Hi Aficionado,
Firstly excellent journal to date, great control on your variables and documentation. I currently have an Omega Garden system that will hold 256 x 3"cubes and it is very similar to the Roto Grow. I am currently raising enough mothers so I have not started yet. I do however have some concerns and I would like some of your advice:
Welcome aboard!
The Omega system is a nice unit and is rather similar in concept to the roto, although I have not had the pleasure of working with one. I do have some advice for you though based on what I have learned so far with this model.
Hi Aficionado,
1) With my system the rockwool cubes dip into the nutrient tray for a few minutes and was wondering whether this was enough time for the cubes to hold water and nutrients for 24 hours...assuming your setup is similar.
The Roto uses a pump in the reservoir attached to a timer (built in). You can set the time of day and duration the pump is activated. When turned on, the pump will flood a tray directly above the reservoir up to the height of the return pipe - which is set approximately 1/2 inch above the bottom of the cubes as they pass through the tray. Capillary action takes it from there and ensures the cubes are saturated, and gravity also plays a part when the plants are flipped upside down. The Roto takes about an hour to do a full rotation, and I have it scheduled to flood the tray twice a day for 1 hr each time (12 hrs apart to coincide with the light cycle). When the plants are young, and not so developed, I found that once per day was perfect up until about the 2nd week of flowering where I added the second flood cycle. I regularly check the cubes to ensure that they are not dry, and just as importantly, not overly saturated. Roots need a lot of O2 to develop, so I find it works best not to suffocate them in nutrient rich solutions.
2) When taking clones do you cut each clone at the same node number from the mother as to create uniformity or do you base it on height and not worry about the node count too much?
The mothers I use are well developed and approximately 4 mos old. They, themselves were grown from clones versus seeds so node development was not symmetrical. That being said, I only target the tender lower branches for clones and keep my clones approximately at the same height (no more than 3" tall) and cut most leaf pairs off to aid in root development. For this particular run, I opted to use multiple strains to observe which work best in this set up. I find that root development itself plays a much bigger role in uniformity within the strain type. Clones that were not as far along (for various reasons), when transplanted, showed significant growth retardation while they played catch up. This can be an issue with the density of the canopy and accelerated growth, where undeveloped plants can be at a serious disadvantage for light in later stages if situated next to other plants who are further along (and much larger). This is one area I have noted to do differently next time and will be captured in the lessons learned part of this post.
3) Lastly any particular maintenance for mothers or growing techniques to maximise cloning potential. Mine are currently growing in soil at around 11 inches with the potential for between 15 - 20 cuttings if I push it. Was thinking about putting mothers into hydroponics like a flood and drain system. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks again
Great question! One thing that may not be so obvious is that you need a ton of clones, all similar in development, height, etc. - at the same time. Not so easy to come up with 240 clones unless you plan appropriately. For my mothers, I have at least two of each strain (genetic clones of each other) and heavily prune the top layers to discourage vertical growth in favor of development of the lower branches (which I find works best for clones). These mothers are about 4 foot tall in 5 gallon pots or organic based soils. I have them under 1000w full spectrum MH lighting. With mothers at this age and pruning cycle, I can easily pull 60 clones each (no more than 3" tall). I never cut directly at the main stalk, as I want the node to divide further along the lower branches. I also prep the mothers with a heavy cycle of nitrogen rich growth formula at least a week before and ensure she is saturated with water at least the day before pruning. I would recommend you start to train your mothers now (removing top growth nodes) so that you have a great clone harvest when you need it.
Hope some of this helps!
