Cuttings

Got given some cuttings that came rooted in rockwool. Potted them up into small pots of coco. Shoved them under the 400w hps. All was looking well but tonight noticed 3 plants looking droopy. Only had 1 watering till run off so knew was over watering. Pots was still heavy though. Took them out the pots n couldn't see a single root after 3 days.

I think the hps was drying out the rockwool before the roots got to spread to the coco tbh. Put them in some fresh coco and watered until run off again n they have perked back up. Notice some roots coming out the bottom of the pot on one of the others. Have decided though to shove them all under the 250w cfl. Will it do them better to be under that until they've got some roots spread out?

Probably had the hps too close for such young plants n such small pots tbh. The other cuts all look fine. Just hope in a day or two they don't go droopy from the hps drying out the rockwool too. They are all under the cfl now which is where I usually shove my young seedlings. Was just bit too keen with these lot. Hopefully see some more roots poking through the bottoms of the pots in the next day or two.

I've cloned sucessfully with hps before but it seemed to take longer and I had the light far away.

CFL works great for cloning and I use CFL or led's most the time when I clone. Plus the hps will make them stretch a lot when they are small where the CFL should give shorter node spacing (more bush)

Someone on here that clones by the hundreds at a time can probably give a better answer though.

You have to ease plants into a stronger lighting situation. Next time raise up the hps high, at least 40 inches then keep a close eye on your plants for signs of light stress, like you saw, and lower it 5 inches or so per day until you hit your target.

Rurumo said:

You have to ease plants into a stronger lighting situation. Next time raise up the hps high, at least 40 inches then keep a close eye on your plants for signs of light stress, like you saw, and lower it 5 inches or so per day until you hit your target.

Click to expand...

When you say next time you have me worried lol . I ain't killed them. I took them out the small pots they was sitting in. Saw the rockwool had dried and the roots hadn't spread out into the coco. Banged them into some new small pots of coco and watered until run off. The ones that was droopy perked back up again.

Checked all the pots after that and a few wasn't droopy. Just the rockwool was drier than I'd like it compare to the coco. Potted anything that wasn't showing roots in the coco into new pots.

Hoping now they are under cfl they won't dry out as fast. Saw roots on about 4 of them had gone through to the coco. I am tempted to tell my mate who has more cuttings to pot them up for me his end. Then buy them off him already rooted in the first pots. Thing is I know how to get a pot to root lol nothing to it is there. Just never usually put them under the hps so soon. Know they can but yeah I had it too close being keen.