Big Clones.....and air layers.....

[Budley Doright]

When I do an air layer I have no issue with light...... because no matter how much light the air layer is getting.....the stem is in the dark......

If I use a rapid rooter.... where the rapid rooter is..... the stem is in the dark......

The utility of being able to see the roots imo is more important then any additional root growth which may occur.......

 

[Budley Doright]

Immmmm Baaaccckkkkkkk!!!

Ok I had some other grow related things to get done.....

Now Im back to air layering....

Im in the process of making a bunch of modest sized branches...

Im using rapid rooters and clonex....no dip n grow for a couple more weeks...

Here is how this will work..... I plan to sever all these things at exactly 2 weeks....

feb 28 sunday

I plan to transplant the lot into 2 liter bottles....and monitor roots..... How many will get roots both..... at transplant..... and then how many get roots eventually....

I would probably do 3 weeks....but this is science....lol

If the branches don't have roots in 2 weeks....then we might consider they are in sort of a precloning stage..... and cutting the branch may then allow roots to strike quickly.....

I used sandwich baggies to wrap the air layer.... and plastic clothes pins to gather the plastic at top and bottom....

More in a couple weeks......

 

[Budley Doright]

I have not been able to find the time to sever the air layers...

I notice some have roots some not....

Im hoping in a couple days to sever the lot....

Im most interested in the non rooted layers and will they root when finished as a normal clone.....

 

[Budley Doright]

This morning I cut the air layers away from mom....

Even though these were small air layers(I feel the best results will be from larger branches)
most rooted in 3 weeks....

I used rapid rooters and clonex....2 per plant.... 10 plants total

On two plants neither has obvously rooted.... several others both rooted.....My goal is to have at least one root....

These air layers were all placed in small cups.... like 7 oz.... and vermiculite....

They are in a protected environment.... a bucket and plastic bag over the top....

once I see some roots they will be transplanted for keeps....


I think its clear that these do not root quite as fast..... or at the high percentage as my clones..... however my new grow style should make air layering more suitable for this kind of propagation...

I have been doing a batch at a time perpetual..... but will be moving to fully perpetual....

ONe plant into flower every other day... one plant harvest every other day....

The next phase of this will be how many in total will eventually root.....

I will give them 14 more days...... of course I will see roots in a matter of a few days on many....

If I absolutely had to put one of these plants into flower...... and no roots were showing...

the air layers would go into flowering..... and I would take a couple clones.....

Then if I saw roots in one of the air layers during the first week of 12-12 I would be ok with that..... otherwise I would use a clone...

I see no real reason to remove the air layer if its not used.... simply allow it to dry out....

Im still hoping that dip and grow will produce a higher strike rate of rooting.....

More later....

 

[stoned-trout]

I prefer regular cloning...yeehaw...much easier...

 

[Budley Doright]

Air layering is going to change my grow....

In doing regular clones I need 9- 10 weeks in veg...

AIr layering only 6-7....

This allows me to produce more with my plant count in michigan.....

I admit that regular cloning is easier.... but Im a greedy bastard.... Yee Haw....

lol.....

 

[Budley Doright]

Im going to do the same basic experiment.....

except using dip n grow... 2 layers per.... about 10 plants

 

[Budley Doright]

Last night I finished a bunch of air layers....

This time i used dip n grow.... this experiment is not a good candidate for assessing clonex vs dip n grow..... these clones were considerably larger....

Larger clones are certainly easier to ring... we shall see if that translates to more roots....

 

[Budley Doright]

I should probably clarify what Im doing with my medical grow....

Since plant count is important I thought air layers might be able to help me be as efficient as possible with my plant count....


I will be moving to a real perpetual grow... I will harvest one plant every other day....

I will also be cutting an air layer.... every other day...

This should help me guarantee that something will always be ready for flower.... but no pressure for all plants to be ready at the same time...

These experiments Im doing is the attempted integration of air layering into this grow...

These two experiments represent the last experiments prior to full integration.....


In these two recent experiments I used rapid rooters....mostly because I had a bunch....

Soon I will move to coco and dip n grow most likely....as has been described earlier here...

I considered starting a new thread but did not because Im still very much in experimental mode....


Once I settle in my technique I will do a thread of my methods....

Im looking forward to some good clean fun over the next few months....

 

[Budley Doright]

This morning I cut the air layers away from mom....

Even though these were small air layers(I feel the best results will be from larger branches)
most rooted in 3 weeks....

I used rapid rooters and clonex....2 per plant.... 10 plants total

On two plants neither has obvously rooted.... several others both rooted.....My goal is to have at least one root....

These air layers were all placed in small cups.... like 7 oz.... and vermiculite....

They are in a protected environment.... a bucket and plastic bag over the top....

once I see some roots they will be transplanted for keeps....


I think its clear that these do not root quite as fast..... or at the high percentage as my clones..... however my new grow style should make air layering more suitable for this kind of propagation...

I have been doing a batch at a time perpetual..... but will be moving to fully perpetual....

ONe plant into flower every other day... one plant harvest every other day....

The next phase of this will be how many in total will eventually root.....

I will give them 14 more days...... of course I will see roots in a matter of a few days on many....

If I absolutely had to put one of these plants into flower...... and no roots were showing...

the air layers would go into flowering..... and I would take a couple clones.....

Then if I saw roots in one of the air layers during the first week of 12-12 I would be ok with that..... otherwise I would use a clone...

I see no real reason to remove the air layer if its not used.... simply allow it to dry out....

Im still hoping that dip and grow will produce a higher strike rate of rooting.....

More later....

The answer to the question ....How many will eventually root???

Probablyall of them....

In the 2 weeks since they were cut from the mother plant.... all the plants not showing roots have rooted except for one....


I presume over the next few days that one will pop roots too... the clone is still in very good shape....

So what did I learn??? I had about 10 mother plants and did two air layers per plant..... Eventually they will all root but.... they are far less consistant than a batch of clones....

This seems like it will work quite well for my planned perpetual grow.... with one plant harvested and one plant moved to flower every other day..... This method should give me a steady stream of rooted plants..... however the time required to root is much more variable....

 

[Budley Doright]

The other experiment I have going.... are air layers using dip n grow..

Ive not done la real head to head....

My last batch was done with my goto hormone clonex... they however were smaller ...more difficult to do...

This new batch were larger.... In my perpetual .... my air layers will be given at least 3 weeks....unless they root sooner....

Its been 2 weeks for the dip n grow batch and they appear to be striking roots faster....

Like the clonex batch I will be cutting the lot of them next sunday.... I will have a much better idea then......however the dip n grow plants are clearly better.....

More next week...

 

[Budley Doright]

Next for me and air layering.. is to begin to change the plants timing....
Im currently doing a batch at a time 'perpetual' I will be moving to full perpetual....

One plant gets harvested every other day.... and one plant moves to veg...

Im certain that this will take a couple months to fully implement....

But when that happens I will have fully implemented air layering into my fully perpetual grow....

Perfect for a medical grow... at least here in michigan

 

[Budley Doright]

Let me provide some perspective how air layering helps me....

Currently using small clones I allow 3 batches in flowering and 3 in veg...

Flowering remains the same.... however I plan larger more plants in flower since in veg I am eliminating 1 of the 3 batches ..

my batches are done 3 weeks and 2 days apart for a total of 10 weeks...

Same thing in veg.... 10 weeks....


With air layering my change will be two batches in veg....


that many plants at least...

Half the time will be plain vegging the other half they will be air layered moms....

I plan to allow the moms at least 3 weeks of air layer time.....and possibly more...

My current experiment will mimic how well 3 week old air layers root..

Im confident that I will have planty of plants... Since I only need one obviously rooted plant every 2 days,,,,

Im fairly certain that dip n grow will be my goto hormone for air layering...

I am now heading to the last phase of this process..... the actual integration of air layering into my medical grow....

There are 3 things here that will need to be synchronized...


As a plant Leaves flowering....opeining a spot...

2 things happen in veg..... a rooted air layer is taken and put into final rooting... a plant from final rooting will be moved to flower....

 

[Budley Doright]

One small note.... In my next batch of air layers.... I plan to start in rapid rooters....


Then remove the plastic and encase the rapid rooter in a larger plastic bottle and coco ....

When the roots are visable outside the rapid rooter I will employ the plastic bottle to enlarge the root ball prior to cutting the clone....I figure a few days will be sufficient to make the air layer self sufficient upon cutting the air layer free...

More later.....

 

[Budley Doright]

I was somewhat surprised that when I severed an air layers that had not rooted ......

few of those went on to root when treated as a normal clone.....

I have my veg plants for my perpetual grow.... when they are large enough to start doing air layers ..... the real experiment will begin....


Each veg plant will get 2 airlayers.... when either one or both of the air layers form roots.... that mom will be available for flowering.....

I expect to begin in a month or so....


This is a new computer and I havent tried to upload pics yet....

 

[Budley Doright]

*************************** FULL PERPETUAL GROW LOG************************

Thats right ladies and gents.......young and old alike can see a grow unlike you have ever seen before....

Will this be a wild success or will I fall and bloody my nose....


I can say I intend to put my money where my mouth is... in the first part of this thread I did several experiments because little was known about cannabis and air layering...


I am a little smarter and wiser now.... I hope this grow works as well as I think it will...

In a few days I will provide specs for the grow....... and how we have come to where my grow currently is.....


and how it will be in the future....

In effect I was growing not unlike many people do ...... gavitas ....promix and jacks ferts growing 10 plants in a batch.... a new batch every 3 weeks and 2 days

The transition will be to sending one plant to flower about.....every 2 days.....

Every other day I plan to put a plant in flower...... so I start a new plant in veg that same day.....

Let me admit...... this conversion is made with some trepidation.......

This will be a fully complient medical grow.....more on that later

I may need some luck.......

I wont be getting this started for a few more days(starting with a bunch of air layers) and this is my interpretation of how I can put air layering to best use in my grow...

Since you have some days ...... please visit my friend ichabod crane here is the link to one way he is using air layering...

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=314837
From start of cloning to harvest 13 week scrog

I hope you enjoy his thread....

Oh by the way..... bear with me....crane is much smarter and better looking than I am....... I started work on this air layer stuff...... crane stops by...... says it cool....

does a whole grow and is done..... before I can get my old ass around enough to even start my grow.......

 

[Budley Doright]

Here is something I found on our states marijuana laws.... state supported site

posted by an attorney ...


The federal definition requires a marijuana cutting have roots, a rootball, or root hairs observable to the naked eye in order to be considered a marijuana plant. That definition is in the notes in the Guidelines at 2D1.1, note 17. There is case law that says essentially the same thing.

==========================

A plant has to have roots.....however multiple root zones on a plant do not result in multiple plants

 

[Budley Doright]

Im not sure anyone is out there .....

but today is air layering day....... I have gone minimalist....

coco....dip n grow.... plastic wrap.....twist ties......large syringe for watering

I will be back in 2 or 3 weeks once the air layers are doing what they are supposed to do.... At that time I will also spec out my grow.....etc

 

[oti$]

I found the best way for me was aa cut bottle or beer cup with a slit down the side and hole in bottom for the branch, scrape the limb, rooting horemone, fill with coco. I like clear bottle the best bc you can see the roots.

 

[Budley Doright]

Yo budley how did the last one turn out? I'm gonna try plastic wrap/hormex/coco and see what happens. Gotta reread this thread before attempting.. I'll post pics soon.

My percents to strike are way up there.... Im only using rooting hormone....coco and plastic wrap myself...

I have done a bunch of plants airlayering...

My ultimate goal was to go perpetual...with about a plant every other day...

I will be begin placing plants in my every other day perpetual in a couple days....

I cant see going back to clones...