Need help... trying to get up and running, when should I clone & flower? First grow

Hello,

I have been trying to figure out the best plan of attack... this is my first grow...

I have a total of 9 plants, one White Widow (Fem) is about 6 weeks old from seed (12" tall), the rest are all 2 weeks old from seed (3-4" tall).

The additional plants (2 weeks old) are White Widow (Fem), Northern Lights x Skunk #1 (Fem), Strawberry Cough (Fem), and 5 unknown bag seeds from a decently good bag.

I want to take clones from the White Widow, Northern Lights x Skunk #1, and Strawberry Cough, but do not plan on cloning the bag seeds, and just want to flower the bag seeds as quickly as possible as I am out of smoke until my first harvest...

What would be the best way to go about cloning the strains I want to keep, but getting my first harvest as soon as possible (without giving up a ton of yield)?

I want to get as much harvested, as quickly as possible, but without losing my genetics... So when should I start taking clones?

When do I move the plants into flowering (I have a 10'x8'x7' room setup for flowering, with two 600 Watt HPS lights on 12 hour timers, 424CFM Fan, and Carbon Filter).

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Anyone?

set up moms for the strains to keep throw the rest into flower. clone the moms and keep the strain. so what did I miss. lol

I don't use a mother plant(yet), so I have to take my clones from veg, like you plan to do. I usually wait until a plant is about 3 weeks old, and has at least 3 sets of lower branches that are at least 6" long. I usually only take the two lowest branches from the strongest, least stressed/damaged, nicest plants, until i have enough for the next generation. If possible, I don't take any more than 2 clones from a plant. Sometimes I will though, if it's a particularly nice plant i want to keep(genetically, not just the strain type). I veg for about 5 weeks, so I don't lose hardly anything by removing those lowest branches. It works out pretty good.

stumps said:

set up moms for the strains to keep throw the rest into flower. clone the moms and keep the strain. so what did I miss. lol

Click to expand...

Some people don't have the extra room, or the lights, to keep a seperate mother plant. I plan to eventually, but it just isn't possible right now.

I've only tried two so far. I have a large veg area so I was able to make room. It doesn't take much light to keep a mom going.

Thanks for the replies... but I am still unsure when to take clones, and should I wait to move to 12/12 after taking clones or would I be better off going straight to flower after taking cuttings?

Any other opinions at all?

It is always best to take the clones at least a few days before 12/12,(5 days min, if possible) so the plant can fully recover from that stress. But, it isn't a huge issue if you can't wait that time for them to recover, because they will do fine anyway. It's just that any type of stress has some effect on the flowering process, even if it's only minute, and not noticeable. So, take them as early as you can, but not early enough that you are removing a significant portion of the mother. The bigger the mother, the better, because she will be more likely absorb the stress without problems.

Still hoping to get some advice on when to move to 12/12....