Old enough to clone for sex? w/ pics

[sirsmokealot23]

I got 13 plants and am looking for some perfect mothers. They are about a month and a half old and in my opinion are doing great. I want to clone for sex but am not sure if they would hurt them at this age? One of my friends said to wait 2 months but I'm looking for a couple more opinions. They are from 10 in to 18 in. Tell me what you think and thanks in advance.

[anbesol]

if you want your clones to take wait at least a 70 days from plant's seed sprout. I waited till about week 50 or so and they didnt take, then i did them later in life and they took, the older the plant the more likely the clone will survive. so dont rush it, and i wouldnt recommend taking the very bottom stalk, take the one above it, just my opinion :jointsmile:

[stinkyattic]

Nothing to do with age- EVERYTHING to do with number of nodes. Your individual experience- clone failure- could have been caused by one of any number of factors. I can root a clone from an 8 inch tall plant, no problems, as long as it is healthy.

You can clone for sex at any time that the plant is large enough to donate cuttings while still leaving 5 healthy nodes of main stem behind. That means it should have at LEAST 8-10 nodes on it, so you can take a cutting that has the new growth, one lower node with leaf, and another lower node that you will strip and treat with hormone.

Take the most vigorous growth for clones- that will root fastest.

[brainfood33]

Just wondering about this Stinky.
Does this mean the top of the plant's main stem is the best clone you can take?

I always see folk saying to only take from lower branches.

Also, when taking clones, is it good practice to chop a branch from anywhere other than at the node? I mean, is leaving half a branch on the plant ok?

[stinkyattic]

Okay this has a 2-part answer!
During veg, or if your plant is a dedicated mother, yes, go for the #1 strongest tip- that usually is the top growing highest tip. It's the one that gets the best light.
If you are planning to flower within 2 weeks from taking cuts, LEAVE the top shoot, and preferably any other shoots that you think are super healthy and will produce fat buds. Removing them changes the hormone concentration in the tissues and basically confuses the plant.
So if you are about to FLOWER, then take them from lower branches.
You can cut your clone anywhere along the branch that you like. I choose my cut location not only to give a good clone, but to 'set up' the plant to re-grow cuttings- basically, a nice pruning job that happens to give me clones! lol. And I also try to leave as many big healthy fans as possible.
Again, the technique is a little different when you are about to flower. Removing an entire branch is fine, but as always you need to look at the whole picture- is that branch even useful tot he plant, or is it scruffy and weak? Will leaving part of it encourage the plant to waste energy trying to set popcorn buds down there? Yes? Off it goes! :D

[brainfood33]

Great answer thank you! :)

I have a new dedicated mother (prebious one in flower which you also just helped me with) but I still only took my latest clones from her by removing entire lower branches then trimming down to the individual clones.
To date, I've not been getting the best results with my technique although I just discovered some other reasons why that may be and tested them out this time (namely making the 45` cut through the node), so I'll find out in a couple of weeks how that went.

P.S. Sorry for hijacking the thread Sirsmokealot, and you have lovely looking plants there for what it is worth! :)