As for my update, its a long one going over how I clone and reposition the girls after removing the boys…
Gather materials: Peat pellet or 1” pot, used soil, seedling mix (3 parts sunshine mix, 2 parts ewc , 1 part vermiculite and 1/8 tsp kelp meal per cups), Cold water and clonex or honey
I am using 1” pots so here is used soil, seedling soil and clonex. If I have willow/cottonwood resin I’ll use 1/2tsp per 4c water to moisten the soils (or pellet) otherwise plain (baby bottle) warm water is fine.
The pots get ½ way filled with used soil packing it in
Then fill in the rest with the seedling mix
Now I’ll take a look at the plant to find nice sized cuttings which is usually the top and middle branches
Check the gender to sort and assign numbers, letters, colors etc to know which is which. In this case one of the 2 girls I assigned girl A
I took 2 cuttings out of the middle and the taller branch on the bottom giving me 3 cuttings. 3 branches are left to form cola’s as flowering progresses
I immediately put the cuttings into cold water to shock them…sometimes I’ll do a small trim on the end while its underwater as some claim this helps prevent air bubbles in the stem though this doesn’t apply when there is plenty of sap flowing through the stem which is why young cuttings are best so most times I don’t and really don’t see a difference either way
After ~3-5minutes, I will remove one at a time to strip the leaves from the bottom pulling at the new growth and leaf at the same time. It should pull a ribbon of the stem with it like this
This exposes the cambium….its main job is to thicken the stem and encourage growth of new stems and/or roots so I like to take advantage of it
If I do not get a ribbon then I will lightly scratch the stem to expose this on one side. Either way, the wound must be sealed off with clonex or honey then the remainder of the leaves and nodes is pinched off except for the top 2. If I am cloning close together, I’ll take it 1 step further by trimming off ~1/2 of the bigger leaf to reduce transpiration and mold developing
Then inserted into the center of the pot’s ensuring good contact is made by patting the soil down around it. Make sure to label everything before moving onto the next plant
I do the same thing with the boys except I’ll remove the whole plant by cutting it out at the base leaving the roots and take the top 2 and middle nodes.
Leaving the 2 remaining Lucky 7’s girls in the pot
Having all of this newfound room, I spread the branches out again so the new lower growth can grow up during the flowering stretch which starts shortly after sex is formed
24 hrs later
I received 1 Lucky Charms girl which looks small in the pot all to herself hugging one side
That’s ok she too, gets repositioned in the pot
See how the leaves are covering the middle shading the lowest growth on the branches? They get removed as well as, any growth that is near the soil so all of the plants energy will go into these remaining nodes without the plant having to do back flips to angle growth toward the light again
Now I have 2 trays of cuttings…3 per plant – always take more cuttings than you think you need…I’ll need more cuttings of the girls though that will come in time as they veg while their donors flower over the next 8-10wks
The next step is to lock in humidity so I insert them into a tray
Spray the inside of the lid with plain water and cap them off leaving the vents closed and placed under a QB ~3’ above them, if using flouro its 8-12” above or in the shadow of a bigger plant in veg so they get some light to promote growth and return to veg though far enough away that they are stalled a bit until the roots are set
Now if you don’t have one of these nice trays or are not taking very many cuttings, you can use a clear pot, clear cup, sterilite container turned upside down etc.
Only the inside of the lid gets sprayed 1-2 times a day leaving the remaining leaves dry. After a week, the vents are opened (or lid is raised a little on 1 side to release some of the moisture. At this point, every 2-3 days I’ll give 1Tb water to the soil or pellet (or add 1/2c water to the bottom tray to moisten the soil from the bottom….remove any water after 30 minutes) so it stays moist and continue to mist the lid. If any dampen off (soft stem), they are removed so mold doesn’t set in and spread to the other cuttings.
When I use these type of pots, I wait until day 21 from cutting before potting up to a 3” or if using pellets, I’ll remove the mesh once I see a root poking out then put them in a 3” pot when I see a cluster of roots which is usually ~10-15 days from cutting though can take 21 days if its stubborn to clone or heat and humidity is out of range…other than this, its lots of LIFTA. Less is definitely more with this technique