Well I guess when growing marijuana we live and learn, I recently learned a good lesson about cloning. My first attempt at cloning went horribly wrong, I made my cuts a 45 degree angles, cut off the 2 lower branches and then dipped them in cloning gel and placed them in 1x1 rockwool cubes. I then placed all 6 of my cuttings in a humidi dome with FL lights and a seedling heat mat. My cuttings were a little on the large size and that may have been 1 of my main mistakes. Within minutes of taking my first cut the young plants began to wilt, and within a few days died all together.
I was pissed, but determined to get this cloning thing down. So I went out and bought some powdered rooting hormone, some Jiffy peat pellets and a scalpel. I made my cuts this time a lot smaller dipped them in water and then in the rooting powder, then I placed them into the Jiffy pellets. Now a couple of days later my cutting are doing great, all still green, no wilting absolutley perfect.
So what did I learn you ask? Well I believe that my first mistake was using a crappy pair of scissors to make my first set of cuttings. The 2nd mistake was making the cuttings too big, all of my new cuttings are 3'' max from stem bottom to the top leaves. In doing this I think the plant uses less energy to keep all of those big leaves alive and can concentrate more on growing roots. Also Im still new at this and the rockwool doesnt give a lot of room for error, let it sit too long in between waterings and it dries up quickly, too much water and the plants get waterlogged. with the Jiffy pellets you soak them and they turn dark brown then when the tops lighten up just add a little more water. They seem to stay wet longer making it a little easier for us new guys to stay on top of things. Lastly I think the powdered rooting hormone is a much better product. It stayed on the stem better when placing it into my grow medium than the gel did. It actually made me feel a little more confident that I was on the right track when placing them into the peat pelltes. When I dipped my cuttings into the gel almost instantly they beagan to droop, now I dont know if th gel caused this or it was just something I did before this step but I feel more confident with the powder.
I hope this helps someone out there who is having the same problems as I did. If you can learn from someone elses mistake and misfortune than your one step ahead. Good luck to everybody.
I was pissed, but determined to get this cloning thing down. So I went out and bought some powdered rooting hormone, some Jiffy peat pellets and a scalpel. I made my cuts this time a lot smaller dipped them in water and then in the rooting powder, then I placed them into the Jiffy pellets. Now a couple of days later my cutting are doing great, all still green, no wilting absolutley perfect.
So what did I learn you ask? Well I believe that my first mistake was using a crappy pair of scissors to make my first set of cuttings. The 2nd mistake was making the cuttings too big, all of my new cuttings are 3'' max from stem bottom to the top leaves. In doing this I think the plant uses less energy to keep all of those big leaves alive and can concentrate more on growing roots. Also Im still new at this and the rockwool doesnt give a lot of room for error, let it sit too long in between waterings and it dries up quickly, too much water and the plants get waterlogged. with the Jiffy pellets you soak them and they turn dark brown then when the tops lighten up just add a little more water. They seem to stay wet longer making it a little easier for us new guys to stay on top of things. Lastly I think the powdered rooting hormone is a much better product. It stayed on the stem better when placing it into my grow medium than the gel did. It actually made me feel a little more confident that I was on the right track when placing them into the peat pelltes. When I dipped my cuttings into the gel almost instantly they beagan to droop, now I dont know if th gel caused this or it was just something I did before this step but I feel more confident with the powder.
I hope this helps someone out there who is having the same problems as I did. If you can learn from someone elses mistake and misfortune than your one step ahead. Good luck to everybody.
