First time trying to CLONE ... Any Experts out their able to help me out ??

Well im still currently on my first grow ever , but have been putting in hours and hours of research on how to grow a nice healthy plant. So far everything seems to be going good for me , now im trying to take a few clones of the plants that im growing.

I didnt have a dome , but did have a nice handy plexi-glass box laying around that i made into a nice dome or mini green house sort of thing. Yeah im kinda growing on a budget lol .. so instead of buying one , i just made one. It works well .. the humidity stays between 80-90% and temp between 75-85F . So i think its working pretty well , i did just make this yesterday and put two clones in it , about 10 inchs away from my CFL's . I am not using rockwool or pellets , im using straight organic soil for my clones. I understand this may be harder from what ive read a few places.
They both are still green and leaves havent changed color , but one of the clones leaves are curling a little bit, as this is my first time cloneing ... im not sure if this is normal for a few days or so after taking your cutting and cloneing it??
a few more questions i have is , should the starter cups for my clones have holes in the bottom for drainage or no??
Also how often if at all do i water these?
Do the clones start to grow upward before they root , or do they have to root before they start to gain growth ??
How should a clone look after 2-3 days of taking the cutting?? Droppy at all??

(I do mist the inside of my box everyday to keep the humidity up , i think im doing this right lol )

No clue what they are supposed to look like after making the clone , never done this before so a plant that i may think is suffering , may be healthy .. not sure. So if anyone with some good experience with growing and cloning could help, it would BE A GREAT DEAL OF HELP!! Thanks everyone

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

I didnt have a dome , but did have a nice handy plexi-glass box laying around that i made into a nice dome or mini green house sort of thing. It works well .. the humidity stays between 80-90% and temp between 75-85F . I am not using rockwool or pellets , im using straight organic soil for my clones. I understand this may be harder from what ive read a few places.
They both are still green and leaves havent changed color , but one of the clones leaves are curling a little bit, as this is my first time cloneing ... im not sure if this is normal for a few days or so after taking your cutting and cloneing it??

---

Did you trim the larger fans at all? If they are trying to transpire too much moisture, they may curl a bit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

should the starter cups for my clones have holes in the bottom for drainage or no?

---

Absolutely. You want the soil moist, but not soggy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

Also how often if at all do i water these?

---

See above.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

Do the clones start to grow upward before they root , or do they have to root before they start to gain growth ??
How should a clone look after 2-3 days of taking the cutting?? Droppy at all??

---

They shouldn't really, but if there is too much light, they may try to. If that's the case, they will yellow-up pretty rapidly as they suck the goodies out of the fans available, since they can't draw nutrients from the soil yet.

They shouldn't appear droopy or wilted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

(I do mist the inside of my box everyday to keep the humidity up , i think im doing this right lol )

---

Atta boy!

Sounds like you're on track, just make sure they're not gonna drown in soil that's too soggy. :thumbsup:

No expert here, but it's not rocket-science. ;)

I imagine it difficult to maintain soil not too wet and not too dry for a clone. Hey, I just never tried cloning into soil so please keep us posted. I'd also imagine giving the soil a few sprays each every day or two sufficient. I would NOT spray the clones leaves wet and drippy. Only a mist on the leaves and plants. I've found the rapid rooter plugs to be about fool proof and they can go to soil or hydro. Yes, clip leaf tips and not too much light. Let some air in for a few each watering.

Prolly more tips too, did we miss anything?

Got pix?
Doc Oc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ocotillo

I imagine it difficult to maintain soil not too wet and not too dry for a clone. Hey, I just never tried cloning into soil so please keep us posted. I'd also imagine giving the soil a few sprays each every day or two sufficient. I would NOT spray the clones leaves wet and drippy. Only a mist on the leaves and plants. I've found the rapid rooter plugs to be about fool proof and they can go to soil or hydro. Yes, clip leaf tips and not too much light. Let some air in for a few each watering.

Prolly more tips too, did we miss anything?

Got pix?
Doc Oc.

---

I took some pics of my setup , Everything was home-made lol ... Like i said , im growing on a budget :) .

Here are the links to the pics

My Veg , and Clone area ...

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4727/019lx.jpg

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8994/018rh.jpg


My Flowering area ...

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9637/020sc.jpg

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7002/022spw.jpg

Four plants i started with , not knowing what i was doing . So i wanted to start over really , so i flowered them early to get clones and start over. But still wanna get some sort of yield out of these lol ...

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2005/021of.jpg



Advice or Input anyone ???

The cuttings i took were about 3 inchs long and i cut the lower branches and left the top and two little fan leaves on the top aswell . I did use root hormone and took all the steps needed to asure that no air went up the stem after taking the cutting.


How much is too much light ??? Please see my pics ... I have about 14750 Lumens in the Veg/Clone space (3x1) . Is this too much light for my clones ?? They are about 10-12 Inchs from the lights .

What exactly is "wilted" can you describe what this would look like ??


Thanks again for all your help.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvilCartman

Did you trim the larger fans at all? If they are trying to transpire too much moisture, they may curl a bit.




Absolutely. You want the soil moist, but not soggy.




See above.



They shouldn't really, but if there is too much light, they may try to. If that's the case, they will yellow-up pretty rapidly as they suck the goodies out of the fans available, since they can't draw nutrients from the soil yet.

They shouldn't appear droopy or wilted.



Atta boy!

Sounds like you're on track, just make sure they're not gonna drown in soil that's too soggy. :thumbsup:

No expert here, but it's not rocket-science. ;)

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

The cuttings i took were about 3 inchs long and i cut the lower branches and left the top and two little fan leaves on the top aswell . I did use root hormone and took all the steps needed to asure that no air went up the stem after taking the cutting.

---

It all sounds good. :thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

How much is too much light ??? Please see my pics ... I have about 14750 Lumens in the Veg/Clone space (3x1) . Is this too much light for my clones ?? They are about 10-12 Inchs from the lights .

---

I looked at your pics. IMO they do not have too much light. There is no other lighting, right? Just the CFLs?
I normally just use either a single CFL, or place them on the floor, far from the HID.
If you're concerned that it might be too much, you can drape your lil' hot-house with parchment paper or wax paper to cut down the intensity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac9119

What exactly is "wilted" can you describe what this would look like ??

---

From what I could see of the clone, it looks good.
Wilted = drooping, or an appearance of losing its rigidity. Like a wet noodle. :D

I've used the little peat-pucks or a bubble-cloner, myself. Maybe somebody who clones in soil could offer up some better advice, but I'd say you'll be fine, as long as the soil drains well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EvilCartman

It all sounds good. :thumbsup:




I looked at your pics. IMO they do not have too much light. There is no other lighting, right? Just the CFLs?
I normally just use either a single CFL, or place them on the floor, far from the HID.
If you're concerned that it might be too much, you can drape your lil' hot-house with parchment paper or wax paper to cut down the intensity.



From what I could see of the clone, it looks good.
Wilted = drooping, or an appearance of losing its rigidity. Like a wet noodle. :D

I've used the little peat-pucks or a bubble-cloner, myself. Maybe somebody who clones in soil could offer up some better advice, but I'd say you'll be fine, as long as the soil drains well.

---

Thanks for the advice , and info. Im thinking about using peat pucks next time if these ladys dont take root .

And yes some of my clones are wilted :( about 4 out of my 8 are droopy . The others are nice and firm they seem and stem is straight up, but the leaves are curling a little bit :\ . Any Ideas on how to fix these wilted babys and how about my other ones that look pretty decent but have a little curl on the leaves ??
What would cause my cuttings to wilt ?? and same question with the curling ??
Yeah my CFL's are the only light they get , except for the flowering light about 7 FT away which can hit the clones for the 12 hours i have it on for flowering my other ladys , then once the 12 is up ... i put up a curtain and only the CFLs can hit them.

Everything sound like im atleast doing half right lol ?? This is my first grow and clone at the same time ... but i have done my fair share of research , but in doing so and had never grown before.... People have different methods and ideas of what works or not. So sometimes when i do some research i find two things saying totaly different methods which is hard due to the fact ive never done this myself and been hands on with the plants to live and learn.

So i really do appreciate all the help here , thanks guys

Also what is the optimum temp range (F) for my clones and how about the humidity ??

Thanks again

They say humidity should be high. To achieve this you can either cover the plants with a plastic dome or create a dome with cling wrap. However, I'll pass on something that I learned today that may or may not be true. I have a 50% success rate with clones and I thought it was because of lack of proper humidity. Covering didn't much help. I talked to my local hydro clerk and he thinks my problems are because of initial over watering. I clone in coco but where I think I have been going wrong is saturating the medium after inserting the clone. Coco is supposed to drain excess water, but apparently that's still too much water for a clone. According to this guy, domes aren't really needed. All that's needed is to make sure the initial watering is pretty light (no matter what medium your using) and there after light watering until the clone develops roots. Once it develops a root or two then it should have no problems standing tall.