The Mother Plant
If your mother plant is from seed, it should be at least 1 foot tall and around 6/7 weeks old min, with 9 weeks old being great. But if you need lots of clones, let it get big. It pays to have patience sometimes.
Misting
Mist plants heavily each morning two weeks prior to cloning. Remember, if plants are in halide area, turn off your fans and raise bulbs. If one drop of water lands on a hot bulb, then BOOM! no more bulb.
The misting will wash nitrogen out of plants. This will slow growth, and carbohydrates will build up in the stems. The lowest branches of your plant will root faster due to the low nitrogen and high carbohydrate levels.
Rooting Medium
You can root in rockwool, perlite, sand, vermiculite, sunshine mixes, dirt, and even water. I prefer to use rockwool because it is easy to handle, easy to transport, and it keeps your clone area clean.
24 hours before cloning you should prepare your rooting medium by watering it with a mix of one liter of water and some horticultural fungicide (see the package for proper ratio of water to fungicide). Put the medium into a nursery tray. Put the tray in the clone room, 12" from the light source, which should be left on constantly.
Taking the Clone
Get a clean coffee cup, baby food jar, or other such container, and fill with water. Do not use hot water, cool tap water or distilled bottled water are recommended. Let tap water sit overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate.
Start your first cutting on the bottom branch. The cutting should be 2"-6" in length. You will leave the growing tip, a small leaf, and one or two larger leaves. Below the last leaf you will cut off more leaves 1/8" from the main stem (see diagram).
Below the bottom leaf cut you should make a straight cut perpendicular to the stem. Immediately place the cutting into the container of water. This will prevent an air bubble from blocking the transpiration stream.
After all clones are taken, put in clone closet, (but not in direct light) for 24 hours. Mist clones gently once or twice during this period.
The next day, take your tray with the medium and use a small nail to make a 1/4" deep hole in each clone site. Take one clone, dip in rooting hormone, generously coating 1/4" to 1/2" of the stem before inserting it into the hole in the medium.
Push the clone in gently until it is 1/2" to 3/4" into the medium. Trickle a few drops of rooting hormone down the stem to ensure that it is set properly.
Mist the clone again and put a foot away from the fluorescent light. Leave the light on constantly until the clones have rooted, which should take from one to four weeks. You can use a humidity cover or tent if you want to, but I don't use one.
I mist my clones 6 times or so a day, and they root in 7 to 12 days. Keep the medium moist but not saturated. When necessary, water lightly with a mixture of water and No-damp. Let the rockwool get a bit on the dry side rather than letting it become too wet.
After roots start to appear, transplant the clone gently into whatever medium you have chosen to grow it in. Water gently with 1/2" strength flowering food. If you are planting clones rooted in rockwool into a pro mix, make sure to bury cube with 1/2" of soil.
It will help keep cube from drying out, as rockwool generously gives up its moisture to anything. That's it. Expect a minimum 50% survival rate. Good luck!
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