PUFF MONKEY said:
how do you make a mother clone ????what do i need to keep it going?whats a fool proof way to root a clone ?thanks
Well, there's really no fool proof way from what I've found. Plants are crazy strong but think about what you're asking it to do! you're chopping off a growth tip, sticking it in medium and asking it to become a whole new plant! I'd say the most "fool proof" way would be to start more clones than you're going to end up needing so that if a few don't make it you're still set. I need 1-2 mother's from both strains I have, so I cut a total of 8 clones last night (4 of each strain). If they all live I'll give the ones I don't need to a club. I use a propagation tray w/ a 7" humidity dome (around $7 for both), a 26w (100w equivalent) DAYLIGHT spectrum CFL, 1.5"x1.5" Grodan rockwool cubes, Clonex Gel, razor blades and a nice pair of pruning scissors. You're also going to need some RO water, a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide, your veg nutes and something to mist the plants with. Once you've got your supplies, take some RO water and adjust it to 5.5. Put that in a container and soak the rockwool cubes in it for at least an hour or two. You don't really need to over do that part. Take a shot glass and fill it with hydrogen peroxide, wash your pruning scissors and your razor blade and toss them in the peroxide to help sterilize them. Make sure to rinse off the peroxide before taking cuttings. While the cubes are soaking take another container and put some of the RO water in it. As long as the pH is between 6.0 & 6.5 on this container you should be fine. This one is for the clippings. As soon as you cut the growth tips you're going to make in to clones put the end you cut in this container to prevent air bubbles from getting in to the stem. Just toss the clippings in the water so that the cut end is submerged. Take yet another container and fill it with RO water adjusted to 6.5, add a few ml of peroxide and add
just a few drops of your veg nutes. The mixture I use had a ppm of 26. Don't over do it with nutes, clones don't have roots yet and don't have any way to take in the nutes. This is going to be used as a spray to foliar feed them in the mean time. Once you have the clippings you're going to use cut them to the length you want, take the razor blade and make a diagonal incision on the bottom of the stem (think roses), then take the blade and gently scrape the outside of about 1/2" of the skin on the bottom of the cutting. This is where your roots are going to grow from. By disturbing the area you give the cutting a better chance of sprouting roots and more surface area to uptake water. Make sure to do this quickly as you don't want air bubbles, bacteria, etc. entering your cutting. Dip the bottom of the cutting in clonex or whatever you're using for about 30 seconds, making sure that there's no air at the bottom of the cutting. While it's sitting in the gel grab one of the cubes out of the 5.5 soak, dry it out a little by holding it in your hand and flicking it with your wrist (don't squeeze it, this compacts the rockwool), then dip it in your 6.5 nute solution and flick the water out again. You want it to be moist, not wet and not dry. Now pull your cutting out of the clonex and gently put it in the little hole in the rockwool. Don't try to straighten the cutting if it's flopping over, it'll do this on it's own fairly quickly after you put it under the light. After you have all of your cuttings in cubes, put them in the propagation tray, put the 6.5 mixture that you made in a sprayer and give them a nice misting. I also mist the inside of the humidity dome to keep the humidity high. Mist them 2-3 times a day for about 3-4 days and then 1-2 times per day after that. Take the dome off after about 6 days and continue to mist the plants a few times daily. After the dome comes off you have to make sure to check the cubes and keep them moist. Don't over water the cubes or the roots will take longer to pop out. After about 8-10 days if everything goes right you should have a couple of little roots popping out of the bottom of the rockwool.
Everybody has a different method of cloning. If you google the subject you'll find about a hundred different ways to do it. It's all about experimentation. Keep trying until you get it right and pay attention to what you did when it worked. The fun part about growing is the experimentation (if you're just trying to smoke you'd buy it instead of busting your *** trying to learn to grow, right?) so don't let it get you down if they die on you a few times, just keep going at it until you're the self-proclaimed clone master!