Monster-cropping 101

Howdy again!

Comments are welcome!

I have tried and been successful getting a clone taken during flower to re-veg and produce, it was mostly luck because there is very little info out there. I have a regular grow journal on here, but thought this might be a good public service thingy.

Here's what I have found on the interwebz:

• take clones during week 2-3 of flower (when I prune larf shoots anyway),
• it's a new-ish process, and has a low success rate so a lot of people don't bother
  
• prune the tops off (or not),
• snip all the leaf tips (or not),
• it takes a while for them to revert to the veg state (or they may not)

The biggest lapse was what to expect next, what you are actually looking for. All the pics and descriptions skip to the monster bush that they successfully grew.

I am also retired and bored, so there's that.

Here is the mother. A Northern Lights (by ILGM) fem from seed.

She has since been attacked by gnats, so taking clones was fortuitous.

Everything is done like taking regular clones, I won't bother with that, other than what I specifically did. This will mostly be a "here's what to expect" thread.

I decided to do it because I have had (I think) 100% success - but there isn't enough info out there to know yet. I just want to fill in some information gaps.

And here is one result from my last monster-crop clone - this started from 2 sprouts that looked naturally like a manifold, so I went with it as far as pruning and training. I was sad because there were only 2 shoots and I had heard they should be plentiful. What is "monster" is the nodes that come off those shoots. You only need one, but if you get more, start LST-ing them sideways ASAP! I kept the above sprouts that were pointing in the right direction for easy training. I pruned away about 3 times as many.

I have a composite of everything I have read on taking clones, and it works for me. I have the rooting pods (root-riot et.al.) soaking in Fox Farms Rhize-up and RO water per mfg instructions. I dip the cuttings in rooting powder, then clonex then poke them in.
Specific to flower clones, I am checking to see if removing the tops helps. I have 2 with them removed, 5 without, and the lower node pre-flowers weren't touched on any. The topped ones seem to be the winner, so there may e 5 clones in a few days.
The blue lines are where I make light razor scores on both sides, the red are full cuts including re-snipping the bottom nodes flush.
And into a propagator on a heat mat. Same as regular clones from here on out except for the time it takes and what happens next.

They were taken on 6/3, this is 6/13

Into solo cups on 6/15

and 6/18

The roots on 6-18 were good enough for me, so into 2 gallon pots. Not getting into a whole "how to grow weed" discussion on here, just how flower-clones work. but they are in FF Happy Frog soil, and under an HLG 60w QB. 3 were in recycled soil that was still moist from composting, the other 4 are new soil. The bottom layer of the new soil was moistened to the same extent, but then dry soil added during re-pot. If I had it to do over I would have split the recycled soil evenly between all 7, then new dry soil to top them off. I have just never re-used soil before and didn't know if there would be issues.

on 6/20 they were already showing new single-lobe leaves. Per the internet, this is step one, and I think shows that all successfully re-vegged. Or not.

The next step is 3-toed leaves (6/23)

And we are up to date. The next thing I am looking for is sprouts. They are these ugly deformed things, and are the goal.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/h-a-f-growing-stink-flowers-in-dirt-with-qbs.986443/page-29 post number 561 at the top shows another successful attempt and the results.

Input is welcome.

I think it's official. Topping helps speed the process along, but it doesn't matter.
Topped:

Not

If this plays out like I think, each node may put out one sprout, and the ones that are topped will probably get 2 sprouts on top. If the lower nodes pop shoots I'll start leaning them over.

Loving this thread - I monster cropped earlier this year can’t wait to see how yours go mine were fucking metal lol

Leeski said:

Loving this thread - I monster cropped earlier this year can’t wait to see how yours go mine were fucking metal lol

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Thanks!
Do you know what I mean about trying to find info?

I was hoping to get one or two to take, but unless one does noticeable better than the rest, I'm doing a SOG. I want to give them more light, but their mother isn't ripe yet. She looks like hell, but has plump buds and a few brown pistils. She'll probably ripen early just because of the nute&gnat issues, but first amber she's gone because I need the room.

Day 23
100% re-veg. the ones that weren't topped (6&7) are definitely a few days behind, but in the grand scheme of things.

To have all of them take within a month is not what I have been led to expect. Not complaining, but as a fairly new grower I'm wondering why more people don't do this.

Lets say you drop 4 seeds. One plant seriously outperforms the others for whatever reason. You won't really know until they start to flower in most cases, which would be the perfect time to select a few clones for this process.

Or if you are running reggies (unless you want to clone males) you sometimes have to wait until flower for them to show - which is too late for regular cloning techniques unless you sex them early.

Anyway here's the goods.

I finally got the rest of my grow sorted out, and was able to move the ladies under an HLG260w (from the HLG60w) so hopefully they will take off soon. It's at about 75%, and I'll bump it up gradually as they get used to it. After that I'll start lowering the height some if they don't stretch to it by then.

I will have to cull a few of these eventually to make room. Depending on how out of control they get, I can keep 3-4 comfortably in my flower room. This closet is 3x3, and my flower room is 3x4. If my other plants are done before these get too big I might keep them all, but I dropped some seeds tonight that will need this room in about a month, so no flipping this whole room.

Day 25 and the 5 topped clones are sprouting. The other 2 (center row, front and back) are a few days behind.

You can see a handful of nodes popping out of this sprout already. I found out last time that it's best to keep the lower ones pruned away as soon as possible or you get a full shrub right around the trunk with everything growing together.

Day 26.
They got their first top-feed with FF Jump-start and some Rhize-up. The 4 on the outside are keepers. The 3 in the middle have until I have to add more nutes. Those 4 are already LST'd sideways, and all old growth is removed.

So I smoked a fatty to steady my hand and got in there and did some pruning. Since messing one up wasn't really an issue, I really dug in there.

I found that the easiest way was to lay the sprout along my finger, then put the scissor-tips against my finger around the intended snip. It's easier to look close and make sure you don't have the sprout stem before pulling the trigger.

And the verdict is in! I have solved the main mystery I wanted to investigate. You get ONE SPROUT per node. It is the fact that all those nodes start sprouting that I couldn't tell last time.

I am doing this same thing right now. Plant was 3 weeks into flower and I took a clone. I got it to root, planted it and it is currently re-vegging.

My question is how long will it throw out the single bladed leaves? The thing is growing like crazy for the last 2 weeks but it still hasn’t started putting out regular looking leaves...

It’s super healthy and growing really fast but it’s gnarly looking from the re-veg. How long untill it starts to look ‘normal’ lol

Tlarss said:

My question is how long will it throw out the single bladed leaves? How long until it starts to look ‘normal’ lol

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LOL - I just got back from grocery shopping. There were people... Zero stars... Do NOT recommend...

First thing I did after the shit was put up was fire up a cone, crack a cold one and sit down here. So, nice chat. Sorry I didn't answer your question .

Get in there with a loupe and look close. What you probably have is a sprout with a bunch of nodes coming off of it, and each little node is sprouting it's first single-blade leaves.

Yup. All single blades leaves for the last 4 or 5 ‘nodes’. I want to top it but I’m not even sure it will split and cause 2 mains. Strange looking beast lol

Tlarss said:

Yup. All single blades leaves for the last 4 or 5 ‘nodes’. I want to top it but I’m not even sure it will split and cause 2 mains. Strange looking beast lol

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What kind of lights do you have?

The reason I ask is that you have stretch. It might be the strain (sativa?) but you can actually see what's going on. Mine were so tight between nodes that I couldn't. Mine are under QB's. So even the time under the 60w it was "quality" light. They got wat they needed and didn't need to stretch to get it.

I'm thinking that dialing the intensity on my lights back might help me on that front. Last flower-clone grow mine didn't stretch at all until after the flip, then not much.