re: Cardboard Flowerbox Test 3 - 41 Week Perpetual SOG
CLONING TEST MATRIX
and
TEST CONCLUSION
Conditions:
- Lighting: 2x 6500K CFL Grow lights under reflective hood, 24/0 cycle, 8" above tops
- Humidity: 95% - 98%
- Temp: 85F
- Nutrients: None
- Rooting Hormone: None
- Rooting Medium: Prepared Rockwool
- Strains Used:
[*=1]Green Fluffy Bunnies
[*=1]Lamb's Bread
[*=1]Plushberry
[*=1]Purple Mr. Nice
[*=1]Purple Widow
Initial condition of mother plants in this test was judged as healthy. Conditions were not optimal for the procedure but were deemed favorable, and it was decided that the test would continue. There were no infestations, infections, or other signs of poor health. Mother plants were Nitrogen starved before the beginning of this test, so there were signs that N was needed quickly. This observation in the mother plants coupled with favorable atmospheric conditions for cloning, led to the decision that the experiment would begin.
Test cuttings were taken on 08-04-2012 at 9:17pm. The only variable for this test is that rooting hormone was not used when placing the cuttings in prepared rockwool. This was done in order to find if rooting time had been lengthened by the rooting hormone itself.
Cuttings made: 36
- 10 Lamb's Bread
- 07 Purple Mr. Nice
- 07 Purple Widow
- 06 Plushberry
- 06 Green Fluffy Bunnies
Purpose:
The purpose of this test was to find the fastest means of rooting in rockwool, and this test is one part of that end goal.
Prediction:
The prediction was that many would fail to root, if any, and this would be after the given 7-day limit.
Procedure:
Everything was sterilized to give the clones the best possible chance of survival and to keep infection to a minimum. Cloning tray and dome were treated with a sanitizer at 100ppm chlorine solution. All cutting, storing, and other contact surfaces were also treated with the same. The jandre2k3 process for cloning was followed as in
Cloning: Mad Simple - A Beginner's Guide with the exception of the rooting hormone.
Observations:
Initial condition of cuttings was very good and no problems arose during the processing of cutting, preparing, and placing in rockwool, and those rockwool cubes placed into a humidity dome.
Although precautions were taken to avoid infection and infestation, 1 of the Purple Mr. Nice cuttings was covered in fungus on the stem, from plant base above the rockwool (not below) and to about halfway up, and all nodules in between becoming involved.
Result
Cuttings were checked on 08-12-2012 at 8:19am.
Total time of test: 7 days, 11 hours, 2 minutes
Rooting was observed in some of the cuttings, but not all for them. Although some rooting was achieved within the time limit, most failed to root at all, or even show nodules, or beginnings of roots. Even the lenticels present on some of the cuttings, failed to form even the beginnings of roots. Of the original 36 cuttings made, only 9 formed roots, and will become plants themselves, ending in only 25% rooting success. The biggest surprise was that all of the Purple Mr. Nice clones not infected with fungus rooted, ending in 85% rooting success. All of the Lamb's Bread cuttings failed to root at all ending in 100% loss.
Rooting Success:
- 1 Green Fluffy Bunnies Clone - GFB
- 1 Plush Berry Kush Clone - PBK
- 6 Purple Mr Nice Clone - PMN
- 1 Purple Widow Clone - P.Wid
- 0 Lamb's Bread Clone - LamBrd
Conclusion:
With the failures in mind, it was proven that rooting can be achieved in rockwool with limited success. To the contrary, in previous tests, rooting hormone, has been proven to reduce losses in rooting when attempted in rockwool, as compared to this test. Whether it lengthens the time for rooting has been shown here that it does not. Rather, the presence of the hormone improves the success rate of cuttings that would not have rooted in the given time of seven days. Furthermore, those cuttings that would not have grown roots at all from 7 to 10 days, it seems that rooting hormone helps reduce those losses as well.
Further testing is required on the strains that failed to root in 7 days to find if they would indeed root within a 7-14 day window.
The question, now, is would those cuttings that are encouraged to grow roots by rooting hormone be as strong as those cuttings that grow roots themselves without the help of a hormone?
, i have been watching an English series that been goin since the stone age called gardeners world. and we are trying to grow all sorts of crap now...a blackcurrent bush is our latest aquisition(yesterday).
