to get rid of the calcium or magnesium from the source? Have you checked ppm? Your hard water is making it go up ,get rid of the solids and it will stay stable and your nutrient solution will work better too. I went from 750 ppm to 220 with just a single filter. I bought the big blue filters with the second having a smaller micron and went to 200 ppm,our municiple water is 140 ppm

 

[Dime]

I have a 3 filter system now and the third is charcoal ,it's the most expensive one,and it takes all odours away and traps any microbial growth. I replace them 3 times a year or so depending on rainfall and fluctuations.