Are these a lost cause?

[newbieninja]

I have three plants that have stayed in small cups for entirely too long. I didn't intend to keep them in the cups this long, but I have limited space and nothing has turned out as I planned.

My grow environments are two homemade PC grow boxes.

I started with eight plants from unknown bag seed. I intended to grow them until I found a female, then clone it. Then I would have flowered the donor in one box while establishing the clones in the other.

The other four plants were lost due to the typical newbie mistakes, which were probably compounded by growing in the cups.

The oldest plant is now almost eleven weeks old (from sprouting), but has never shown sex, and the only branches I've seen only had fan leaves (before they fell off from nutrient problems), which I don't think can be used as clones.

The other three plants are eight weeks old today.

Each plant has been topped once. When I topped the first plant, I cut down below the second node from the top, removed the bottom node and tried to root it. After two weeks I bumped the clone a little too hard and it came out because there were absolutely no roots. I then put it in some water to try to get it to root, but it got stem rot before any roots appeared. After my failure with the first cloneing attempt, I simply topped the other two normally.

My question is: since the only fan leaves left are on the branches that appeared after topping, and those are falling off now, is it worth it to put them into flowering and see if any clonable branches appear once the plant shows sex, or are these plants a lost cause?

Plant 1 - Eleven weeks in two days


Plant 2 - Eight weeks today


Plant 3 - Eight weeks today


Plant 4 - Eight weeks today

 

[paper thorn]

what do you have to lose? Flip em and pop some more seeds pronto. This time, just pot them up sooner. of course you gotta figure out what's making the look like crap. prolly not just the small cup.

it would take you a month of proper ph and nutes etc, to get them back in shape, flip em

 

[newbieninja]

BTW, I miscounted the weeks for plant one. It's nine weeks old today, not eleven weeks in two days.

 

[newbieninja]

BTW, I miscounted the weeks for plant one. It's nine weeks old today, not eleven weeks in two days.

 

[bombadil.360]

the plants won't show sex if you have them under over 16 hours of light a day... if you want them to show sex, they need to be in 12/12 for a week or two for some cultivars to show sex. edit: unless they are automatic that is.

you can save them still, but forget about yield, they will flower but yield will be minimal.

you can transplant them and feed them lightly, do NOT over-feed and do NOT over-water or you'll just make things worst.

if I were you and if I wanted to save those plants as much as they could be saved, I would:

1. transplant.

2. give them another 10 days of veg photoperiod.

3. flip to 12/12 and wait for sex and stretch.

4. wait until they are done flowering while feeding and watering lightly.

5. probably be unsatisfied with yield and quality

but I think it is worth a shot to try and save them, solving this problem as you learn to grow will teach you a lot and you'll gain experience and confidence, knowing you can nurture enough a beat up plant that it can actually finish flowering.

since you have two cabs to grow, you can always start new seeds on one cab while trying to save these on the other.

good luck!

peace

 

[newbieninja]

the plants won't show sex if you have them under over 16 hours of light a day... if you want them to show sex, they need to be in 12/12 for a week or two for some cultivars to show sex. edit: unless they are automatic that is.

I read that they would show sex after six weeks vegetative growth, but they didn't define when that was and it seems there are different opinions on that (I've read anywhere from when it has three sets of true leaves to when it has six nodes).

You're probably right though.

you can transplant them and feed them lightly, do NOT over-feed and do NOT over-water or you'll just make things worst.

if I were you and if I wanted to save those plants as much as they could be saved, I would:

1. transplant.

2. give them another 10 days of veg photoperiod.

3. flip to 12/12 and wait for sex and stretch.

4. wait until they are done flowering while feeding and watering lightly.

5. probably be unsatisfied with yield and quality

I have space enough for one 6" pot in each cab if I transplant (which is why I used cups until I knew the sex), which means I would have to roll the dice and pick two and hope one is a female.

If I were to reduce the photoperiod to 14/10, would they start showing sex then? How long?

 

[newbieninja]

To clarify, I'm only interested in getting some viable clones from these plants. I don't care about buds at this point.

 

[bombadil.360]

Ok, I understand your space-restrictions.

if you don't wanna flower them out, then you can always flip to 12/12, find out sex, and select the healthiest two females out of the bunch.

then you can either keep them going under 12/12 and wait for their initial stretch and take cuttings; but I dunno how many will you able to get, depends on how well the plants branch out.

or you can set them under 16/8 or more light per day to keep those females vegging until you see enough branches.

but whether it branches out enough or not will depend a lot on the cultivar... some plants will just grow columnar and never branch out, while others will branch out a lot, etc... since these are bagseeds, you don't really know what to expect.

it will take time to find out though, so if you want to go this route, be patient.

good luck and much peace!

 

[stoney917]

Id say start over with proven stable genetics.... sumthin fast n easy n stable... or a clone,... thats my opinion... those plants are stressed n prob be herms... cuttin clones of them is not a good idea till they r healthy... n they aint to big for cups i gettem bout 3ft before i transplant. .. its all about keeping them happy...

 

[bombadil.360]

stoney, indeed, getting those plants back to health will be difficult, and they won't be 100% anyway... there's also the hermaphrodite issue, which did not come to my mind, you are right about that one.

I guess for small set-ups autos are the best option nowdays; lots of people liked them.

but if he really wants to save those plants and take cuttings from them, he could.

peace

 

[stoney917]

Its possible but stupid...For all that effort n not even know if its worth savin... dont even know they r female... poppin new seeds fems probably save 3 months time

 

[born2growgreen]

Sorry about your plants bro, but we all have lost some.... its just part of learning . cheer up!! And drop you some new beans. ..I hope things work out for you .Your going to have much greener days ahead.

Keep it green. .
Born

 

[FromHolland]

The purple stem means the plant has a lot of stress. You have gave it too many water, did you drill enough holes in the cups? The roots of your plant needs space too don't use a cup thats way too small.

It's easy to determine the sex of your plant. Just veg it for a week or two, make the clones and put it in 12/12. If the plant shows any sign of a male plant then get rid of it and all the clones that got off from that plant. If it shows signs of a male plant keep the clones and keep the plant as a mother plant.

Male flowers have balls (like a real man lol) and a female plant doesnt. Just take a look at this pic (not mine I found it via Google).

If I would be you I would trash them it's a waste of energy and those plants seems un-recoverable.

Making clones is easier then it looks, the problem with new growers is they over soak their growing medium.

Take a bucket, fill it with water, adjust the pH of the water to 5.5 put the rockwool cubes in the bucket and let them stay for 24 hours. Next day squeeze the water out of the cube.

Now cut one branch you want to use as a clone, make the cut diagonally. Dip the clone into a rooting hormone compound and stick it in the rockwool cube. In this stage its important to keep the humidity levels around 80% and the temp of 20-25C, you can achieve this by placing them in a dome. The benefit of using a dome is your clones will root quickly, but once you get them out they can die easily because they need to get used to the lower humidity levels.

If you dont want to use a dome you still can do it but you need to make sure the humidity level stays above 65%. You still need to check them out everyday to see if they didn't dry out. If you're going to give them a little bit of water then give them root stimulator along with the water. When you see the plant started to grow a little bit then it's ready for vegging.

And one important note when you make cuttings always sterilize your blade after every cut you make.

 

[Mr Twister]

Thank You FH

Very good info for those of us new to the craft.

Cheers
MT

 

[newbieninja]

It's easy to determine the sex of your plant. Just veg it for a week or two, make the clones and put it in 12/12. If the plant shows any sign of a male plant then get rid of it and all the clones that got off from that plant. If it shows signs of a male plant keep the clones and keep the plant as a mother plant.

How do you take clones from a plant that young? The only branches are the fan leaves.

 

[FromHolland]

Basically they're 3 weeks old because you don't count the first week from germinating. Under a 9500k fluorescent light there will be a lot of branches and leaves. I tested it once and since then I only use 9500k for germinating/cloning and vegging.

You don't have to make a lot of clones, one is enough to determine its sex. Because if you would make like 10 clones of a plant and at the end its a male it will be only a waste of energy.

When you place this clone into 12/12 it will take 3 or 4 weeks to show its sex, meanwhile your motherplant will be 5 or 6 weeks old. She will be big enough to take a lot of clones from here.

 

[stoned-trout]

I would check roots...then most likely break up bottom roots lightly and repot...I don't ever try and flower an ailing plant ....

 

[MidwestsBest]

Ive personally saved plants that looked far worse than that. If the green part doesn't SNAP and still bends/stretches a bit, the chances are it can still be saved. I would usually move them under some less harsh lighting if possible(i would move mine from HPS to florescent) and give them some low doses of superthrive for a few weeks and make sure to cut off all the dried/ stuff that is for sure too far to save.

The real question you should be asking is "If its WORTH saving them" . For instance, if you are working a Sea of Green method and you have some replacements that are just a few weeks behind them, you might not want to waste time saving them . time = money. But if you have no clones ready to back them up then I'de say do whatever you can to at least get them healthy enough to snatch some clones off of before you trash it.

 

[newbieninja]

Basically they're 3 weeks old because you don't count the first week from germinating.

Huh? I stated in the original post that they were eight weeks old from when they sprouted.

Under a 9500k fluorescent light there will be a lot of branches and leaves. I tested it once and since then I only use 9500k for germinating/cloning and vegging.

Where would I find these? the only thing a search found was low wattage tubes for aquariums. I'm not interested in changing my whole lighting setup.

 

[Benjamin Check]

the plants won't show sex if you have them under over 16 hours of light a day... if you want them to show sex, they need to be in 12/12 for a week or two for some cultivars to show sex. edit: unless they are automatic that is.

what? Plants will show sex under 24 hours of light. Grow them until they show pre flowers and they are easily sexed. After about a month of veg, it is easy to sex them. I don't know where you got that information, but I can heartily assure you it is inaccurate and not to be repeated.

Any plant that is still alive can be saved. I've crushed clones, let clones dry out, watched seedlings wither, brought back a plant I initially thought was dead just to do it. Correct your issue, put them back in veg with some light nutrients and if they are alive they will recover. I ripped the roots off several clones by accident and stuck them right back in the cloner and lo and behold..7 days later more roots. They looked a little beat up, but they vegged right into healthy mothers. If it's alive it will live if you correct the issue.