Stop cutting your clone stems at a 45! There's a better way to get a white beard growing.

Last pull of clones I broke my mold so to speak and tested a theory that involved balancing root propagation in my cuts. I used scissors that cut diminishing concentric circles applying equal pressure 360 degrees around the stem. That's really fancy talk for the scissors I got at pet smart to cut the dogs nails; just gave them a razor clean edge. Any who, i cut them straight across, then gave a light scrape and another cut. The second cut is just enough to crimp through the bark into the tissue below. The result iwas better than expected as evidenced by the images. All cuts had a well developed beard and the roots shot out in a evenly spaced array around the bottom of the stem with a second ring of roots starting above it at the second cut. These cuts are much more vigorous than the others done at a 45 and are hardening off faster as well.

Ok if this is so truly revolutionary I can’t believe it’s taken so long for this to have come to light.

You can cut a branch and just stick it in the media. Humidity is your buddy. Not so much the cut in imo. Iv had cuts root in 5-8 days with and without hormones. Iv had cuts take as long as 15 days with and without hormones I’m a firm believer that genetics play a huge roll in propagation along with no hiccups in transfer from mom to new media. But that would then contradict how I feel about how cuts can sit out for days before being plugged.

Grojak said:

Ok if this is so truly revolutionary I can’t believe it’s taken so long for this to have come to light.

Click to expand...

"Revolutionary" may be a bit strong lol, but it has made my cloning program noticeably more robust and predictable. As far as it taking this long to see some light? There's probably three or four bad habits I'm guilty of committing within the past hour alone, despite knowing better. We're creatures of habit, prone to believe myth, and not easily deterred from banging our heads against the wall because "my buddy does it like that."

DrOgkush said:

You can cut a branch and just stick it in the media. Humidity is your buddy. Not so much the cut in imo. Iv had cuts root in 5-8 days with and without hormones. Iv had cuts take as long as 15 days with and without hormones I’m a firm believer that genetics play a huge roll in propagation along with no hiccups in transfer from mom to new media. But that would then contradict how I feel about how cuts can sit out for days before being plugged.

Click to expand...

Right, there's potentially a ton of variables at play when cloning. Many were eliminated and or controlled for these trials. Any observations found within the trial can be attributed to the procedure tested. The positive results are predictable and repeatable. So to your original statement; a weak cloner can get a boost, a great cloner may not see much benefit, and it can help standardize propagation time to avoid 15 day hold outs.

DrOgkush said:

You can cut a branch and just stick it in the media. Humidity is your buddy. Not so much the cut in imo. Iv had cuts root in 5-8 days with and without hormones. Iv had cuts take as long as 15 days with and without hormones I’m a firm believer that genetics play a huge roll in propagation along with no hiccups in transfer from mom to new media. But that would then contradict how I feel about how cuts can sit out for days before being plugged.

Click to expand...

Although you can stick a cut branch in haphazardly in media and get some roots, I wouldn't. And this isn't about how to get some, it's about how to maximize them, in both number and structure.

I found that when the mothers start getting old, like 8 months to a year, they start to produce weaker clones. I noticed that they root bind so bad in 5 gallon buckets and its hard to keep them from out growing everything. I find that clones from a middle aged mother that is healthy and no signs of weird yellowing, crispy ends, etc does a lot better at rooting. I start to notice clone failures at around 6 to 7 months starting to root bind mothers. It's best to keep at least 1 clone to start mothers over so you don't end up with one of many cloning failures you will run into when you first start. I take the old mothers and transplant them into larger buckets and flower them out. They have always produced very little quality bud when they get old.

rocketdog1989 said:

I found that when the mothers start getting old, like 8 months to a year, they start to produce weaker clones. I noticed that they root bind so bad in 5 gallon buckets and its hard to keep them from out growing everything. I find that clones from a middle aged mother that is healthy and no signs of weird yellowing, crispy ends, etc does a lot better at rooting. I start to notice clone failures at around 6 to 7 months starting to root bind mothers. It's best to keep at least 1 clone to start mothers over so you don't end up with one of many cloning failures you will run into when you first start. I take the old mothers and transplant them into larger buckets and flower them out. They have always produced very little quality bud when they get old.

Click to expand...

Clones from a unhealthy plant are just that. Unhealthy. As for how long a plant can veg that's on the growers tlc and skill. I keep no mothers and just take clones before or while in flower

Some cuts just take longer than others.. even from the same mother. I got some that have been in pots for 2 weeks waiting on the others to root from the same pheno/mother.. but, I did see some roots today, so I'll be transplanting them tomorrow. Not making a new crop right now, as I already have the room full in week 4 of flower, but i do need some moms for the next round.

I start my clones in screened promix hp in 9-hole seed starter pots. I just cut across with scissors then dip in gel then powder or nothing sometimes. Generally they are well rooted in 10 - 14 days and can go in pots or hydro. 100% almost every time even using shit for cuttings.

Note the date they got put in the mix and the planting date.





Could have planted to pots a few days earlier but I set a date and schedule for it. 4/20 is a good day to plant.

I just finished culling a weak clone in my cloner and decided to try this out with a pair of clones. I used my dog's nail trimmers, suitably sanitized in bleach, and made the cuts and scrapes like you described in taking two motorbreath 15 clones I've been having trouble getting roots with since I first started with it 7 months ago. Hopefully they will see an improvement with this and the heating pad I've added. I did finally get my OG Kush clones to root so I think I'm starting to get better at it.

rocketdog1989 said:

I found that when the mothers start getting old, like 8 months to a year, they start to produce weaker clones. I noticed that they root bind so bad in 5 gallon buckets and its hard to keep them from out growing everything. I find that clones from a middle aged mother that is healthy and no signs of weird yellowing, crispy ends, etc does a lot better at rooting. I start to notice clone failures at around 6 to 7 months starting to root bind mothers. It's best to keep at least 1 clone to start mothers over so you don't end up with one of many cloning failures you will run into when you first start. I take the old mothers and transplant them into larger buckets and flower them out. They have always produced very little quality bud when they get old.

Click to expand...

I had a mother for 9 years but took her out and cut off most of her rootball then put back into the same pot with fresh medium a couple times a year until mites wiped out my whole grow when I was out of town working for 6 weeks. Just prune it back to keep it small if you don't take a lot of cuts.

I tend to change strains a lot so just take cuts before I flower if I want to keep that strain or it's the first flower run and I don't want to miss "The One!" as I have so many times before in the last decades.

I don't notice any difference where I take my cuts from and often use the top when I cut it off to top the plant if I'm not going for a FIM.

Many ways to skin this cat.

I just take a pair of scissors and cut clones. I stick them in a cup of water while taking them. Small container of moist coco. Sometimes rooting powder sometimes not. I always have roots in 7-10 days. For rooting powder just the cheap Miracle-Gro Fastroot powder. They're all just IBA anyway so brand doesn't matter. I've used honey as well. Always roots.

Taking clones and getting them to root successfully is an extremely simple process. It's not complicated at all. As with everything related to growing cannabis there are always going to be those that fail at such a basic task regardless of how simple or complicated they make the process.

xtsho said:

I just take a pair of scissors and cut clones. I stick them in a cup of water while taking them. Small container of moist coco. Sometimes rooting powder sometimes not. I always have roots in 7-10 days. For rooting powder just the cheap Miracle-Gro Fastroot powder. They're all just IBA anyway so brand doesn't matter. I've used honey as well. Always roots.

Taking clones and getting them to root successfully is an extremely simple process. It's not complicated at all. As with everything related to growing cannabis there are always going to be those that fail at such a basic task regardless of how simple or complicated they make the process.

Click to expand...

I recently saw someone use honey to clone a rose. … interesting.

xtsho said:

I just take a pair of scissors and cut clones. I stick them in a cup of water while taking them. Small container of moist coco. Sometimes rooting powder sometimes not. I always have roots in 7-10 days. For rooting powder just the cheap Miracle-Gro Fastroot powder. They're all just IBA anyway so brand doesn't matter. I've used honey as well. Always roots.

Taking clones and getting them to root successfully is an extremely simple process. It's not complicated at all. As with everything related to growing cannabis there are always going to be those that fail at such a basic task regardless of how simple or complicated they make the process.

Click to expand...

It might not be complicated but it sure as hell doesn't seem to want to work for me. It's simple enough to cut, dip and put in Coco or cut, dip and put in a root riot and in a dome. I even cut and went straight to an aeroponics cloner with about a 50% success rate. All I heard was how people just had roots exploding out of every cut they took no matter what method they tried 100% success rates. I'm getting better at it now that it's warmer in the cloner and I've added an oxidizer to stop the slime that was killing them all in like 10-14 days but it still isn't an extremely simple process. Hopefully one day.

DoubleAtotheRON said:

I recently saw someone use honey to clone a rose. … interesting.

Click to expand...

Roses are much harder to clone than cannabis as well.

I wish I knew you in real life so you could show me just how easy this all is. I've been beating my head against the tent for 6 or 7 attempts now and each one has had it's own failures. But today....... success . This just got planted in a Solo cup a few minutes ago and replaced with more motorbreath 15 clones. This is the last seed I had from an OG Kush I got in Amsterdam that I really wanted to clone just for nostalgia reasons and the second try at cloning it. It ain't the clusters of fish bones you guys post but I'm betting I'll get it to grow.

xtsho said:

Roses are much harder to clone than cannabis as well.

Click to expand...

Roses are harder to keep healthy too depending on the cultivar. I used to love my rose garden but the upkeep is too much in the shady woods I live in. Too much pm, black spot, and every other rose pest out there to deal with bug wise too. Now I just buy cheap ass knockout roses and kill em off every 5 years when they get over 6' tall. I do miss the exotic colors though.

FirstCavApache64 said:

I wish I knew you in real life so you could show me just how easy this all is. I've been beating my head against the tent for 6 or 7 attempts now and each one has had it's own failures. But today....... success . This just got planted in a Solo cup a few minutes ago and replaced with more motorbreath 15 clones. This is the last seed I had from an OG Kush I got in Amsterdam that I really wanted to clone just for nostalgia reasons and the second try at cloning it. It ain't the clusters of fish bones you guys post but I'm betting I'll get it to grow.View attachment 5145843

Click to expand...

That'll grow great. Just one tiny bit of root is enough to get them going in almost anything.

I was working on my plants one evening and broke off a little grow tip by accident and it landed in a pail of water I kept in the grow room to help with low RH. This is dugout water and I'd been adding more as it evaporated so it was really crap probably around 1500ppm and pH 8 minimum. This is our tap water but it gets filtered to 5µ and is 400+ppm and pH8+ out of the tap.

Anyways about 2 weeks later I was adding more water and saw it floating on the top and pulled it out. Damn if it didn't root in that crap. Stuck it in a pot and away it went.