re: Jon705's Multi Strain HPS LED Hybrid System
Hi jon,
i just been having a quick flick through your journal, nice set up so thought id sub myself a seat,
anyways i just read you had real problems cloning this strain,
not sure on how you are cloning so ill read back a few pages and see if i can find it,
anyways im growing in soil and use rooting gel, i find taking clones with long stems have a lower survival rate than shorter clones, what i do is use small pots and have about 2 inches of soil in the pot and make the soil moist, i poke small hole and cut a small clone off the plant, it then goes in the rooting gel for 20 or 30 seconds before going in the soil, i find using small domes over each clones works best so my clones are done in seperate pots which is pretty easy for soil grows, not so much for hydro due to the different setups you use,
so thats how i clone easy to clone plants,
now their is another method for hard to clone strains, it took me a couple of goes to get this method to work but once you have done it a couple of times its very easy and will guarantee a clone every time, its called air cloning, im just looking for a decent link to send you to so you can have a read, it will be posted below if i find it, if not google it and you will find many sites explaining this method, so when i had problems cloning a plant i gave air cloning a try and it cloned every time after i got used to it,
basically air layering/cloning is the process of rooting clones before you remove them from the mother plant, you actually root the clone while its still growing on the mother plant, so when you cut the clone from the plant its got roots and ready to plant in what ever medium you use, doing this ensures the clone is viable before removing it from the plant, its takes a bit of practice to perfect the method but once you have mastered it you will be able to clone even the hardest of plants to clone,
here is a link that shows you a basic video on how to do it, it is not exactly how i did it but is not far off the same,
Medical Marijuana: How to Air-Layer as a cloning technique - YouTube.
so that guide is how that grower did it but use google and you will see another method,
the method i used was pretty similar but i basically cut 2 rings around the stem i wanted to clone about 1cm apart, then the stem between the cuts needs the outer part of the stem peeling off, if you look at the stem of the plant it has like an outer layer then an inner layer, you just remove the outer layer so that the inner layer is open to the air, you then cover this with rooting gel or powder and then cover with some grow medium, again i used compost and covered it with clingfilm, i didnt use a syringe to water i just opened the top of the cling film and poured water in, try and keep the stem slightly moist and out of direct light and after about 10 days their will be roots growing out of the part you peeled off the plant, the clone is still getting water from the mother plant as its still attatched so when its got enough root mass you then just cut it from the plant just below the roots, this gives you bigger ready to plant clones,
one thing i have wondered is if you did this on lower branches but instead of cutting them from the plant let them grow and the roots to grow into a growing medium then would this give you bigger buds on that branch due to it having its own root system, not something i have tried as such but i have used air layering/cloning method and it worked, so thought id share that with you for any future problem plants you want to clone