Cloning question

[Bluegrass420]

My friend who started to grow his own (difficult and expensive to find kind bud around here) is having some problems with propagation. The mother plant (White Widow) is vigorous and healthy. Clones were taken with clean equipment and dipped in a cloning gel. The clones were then placed in rapid rooter plugs and placed in a humidity dome. The clones were sprayed a couple of times a day with a cloning solution mixture as per directions on the bottle. After a couple of weeks the rapid rooter plugs had roots growing through them. The clones were then planted in organic ocean forest potting soil. Once planted in the potting soil the leaves immediately became droopy and started drying out. Although the plants are not dying they are not showing any kind of growth. They are under 2 40W florouscent lights.

I suspect the droopy/dry leaves are from the shock of transplanting and reduced humidity. Why haven't they bounced back? Should I be using straight Ph adjusted water and not the cloning solution for watering? Plants grown from seed seem to do just fine. Any help would be appreciated.

[Scarlet Sky]

i beleive that your ocean forest is too hot for them, too much fert. try giving it a good flush, have you notice any yellowing? also keep in mind that the plant will be growing more root than veg at this point...

[dutch.lover]

^^yes exactly, it can take clones a little while to really start to grow once they've been potted. Keep an eye out for yellowing, but you should be fine.

[Bluegrass420]

I'll advise him to flush the plants and then switch to a straight water solution until things improve. I guess I hadn't considered that the organic soil might be too hot. It does say that for the first couple of weeks no additional nutrients are needed. Since he didn't have any problems with seeds I assumed it would be all right. Thanks for the advice.

[stinkyattic]

The problem sounds like the transition was made too fast.
Clones that have been under a humidity dome need to be gradually introduded to a drier atmosphere.
To do this, take the dome off for a progressively longer time each day... or once you pot them up, you could put them under a dome for a little while longer. Or in plastic baggies. Be creative.
Fert burn from just your soil is not likely. Rooted clones are harder to burn than from-seed plants of the same size.

[Scarlet Sky]

... good call...

[JackdaWack]

oh yeah i had clones dry up on me in the matter of 1 hour, check the humidity of the room in comparision to the dome, with a dome i had 90% humidity, and the in room humidty was 40% they had no chance and wouldnt pick up after the damage was done, they kinda just turned into goop after trying to foilar them back to health, lesson learner, f-ck those humidity domes apparently u barely need them. Stinky had a good explination around it.

[stinkyattic]

f-ck those humidity domes apparently u barely need them. Stinky had a good explination around it.
They have their applications... my %RH right now is in the 20s... 0 chance of survival without protection... didn't use a dome when I was running an ez cloner... just a good squirt of wilt-pruf... now i'm in rapidrooters with bottom heat and the dome works well not just to keep %RH up, but also to make a nice warm home for the cuttings even though my house is only 60 degrees.