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Transitioning clones from 24hr florescent light to the outdoors

I got some clones a couple days ago.

This is the first time I've worked with clones this early in the season and the first time I've had them with roots only in rock-wool (and not already running through soil), and the first time I've had clones coming from 24h of light/florescent and not already under natural sunlight.

Do any of you have some advice or tips on how to go about transitioning them to sunlight and keeping them in veg?

How do ya'll go about working with baby clones outdoors early in the season?



Here's my "plan" at the moment...

What I've done so far since I've had them is placed them in some small pots with soil (maybe 3/4 of a quart in size). I've kept them under a flood light outdoors at night and during the day time the I've had them in a bucket outside located in partial sun/shade (in a bucket to protect them from the gnarly winds the past few days).

I plan on keeping them under 24 hours of light by placing them underneath a flood light (outdoors) around sunset through the night and then in the morning I'll move them into a location where they are receiving partial sun with a little bit of full sun each day. And I'll keep doing this until I transplant them into their bigger/final pots.

Once their roots start to expand from the rock-wool well into the soil in the small pots they're in, I then plan on transplanting them directly into their final 30gal pots. (assuming this will be 10 to 14 days from now at most?)

Once they're in the 30gal pots I'm not totally sure on what I'm going to do as far as supplementing light...I'm thinking at that point I'll stop giving them light all night long and I'll either give them a few hours of light around/after sunset, or give them some light in the middle of the night for an hour or two to interrupt the dark period. Then by June 1st I'll cut out the supplemental light entirely.

Does that sound like an effective plan?.



One of the clones was a little droopy the first 24 hours that I had it but it has perked up since last night. So far they don't appear "stressed" to me...I think they're all doing alright so far considering they've had a somewhat dramatic change in environment....going from being indoors with 24 hours of florescent light in the 70s with some humidity, to their roots being exposed to soil for the first time along with sunlight for the first time and wind and day temps in the upper 80s and relatively cooler temps at night with dry air/humidity down in the teens.

If they're still looking good by tomorrow morning I feel pretty confident they'll "make it"...then my main concern is keeping them in veg and how I'm going to go about that.

Curious to hear how you fellas go about working with clones early in the season/transitioning them to the elements of the outdoors.



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calientecarlos

Active member
Veteran
Hardening off clones is the trickiest part of outdoor imho. I like to put em in a windblocked area on the northside of my house. They get good protection and just a lil sun at the end of day. I am usually working with clones from aerocloner. I will give em a week r so after transplanting into soil under 600mh 18on6off to acclimate before putting em out.

Sounds like you got it under control. Best wishes for da season!
 

troutman

Seed Whore
^^^ Like he said North side of a house.

Guerilla style, I like hiding them under pine trees for up to a week. :)

Misting helps early on.
 
Do clones usually kinda appear a bit droopy for the first week or so when they're moved outdoors/being put into soil for the first time?

One of my clones is looking pretty droopy/sad, and I'm not sure what is going on with it. Soil is moist.


And do clones kinda "stall" and not grow much for the first week or two when they are put into soil? I'm assuming they're putting energy into growing roots at the moment, but they just don't look like they're growing much or doing much at all.


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Do they kinda reach a point after a few weeks where they start to "take off" and grow more rapidly?
 

calientecarlos

Active member
Veteran
Yeah they do kinda "stall" if you will. I transplanted clones yesterday and today they're droopy as well. I was told that every time a plant gets shocked it is usually 2weeks til they bounce back to normal or better. As long as they're not wilting sall should be gravy. Hurry up n wait kinda ordeal as usual.
 

Klompen

Active member
The stalling is directly affected by the root mass. The larger a root mass you take it outside with, the more durable its going to tend to be. Straight out of the cloner with a few roots or even puck full of peat or coir isn't going to provide a large enough root mass. If you do progressive potting or air-pruning pots/bags, you can get a party cup sized root mass that is just absurdly packed. Carefully wiggle the coiled-up roots and they'll spread out over a pretty big space.
 
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