Is this fast, or what? Question about LST and cloning...

Put my plants under 12/12 4 days ago. Checked them this morning and one of them is definitely showing female! Is this ridiculously fast, or what?

I'm doing LST on them to keep them short and hopefully increase my yield. They're pretty small, around 6 inches and 8-9 nodes high. Can I go ahead and clone the female? There's plenty of secondary growth starting around the lower nodes from the LST, so can I take, say, the top 3 nodes off for a clone? How will this affect her training? I'm trying to train her around the pot in kind of a spiral shape. She's so small, though, there really isn't anywhere else to take a clone from but the very top...

Or is she too small to be a mom? I was planning on going back to 18/6 once the males are identified and eliminated (and clones taken, hopefully). Should I wait until after the re-veg to take clones? I'd like to do it before the re-veg, that way the clones can veg right along with the moms and they can all go into flower at the same time. See, I don't have room to do veg and flower in different areas so the plants pretty much need to do everything together =)

Advice?

doobnVA said:

Put my plants under 12/12 4 days ago. Checked them this morning and one of them is definitely showing female! Is this ridiculously fast, or what?

I'm doing LST on them to keep them short and hopefully increase my yield. They're pretty small, around 6 inches and 8-9 nodes high. Can I go ahead and clone the female? There's plenty of secondary growth starting around the lower nodes from the LST, so can I take, say, the top 3 nodes off for a clone? How will this affect her training? I'm trying to train her around the pot in kind of a spiral shape. She's so small, though, there really isn't anywhere else to take a clone from but the very top...

Or is she too small to be a mom? I was planning on going back to 18/6 once the males are identified and eliminated (and clones taken, hopefully). Should I wait until after the re-veg to take clones? I'd like to do it before the re-veg, that way the clones can veg right along with the moms and they can all go into flower at the same time. See, I don't have room to do veg and flower in different areas so the plants pretty much need to do everything together =)

Advice?

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uh I would've waited a couple more weeks and taken the cuttings before 12/12, but it's too late for that.

At this point I would just re-veg the mom, and the cuttings will root faster than they would have if the cuttings were taken in flower anyhow.

Thanks for the reply, GreenCross.


Is there any particular reason why you would have waited? I know early sexing and revegging tend to add several weeks to the equation, but is there another reason why you would have done it differently? I guess maybe I was a bit too eager to free up some room for clones, which is why I decided to sex them early. I'm not really concerned about having to wait a few more weeks for the finished product as it's my first time and I'm really just kinda learning as I go.

Clones stand a better chance of surviving if they are: quite large, 4"+ in my experience, and: taken in veg rather than flower. The first week or two under 12/12 is mainly vegetative growth, but is transitional between veg and flower, until around the end of week 2 when upward growth all but stops and the plant concentrates on building up buds.
Regarding the speed with which they showed preflowers, it depends on how long they were vegged for, as plants can reach sexual maturity during veg, if the state is prolonged. I think around 4-6 weeks from seed is about right but I haven't grown from seed in a long time so idk for certain.

Hairy Bob said:

Clones stand a better chance of surviving if they are: quite large, 4"+ in my experience, and: taken in veg rather than flower. The first week or two under 12/12 is mainly vegetative growth, but is transitional between veg and flower, until around the end of week 2 when upward growth all but stops and the plant concentrates on building up buds.
Regarding the speed with which they showed preflowers, it depends on how long they were vegged for, as plants can reach sexual maturity during veg, if the state is prolonged. I think around 4-6 weeks from seed is about right but I haven't grown from seed in a long time so idk for certain.

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Hey Hairy Bob, I love your avatar!

Well, they are right around 6 weeks old so maybe they were about to start showing anyway? They've been four days under 12/12. Now I'm starting to regret going to 12/12... Should I put them back in 18/6 now, or wait for the other 4 to show their sex first? Does it matter?

I'd be quite worried if they are 6 weeks old and only 6" high, mine usually put on a half to a full inch per day, under a 250w mh light. What light are you using?
If you wanna take clones I would suggest reverting to veg until they get a bit bigger, like I said, I've never had a clone shorter than 4" take root, and I've had more or less 100% success with over 40 bigger ones.
You have to make your own decision about whether to switch back or not, it depends what you are trying to achieve. Just remember the further into flower they go before reverting, the longer it will take for them to switch back to vegetative growth.

i dont kno the reason for speed but i vegged outdoors (from seed on may 15) then a week inside before 12/12(june 24) two days after coming inside they showed female flowers and now on day 14 i have pretty good growth so idk guess it was more of a maturity thing

as for cuttings ive heaard it can be done in flower but it takes longer because they revert back to veg before they can add growth so its not practical really to do so

I think I'd put the known female one back into veg and, since you've started, finish sexing the other(s).

Well, turned out the one female was the only one in the bunch. I pulled the other 4 and started a new batch of seeds. Going to do them all 12/12 from seed. I figure I'll start a new set every 2-3 weeks (once the previous set has been sexed and the males pulled).

Thanks for all the replies! I'm using T5's and CFLs. Yeah, the first female is small. It was actually the "runt" of the last bunch.. let it germinate for too long and it was stunted right from the start. Of course the males I had to pull were all bigger and bushier than the female, but what are you gonna do, eh?

doobnVA said:

Of course the males I had to pull were all bigger and bushier than the female, but what are you gonna do, eh?

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That's the way to an easy life. Great attitude, and a runt she may be, she is still beautiful.

Good luck on all your future grows, and may you be blessed with bushy bitches!

hey runts can turn out great man and i love the idea of adding seedlings every so often i need to stock up on beans so i can give it a shot lmao