Cloning the top?

[johnehazeharvester]

I just topped 4 plants. The small tops had one to three mm of stem. Decided to put cloning gel on the stem and plant them in cups just to see if any would develop roots. Anyone try this before? This was my first time topping and my first time attempting a clone. If you can call it that.

 

[Joe Brewster]

Yes will work

 

[kosio bosio]

Give them some time and you will have small clones.

 

[013]

depends on how much meat you left on the bone… 3 mm is pretty small

clone tops can retain even node spacing… so can clones cut from lower on the plant, but if the top has staggered spacing then clone will have same.

rule of clone is 3 fold, clone is always same age, same gender & same genetics as host it was cut from

 

[SmokingWings]

3 mm is about 1/10th of an inch. Much better to try with 75 mm of stem plus a few of the leaves.

The new roots will grow out from the sides of the stem. Most of the time, but not always, the first small roots will be near one of the nodes. Important to understand that the stalk of the leaf is called a petiole and that connects to the stem. That stalk or petiole will not grow any roots.

Lately I have been having a hard time getting cuttings from my mother plant to survive long enough to root and start growing but I keep trying. Took the water cloning bucket out of storage to see if that works. But, the seed for the mother was planted years ago, around November of 2017 so maybe old age is setting in.

A couple of small roots, about 20-24 hours old, on the two cutting

 

[johnehazeharvester]

3 mm is about 1/10th of an inch. Much better to try with 75 mm of stem plus a few of the leaves.

The new roots will grow out from the sides of the stem. Most of the time, but not always, the first small roots will be near one of the nodes. Important to understand that the stalk of the leaf is called a petiole and that connects to the stem. That stalk or petiole will not grow any roots.

Lately I have been having a hard time getting cuttings from my mother plant to survive long enough to root and start growing but I keep trying. Took the water cloning bucket out of storage to see if that works. But, the seed for the mother was planted years ago, around November of 2017 so maybe old age is setting in.

A couple of small roots, about 20-24 hours old, on the two cutting

Thanks. This is the first time I ever topped anything, so instead of throwing it away I figured I'd give it a try. I was planning on throwing them away so no big deal and it's already in my grow room so I'm not using any extra energy. It is just an experiment for me

 

[cbdhemp808]

Hey @johnehazeharvester , check out my cloning technique, link in my signature.

Recently I have clone tops for the first time, and they are very vigorous to grow roots, and I have already transplanted to one gallon and they are doing great. You can see my thread, starting HERE.

 

[johnehazeharvester]

Hey @johnehazeharvester , check out my cloning technique, link in my signature.

Recently I have clone tops for the first time, and they are very vigorous to grow roots, and I have already transplanted to one gallon and they are doing great. You can see my thread, starting HERE.

It looks like you got your cloning technique down. I think my soil may have been too wet . I suspect my experiment will be a wash. If I do it again I will try to clone with a longer stem from the top but probably I’ll just do traditional clones once these girls grow out a bit.

 

[bluter]

It looks like you got your cloning technique down. I think my soil may have been too wet . I suspect my experiment will be a wash. If I do it again I will try to clone with a longer stem from the top but probably I’ll just do traditional clones once these girls grow out a bit.

it's easier to clone with more stem. you can clone with short stems in a pan of perlite and weak nutes. have a friend who clones hundreds of plants at a go this way. he usually clones with about 1/2 inch of stem.

all you need is good conditions. they will take in a soil too, just a bit harder. more stem is always easier.

 

[SmokingWings]

it's easier to clone with more stem. you can clone with short stems in a pan of perlite and weak nutes. have a friend who clones hundreds of plants at a go this way. he usually clones with about 1/2 inch of stem.

all you need is good conditions. they will take in a soil too, just a bit harder. more stem is always easier.

A 1/2 inch (about 12 mm) of stem could work but those are 3 mm. Those cuttings remind me of growers who "fim" their plants. Not much of a stem to grow the lateral roots.

It would be great if these small cuttings were to send out roots and survive. Could open up a whole new method of mass producing clones.

 

[Gee64]

3 mm is about 1/10th of an inch. Much better to try with 75 mm of stem plus a few of the leaves.

The new roots will grow out from the sides of the stem. Most of the time, but not always, the first small roots will be near one of the nodes. Important to understand that the stalk of the leaf is called a petiole and that connects to the stem. That stalk or petiole will not grow any roots.

Lately I have been having a hard time getting cuttings from my mother plant to survive long enough to root and start growing but I keep trying. Took the water cloning bucket out of storage to see if that works. But, the seed for the mother was planted years ago, around November of 2017 so maybe old age is setting in.

A couple of small roots, about 20-24 hours old, on the two cutting

If you pick the little green parts, pistils, and calyxes off around the bared nodes your success will go up.

Also if you leave a bit of the leaf stems sticking from the stalks, about 1/8", again your success rate will go up.

If you use RO water, again your success rate will go up.

By stripping the sex parts off you are telling the plant that this is no longer an above ground reproduction site.

By leaving about 1/8" of the leaf stem you are leaving a much smaller wound that the plant must heal without external nutes coming in (no roots yet to eat with) so that saved healing effort can be redirected to root production.

By using RO water ph is irrellevant as the plants won't try to eat it, and without being fed they will pop roots quicker.

Those roots need to come from somewhere so the nutes get pulled from the lowest leaves 1st on the cutting. Bigger cuttings contain more transferrable nutes.

If you clip the leaves back to half size the plant can't photosynthesize as fast so it won't waste nutes building sugars, it will use them to root.

Cloning in soil you need to spray the leaves to dilute the solid nutes in the leaves and make them flow to the root sites.

The plant can't drink as it has no roots so putting it all in a crate and putting the crate in a clear garbage bag that gets sealed will keep the humidity up to negate the need to drink. Open it and exchange the air a couple times a day as you respray them.

Keep them fairly far from the light, a shady corner perhaps, as less light means less photosynthesis so again less nutes get used to make sugars so more nutes are available to the rooting process.

Then there is the moisture of your medium, which should be a low or no nute medium, like coco coir or hp mix. Put your clone soil in a tub, add lots of water until its too wet. Then take a handful and squeeze it until you can't get another drop of water out. Now grab a 2nd handful and squeeze it out but only until just a couple last drops are still in it, not quite totally wrung out like the 1st one. Thats the moisture you want. Fluff it back up and use it.

Too wet and the plants will drink until they starve without creating roots.

Now wait 8-14 days, depending on the strain, and just vent and spray the leaves.

I have found that using rooting hormone or not doesn't really matter.

Take pictures so you can recognize good cuts that rooted from those that didn't so next time you will take better cuts to up your odds.

All that being said, it you use soil on your smaller clones it works better than a bubble cloner, and if you use a bubble cloner on your big main top cuttings that are big enough to be hollow or hollowish in the stalk, you will get better results than soil.

At least thats how it works for me and I have cut a lot of clones over the years.

I take great pride in harvesting a beautiful plant loaded in buds that still has the clipped leaves from cloning still healthily growing on it.

To be able to do that you must eliminate delays so the cutting doesn't have to fully consume the leaves it started with.

By using my suggestions above you eliminate the biggest delays and nute drains.

You don't need to clip the leaves back, or use the spray and bag method on bubble cloner clones. They get enough moisture from below, but not too much to cause wet soil syndrome

I actually just did 2 different clone styles in The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It .

One was a bubble cloner and one was experimental and still ongoing, but there are some good pics of the cuttings in there. Scroll back to about Feb1 and you will see the start of the cloning stuff.

 

[Gee64]

Also you should cut some drain holes in the bottom of your cups. The more the better, as the cutting needs oxygen in the medium, and no pooling water.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Also you should cut some drain holes in the bottom of your cups. The more the better, as the cutting needs oxygen in the medium, and no pooling water.

I use 4" round nursery pots w/ holes.

 

[Gee64]

Beauty! Those should do well

 

[SmokingWings]

If you pick the little green parts, pistils, and calyxes off around the bared nodes your success will go up.

Also if you leave a bit of the leaf stems sticking from the stalks, about 1/8", again your success rate will go up.

If you use RO water, again your success rate will go up.

By stripping the sex parts off you are telling the plant that this is no longer an above ground reproduction site.

By leaving about 1/8" of the leaf stem you are leaving a much smaller wound that the plant must heal without external nutes coming in (no roots yet to eat with) so that saved healing effort can be redirected to root production.

By using RO water ph is irrellevant as the plants won't try to eat it, and without being fed they will pop roots quicker.

Those roots need to come from somewhere so the nutes get pulled from the lowest leaves 1st on the cutting. Bigger cuttings contain more transferrable nutes.

If you clip the leaves back to half size the plant can't photosynthesize as fast so it won't waste nutes building sugars, it will use them to root.

Cloning in soil you need to spray the leaves to dilute the solid nutes in the leaves and make them flow to the root sites.

The plant can't drink as it has no roots so putting it all in a crate and putting the crate in a clear garbage bag that gets sealed will keep the humidity up to negate the need to drink. Open it and exchange the air a couple times a day as you respray them.

Keep them fairly far from the light, a shady corner perhaps, as less light means less photosynthesis so again less nutes get used to make sugars so more nutes are available to the rooting process.

Then there is the moisture of your medium, which should be a low or no nute medium, like coco coir or hp mix. Put your clone soil in a tub, add lots of water until its too wet. Then take a handful and squeeze it until you can't get another drop of water out. Now grab a 2nd handful and squeeze it out but only until just a couple last drops are still in it, not quite totally wrung out like the 1st one. Thats the moisture you want. Fluff it back up and use it.

Too wet and the plants will drink until they starve without creating roots.

Now wait 8-14 days, depending on the strain, and just vent and spray the leaves.

I have found that using rooting hormone or not doesn't really matter.

Take pictures so you can recognize good cuts that rooted from those that didn't so next time you will take better cuts to up your odds.

All that being said, it you use soil on your smaller clones it works better than a bubble cloner, and if you use a bubble cloner on your big main top cuttings that are big enough to be hollow or hollowish in the stalk, you will get better results than soil.

At least thats how it works for me and I have cut a lot of clones over the years.

I take great pride in harvesting a beautiful plant loaded in buds that still has the clipped leaves from cloning still healthily growing on it.

To be able to do that you must eliminate delays so the cutting doesn't have to fully consume the leaves it started with.

By using my suggestions above you eliminate the biggest delays and nute drains.

You don't need to clip the leaves back, or use the spray and bag method on bubble cloner clones. They get enough moisture from below, but not too much to cause wet soil syndrome

I actually just did 2 different clone styles in The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It .

One was a bubble cloner and one was experimental and still ongoing, but there are some good pics of the cuttings in there. Scroll back to about Feb1 and you will see the start of the cloning stuff.

A lot of good points to consider.

 

[Gee64]

A lot of good points to consider.

For those just starting out with the cloning process, these basics will get you going and then you can adjust things like temperature, humidity, and lighting to dial it in for your own style/environment.

 

[johnehazeharvester]

If you pick the little green parts, pistils, and calyxes off around the bared nodes your success will go up.

Also if you leave a bit of the leaf stems sticking from the stalks, about 1/8", again your success rate will go up.

If you use RO water, again your success rate will go up.

By stripping the sex parts off you are telling the plant that this is no longer an above ground reproduction site.

By leaving about 1/8" of the leaf stem you are leaving a much smaller wound that the plant must heal without external nutes coming in (no roots yet to eat with) so that saved healing effort can be redirected to root production.

By using RO water ph is irrellevant as the plants won't try to eat it, and without being fed they will pop roots quicker.

Those roots need to come from somewhere so the nutes get pulled from the lowest leaves 1st on the cutting. Bigger cuttings contain more transferrable nutes.

If you clip the leaves back to half size the plant can't photosynthesize as fast so it won't waste nutes building sugars, it will use them to root.

Cloning in soil you need to spray the leaves to dilute the solid nutes in the leaves and make them flow to the root sites.

The plant can't drink as it has no roots so putting it all in a crate and putting the crate in a clear garbage bag that gets sealed will keep the humidity up to negate the need to drink. Open it and exchange the air a couple times a day as you respray them.

Keep them fairly far from the light, a shady corner perhaps, as less light means less photosynthesis so again less nutes get used to make sugars so more nutes are available to the rooting process.

Then there is the moisture of your medium, which should be a low or no nute medium, like coco coir or hp mix. Put your clone soil in a tub, add lots of water until its too wet. Then take a handful and squeeze it until you can't get another drop of water out. Now grab a 2nd handful and squeeze it out but only until just a couple last drops are still in it, not quite totally wrung out like the 1st one. Thats the moisture you want. Fluff it back up and use it.

Too wet and the plants will drink until they starve without creating roots.

Now wait 8-14 days, depending on the strain, and just vent and spray the leaves.

I have found that using rooting hormone or not doesn't really matter.

Take pictures so you can recognize good cuts that rooted from those that didn't so next time you will take better cuts to up your odds.

All that being said, it you use soil on your smaller clones it works better than a bubble cloner, and if you use a bubble cloner on your big main top cuttings that are big enough to be hollow or hollowish in the stalk, you will get better results than soil.

At least thats how it works for me and I have cut a lot of clones over the years.

I take great pride in harvesting a beautiful plant loaded in buds that still has the clipped leaves from cloning still healthily growing on it.

To be able to do that you must eliminate delays so the cutting doesn't have to fully consume the leaves it started with.

By using my suggestions above you eliminate the biggest delays and nute drains.

You don't need to clip the leaves back, or use the spray and bag method on bubble cloner clones. They get enough moisture from below, but not too much to cause wet soil syndrome

I actually just did 2 different clone styles in The Gee Spot - You Finally Found It .

One was a bubble cloner and one was experimental and still ongoing, but there are some good pics of the cuttings in there. Scroll back to about Feb1 and you will see the start of the cloning stuff.

Gee,
Thanks. This is a lot of information to take in. I have already read it twice. I started looking at your other link. When my plants get a little bigger I plan on trying to do three clones from each plant. I will try using jiffy Pete pellets and compare them to soil in solo cups. I did put drain holes on the bottom of my solo cups. Thanks again. I will be spending some time going through your link .

If my clones survives, I will give 8 away plant 3 outside, and may experiment with breeding another. I just popped two pineapple Express regular seeds so one or both of these may be male which I will use as a pollen donor.
John

 

[Gee64]

Gee,
Thanks. This is a lot of information to take in. I have already read it twice. I started looking at your other link. When my plants get a little bigger I plan on trying to do three clones from each plant. I will try using jiffy Pete pellets and compare them to soil in solo cups. I did put drain holes on the bottom of my solo cups. Thanks again. I will be spending some time going through your link .

If my clones survives, I will give 8 away plant 3 outside, and may experiment with breeding another. I just popped two pineapple Express regular seeds so one or both of these may be male which I will use as a pollen donor.
John

Very cool John. Cloning is a lot of fun.

Sterilizing the cutting blade is hugely important too. I should have mentioned that.

Cloning is a great skill to have so every now and then when you get a real beauty you can clone her up.

Let us know how the cloning goes. If you get stuck or are unsure about something please feel free to toss a question, or a successful pic, into The Gee Spot.

Or just come hang out and chat, I try to keep something going on in there.

If you want to try something and you want extra eyes on it you are welcome to display your trials there. It doesn't matter if you succeed or fail. Its all good info to share and learn. No such thing as a stupid question there so don't be shy.

Its a perpetual room, not a grow journal so there is no such thing as "off topic" there either.

Its mainly organics but anything goes. Its all cool stuff to learn and share.

 

[bluter]

i simply hempy clone now.

cutting goes into a solo cup of perlite with a single 1/4 inch hole about an inch from the bottom. feed every third day with weak nutes, about 1/2 seedling strength. may do a weak foliar, don't always remember. dome them loosely, or even leave open, doesn't much matter. transplant in 10 - 14 days and feed full veg strength. you can transplant to any media you choose.


it's harder to start from seed than it is to hempy clone.

 

[johnehazeharvester]

Very cool John. Cloning is a lot of fun.

Sterilizing the cutting blade is hugely important too. I should have mentioned that.

Cloning is a great skill to have so every now and then when you get a real beauty you can clone her up.

Let us know how the cloning goes. If you get stuck or are unsure about something please feel free to toss a question, or a successful pic, into The Gee Spot.

Or just come hang out and chat, I try to keep something going on in there.

If you want to try something and you want extra eyes on it you are welcome to display your trials there. It doesn't matter if you succeed or fail. Its all good info to share and learn. No such thing as a stupid question there so don't be shy.

Its a perpetual room, not a grow journal so there is no such thing as "off topic" there either.

Its mainly organics but anything goes. Its all cool stuff to learn and share.

Thank Gee. Appreciate all of the above info. I have a trip planned at the end of March and I will have someone else tending to everything so I will wait till I return to attempt cloning. I'm fairly certain that my initial attempt with the tops, is going to be a failure, but at least I'm learning