It’s time to start a new journal, it seems like these things go so fast.
This time around I have switched up a few things. The first big change was in the way I took clones. I have a 60 site ezcloner, and I have 100% success with it. But it has it’s downsides. First, it costs about $350 retail, then there’s the water and air pumps that are noisy and use power and then there’s the issue with res temps. I have no problems with any of these, but have had people ask myself and others on the site about cloning, and what is the best way to clone.
I think the best way to clone is the one that works for you. There are as many ways to do it as there are growers, everyone has their own spin on the process. For this grow (and for the clones for my other grow starting next week) I decided to take the low-cost/low-tech approach. I tried to keep all of the material costs to less than $20 and make the process as simple as possible.
I started out with a 72 site propagation tray, drip pan and humidity dome, total cost $14. Then I used some left over coco/perlite mix from my moms that I had in a 5 gallon bucket in the garage. The coco mix was moistened with about a 1/4 strength veg mix of BPN, a couple drops of superthrive and some olivia’s. I packed the moistened coco mix tightly into the tray so that it was pretty compacted.
I brought my moms out of the tent one at a time and used a pair of trimming scissors to cut about a 3 inch long cutting. I removed the lower leaves, cut the stem at a 45 deg and then used a razor blade to lightly scrape the base of the stem. I dipped them into cloning gel, used a poker to create a hole in the coco, and then placed the cutting into the tray.
I placed them under a T5HO about 4 inches above the humidity dome and left them alone for a week. At the end of the week I had a few showing some roots poking out of the bottom. I removed the dome, and watered them with the same1/4 strength BPN mix. By the end of week two, I had roots on 100% of the 72 cuttings. I had multiple strains in the tray, so this process will work on just about any strain.
Now since I like to use my NFT system which is hydro, and the roots are now in a coco mix I had to make a decision. Should I rinse the coco off and then place them into the netcups with some hydroton or is there another option? I had picked up the aeroflo off of craigslist so I didn’t have all of the items that came with it. When I was researching the system and ordering new replacement parts I saw that they ship the unit with coco-tek cup liners. I figured that I would order some cup liners and then just place the clone, coco/perlite and all into the cup. Add some hydroton the fill in the spaces and add support and then cap it off with a neoprene collar to reduce evaporation and keep algae from growing.
I decided to go with just two strains in the NFT. I have one side filled with Lucy and the other with Sage. I thought these would be a good run for the system, they should both finish about the same time.
The other slight wrinkle in my plan is that I typically put clones straight into 12/12 from the ezcloner. I am giving these a few days to veg before I do that this time. I want to make sure the roots are growing out through the coco cups before I flip them. Also, the clones are a bit smaller than the clones I get from the ezcloner. I like to have them at about 6~8 inches tall before the flip. I plan on the 3x stretch factor so that I will end up with an 18-24 inch plant.
For lighting this grow I am going with Advanced LED Diamond Series 200watt units. I think that 2 would cover the 2x6 footprint, but you all know by now that I like to go a little over the top, so I have three of them in the chamber. The last grow had three of the 360w Extreme Flower units, so I am dialing it back quite a bit on total wattage, but expect to have the same or better results. We’ll see how they compare.
So welcome aboard to the new journal, I will try to keep it informative and interactive. I welcome open discussion as long as it is on-topic (or close to on-topic, or is just plain funny).
This time around I have switched up a few things. The first big change was in the way I took clones. I have a 60 site ezcloner, and I have 100% success with it. But it has it’s downsides. First, it costs about $350 retail, then there’s the water and air pumps that are noisy and use power and then there’s the issue with res temps. I have no problems with any of these, but have had people ask myself and others on the site about cloning, and what is the best way to clone.
I think the best way to clone is the one that works for you. There are as many ways to do it as there are growers, everyone has their own spin on the process. For this grow (and for the clones for my other grow starting next week) I decided to take the low-cost/low-tech approach. I tried to keep all of the material costs to less than $20 and make the process as simple as possible.
I started out with a 72 site propagation tray, drip pan and humidity dome, total cost $14. Then I used some left over coco/perlite mix from my moms that I had in a 5 gallon bucket in the garage. The coco mix was moistened with about a 1/4 strength veg mix of BPN, a couple drops of superthrive and some olivia’s. I packed the moistened coco mix tightly into the tray so that it was pretty compacted.
I brought my moms out of the tent one at a time and used a pair of trimming scissors to cut about a 3 inch long cutting. I removed the lower leaves, cut the stem at a 45 deg and then used a razor blade to lightly scrape the base of the stem. I dipped them into cloning gel, used a poker to create a hole in the coco, and then placed the cutting into the tray.
I placed them under a T5HO about 4 inches above the humidity dome and left them alone for a week. At the end of the week I had a few showing some roots poking out of the bottom. I removed the dome, and watered them with the same1/4 strength BPN mix. By the end of week two, I had roots on 100% of the 72 cuttings. I had multiple strains in the tray, so this process will work on just about any strain.
Now since I like to use my NFT system which is hydro, and the roots are now in a coco mix I had to make a decision. Should I rinse the coco off and then place them into the netcups with some hydroton or is there another option? I had picked up the aeroflo off of craigslist so I didn’t have all of the items that came with it. When I was researching the system and ordering new replacement parts I saw that they ship the unit with coco-tek cup liners. I figured that I would order some cup liners and then just place the clone, coco/perlite and all into the cup. Add some hydroton the fill in the spaces and add support and then cap it off with a neoprene collar to reduce evaporation and keep algae from growing.
I decided to go with just two strains in the NFT. I have one side filled with Lucy and the other with Sage. I thought these would be a good run for the system, they should both finish about the same time.
The other slight wrinkle in my plan is that I typically put clones straight into 12/12 from the ezcloner. I am giving these a few days to veg before I do that this time. I want to make sure the roots are growing out through the coco cups before I flip them. Also, the clones are a bit smaller than the clones I get from the ezcloner. I like to have them at about 6~8 inches tall before the flip. I plan on the 3x stretch factor so that I will end up with an 18-24 inch plant.
For lighting this grow I am going with Advanced LED Diamond Series 200watt units. I think that 2 would cover the 2x6 footprint, but you all know by now that I like to go a little over the top, so I have three of them in the chamber. The last grow had three of the 360w Extreme Flower units, so I am dialing it back quite a bit on total wattage, but expect to have the same or better results. We’ll see how they compare.
So welcome aboard to the new journal, I will try to keep it informative and interactive. I welcome open discussion as long as it is on-topic (or close to on-topic, or is just plain funny).
users and I just never felt like it was my place to join. 
Cool! Will be fun to follow. +rep for the cloning tutorial, and good luck the rest of the way. Love that you're growing some Lucy. I can't wait to harvest mine in a few weeks! 
