Cloning question

I'd like to make my grow perpetual, or at least semi-perpetual.

I have one grow room (1x400 MH/HPS, soil) that I'd like to keep 12/12 all the time. In order to do that, I need to be able to take clones from flowering plants, put them in a clone box for a week on 24/7, then a week on 18/6, then put them in the flower room. I know this isn't ideal, but I'd just like to have a few small clones flowering to give me a few buds every couple weeks to smoke. IOW, I don't need much bud to make me happy.

The problem is the timing. I'm not sure how long a branch can be under 12/12 and still revert back to veg. So, how long can a plant be in flowering before you take a branch from it for cloning?

Then, how long can I keep the clone in the clone box before putting it back in the flower room?

I'd appreciate any tips or changes to make this system work. My goal is to average just an ounce of bud every 2 months or so. More wouldn't be a problem, but if I can just get those results on average I will have more than enough for my personal use.

Thanks for any help or comments.

lightsgreenaction said:

I'd like to make my grow perpetual, or at least semi-perpetual.

I have one grow room (1x400 MH/HPS, soil) that I'd like to keep 12/12 all the time. In order to do that, I need to be able to take clones from flowering plants, put them in a clone box for a week on 24/7, then a week on 18/6, then put them in the flower room. I know this isn't ideal, but I'd just like to have a few small clones flowering to give me a few buds every couple weeks to smoke. IOW, I don't need much bud to make me happy.

The problem is the timing. I'm not sure how long a branch can be under 12/12 and still revert back to veg. So, how long can a plant be in flowering before you take a branch from it for cloning?

Then, how long can I keep the clone in the clone box before putting it back in the flower room?

I'd appreciate any tips or changes to make this system work. My goal is to average just an ounce of bud every 2 months or so. More wouldn't be a problem, but if I can just get those results on average I will have more than enough for my personal use.

Thanks for any help or comments.

Click to expand...

I don't know if this particular setup is ideal for your situation. Why not just keep a couple of mothers on 24/0 or 18/6 and root cuttings with the mothers? Then throw them into your 12/12 are when they are rooted. Or you could raise a good mother, take cuttings and put the mother into 12/12. After your cuttings root take some more cuttings off of those cuttings and put the previous ones in 12/12 and so on.

Yeah. I think I will do more like what you said second. Just take cuttings before I put them in 12/12.


Once I get these bagseeds to flower and get my plants to be all female it will open up more options. Then, I can always veg for a couple weeks if I need to to get this system going so I can take a couple more cuttings from those before sending the first cuttings back into flower.

Essentially, I just want a system to keep using clones rather than starting from seed again. The only issue is that I don't want to use two complete grow spaces. Just a veg/grow room and then a clone box. I think I can make it work for what I want, once I know that I have only females especially.

Thanks,

I'm trying to figure out exactly how to do pretty much the same thing, but I want more like a pound every 8 weeks (or equivalent). I understand the basics of how to make this work, I think, but the timing and cycle keeps giving me fits. If I had both a veg room and a flowering room it would be super-simple, but doing it all in one grow room is going to be a bit of a balancing act I think.

Mr.GreenJeans said:

I'm trying to figure out exactly how to do pretty much the same thing, but I want more like a pound every 8 weeks (or equivalent). I understand the basics of how to make this work, I think, but the timing and cycle keeps giving me fits. If I had both a veg room and a flowering room it would be super-simple, but doing it all in one grow room is going to be a bit of a balancing act I think.

Click to expand...

Trying to veg and flower in the same room I'd just buy two good tents if it was me..

I think a lot of people begin their growing experience thinking that they can do it all with one room. Unfortunately reality comes along and smacks them upside the head. In order to do a successful perpetual grow you have to have 2 areas, 1 for vegging and rooting clones and another for flowering. If you have only one room then find a way to divide it or close off a small section. Get a tent or build a box. The possibilities are almost endless.

I have to say you would be much better off if you could find a separate veg space. I was in the same situation as you...so I purchased a $10 bookshelf from the thrift store. On the top of whole thing I put my vegging plants with lights suspended from above, on the upper shelf (of two) I have set up 2 t5's to act as my clone space, and the bottom shelf is where I store all my nutrients/power cords, other STUFF (man is there a lot of stuff too).

If you can't make a new space, then your idea of a clone box will be fine. You can take clones many weeks into flower...I've taken them at 2 and 3 weeks and been ok, it just takes a bit longer for the clone to root. I've heard you CAN take them from farther into flower, but I have no experience with that.

You can keep a clone in the clone box for as long as you want...or until it gets too big to fit. My clones run 24/0 all the time...I never switch to 18/6. If I don't have the room on the veg shelf for them I'll just leave them in the clone room until space opens up. 24/0 light isn't ideal for plants after they've rooted, but it certainly won't kill them.

The problem I see you having with only one grow space is where. Assuming your plants take 8 week to flower and you take a clone around the first or second week, you'll have to veg the last 6 weeks until your flowering plants finish unless you've got plenty of extra room.

It is not a problem to put rooted clones directly into 12/12...in fact it's how you do a sea of green...but they won't get as big as they could, which doesn't sound like much of an issue for you.

So a veg room would be ideal. That way you could keep a mother plant OR veg your clones out a bit before you move them into flower. Veg rooms don't need to be very large or elaborate...mine is literally half of a closet with clothes and other stuff in the other half. I veg with 26w cfl's and it works great.

Yeah. I'm sure there's a way to make it work, especially since my current grow room is plenty big enough for this purpose (4wx4Lx8H). So I could do a raised surface with my vegging mother or clones underneath. That is prob going to be my best bet.

On a related note, what do people think about the aerogardens for our purposes? I'm thinking of getting one of the Pro 200 models for putting clones in to veg them a little extra before switching them over to flower.

I think I'll have plenty of space in the flowering area to add clones in as they are reading into flowering so I can keep flowering the older ones even after I add new ones. Then the problem will just be getting enough light to all of them.

I just wish I was close enough to really have to worry about this now. I just want to plan and be ready for when it does come.

Cool. Sounds like I need to go buy a tent and another light for vegging.

Oh well, off to the hydro store I go!!!!!!!

Thanks for the input guys!!!!

lightsgreenaction said:

Yeah. I'm sure there's a way to make it work, especially since my current grow room is plenty big enough for this purpose (4wx4Lx8H). So I could do a raised surface with my vegging mother or clones underneath. That is prob going to be my best bet.

On a related note, what do people think about the aerogardens for our purposes? I'm thinking of getting one of the Pro 200 models for putting clones in to veg them a little extra before switching them over to flower.

I think I'll have plenty of space in the flowering area to add clones in as they are reading into flowering so I can keep flowering the older ones even after I add new ones. Then the problem will just be getting enough light to all of them.

I just wish I was close enough to really have to worry about this now. I just want to plan and be ready for when it does come.

Click to expand...

Aerogardens are ridiculously overpriced and pretty useless. You can make a DIY setup that you can tailor to your needs which will serve you much better than any aerogarden. A few people love them and you can grow with them just not well IMO.

doc111 said:

Aerogardens are ridiculously overpriced and pretty useless. You can make a DIY setup that you can tailor to your needs which will serve you much better than any aerogarden. A few people love them and you can grow with them just not well IMO.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think I will try to learn more about building a small aeroponics system. I have a question though. Can you transplant from aeroponics to soil? What kind of issues am I going to have with this? How developed/old can the clones be to do this? I may just do soil on both. Take clones from a propagation box to soil, let them veg and take root in the soil for a while, then move them over to flowering.

I think I can wrap my head around that.

Well I am the proud owner of an Aerogarden and like the folks say they are fairly useless. Only time I use mine is for sprouting seeds for which purpose it works fairly well. For example on my last batch of 7 seeds I got 100% germination. It do have a tendency for the little white tail off the bottom of the seed to try growing directly into the foam rubber seed holders..which once you notice a particular baby plant that's not thriving that probably why and you just pull it out of the plastic cup and pull the white thing out of the rubber and try to make it grow straight down into the resovoir. Resovoir temps are also critical. If your growing in the summer and not under the A/C you will need to add ice etc. It generally a pain in the ass but do sprout seeds better than any other method I have tried. Now I move direct from the Aerogarden to Hempy Buckets and once they are in the buckets I breath a sigh of relief cause not too much can go wrong with em in the buckets. Hope this helps.

Thanks. My plan is to transform my grow room somewhat dramatically.

I plan on adding an inline fan and a carbon filter. I hope to just use passive intake through cracks so I don't have to make any more holes. There are a number of small holes that will hopefully create negative pressure and further help to prevent the smell getting out without going through the carbon filter.

Then I also want to divide my room horizontally across about halfway up, giving me room to flower with a 400w HPS on top and clone/veg underneath with a T5 fixture (like a 4x2ft, i like the looks of the GrowBright T5 fixtures) and a cloning box that my local shop sells for under $60.

This set up should allow me more to do than enough for my goals and keep me busy (and happy).