Great success taking clones!!

[Daemon]

Hey all,
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for all the help lately, I really appreciate it! I hope to be able to contribute more as I get a few more cycles under my belt(and a camera)!

Anyway, I've been involved with outdoor growing for some time, though I have never been in charge. I recently started growing indoors for personal smoke and I'm having great success thus far. I've been screwing around with taking clones and though my first batch didn't do so well, the last 4 batches have been 100%! Is this normal?

I follow JJScorpio's tutorial with a few changes - I use Clonex Gel and no extra heat. This last batch was cut on 4/01 and as of yesterday ALL of them had roots popping out of the Rapid Rooters....that's 6 days!!!

So what i'm wondering is, why am I having such great luck with the clones? Have the stars aligned to please me? Will I be horrified to find in a few months that I can't clone anything?? Perhaps my environment is just right, who knows.....

 

[AlienDude]

Hey all,
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here for all the help lately, I really appreciate it! I hope to be able to contribute more as I get a few more cycles under my belt(and a camera)!

Anyway, I've been involved with outdoor growing for some time, though I have never been in charge. I recently started growing indoors for personal smoke and I'm having great success thus far. I've been screwing around with taking clones and though my first batch didn't do so well, the last 4 batches have been 100%! Is this normal?

I follow JJScorpio's tutorial with a few changes - I use Clonex Gel and no extra heat. This last batch was cut on 4/01 and as of yesterday ALL of them had roots popping out of the Rapid Rooters....that's 6 days!!!

So what i'm wondering is, why am I having such great luck with the clones? Have the stars aligned to please me? Will I be horrified to find in a few months that I can't clone anything?? Perhaps my environment is just right, who knows.....

Daemon,

Ironically, I took 7 clones last night and they are all looking healthy this morning. Hopefully the humidity dome I just got will help ensure that they all root. But I was going to say, some people just have a natural touch with cloning. It's also something that if done correctly, should always be fairly successful....but it has to be done correctly.
Congrats on getting your method dialed in. Keep it up, cloning does allow a much shorter veg time than from seed.

 

[Daemon]

^^Indeed. Thanks for the reply, I was just a little flabbergasted because I've always heard people say that cloning is very difficult. I have A LOT of laboratory experience as well as many, many years experience growing mushrooms/doing tissue culture so perhaps that helped a little?

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at icmag for all the help!

Quick question: When doing a SOG grow I know that most people either don't veg at all(i.e. flower right after clones take root), or veg for a week or two and then flower. I plan on doing a SOG with 20-30 clones in 1gal grow bags, should I veg at all? I gather that if I do veg for a week or so I should not feed them? I'm growing in FFOF and feeding with the Fox Farm line if nutes. I am going for yield(hopefully 1g per watt), and I'm growing in a grow tent with a 250w hps.

Thanks!

 

[Macster2]

If you veg for a week or so, feed them but take it easy as they are youngsters and will burn easy. I don't want to bust your balloon but achieving 1 gram per watt even with a 1000 watter with little or no veg time is almost impossible, its a wacho and abstract goal anyhow as no one quantifies the veg time.
Sog growers grow this way so as to achieve 6 crops per year (flowering usually takes 2 months 12/12)

 

[geminibud]

Well when i use sog 1 gallon pots I veg for 10-14 days before going 12's on them.......then it's 63-70 days to flower from there and I've got perfect Buds.

Peace and good luck

 

[FirstTracks]

^^Indeed. Thanks for the reply, I was just a little flabbergasted because I've always heard people say that cloning is very difficult. I have A LOT of laboratory experience as well as many, many years experience growing mushrooms/doing tissue culture so perhaps that helped a little?

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at icmag for all the help!

Quick question: When doing a SOG grow I know that most people either don't veg at all(i.e. flower right after clones take root), or veg for a week or two and then flower. I plan on doing a SOG with 20-30 clones in 1gal grow bags, should I veg at all? I gather that if I do veg for a week or so I should not feed them? I'm growing in FFOF and feeding with the Fox Farm line if nutes. I am going for yield(hopefully 1g per watt), and I'm growing in a grow tent with a 250w hps.

Thanks!

You'll be packin those in at 20-30 clones under 250w. When I was using my 250w, I would typically veg for 2 weeks in an E&F setup using full strength nutes with clones in 6" square pots filled with hydroton(12 pots per 250w, just to give you an idea of how I was spacing). Remember, once they have roots, theyre mature plants and will take feedings at basically the same strength the mother took feedings. Don't dump too much nitrogen in wehn feeding since you're using soil. If a lot gets trapped in your soil it could delay flowering when you switch to 12/12. I'd recommend a flush between veg and flower anyway just to clear out excess salts.
What strain are you working with? Alternatively, is it a heavy indica, 50/50 indy/sat, etc.? Knowing your strain's characteristics are necessary (unless you get lucky) to achieve high yields.
If it was an indica leaning indy/sat hybrid with minimal stretch, and assuming 6" spacing per plant (since you're trying to get 20 -30 in and using 1 gallon grow bags, maybe closer to 4.5-5" on center spacing) I'd recommend vegging for 1 week if you want 10g per plant and 2 weeks if you want 15-20 grams per plant. Light availbility and airflow will become issues with clones packed tight in and vegged longer. FOr this reason, you might have more success with just 1 week of veg because it will allow better light penetration and airflow.
you should probably lollypop (cut off lower 4-6" of growth about 2 weeks into flowering in order to get most of the bud mass up top where it'll actually get light) if you want to get some nice solid buds and better airflow under the plants. Though its up for discussion and has been debated a few times before on this site that I know of, lollypopping doesn't necessarily increase yields, but it does improve under plant airflow and direct the plant's enegy to the main cola and not all the little time consuming popcorn buds on the bottom.

My idea what you should do:
4" on center spacing
1 week veg
24 plants

If everything works out and you have an indica leaning hybrid, hope for 10g per plant, 240g total. This is assuming a good environment, plants aren't stressed badly at any point, and your light is at the right level.

 

[YwouldntI]

i put 10-15 every week into flower.after first cycle i pull every week or two.room gets packed but so does my stash.i run 5000 watts in flower so light isnt too much of an issue.i pull way more then 6 times a year though,im thinkin more like 50 times.even if you have down time its easy to restock room and get back rollin this way.peace

 

[code]

If you veg for a week or so, feed them but take it easy as they are youngsters and will burn easy. I don't want to bust your balloon but achieving 1 gram per watt even with a 1000 watter with little or no veg time is almost impossible, its a wacho and abstract goal anyhow as no one quailifies the veg time.
Sog growers grow this way so as to achieve 6 crops per year (flowering usually takes 2 months 12/12)

actually i find 1 gram per watt easier (and more efficient) to achieve with very little veg in SOG than large plants...if you have enough clones you can spread them out evenly and get the lights closer to the plants giving you higher and more consistent (less larf more buds) per watt yield.

as someone else on here has pointed out: per watt yield isn't the most accurate benchmark... Grams/Watt/MONTH is better.

 

[Daemon]

Thanks for the replies, this is great info!

I realize that I likely won't achieve 1g per watt this time around, but it's a nice goal to shoot for. And yes, I agree that g/watt/month is a much more accurate way to measure.

Wow, excellent advice FirstTracks(and everyone else)! I was thinking(from watching a few other grows, including YamahaFan's), that about a week of veg time would be perfect. I like the spacing you mention as well, I think it will work out well. I should add that I am picking a few 2' T5's up today and will throw those(with 3000k bulbs), in my flower room for side lighting.

I was thinking that perhaps 1/2 gallon bags would work? I forgot to mention that my flower room is 3'w x 2'd x 5'h.

I suppose it never occurred to me that one should go light on the N/flush the soil prior to flowering; makes sense though. I've got 4 ladies(LSTed), in flower right now and I thought it seemed to take quite a while for them to make the switch. Now that I think about it I fed w/full strength Grow Big/Big Bloom(FF), right up to the switch and never did flush them. I last watered on 4/06 with Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom so when I water again tomorrow I will use straight RO water.

Anyway, thank y'all for all the help, I look forward to posting a ton of pics when I can afford a digital camera!