G
Guest
Over winter without lighting
I showed a couple of growers how to do this last season and they found it valueable. I thought i would share it with others.
This method allows a grower to choose his best outdoor plant of the season, take a cutting, sloclone the cutting over the winter and have your mom ready for sping clones all with nothing more than a 30 or 40W florescent bulb.
Slocloning is the act of extending the cloning process out for 4 months or more, or until the spring sunshine arrives again.
1. Take the cutting from the targeted outdoor specimen about the first of sept. Wait until the plant is in flower, but the bottom most small branches dont have any female flowers showing. This is usuallly 3-4 weeks after flowering begins. The cutting should be a small branch that has been removed directly from the main stem. Use a knife and take a large piece with plenty of white/ fiborous material inside the stem.
2. Submerge the cutting in a cup of cool water at a depth of about 1/2 the length of the clone. Place the cup and clone in a cool spot with low, consistent light. A 20W flourescent at a distance of 4' is perfect. The water must be changed weekly. Tap water is important to use due to the chlorine in the water. It keeps down fungus.
After the second week, a drop of liquid fertilizer must be added to the cup every other week. The nutrients in the cuttings tissue will break down after a few weeks and if more is not provided, the cutting will yellow and die. I use 1 drop of Shultz house plant food every other water change.
If temps are kept below 70 degrees, the plant can remain in the cup in this state for up to 8 weeks.
3. If the clone begins to yellow, or it looks as though its really loosing vigor, its time to pull it out and start the cloning process. This process should take 6-8 weeks.
3 parts perlite/ 1 part vermiculite in a 16 oz cup. Plant the cutting in the perlite with some rooting powder if you like and the process begins. Again, temperature is critical. Cloning at 75 - 80 degrees usually elicits roots within 10-20 days. At 60 degrees, the cloning process takes weeks. Forever. Move the cutting to with 1' of the flourecent light.
4. After 6-8 weeks, you'll begin to see new growth starting. If the season is near, plant your mom in soil and begin growing her big enough to take clones. If its still sometime until spring, shake some perlite from the clone, pull off about 3/4 of the new roots and put back in the perlite, to grow new roots again.
It took a while to get good at this and the first couple of years, once the clone had grown roots, i would have to continue pulling the roots off of the new clones to make ituntil next spring. Over time, you'll get good
I have used this method for years. It also provides material for my winter indoor grow or seed making projects.
I showed a couple of growers how to do this last season and they found it valueable. I thought i would share it with others.
This method allows a grower to choose his best outdoor plant of the season, take a cutting, sloclone the cutting over the winter and have your mom ready for sping clones all with nothing more than a 30 or 40W florescent bulb.
Slocloning is the act of extending the cloning process out for 4 months or more, or until the spring sunshine arrives again.
1. Take the cutting from the targeted outdoor specimen about the first of sept. Wait until the plant is in flower, but the bottom most small branches dont have any female flowers showing. This is usuallly 3-4 weeks after flowering begins. The cutting should be a small branch that has been removed directly from the main stem. Use a knife and take a large piece with plenty of white/ fiborous material inside the stem.
2. Submerge the cutting in a cup of cool water at a depth of about 1/2 the length of the clone. Place the cup and clone in a cool spot with low, consistent light. A 20W flourescent at a distance of 4' is perfect. The water must be changed weekly. Tap water is important to use due to the chlorine in the water. It keeps down fungus.
After the second week, a drop of liquid fertilizer must be added to the cup every other week. The nutrients in the cuttings tissue will break down after a few weeks and if more is not provided, the cutting will yellow and die. I use 1 drop of Shultz house plant food every other water change.
If temps are kept below 70 degrees, the plant can remain in the cup in this state for up to 8 weeks.
3. If the clone begins to yellow, or it looks as though its really loosing vigor, its time to pull it out and start the cloning process. This process should take 6-8 weeks.
3 parts perlite/ 1 part vermiculite in a 16 oz cup. Plant the cutting in the perlite with some rooting powder if you like and the process begins. Again, temperature is critical. Cloning at 75 - 80 degrees usually elicits roots within 10-20 days. At 60 degrees, the cloning process takes weeks. Forever. Move the cutting to with 1' of the flourecent light.
4. After 6-8 weeks, you'll begin to see new growth starting. If the season is near, plant your mom in soil and begin growing her big enough to take clones. If its still sometime until spring, shake some perlite from the clone, pull off about 3/4 of the new roots and put back in the perlite, to grow new roots again.
It took a while to get good at this and the first couple of years, once the clone had grown roots, i would have to continue pulling the roots off of the new clones to make ituntil next spring. Over time, you'll get good
I have used this method for years. It also provides material for my winter indoor grow or seed making projects.
