How BIG can a cutting be and still succeed?

[Jellyfish]

I have two questions that I have never seen addressed on here. The answers might be on ICMAG somewhere, but I can't be the only one who's ever wondered-


1. How BIG of a cutting can you get to develop roots. Everybody's had a plant or two that grows 'side plants' coming right off the base of the plant. These can be six, eight inches tall. If I tried to root one, would it take? Or is there a reason we typically take two or three-node cuttings?


2. When is the LATEST you can take a cutting from a flowering plant and have it succeed? Are there secrets to succeeding in this?



Thanking you all in advance...

 

[hellfire]

The easiest way to root big cuts is to not take them as cuttings but to do air layering. With the right environment you can probably root cuttings up to a foot tall, I have rooted clones 8 inches tall before just in a light soil mix. However with air layering you can root an entire big branch if you please.

You can reveg things even at the end of their flowering cycle. Some people harvest and leave a few shoots then stick the plant back under 24/0. Revegging takes time and patience, not sure there's any one secret trick.

 

[Jellyfish]

Thanks, hellfire. I'll have to research air layering.



So are you saying the best way to re-veg is not to take clones, but to re-veg the main plant? I might try that.

 

[hellfire]

You can do it both ways. Cuttings or the plant. When revegging the plant however it already has an established root system that may be easoer to manage. I would do multiple ways if you are worried about success rates.

Some natural sunlight might help as well. I do remember some of my fastest revegging plants were cuttings that had some greenhouse time.

 

[Rico Swazi]

1. Have you looked into layering? you can get fairly good size cuttings after they root


2. Depends but generally good results through mid flower, no late flowering cuts .




Is your plant flowering now? what genetics? maybe someone that has grown that cultivar could be more specific in how they do the deed

good luck

funny funny Hellfire had the answer while my fingers were still typing
might as well add a pic




I just got done root pruning a blueberry into a smaller pot for reveg,
works most the time

 

[GOT_BUD?]

You can reveg things even at the end of their flowering cycle. Some people harvest and leave a few shoots then stick the plant back under 24/0. Revegging takes time and patience, not sure there's any one secret trick.

I'm doing this right now with an AK47 I failed to clone. 1 week in and so far so good.

 

[Skatter Brayne]

Any air layering tips? I tried it once before but I had problems tightly securing soil to the side branches. I plan to revisit it next season

 

[blynx]

I've taken cuts on harvest day and had them root, they just take longer than non-flowering cuts.

 

[Sunshineinabag]

Oh that's cause u piss excellence blink

 

[Rico Swazi]

Any air layering tips? I tried it once before but I had problems tightly securing soil to the side branches. I plan to revisit it next season

Soil is difficult to work with. I suggest rooting plugs (root riot, rapid rooter, to name a couple) and saran wrap or other plastic that clings to itself rather than tying on a plastic bag or the like. Important to keep it moist but not wet


Several threads on air layering that you can check out



https://www.icmag.com/modules/Find_Threads/index.php?stext=air+layering

 

[Gry]

Recall seeing pictures of a large branch break shoved into a PPK and seeing it take off, almost without pause. Regrettably the pictures were pulled from the PPK threads.

 

[gorilla ganja]

I take 16 inch cuttings and find they root as well if not better than smaller cuttings.

As far as taking cuttings in flower. I think you can do it at anytime. But the longer it is in flower the longer it takes to revert to vegitative growth.

 

[therevverend]

Outdoors in June I broke a limb off one of my outdoor plants. I thought I'd stick it in the ground and see if it would root, for the hell of it. Inspiration struck and I stuck most of the branch in the ground. It was a big clone but over half the branch was underground. A foot or so, with another 8 inches above ground. The one mistake I made was not scraping the skin off one side of the branch when I buried it. June was very humid and it rooted with almost no effort. I hosed it down in the morning when it was dry and sunny. Put a plastic bag over it 3 or 4 days at the end when it started to root but even that was unnecessary. It rooted after a couple weeks. In straight up native soil.

When it was time to dig it up and pot it I tried to go below the branch. Shoved my shovel in as deep as it would go. It wasn't deep enough. I hit it right at the bottom of the branch and the roots were only coming out of that spot because i didn't shave off the skin. Big mistake, I cut off all the roots except 1/4 of an inch of root. I stuck it in a container anyway. It wilted until I thought it was dead. A few days later I decided to dump it out of the pot, use the soil for something else. I got busy and didn't do it right away, 2 days later when I thought of it again it had new non-wilted growth at top. It's one of the biggest clones I've rooted and one of my favorite plants I've grown. Now it's half-way flowered, I doused it with pollen so it's a little two foot seed plant.

The takeaway for me is to put more of the branch in the medium when a clone is larger. You could use perlite for instance, fill a 12 inch container and stick a whole branch in it. The problem you run into is the bigger the clone, the bigger the surface area exposed to air and the faster the water evaporates out of it. By putting more of the plant (the branch) in the damp medium you increase the wet surface area. You can cut the leaves in half to reduce surface area but the less leaf on top the less leaf it has to regen. It's hard to root big clones in rockwool unless you get bigger cubes. You could theoretically root an entire plant if you had a high enough constant humidity, there's no limit to how big a clone can be but it's a question of what's practical.

 

[Storm Shadow]

I found a trick to get good yields faster off strains that have OGKB in their genes...

Grow a huge mom.... and take 10-16 in cuttings ... put them in 3x3x4 rockwool no dome...

2-4 weeks for insane roots and you've just shaved 2-3 weeks of vegging time on those slow ass OGKB genes... once these cuts are big and rooted they grow fast like normal plants.. so u can veg them like normal plants and get huge yields... the Key is Big moms and big clones ... also works in a solo cups of Coco/or sunshine mix#4... they even root faster in those mediums

 

[Jellyfish]

Outdoors in June I broke a limb off one of my outdoor plants. I thought I'd stick it in the ground and see if it would root, for the hell of it. Inspiration struck and I stuck most of the branch in the ground. It was a big clone but over half the branch was underground. A foot or so, with another 8 inches above ground. The one mistake I made was not scraping the skin off one side of the branch when I buried it. June was very humid and it rooted with almost no effort. I hosed it down in the morning when it was dry and sunny. Put a plastic bag over it 3 or 4 days at the end when it started to root but even that was unnecessary. It rooted after a couple weeks. In straight up native soil.

When it was time to dig it up and pot it I tried to go below the branch. Shoved my shovel in as deep as it would go. It wasn't deep enough. I hit it right at the bottom of the branch and the roots were only coming out of that spot because i didn't shave off the skin. Big mistake, I cut off all the roots except 1/4 of an inch of root. I stuck it in a container anyway. It wilted until I thought it was dead. A few days later I decided to dump it out of the pot, use the soil for something else. I got busy and didn't do it right away, 2 days later when I thought of it again it had new non-wilted growth at top. It's one of the biggest clones I've rooted and one of my favorite plants I've grown. Now it's half-way flowered, I doused it with pollen so it's a little two foot seed plant.

The takeaway for me is to put more of the branch in the medium when a clone is larger. You could use perlite for instance, fill a 12 inch container and stick a whole branch in it. The problem you run into is the bigger the clone, the bigger the surface area exposed to air and the faster the water evaporates out of it. By putting more of the plant (the branch) in the damp medium you increase the wet surface area. You can cut the leaves in half to reduce surface area but the less leaf on top the less leaf it has to regen. It's hard to root big clones in rockwool unless you get bigger cubes. You could theoretically root an entire plant if you had a high enough constant humidity, there's no limit to how big a clone can be but it's a question of what's practical.

That was interesting, thanks. I'm all indoor, but it does give me some ideas.

 

[Jellyfish]

I take 16 inch cuttings and find they root as well if not better than smaller cuttings.

As far as taking cuttings in flower. I think you can do it at anytime. But the longer it is in flower the longer it takes to revert to vegitative growth.

That is exactly the answer(s) I was looking for, thanks! Thanks, everybody, I got some great ideas.