Over wintering clones & keeping them small

[Curly Beaver]

As winter is approaching in the land of freezing temperatures and blowing snow I am thinking ahead to next spring already
I am planning on having all of my plants (and present clones) in flowering next month by turning the veg room into a flowering room as well.
My questions are...if I were to take clones in Mid December could I put them in a warm room (60F) with low watt lighting and keep them healthy until around March and then put the LED's to them and put them in full veg around March? Or, can you somehow store cuttings for up to 3 months?
This would give me a good head start in the spring if it can work. Does anybody do this? What do I need to consider to make it happen? I would think LED lights would be out of the question, would just small CFL's be what I need? Say I have 12 clones and want to keep them small...I would think I could just use part of my space- say 3.5' X 4', how much light should I put up, and how far above them?
Any advise or links to currently available information would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Major PITA]

You are going to put them into bloom next month but not take clone cuttings until mid-December?
In my limited experience, you can take cuttings while in bloom, but I have better success by taking cuttings right at the flip. In your case, cuttings while in bloom might actually help. It seems to slow down the process since they have to root and start a re-veg. I've easily kept clones for a couple of months w/o putting them into hibernation or doing anything special. You can top them and/or keep them root bound for quite a while to keep them small, if that's what you need.

 

[Curly Beaver]

I believe I read that taking a clone around day 21 (after the 12/12 switch) produced very vigorous clones. With that said I have never done it, my cloning experience is with vegging plants only. Your using the word "HIBERNATION" sounds exactly like what I was trying to get across, just could not come up with the right word. It would be nice to get the roots to establish themselves without the growth.

 

[Major PITA]

I believe I read that taking a clone around day 21 (after the 12/12 switch) produced very vigorous clones. With that said I have never done it, my cloning experience is with vegging plants only. Your using the word "HIBERNATION" sounds exactly like what I was trying to get across, just could not come up with the right word. It would be nice to get the roots to establish themselves without the growth.

I haven't done it, but if you search for "clone stasis" I think you will find info on puting them in a refrigerator to hold them for an extended period. Here are a couple of 420 Mag links to help get you started:
Stasis #1
Stasis #2
Good luck!

 

[Curly Beaver]

I haven't done it, but if you search for "clone stasis" I think you will find info on puting them in a refrigerator to hold them for an extended period. Here are a couple of 420 Mag links to help get you started:
Stasis #1
Stasis #2
Good luck!

Thanks Major, this looks like a simple solution to my question and it couldn't get any easier.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

This is an old link on stasis - Question about holding clones in stasis



Might want to think about keeping a single mother plant instead of several clones in till you are ready to grow again next year more likely a practical option !

How ever i'm not a fan of taking clones whilst in flower or more than a few weeks into flowering its just the re vegging time really bu if your are going down that route look for less formed clone material lower down the plant.

Most of the time i just trim off pop corn bud sites before flowering for cloning with if i wish to keep the same strain.

 

[Curly Beaver]

This is an old link on stasis - Question about holding clones in stasis



Might want to think about keeping a single mother plant instead of several clones in till you are ready to grow again next year more likely a practical option !

How ever i'm not a fan of taking clones whilst in flower or more than a few weeks into flowering its just the re vegging time really bu if your are going down that route look for less formed clone material lower down the plant.

Most of the time i just trim off pop corn bud sites before flowering for cloning with if i wish to keep the same strain.

This is another option that I had not thought of (ROOKIE.) I will have to read up on keeping a mother plant small and inactive. If they are kept under low CFL's (23w?) for a few months then moved into the veg room I would think they would be ready to take clones in 4-6 weeks. Does that sound about right?

And now you have me thinking a little deeper... I have read about re-vegging a plant after it has been harvested. If that process took up to 2 months or so by starting around the first of the year the timing would be about right to take clones and get started on next springs grow.

I might just have a bunch of options here. I just want to hit the ground running in early May after harvesting in late December. I could use the couple months of down time to experiment with training on a couple plants in the mean time to ward off boredom.

My wife wants to get away for awhile this winter so I'd like to slow things down so I could slip out for a week or so without having a full blown grow to worry about.

Thank you for the replies so far.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Never re vegged a plant before ? the idea does not sit well with me, more likely my style of growing & trying different strains most grows to be honest.


How ever a mother plant with training can be kept short to which you may think about low stress training & topping to provide suitable material to work with on your next grow

 

[Major PITA]

I was going to suggest a re-veg. IDK is it will fit into your timeline, but it deinitley works and will "stall" things for a while after you harvest.