Romulan: First attempt at cloning

[Xrancher]

I picked up these clones at a local dispensary and they have been outside for about two months with supplemental light from a couple of T12 flourescent tubes to give them a total of 16/8. They were starting to get a bit bushy and friends wanted clones so my GF and I decided to give cloning a go. I have been watering with water only for a week and have the mother pots sitting in an inch of water while cutting the stems. We did this today April 25, 2010.
I mixed up a batch of starter liquid of 3ml of Miracle Grow Planting Starter and 4 drops of Super Thrive per 32 fl oz.
I know I may have gone a little heavy on the ST but I already had it mixed and decided to use it anyway, we'll see.
My GF gave me shit about the non-organic MGPS but it was what I had.
I first checked the PH of my well water that showed about 5.7 PH.
I then checked my starting liquid and it showed about 5.5 PH which I've read is about right to soak the rockwool cubes.

My cloning process is pick a branch with at least two nodes below the top growth, trim the leaf node and growth node then cut with disinfected scissors above the lower nodes that I want to continue growing on the mother plant and immediately submerge the cut in the water, then make the final diagonal cut below the trimmed nodes under water with a disinfected razor blade.

Next take cutting out of the water and dip in Rootone powder.

Insert stem into the hole in the rockwool cube that has been soaked in the starter liquid for about an hour.

Here are the six Romulan clones, three off each of the two mothers.

If you look close you can see we trimmed the fan leaves to limit the clones Transpiration.
The new clones are going into a 7" humidity dome in the spare room with indirect light from the window.

Here's the Romulan 30 minutes after the cloning process and no wilting.

After having so much fun cloning the Romulan we decided to try another clone of a cloned plant given to me by a friend that was doing some "house cleaning". He told me it was "Cheese".
Well I've never seen a Cheese plant so I have no idea what it really is. It had a little powdery mildew on it when he gave it to me so I keep it separated from my other plants.
It has been treated with "Serenade" and it's been in the sun for a week and 1/2 and it shows no sign of mildew.

It really has that thin leafed Sativa look.

Cloned Cheese in separate plastic container that was covered with "Saran Wrap". I don't want to infect my other clones that's why the "Cheese" clone is in it's own container.

Here are the new clones in the spare room.

Okay I hope this was entertaining and I'll try and update every day until they root or die. X

 

[Xrancher]

I just checked on the new clones it's been six hours since cloning and the new clones still have not wilted. X

 

[winta]

happy cloning my dude! your girl is right get rid of that miracle crap lol;) but the clones look great bro i heard romulan is supposed to be bomb as hell your friends are gonna be happy as shit :):stonedsmilie:

 

[Xrancher]

Thanks winta, yeah I know about that non-organic shit but the new clones on the first morning are stretching for sun and still not wilting. Maybe I got lucky! I am keeping one new clone myself so I may chronicle it's life in this thread.

New Romulan clones stretching for light their first morning.

 

[Xrancher]

This is the second morning after cloning. A storm blew in last night and the humidity dropped in the dome. Their looking a little wilted.

This is after misting with well water.

I also put a heating pad under them and it really helped with the humidity.

This is about 9 hours after misting and adding the heating pad.

They looked like they have perked up a bit. I felt the leaves before putting the dome back on tonight and the clones felt stiff and not droopy. It could have been the cloudy weather today as they didn't get much light. I should have put a light on them today but the lights are on another grow.

I'm going to open the vent a little tonight to bring the humidity down a bit.

 

[winta]

yea it was probably the clouds bro they lookin straight though :)

 

[jansjukebox]

Nice work Bro. I wish I was your friend...lol I'd gift you a c99x deep chunk clone in return...lol I've always wanted to grow the Rom so I'm looking forward to these!

 

[Xrancher]

Thanks jansjukebox, I hope they root we've had some shit weather and the humidity dropped. It also froze outside last night and hope my outside grow didn't freeze.

Here's day three pics. there were a couple clones wilted the morning of day 3. I closed the vent all the way on the humidity dome and hoped for the best.

closed the vents and crossed my fingers.

Morning day four, they don't look worse. The droopiest one has perked a little so the humidity is working

Gave them a breath of fresh air and closed them back up

The new clones are doing better than the outdoor vegetable garden that froze last night. Luckily I had my other outdoor grow protected.

 

[jansjukebox]

They are still hanging in there. How many times a day do you mist them? And I usually put a single 26w cfl right over the top of my dome. It's just enough untill they establish roots and I usually mist the inside of my dome about 3 times a day. I would also cut just a little more off the top leaves so they don't have so much to hold up, but thats just the way I do it. Good luck to ya bro. I'm gonna keep watching till you flower them or they are dead...lol

 

[Xrancher]

Yeah jansjukebox, it's a total learning process I thought I might have to much leaf.
I lost one today. I'll post a picture tonight. I actually cut off a leaf to try and save it but to no avail. I was misting 3 times a day as well. None of them are looking real good some better than others. I'm going to transplant the mothers today in there new home, half barrels, and will attempt to clone them again in two weeks but for now ROOT BITCHES!

 

[jansjukebox]

You're right! It is a learning process. I'm a hands on learner and I think anyone who grows this plant kind has to be. you can read all you want but till you try it..I just don't like rockwool. I've never had sucess with it. But lots of peeps do so props to them. but I either put them in soiless or I build a little airoponic cloner that does a really good job also. I only do about 8 clones at a time when I do them..but thruth be told this last round all my clones took except my candy kush. I took 2 cuts and killed them both..although my other 4 clones rooted with great sucess

 

[Xrancher]

I'm a hands on learner and I think anyone who grows this plant kind has to be. you can read all you want but till you try it..

jansjukebox

That's a truism! A great sig line as well.

Well I've been pretty busy. Putting the mothers in half barrels and transplanting seedlings and Cheese

On day 4 my clones got to much sun as the clouds moved out from the storm. They were so wilted I just about gave up.

This is what they looked like the morning of day 5

One clone had it's top completely wilted off so I decided to scrap it. I cut the rockwool cube open and no roots.

I misted them 4 times on day 5 and this is what they looked like on the morning of day six.

These things needed something and I didn't know what, so I decided to trim the shit out of them to try to keep them hydrated.

I know it looks like I massacred them, but the morning of day 7...

good humidity, I popped the top and looked expecting to see them all wilted over but to my surprise some of them have perked up and were stretching for the sun.

Well I haven't killed them all "yet" so I guess I'll continue to torture them some more. If any of these live they're going to be tough for sure.
X

 

[Rabbi]

did you use powder or gel, Whats the white stuff at the base of your cutting?

 

[Xrancher]

That would be Rootone powder. I think I will try gel next go around. Have you successfully cloned Rabbi? If so what do you use?X

 

[John Smith Esq.]

imo i would leave less stalk on them next time, all you need is an inch to bury in rockwool - less is more!! you see on your pic where you cut off the lowest leaf sets, thats were i would of made my cut matey

fingers still crossed for em..

what are the genetics for romulan? is it mostly afgan? i do hear good things about it! + plus it sounds kinda cool

glad your other garden didnt get nuked by the frost!

 

[hubcap]

what are the genetics for romulan? is it mostly afgan? i do hear good things about it! + plus it sounds kinda cool

the federation's romulan (speculative) lineage is as follows:
(Federation) California X [White Whino X White Rhino]

i dont know how much i agree with that. i know people still running an early 90s rom from them and its quite sativa in appearance and growth behaviour....
but not so much in effect, which, i feel is more of a couch surfer than a thought provoker , if you will. which i love. purples out with low temps and has a wonderful pine-ish/peppery flavor to the smoke.
its a pH sensitive bitch though and can be tricky getting things just right. also is a little stubborn to take cuts from, but, of course, not impossible....
not sure if that would be on line with what you are running, farmer xrancher, so, i, too, will be watching with interest, and wish ya the best on your progress.

cant wait ta see what your version of rom garners.

-cap

 

[Xrancher]

Thanks for the replies, I have successfully pretty much killed these cuttings as I'll call them now. I was trimming my plants anyway and they need a another little trim.

I appreciate all the advice. I realize many mistakes I made.
Temperature fluctuations, humidity fluctuations, light, etc. the first 4 days really screwed me by not controlling the environment. I carefully cut the rockwool cub of the best looking one and saw the most minute root but obviously not as big as it should be after 9 days.
I'll redo my set up and maybe try it again in a week. X

 

[winta]

sorry to hear that bro :( but it happens to the best of em youll kill it next go round :)

 

[jansjukebox]

practice makes perfect bro. I do recomend jell. It works great for me. I use rootec but Olivias is bomb also. Also some strands are just harder than other to clone. Also if you are taking cuts off of plants already in flower, it takes extra tiem for them to root. They have to revert back to veg then put roots out. The best suggestion I can give you is get yourself a little lithg jsut one 26w CFL is enough to put right over your done. Rooting plants really nned 24 hours of light and constand temp and humidity levels. Unless I use my homemade airophonic cloner..in which I get rrotes without a dome or misting them. Good luck to ya bro!

 

[ColasQueen]

Actually, they are looking pretty sweet my friend. In my humble experience, they seem to bounce back even after wilting. I'm impressed you are using natural light, but seems like it would not be enough hours to induce vigorous root growth, but that's just my thoughts :)
I use a T-5 over my domes, 2-blue/2-green. Seems to work much better than the fluorescent “grow” lights I had before. Heating mats are a *must*  I've had no luck whatsoever with the rock wool, got either too wet or too dry on me. Could never find that happy medium.
I switched to old school peat pots (pellets - add water and they expand) – these work like a charm for me, I swear by them and I now have a 98% success rate where before I was lucky to come out with a meager 25% success rate.
I soak the pellets until they are completely saturated; I then put (6 at a time) in a tea towel and swing it around 4 times to get out the excess water (do outside!!)- every time this leaves them in the perfect "moist" state for cloning. If you try and squeeze them to get the excess water out, I think it compacts too much; I never had success doing that.
I only use rootone powder on clones (use a good inch or two of it up the steam, can’t have too much!!), and spray both sides of the leaves with anti-wilt. Pre make the hole in whatever you are using as a cloning medium (rockwool/peat pots etc) and put your clone in ensuring not to rub off the powder as you do it.
I agree with jansjukebox, that you may have too many leaves on the clones, this tends to stress. I also cut all the leaves ½ way off, I see you trimmed the tops off, but I could take more off now.
I then spray the peat pellet until just the outside is wet morning and night, usually starting on day 2/3 as I find they are moist enough for the first couple of days and just need leave misting. My dome is completely closed (with a 5 minute open air break for the clones) for the first 4-5 days. I then half vent the dome for the next day or so, and then off with the dome. Misting every morning and night.

I usually have some solid roots starting to poke out around days 8-11, I’ve had some take up to 15 days to root!

Good luck mate, I will watch for your progress!!
Ciao-