Experiments With Blue Cheese - Brassic Style

It's bad when I can't even remember if I commented yet or not. Forgive me if this is a double post. What I wanted to say was I think a big part of the reason why you have had such a successful harvest gram/watt was the added vertical floros. I'm thinking b/c the flowers had great access to light, it allowed your lower nodes to develop more so than they would have under traditional lighting. What's your thoughts on this, or are you still processing?

Still progressing / processing on that one Sky. Can't wait for harvest then we get some numbers. Bud quality, Smoke report etc.

Just a bit of fun though at this stage.
 
Just checked in on G. She honestly looks like she's gonna chuck another round of pistils and mess up my schedule. So i'm having to revise harvest date out to Dec 6th ish. That'll be bang on the 9 weeks from first signs of bud, 10+ weeks of 12/12.
 
That's right! One of my furry critters made a cameo in my last update and nobody spotted him. He loooooves the smell of my Loretta. Can't leave her alone when she's out getting primped.
I spotted him Dres. I've been busy tryiin' to do a rough tutorial. Not that easy :hmmmm:
As did I.
 
Hi Everyone,

A rare look in my veg space. Mom left (it's moss Dres :cheesygrinsmiley:) in rockwool. And her numerous daughters in coco/perlite.

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Is the coco/perlite easier to maintain a pH balance than the rockwool?
 
My dummies guide to cloning. Part 1

I decided to do some cloning back in the summer. I spent hours doing the research as you do. Then came the time to do it for real.

I had some constraints though, mainly no money so my approach had to be Brassic style. Fancy new gear like bubble cloners and the like were out. I had some styrene party cups and rockwool seed cubes. A bottle of Clonex was the only purchase and I didn't like parting with the cash for that.

Then following the sum of various guides I took my first cuttings from re-veg mom #3.

Cut longer than final length — Check

Place directly in glass of water — Check

Repeat to final number — Check and next....

Take a cutting trim off leaves and branches to leave one or two nodes and a top, under water trim the stem at an angle and get straight into your rooting hormone — Check

Place in your damp medium then set in your propagator. Then repeat for your other cuttings — Check

Great stuff, I'm on fire here, will have loads of new plants in no time. Cover with the lid under low lighting — Check

Watch temps and humidity yada yada, collect newly rooted plants in around 10 to 14 days (can be longer).

Brilliant, I'm a new dad. Put me feet up and smoke a fat one job done (typical male approach). :grinjoint:

Day 1

Check the new girls. "Morning girls....God Damn....."

Maybe not so easy, more research....:reading420magazine:

Does this sound like you ? If so, here's an observation for now.....See ya in part 2

P10101345.JPG
 
My dummies guide to cloning. Part 1

I decided to do some cloning back in the summer. I spent hours doing the research as you do. Then came the time to do it for real.

I had some constraints though, mainly no money so my approach had to be Brassic style. Fancy new gear like bubble cloners and the like were out. I had some styrene party cups and rockwool seed cubes. A bottle of Clonex was the only purchase and I didn't like parting with the cash for that.

Then following the sum of various guides I took my first cuttings from re-veg mom #3.

Cut longer than final length – Check

Place directly in glass of water – Check

Repeat to final number – Check and next....

Take a cutting trim off leaves and branches to leave one or two nodes and a top, under water trim the stem at an angle and get straight into your rooting hormone – Check

Place in your damp medium then set in your propagator. Then repeat for your other cuttings – Check

Great stuff, I'm on fire here, will have loads of new plants in no time. Cover with the lid under low lighting – Check

Watch temps and humidity yada yada, collect newly rooted plants in around 10 to 14 days (can be longer).

Brilliant, I'm a new dad. Put me feet up and smoke a fat one job done (typical male approach). :grinjoint:

Day 1

Check the new girls. “Morning girls....God Damn.....”

Maybe not so easy, more research....:reading420magazine:

Does this sound like you ? If so, here's an observation for now.....See ya in part 2

P10101345.JPG

I've had 99% success using coco (use medium of choice) & 2 liter coke bottles as hempy containers.
Its real cheap & easy.
Let me know if ya want more info.
 
My dummies guide to cloning Part 2

Hey Everyone, welcome to part 2

Here's our cutting around 42 hours later (Dresney).

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Meanwhile back in the summer, so it went on failure on top of failure. I have to point out conditions at the time were not so good as we were having a bit of a heatwave in August.

So back to basics, K.i.s.s, Less is more and all that.

If you put a cutting in a glass of water you will have observed by now, it stays perky for quite some time, up to several weeks in good conditions. Tried that and yea, it worked even under not so good conditions. Will it root just in water as some suggest, well mine didn't but they went about 2 weeks before any problems. With this in mind I thought about reproducing this phenomena in my medium of choice along with the magic rooting hormone. Also no domes or propagator are required when the cutting is in water. Backtracking I found damping off (stem rot), leaf rot and wilting were my causes of premature death.

So here's what I came up with.

I have to admit a little more spending had to occur before the following. I acquired a bag of coco coir and another of perlite. You get lots for the money (that's good). I'm guessing you guys might try rockwool for hydro gardeners, a peat mix for organic should work as well but can't say for sure. You should be able to get it to work once you see the principal

Falsely figuring the Clonex may be at fault I got a cheap no name replacement from a garden supplies store.

And so to work.....

I put some 'draw' holes in the styrene cups with a solder iron. You can improvise here.

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With a 50/50 coco/perlite mix, ratio not strictly important. Fill the cups/pots whatever you got, about half full with the mix.

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Soak the medium with water, tap/RO/distilled whatever you prefer, I've not found PH adjustment necessary. Don't forget something to catch the runoff !

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And firm....

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Make a hole about half way through the medium for the cutting stem and set aside. Repeat for your other cups.

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Take a cutting, then as rapidly as you're comfortable with trim the stem of shoot and leaves up to two, three or in this case lets leave four nodes. Then get a rough idea where the stem needs cutting.

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In a dish of water cut to length at an angle whilst submerged.

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Into the rooting gel or powder it doesn't matter which, I since found out they're pretty much all the same.

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Then plant into the hole you prepared earlier, firm as necessary.

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Now very loosely fill the remaining space and do nothing more but set aside on a tray with 1/8” to 1/4” plain water. Repeat for your other cuttings.

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That's it !

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Put the tray in a safe place under low light, a 25w 2700k cfl would be great, we need to avoid blue spectrum here if we can. 18/6 schedule if you fancy but not important (less than 12 hours dark though). A darker corner of your veg space is ideal. Check the tray periodically and top off as necessary, try not to let it go dry. In around 2 weeks they should have rooted.

Now the why.....

Damping off or serious wilting were my major problems when trying the usual methods.

What I attempted to simulate is how the cutting survives when in a glass of water. And if you think about it a lot of cloning devices simulate the same. A rather wet root zone (hydrates and supports the cutting while roots get established) but a loose aerated and relatively dry upper support zone (stopping stem rot from destroying the clone)

Advantages. No propagators, heat mats, domes or other equipment is required = a lot less maintenance and stress !

Now water gets to our new root zone through a wick effect so do not water from the top. The top layer does get slightly damp from the same effect but I found not enough to cause damping off. There is no need to trim the fan leaves, this is a benefit as nutrients can be drawn from there to build a stronger root ball without feeding. In fact the clone can be left in this state for around four weeks before a transplant is required, again low maintenance. Sometimes a depleted fan will need to be nipped off if its in bad shape after the process. During this extended time roots will develop into the upper damp zone. Making for a robust new plant which takes well to transplanting and onto your preferred vegging routine.

Temps and RH are not critical but try avoid extremes. The happy mediums found during growing are good and no beating yourself up about it, they'll be fine. I got this working 100% now but you may find your adaptation takes a little time to master. I think if the cutting looks healthy i.e. hasn't wilted in the first day or so, you got it right and your effort should be rewarded with great roots down the line. Have fun !

I'll update on the clone in the pic's as she goes through the process.

BB
 
ok im a bit late here but if its still going im subbed :thumb:
on another note bubble cloners are cheap and have a high success rate
I talk about it in my latest journal if you are interested
 
Brit, you know what's funny? After viewing this technique in detail it registered forgotten memories. My mother use to do damn near the exact same thing with cuttings of house plants she would get from my aunt. She use to roll them up in newspaper until we got home, then put them in glasses of water. I don't know for how long but eventually she would place them in (what I called back then as a kid) dirt. I don't know if it was compost, soil, or what. I don't even have any idea what her success rate was but I do know we had plants growing all over the apt. the whole time I was growing up. Wow! If she was still here I could probably get great pointers from her. SHIT. just hit a nerve. Now I'm really missing her on a family day like today... crying gotta go
 
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