cloning/sexing..

[suzuk99]

alright ive come this far. the plants are all growing doing very good. Theres 7 survivors.. theyre all about 12" tall now (some taller than others) and I was wondering how I should go about cloning them without sexing them. The problem is that since I grew them all from seeds, I dont know which are females and which are males. My plan was going to be to just take one clone from all the plants, and label each clone so that when my plants did sex I would at least have clones already growing of the plants that ended up being females.

They havent started flowering yet and its been 4 weeks. The problem is basically that I think its time to be cloning them but I dont know which ones to clone so im going to just take a clone from them all and see what happens. what do you guys think?

ps.. im going to be posting up pics later on tonight of the setup and plants

[luciferstixd]

I would go with what you know! The indoor bible basicaly says the same thing.

[suzuk99]

heres a few pics.. what do you think? start cloning?

http://www.geocities.com/zeroxx9 - sry for the crappy quality of the pics i was in a rush

[Tech]

Take a cutting of each plant and lable each cutting to each plant ABC and so on.
Keeping all your plants on veg and stick the cuttings strait onto 12/12 and about a week later you will know which are female and male , so you can bin all the males and take your cuttings from your females. ;)

[suzuk99]

i tried to clone a plant, followed directions right outa the bible and the stem just flopped over and leaves died within a few hours.. i used cloning gel and put the clone in rockwool under flourescent light.

[bonbon]

When the plant is in veg phase,it will have a lot of nitrogen in it's system,a cutting full of "N"are more difficult to propogate,best time to take cuttings are first couple weeks into flowering or several weeks before harvest,you just want most of the nitrogen leeched from it's system before you take them,make sure that everything is sterile(tools,bowls,hands)and the rockwool is "ph"stabilized....bonbon
http://www.altgarden.com/site/library/html/cuttings.html
http://www.simplyhydro.com/cuttings.htm

[Tech]

Thats wierd if they die in just hours :confused:
I never steralise anything when i take cuttings and i have about 95% sucsses rate whenever i take them .
Are you completly soaking the rockwool?

[suzuk99]

if I wait until after flowering to clone, that would mean i would already know the ssex. would i have to get the plant back into Veg growth to make it grow more or will it still bud if i just clone it and let it flower

[bonbon]

select them 3-4 weeks before you harvest,after the roots form,give them the GH mixture for seedlings and clones,after the 2nd week give them the preflowering application,keeping them on 24hrs of fluorecent lighting until your first crop is harvested,then move them in to your system and start the 12hr light cycle,cuttings are fully matured plants when the roots develop,there is virtually no veg period involved(thats the advantage of cuttings),try to fit more cuttings in the system 12-16 plants,this is possible because the plants and roots are more compact than a seed grow,in about 8wks they should be ready enough for harvesting....bonbon

[suzuk99]

Ive recently switched my plants to 12/12 to enter the flowering stage. when i did this, i moved them about 5 inches away from the light keeping them at 13" away. Before I did this they had grown to be about 3" away from the light so thats why i moved them. The problem is now I noticed the plants all sagging over. Everything looks like its bending downward not like before. what do ya think?

[bonbon]

add an extra flood cycle or two while the lights are on,try to keep replemishing the air,Aim a fan between the underside of the lamp and the top of the plants,try to keep reservoir temps around 68-70fh,and ph 5.5-5.8.....bonbon

[suzuk99]

i added an extra flood cycle and changed the nut mix too.. i think i made the mix too weak with a water/nut ratio that was a little bit high. the plants really arent doing good at all today. One of them has actually flopped over completely just bending the stem.. should I put them closer to the light? what else could be causing the all of a sudden sickness?

[bonbon]

it sounds like it may be high heat and humidity and a lack of fresh air,if you have an outtake fan in your cabinet,let it run continuously,give them the full recomended dose of nutrients,and check the ph,then wait a couple of day to see if that helps,if you dont have an outtake,place a fan above the light fixture as well as below(on the plants) to promote air exchange and remove the extra heat and humidity....bonbon

[Tech]

You are useing flouros arn,t you?