I'm new to mainlining and taking cuttings...

[Fighting Sioux]

Hi - I'm new to this forum and while I've been growing for decades I'm finally doing it better. I've never taken a cutting and certainly never tried to mainline a plant. I've been reading as much as I can and my immediate concern is how much time it will add to when my plants will flower and therefore when I can harvest them. I've read that can be as much as 2 weeks. On the other hand I grow outdoors so I'm thinking that the plants will start flowering when they always do each year - when the days start to get shorter. I need to have everything cut down, dried, bottled and burped by mid October because I take a trip every year at that time and do not want the pet sitter getting wise.

 

[Hugo Phurst]

Autoflower

Good luck

 

[Fighting Sioux]

Okay... not quite sure what you mean but thanks for the reply.

 

[Hugo Phurst]

Okay... not quite sure what you mean but thanks for the reply.

If you want to be finished by Oct, a photoperiod plant will not do.

An autoflower begins to flower when it reached a certain level of maturity (6 or 8 weeks), rather than a photo that required 12 hours of dark (sometime in Sept.)

 

[FatherNelson]

It flowers based on the hours of sun it receives, not your growing method.

Have fun

 

[MtRainDog]

Go with auto if you have a hard date like that. You can plant an auto in the spring and it will be done in the summer because they basically work on a countdown from when they begin their life. Normal photoperiod plants need the days to get shorter to trigger the hormonal response to start flowering. Most photoperiod plants will not finish before October. An autoflowering plant will finish roughly 90 days after it sprouts.

 

[Fighting Sioux]

Yes thanks I know what autoflowering plants do but you can't clone or mainline those. I have always grown my own seeds (and now have a ton since I missed a male and got fertilized in 2016 while away on vacation) and have always been able to harvest and get everything done on time. I purchased some seeds this year to try something new and since they cost a bit I wanted to clone a few to get more bang for my buck. My question was how much, if any time cloning would add to my timeline. I'm thinking the plants will still flower around the same time since these are photoperiod but maybe the clones just wouldn't get as big. I don't think I'm going to try to mainline anything right now. Maybe try playing with that in the winter (I have a greenhouse). BTW - I'm in the northeast and my plants start flowering at the end of August.

 

[Boatguy]

Yes thanks I know what autoflowering plants do but you can't clone or mainline those. I have always grown my own seeds (and now have a ton since I missed a male and got fertilized in 2016 while away on vacation) and have always been able to harvest and get everything done on time. I purchased some seeds this year to try something new and since they cost a bit I wanted to clone a few to get more bang for my buck. My question was how much, if any time cloning would add to my timeline. I'm thinking the plants will still flower around the same time since these are photoperiod but maybe the clones just wouldn't get as big. I don't think I'm going to try to mainline anything right now. Maybe try playing with that in the winter (I have a greenhouse). BTW - I'm in the northeast and my plants start flowering at the end of August.

Im in the northeast, and do some smaller outdoor patio plants every summer. I trim them like crazy, so you may be able to pull off a mainline.
Check out nugbuckets mainlining thread he did some outdoors. https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-main-lining-thread.542308/

 

[Fighting Sioux]

Thank you! I have looked at nugbuckets tutorial on growweedeasy.com and I'm afraid if I kill something it's too late in the grow season to start anything else. I think I'll wait to try mainlining with my own seeds this winter. But I would love to take cuttings of the plants from the seeds I bought. From what I can determine a cutting should be taken at a much later stage than mainlining so it survives. It doesn't look as if nugbuckets is trying to root what he takes from the plants he's mainlining.

 

[MtRainDog]

Thank you! I have looked at nugbuckets tutorial on growweedeasy.com and I'm afraid if I kill something it's too late in the grow season to start anything else. I think I'll wait to try mainlining with my own seeds this winter. But I would love to take cuttings of the plants from the seeds I bought. From what I can determine a cutting should be taken at a much later stage than mainlining so it survives. It doesn't look as if nugbuckets is trying to root what he takes from the plants he's mainlining.

You can take cuts whenever. I take pretty small cuts because I have a lot of different small mothers. Often times I'll take a cut as soon as there's enough stem to do so, then mama goes into the trash bin. Taking cuts isn't going to slow anything down. It's just a matter of can you take a cut or not. The mama plant doesn't care.

Mainlining is probably the most dramatic of training techs. Very cool results, but definitely controls things and will take longer to get to the size you want to flower at. That's why you mostly see it in small indoor grows, or hidden cabinet grows.

I would just top and prune into a manageable size. If you figure the plant will double or triple in size after the stretch, that should give you an idea of how big to have it when it starts flowering.

 

[Fighting Sioux]

Thank you - appreciate this info! I get my seedlings started indoors, when it gets warm enough I harden them off, and then they go outside in the ground. I don't really care how big they get - the bigger the better! But you have given me confidence to go ahead and take some cuttings and try to maximize my yields from the plants started with purchased seeds.

 

[Boatguy]

Thank you! I have looked at nugbuckets tutorial on growweedeasy.com and I'm afraid if I kill something it's too late in the grow season to start anything else. I think I'll wait to try mainlining with my own seeds this winter. But I would love to take cuttings of the plants from the seeds I bought. From what I can determine a cutting should be taken at a much later stage than mainlining so it survives. It doesn't look as if nugbuckets is trying to root what he takes from the plants he's mainlining.

I dont think he does. This might be what your looking for. https://www.rollitup.org/t/uncle-bens-topping-technique-to-get-2-or-4-main-colas.151706/

 

[Fighting Sioux]

Thank you! I didn't see any pictures (maybe I neglected to click on something...?) but the info is very useful. Very interesting. I think I'm ready to experiment...

 

[Boatguy]

Thank you! I didn't see any pictures (maybe I neglected to click on something...?) but the info is very useful. Very interesting. I think I'm ready to experiment...

The old threads lost their pics.. the info is still there. That technique does work