Ideal Clone Cutting Height?

Southerncough

Southerncough

Well-Known Member
Greetings growers!
I'm in the middle of establishing a perpetual SOG rotation between a 2x3 veg tent and a 2x4 flowering cabinet and am coming across this minor dilemma that I wanted to run by y'all.
I've found that when I take smaller cuts from my mother plants (less than 6") they root super fast (like less than a week sometimes), but then sometimes take a while to veg to desired height to flip into the bloom room. BUT, sometimes my larger cuts (6"+) take longer to root because the stems are harder (sometimes over 3 weeks).
I'm using a bubble cloner, foliar spraying Canna Rhizotonic, transplanting rooted clones to small 3" cups of coco, then after a small rootball is established transplant to a 5x5 square pot and move to the flower cabinet once they're 8-10" tall.

Mothers are fed 700ppm(+/-) dynagrow-grow, calmag, silicone, and recharge, under cheap LED's. (just updated bloom box to a 315 LEC...holy crap!)

What ideal cutting size do you guys prefer for that sweet spot of a clone that roots within 2 weeks and doesn't have to sit in veg for 2-3 months, etc.? Should I chill on the silicone for softer stems?

Peace!
-SC
 
Not sure about the silicone so I will leave that for someone that knows. You might need to change strains to get what you want growth wise. 2 to 3 months veg seems rather long to me. Plants will do what they do. We can change a lot of things but not all. Sounds like you have a strain that has a slow veg growth. Other strains may root and veg the way you want. Will they be what you like in other ways you don't know tell you try. If you really like that strain and don't want to change then you will just have to adapt.
Pretty sure you will find better help from someone that does hydro though. I am a soil guy for simplicity.
 
so, after more research and talking to a friend who used to grow I came to a really obvious answer I overlooked and feel really dumb for posting this in the first place. My long cuttings were just a tad too long as in I was putting to hard of a stem in the cloner. I just need to feel the cutting to where the stem stops bending and take the bottom off from there and put the flexible stem back in the cloner. Went out to my grow and did that and a few days later I'm already starting to see progress. So to answer my question...as long of a bendy stem as I can get should go in the cloner! Too tiny of a clone will take longer to catch up in veg but the ones with really hard stems are just a tough nut to crack!
Thanks for your time everyone.

-SC
 
Always great to solve our own problems. A lot of times just typing the thread's get us thinking new things. Sometimes you need to get thoughts out of your mind for new ones to form. Good job. Hope things continue to go your way.
 
I want to say 2".
I've found the answer to my question is as long as I can get them without the stem being too stiff.
The harder stems will root, but they just take longer. I can root a small cutting in my bubble cloner pretty easy, but then it has to veg longer to reach preflower height (10"+/- for my SOG)
Still haven't had as much success with other methods of cloning (plugs, rockwool, rapid rooters, etc) as I've had with my bubble cloner (almost always 100% success unless I let the water level get too low). If the stem is in the water and the bubbles are running even the toughest cutting will root. Usually see some small nodes within a few days, small roots after a week, and usually about 4" roots after two weeks. Just got in the habit that every other Monday is cloning day. I move all the rooted clones to small cups of coco, swap out the water and add a new batch of cuttings. The clones that were put in small cups two weeks prior move up to 5x5 pots for a few more weeks until they're 10" tall +/- and then they graduate to the bloom tent, etc.
 
Thanks southern cough, I'm still trying to get my cloning down pat, the only way I've really had success it using kind of a combination of a bubble cloner and hempy pot. Getting my clones to root has been my biggest struggle so far.
 
I just made a DIY cloning raft the other day that I'm trying out with some ornamental cuttings from the front yard. So far so good. I'll get some pics up shortly.
Pretty much took a $1 foam kneeling pad that you'd use for pulling weeds and cut 1" deep slits along the edge every inch or so, placed cuttings in slits, plop the whole thing into a container of water with a cheap air stone. I had to cut my pad down to fit the container first, but if I make more I'll probably use a bigger container.
 
The trick I've found with the bubble cloner is AFTER the cuts have rooted put the new clone in as small of a pot as possible for a few weeks. The first few times I put the little bare root clones in larger pots of media/soil, etc they struggled to adapt. Now I use like a 3" plastic cup of coco and they seem to adjust better. After a few weeks they get nice and strong and have a nice little root ball for transplant
 
ok, here are a few pics of the cloner I made the other day...can hold up to 20 cuts in a 6"x12" space! Great solution for those of us whose ambitions are much larger than our grow space. I intentionally made the raft a little smaller so that if I forgot to check the water level it could sink down into the tapered container on its own if an inch or two of water evaporated, etc. Hope the small gap doesn't cause any algae issues!
Cost about $20 to make unless you already have a pump/stone laying around...then cost is $2!
You can kinda see a few tiny roots popping, which is cool because they have pretty tough stems.
also, before you cut the slits I found it helped to bore a hole for the stem by pushing the tip of my pruning snips (or anything else sharp) into the foam and twisting it around so the stem would be firmly in place but not too squished/damaged because the foam slit is pretty snug. My next one may have small "V" notches instead of slits as it's plenty snug, especially after adding a dozen cuts to it.
20180614_133117.jpg

20180614_133117.jpg


20180614_133244.jpg

20180614_133244.jpg


20180614_133142.jpg

20180614_133142.jpg

 
So, i checked this morning and after one week i have.....100% success!!
the smaller ones are a little tough to see, but EVERY cutting rooted!
Going to leave them in for another week or two before moving to soil.
not too shabby for $2
20180616_115111.jpg

20180616_115111.jpg

 
Thanks for the tip on the cloning raft. I will give it a go!
 

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