Update: Wow, sorry for the abrupt leave, but things got hectic and my plants went from priority one to last place. Luckily, things are cooling down and I have more time to invest into my babies.
A lot has changed since my last post. I have yanked Mr. A, but not before getting some good, hands-on practice with various cloning techniques, including bubbler, rockwool, and perlite. So far, I have had about 35 clones. Only about 10 have rooted (0 bubbler, 4 rw, 6 perlite). 1 has been put into a pot of its own to see how a transfer works. Btw, when I tossed Mr. A, I took a look at his roots. They were pretty dense. Thick enough to choke a baby. It made me wonder two things: Is it possible the pot was constricting the plant's root system and limiting the plant's growth? On the top side though, Mr. A's growth was quite vigorous so it didn't look like it was limited, but I don't really know what the potential actually was. Second, The roots were dense in the perlite, but it didn't look as if the roots had grown further down into the pellets. Any ideas why that is? Could it from the level of my flood? Since I have a small reservoir, I can only flood my tray about an inch and a half up, which coincidentally around where the perlite ended and the pellets started in my pot.
Going back to my cloning, I'm pretty sure I'm fucking something up, because my clones always look like shit. They are mostly yellow and have all of the big leaves burnt up. All of the clones small leaves are shriveled and curled. Does that mean too much or too little? Should I even bother trying to transplant them. Al's emphasis on not overwatering has made me paranoid and I fear my cubes get a bit too dry sometimes. I for the rw clones, I water them once or twice a day with about 12 - 24 ml of water (not always pHed - does this make a big difference? (approx. 6.5 - 7 pH unaltered)). Does it sound like I am doing something wrong? It seems to work somewhat, but like I said earlier, the clones look pretty fucked up. I will try to post some pictures soon.
NoDrama, your method sounds interesting. I think I will give it a shot for my next batch. How high from the rw do you have your waterline?
Also, I was wondering if a veteran, such as yourself, could explain to me the general time scale in which I should be expecting things to happen. From my general reading, I was undering the assumption that a grow cycle is about 3 months (1 for veg and 2 for flowering). Am I wrong? My first set of plants took about 3 months to be in a situation where I could even start considering flowering. I chalked it up to my poor growing abilities. Since then I have purchased a few clones of different strains, but they all seem to grow equally slowly to my first plants. I have a clone of sensei star that I got about a month and a half ago. The thing is still puny. It's grown, but it doesn't look like any of the pictures that I see of other people about around the same time. How would I know if something was going wrong? It doesn't have any really major problems, other than the older leaves turning yellow and curling.
I will try to upload some current pictures when I get the chance. Thanks for your help!