Ready to cut clones....

[biggun4me]

I want to cut some clones from these plants before I move them into flower, But I have some problems I want to take care of before I cut them.
What should I do to get these as healthy as possible before they go under the knife.. I am going to folar feed them with maxsea after I cut them..
Should I cut away all the leaf or should I just cut away the dead?
Also should I top these now or wait till they get into flower? I want to grow a nice even canopy in flower..
Peace...

 

[Seamaiden]

K, I've not ever used rockwool except for aquarium plants, but it looks like you have a magnesium issue going on. That can be straightened out with a foliar of Epsom salt @ between 1/4t-1tsp/gal water (start on the low end, then work your way up), assuming it's not a lock-out due to pH being off.

As for trimming them up, how you go about it depends on how you plan to grow them out. Are you concerned with plant numbers, therefore need to grow trees? I wouldn't top them too hard in that case.

Scrog? Topping early can and should be done, but be prepared to end up with more branches than what you need to fill the screen, better to remove those early on than wait for buds to set and then you don't want to because those could turn into smokable little nugs.

No concerns about plant numbers and you wanna do a SoG? Get them ready to flip very soon, remove ALL the lower foliage and get them into that screen. Your goal in this case is to create a bunch of smaller plants with single colas--no topping necessary here. Even canopy can be achieved via monocropping (all one variety) and accounting for stretch when you remove everything that is above a certain height. I trim mine down to 12" for the sog.

 

[biggun4me]

I need to make a choice very soon as to how I will grow these.... I am confused..Peace

 

[Seamaiden]

Process of elimination will help you here. First, what's your goal? Then, are you concerned with plant numbers--yes or no? What are your limitations? In other words, I personally can only physically handle so many plants.

 

[Radio_Dread]

is this a hydro system your running? or are you just growing in rockwool straight up? where does your root ball develope? i hope you dont just plan on leaving them in the platic tubes like that your just asking for some disease and mold on the rock wool since they are expose to that much light.

 

[biggun4me]

Ok Heres my plan and why... First thanks to all who participate in the health of my grow...

I am a 50 year old guy who woke up one day and thought, I want to learn to grow some weed.. So I went out and bought a bunch of cool stuff, built a room plugged it all in and waited for the magic to happen.. Everything died... So here I am needy for knowledge...
I stated to grow in rockwool the way I did because the hydro store I went to steered me in this direction.. I tried and see it is not a wise way to go...
But here I am with these plants in veg and am wanting to make the best of what I got this time. I will be changing to dirt for my next next time... I am thinking I will put them in 3 gallon pots and instead of surrounding them with hydroton I will use rockwool croutons or maybe coco...
My question for now is how should I top these plants in veg assuming I Have room for 10 -15 plants under 2 1000w lights and can let them grow to 5' tall..
In the pictures I show I want to know where should I cut? Check out the pics and let me know.. Peace

 

[altitudefarmer]

Hey man, you're on the right website to learn from the best. There's plenty to read- check out the forums. There's also a complete guide to nutrient and pest problems.

On another note, I seem to get faster rooting clones when the mamas are nutrient deficient. I actually starve my mama plants when I know I want to take clones in a week or two; I just give 'em plain water at the proper pH. No need to try and get them healthy to take clones, but make sure they're all good before you bloom 'em.

Good luck on your new hobby; there should be plenty folks here who'll be willing to give you advice. Peace

 

[Radio_Dread]

i would agree with AF, you made a good choice in coming to this site for info and people to help you out if you have any problems. but best of luck

RD

 

[Seamaiden]

Ok Heres my plan and why... First thanks to all who participate in the health of my grow...

I am a 50 year old guy who woke up one day and thought, I want to learn to grow some weed.. So I went out and bought a bunch of cool stuff, built a room plugged it all in and waited for the magic to happen.. Everything died... So here I am needy for knowledge...
I stated to grow in rockwool the way I did because the hydro store I went to steered me in this direction.. I tried and see it is not a wise way to go...
But here I am with these plants in veg and am wanting to make the best of what I got this time. I will be changing to dirt for my next next time... I am thinking I will put them in 3 gallon pots and instead of surrounding them with hydroton I will use rockwool croutons or maybe coco...
My question for now is how should I top these plants in veg assuming I Have room for 10 -15 plants under 2 1000w lights and can let them grow to 5' tall..
In the pictures I show I want to know where should I cut? Check out the pics and let me know.. Peace

Right now I wouldn't suggest coco unless you have someone well-versed readily available. Learn with dirt, it's far more forgiving. Hell, even pure perlite is more forgiving.

As for where to top--see where the plant is making new branches on the side, beneath the tops? That's called apical branching if I recollect. Cut just above that and you'll force more apical branching.

That said, if that were *my* plant, I'd be using those little branches to make more clones as I have better rooting rates using lowers rather than the tops. I also don't like to have a bunch of plant material too low on the plant.

 

[biggun4me]

Thanks as always for your advice Seamaiden...
Ok I will be cutting clones this weekend and will be topping and thinning out the bottoms.. I should get lots of nice clones...
What I want to know is what would be the best medium to surround the rockwool cubes with as I put them into bigger pots 3 or 5 gallon ones.. Last time I put them into 2 gallon pots and surrounded them with hydroton and did not have great success because the plants became root bound... I am thinking about useing rockwool crutons next time, what do you think? Peace

 

[Seamaiden]

Since I don't work with rockwool, I don't feel my answer would be adequate. I can tell you what I'd do, but I don't know that would be a good thing for you to do. I'd take the plastic wrapper off and plop 'em in perlite or coco, most likely perlite.

Getting root bound is another issue than this one of medium.

 

[biggun4me]

I will look into both, My question would be do both coco and perlite work well with the same PH as rockwool? Peace

Since I don't work with rockwool, I don't feel my answer would be adequate. I can tell you what I'd do, but I don't know that would be a good thing for you to do. I'd take the plastic wrapper off and plop 'em in perlite or coco, most likely perlite.

Getting root bound is another issue than this one of medium.

 

[Seamaiden]

I have no idea, specifically because I haven't worked with rockwool. Coco+perlite needs to be at a coco pH range: 5.8-6.2. What's your research into rockwool tell you?

 

[biggun4me]

rockwool works best at a pH at 5.6- 6.0.. So I guess that answers my question... Thanks again... Peace

 

[Seamaiden]

Start pHing in the 5.8-6.0 range and I bet you'll find some improvements by keeping it a little tighter. Everything's a learning experience.