Cloning Medium Experiment: Next Generation Seeds Dynamite

So to give you guys the basics, I've had a Next Generation Seeds Dynamite going for about 4 months total now. From the start I bent her over to increase branch growth and encourage clone sized shoots off of main branches. It's a technique I've been doing for years and it has paid off greatly for me in the past. My friend and I ordered some Dynamite seeds from greenlifeseeds.com, hoping to do some outside come springtime. In the midst of getting a mother going I decided to get serious and do an indoor crop this winter, finishing up just in time to start babies for the spring. In cloning my mother I have found this strain to be the most difficult to clone I have ever delt with. Having always used peat pellets, I became uneasy after the first few took up to 24 days in the longest case. After trying rockwool as well I saw similar results and thought that this batch I would do an experiment. On top of just the medium used I wanted to test the classic hormone powder which I have always used to a more expensive gel. Ready to chop, I ended up taking 26 total that night to participate in my experiment. For the experiment I decided to try 4 clones in straight ocean forest soil. Wanting to use rockwool again I decided to try some presoaked in a 1/2 strength nutrient solution (9, 5 gel, 4 powder), and some in simply water and 3 drops/gallon of superthrive (5, 3 gel, 2 powder). My third medium was my classic use of peat pellets, which I soaked only in the water/superthrive mix (8 total, 4 gel, 4 powder). I have been delaying putting this up but I thought it would be an interesting experiment for a tough to clone plant. The numbers all ended up kind of random and worked out to what I had ready at the time. All are being kept in a hydrofarm greenhouse w/ their heating pad underneath, and a small 16w CFL overhead for light. If I get some interest from people pictures will be soon to follow as I am now 8 days into the experiment and just starting to see progress.

Okay so here's an opening group of pictures. Included are some pictures during the actual chopping, presoaked mediums and my hormone products tested. The last picture is the final product, 26 total ready for rooting, noted on how their arranged by medium used and hormone product used. Other than the 4 in soil the left side of the tray is any dealing with the 1/2 strength nutrient solution, while the right is water and superthrive only.

I find I like the powder better than the gel because it forms a pasty substance when wet and really coats the stem well
The rootech i fell would get washed off with one watering
I also noticed that with the rootech gel the stems of the clones dipped into it would get a little curvy, if it happens to you you know what I mean
When I first opened this thread I thought "Hmm dude cloning in dynamite, interesting"
Lol just messing with ya man, good luck

tom__420 said:

When I first opened this thread I thought "Hmm dude cloning in dynamite, interesting"

Click to expand...

haha sorry about that Tom I can see where you may be confused on my title so I edited it for you. Maybe that was the key to get me thousands of views though huh? I agree with you on the powder. As I said before I have always used it with 100% success rate, so I never had any reason to move to the gel. Being that this strain has been tough to clone I thought it was time to try it, just at the chance that the hormone would change my results. Another odd note about my findings is that these clones prefer little to no spraying/misting at all. My first few batches began to have some minor rot problems setting them back, and I found that it was from constantly being moist as I was accustomed to from past grows. Cuttings would become very light green/yellow and fleshy developing some browning towards the top node after a week or so. The last batch I misted a lot less with more success, which has led me to not misting this group at all. Anyways it has worked wonders as all cuttings a week in are still a beutiful healthy dark green, with very little discoloration or additional problems. I have been making sure my mediums stay nice and moist, even though my leaves are about as dry as possible.

Okay so a week in and a couple moves have been made but so far it's been pretty quiet. The first two actions taken were on 2/4 that were placed directily into ocean forest potting soil. The two removed pretty much keeled over and started to rot...slight visible mold, black discolored stem underneath soil (picture included). It's kind of interesting because the other two look to be doing pretty damn good. They also past the slight tug test a day or so ago so they seem pretty well established. I've peeked a bit at a few of the ones in rockwool cubes and they are looking good, varying in calusing and roots exposed with the best looking root system in rockwool below. First roots were seen in one of my peat pellets with the roottech gel used....hoping to see some dominos fall in the next day or two so stay posted if anyone's out there....

A couple details I didn't include already....I'm using a hydrofarm green house and seedling heat mat which has been the biggest factor in the quicker rooting lately. The peat pellets I use are your typical Jiffy peat pellets, left over from a greenhouse I used this past year. The rockwool I'm using are 1" cubes from a 100 pack of Atami BCuzz Roxx (haha I dunno about you guys but these names crack me up). All clones are underneath 16w CFL hanging 6" off. As I mentioned a couple times the soil is the great ocean forest from foxfarm, and 3 drops/gallon of distilled water has been use to hydrate the babies. As I mentioned before I've found that these Dynamites are spray haters. Because of this I've been keeping their foliage as dry as possible, and rehyrdrating all of their mediums every other day with some select squirts in here and there. I like to use a spray bottle with a solid stream, as I've found it to be a quick effortless way to keep check on their moisture levels. As of right now I'm a big fan of leaving a slice to the center of the 1" rockwool cubes, allowing you to peek in without repositioning the cuttings at all. Very nice way to keep check on their progress for anyone antsy.

Okay so i've been stalling but weve got plenty of pictures and some interesting stuff it will take a few posts to get it all in. Okay so getting about a week into it, my 8 in peat pellets all looked the healthiest overall.

Day 7, I saw the first clone to come forward with roots in a peat pellet, with Gel hormone. This is also the fastest any one clone has taken since my mother has been going so I was very happy to see it.

Day 8, Big moves came about overnight in my peat pellets with Gel hormone. With the first one showing roots yesterday the other 3 quickly followed. 4 of 4 peat pellets with Gel rooted, 0 of 4 peat pellets with Powder rooted. I peaked at a good bunch of the group in Rockwool today also. Both the nutrient soaked Rockwool and the water soaked Rockwool were showing first signs of roots. 1 of 2 Rockwool soaked in regular water, with Powder hormone had a beautiful little root system, while the two with Gel had just started to callus up.

Day 11 a rockwool clone soaked in nutes with gel was killed. No roots had emerged and the stem was browning over and dying. Similar story with one soaked in just water, as its source of death looked to be the same type of infection. This has only happened with the gel for some reason?

Day 12 the Ocean Forest soil clones with Powder were pulled out, and found to have beautiful long powerful root systems. With a lot less effort, and more room to move it seemed that the roots enjoyed the extra love of the soil. In the little cups they were in they were nearly rootbound as you can see in the picture. The experiment is coming to an end but I’m a little behind been a busy week… last roots and updates to come.