[Bandit 4freekin20]

Since I dont do this very often I thought I'd share an experience with The Circle of setting up a space for a mother plant (or 2) in a tent and then pull clones from the mamas in what hopes to be a very fast and prolific process.

 

 

This tent is mostly used for drying and storing equipment but today I find myself needing to get some clones going asap.

 

The two strains are Zkittles and Bandit Breath.

 

 

First thing I had to do was pull everything out, clean the tent, then reorganize it to fit my clone machine and a couple plants

 

 

The first configuration had a new 400watt LED hung but the light is an angry and hot running little fucker. It might be too much light for this small space as it was wearing out my little bandita mama

 

 

 

 

 

I have a much better extraction fan arriving today that should handle the heat output of the LED but I have concern about the light being too powerful for this project.

These being the only two plants of these two strains I can rely on for clones I cant leave anything to chance learning how to use a new light so I have to go with a light I can trust and have lots of experience using it.

 

I decided to go with a 315 watt CMH dimmed down to 245 watts with a 4200K lamp. I also changed up the tray and found a better way to store my flood & drain system, actually giving it purpose rather than just taking up space.

Things seem to be rolling now and I hope to cut clones maybe as soon as this weekend

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Side of The Tent .....Storage for drying racks in the rafters, various other racks stacked to the wall, a reservoir lid, and my F&D brain bucket with boxed meat slicer on top then a trim bucket and saucers stacked on the very top. Grow room real estate can be a bitch sometimes.

 

 

 

 

 

Today all the other plants in my room were flipped to flower except for one little runty Zkittle plant I have'nt had the nerve to cull yet. She's lucky I set up the mama space otherwise she'd be dead right now. Instead she'll get time to come around and be flowered with the clones when they're ready

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dekay]

In it for the long haul eh mate, I got so many bloody cuts cant think of any mothers taking up room just cuts from cuts, nice set up buddy hope you well dude

[duke]

nice work sir makes my method seem so primitive! a small flower pot of pure coco 10-12 cutts a time and just leave them alone nestledin the corner of the tiny veg cab and maybe spray of dilute nutes once in a blue moon and 9 out of 10 root in a couple of weeks and also my main reason for loving big motherplants is when you finally get to see them flower,my tangerine dream ex mother is a beast at 35 days flower because shes waited since 2014 for her slot!peace

[Bandit 4freekin20]

In it for the long haul eh mate, I got so many bloody cuts cant think of any mothers taking up room just cuts from cuts, nice set up buddy hope you well dude

 

 

nice work sir makes my method seem so primitive! a small flower pot of pure coco 10-12 cutts a time and just leave them alone nestledin the corner of the tiny veg cab and maybe spray of dilute nutes once in a blue moon and 9 out of 10 root in a couple of weeks and also my main reason for loving big motherplants is when you finally get to see them flower,my tangerine dream ex mother is a beast at 35 days flower because shes waited since 2014 for her slot!peace

 

 

It's been a few years since I've held onto a mama plant. Personal record was 14 months in captivity before releasing her to the wild.

But since Colorado and California went legal so many strains have come available it's a canna buffet of genetics.

 

Starting in 2014 I pretty much quit keeping mothers and takings clones, opting to pop a lot of seeds and transition into monocropping rather than perpetual gardening in order to grow a dozen strains per year instead of only two.

And now with new and better strains always coming out, really makes no sense to keep a mother plant for many growers stateside unless it's for a commercial operation.

 

But every now and then when seedling head counts come up short it's nice to have cloning experience to fall back on to make up for lost plants

 

I take a less is more approach to my clones. No domes, no misting, no dips or gels, no expensive bottle of Clonex, no medium of any sort, and no cut leaves.

 

I use an EzClone machine, RO water, and some powder from a dodgy bag of black powder with "Cloning" spelled incorrectly on it. And it works spooky good! Rooting times are typically 4-8 days

 

Takes 10 gallons (38 litres) to fill the tank of the machine

 

 

 

A good clone machine is an ez DIY job but they can be bought used and cheap off ebay. I traded a 1 gram chunk of hash for mine to a buddy who bought a bigger machine.

Had a bad pump but that's a cheap fix and I upgraded it with colored neoprene collars so I could color code strains rather than try to remember what went where or use plant labels. Color coding is tits for jobs like cloning

 

 

Microbial cloning powder. Bought this bag in 2014 and still have a lot. Even gave half of it away and still have more than enough for a couple more years! I add 2.5 teaspoons per 10 gallons. No pH testing or adjusting is ever needed when combined with RO water.

 

 

 

Took the first round of cuts Saturday night. Zkittles gets purple collars and Bandits get black collars.

These should take root and be ready for planting by next weekend then I'll take another round and another after that. I have some friends very interested in growing these strains so I'll set them up. After about a month of keeping the machine running and keeping the mamas happy it will all be shut down and the mothers sent to flower.

The Bandit mama may live on though. She's in an airpot because it's possible she could move south and be flowered later, planted in the ground later this year for a Fall harvest. The Zkittle mama will move to the other side of the room to be flowered

 

 

 

Clones can also benefit from excess CO2 like flowering plants. Sometimes rather than misting clones I'll breathe on them or like last night, invite the two CO2 generators in the room for a spell

 

[Bandit 4freekin20]

About 9 days into this project and some limits are being reached...mainly by way of excess heat taking it's toll on mamas and clones. IDK exactly how hot it gets but it's enough to give some heat stress to the plants. Mama plants are also getting a little too large and need more clones cut from them asap or just pruned back.

 

They spend almost every minute zipped up in the tent since I'm too nervous to leave the tent open. It's in a room full of flowering plants so if I forget to zip it up, the light will fuck up all the ladies in the room so the trade off is the clones and mamas are gonna get hot, simple as that.

The good thing though is I'm venting the tent into the room so when the lights are out on the flowering plants, they dont get too cold with the warm tent air filling the room.

 

 

I also dropped the new extraction fan onto the Zkittle mama and broke her in half but she's bounced back well.

After I take another round of cuts from her she'll be flowered out.

Her gimpy little sister in the pics above has come around and looks good enough to go to flower so she was moved over a few days ago

 

 

 

 

 

Clones are holding on the for the ride but I imagine temp swings and heat spells along with mamas shading them is'nt really ideal but seems to be working well for the most part.

 

Today I noticed some yellowing on a few clones which typically means there's roots looking for food so I lifted the lid to see if they had indeed  set roots

 

 

 

All things considering with heat and being stashed down in the bottom of the tent...not too bad at 9 days!

 

 

 

Looks like 100% will take root as all have various sized masses of roots forming  so this hasty mothership flight is working for now.

The Bandita clones' stems split which was weird...never seen that and could be another sign of being too hot and getting close to clone soup but even with the splitting they're setting some roots.

 

I'll give them 2 more days in the cloner and then they go to the next stage of root development....the airpot stage

 

 

 

[The Dude Abides]

Good stuff Bandit, I'm lovin these instalments, very informative amigo.

 

Your C02 generators don't look overly impressed though.

 

Looking forward to the air pot bit.

 

All good things

 TDA

[Doublej]

Splitting stems, yes very werid. They look to be playing the part tho, by looking at the ruts....
Well done brother

[Bandit 4freekin20]

Good stuff Bandit, I'm lovin these instalments, very informative amigo.

 

Your C02 generators don't look overly impressed though.

 

Looking forward to the air pot bit.

 

All good things

 TDA

 

Happy to read you liking these posts Dude! Thanks for the kind words.

.IDK about those two knuckleheads...They know where the warm spots are in the house that's for sure!

Gomez the stoner cat likes those ratchet rope hangers as play toys. Nothing like watching a cat run around with grow equipment hanging from his mouth.

 

And yeah those airpots really tie a grow room together

 

 

Splitting stems, yes very werid. They look to be playing the part tho, by looking at the ruts....
Well done brother

 

Yeah man check it out...it's like they came unzipped at the seams....

 

 

Ive had stems curl up due to heat or cold...cant remember which it is that makes them curl but it can happen and they kinda look like a pigtail.

 

I did a hasty interweb search and kept seeing writings of people splitting stems intentionally as some sort of special trick to get clones rooted faster but after a few sentences of reading I thought it was a waste of time and pointless info. My cuts with split stems and those without are taking root at the same time so in this instance I cannot say the split stems got them to root faster than those without split stems.

I'm just happy they're setting roots otherwise I might think the splits are a problem or a sign of a problem but as long as roots set, I'll chalk it up to one of those weird mysteries that comes up from time to time growing this goofy plant

[Doublej]

I've had cuts curl when left to long in cold water, must be the heat that splits them.
Pretty sure they'll be just fine, they have good looking ruts....

[Bandit 4freekin20]

At this point....It's a little like breeding rabbits...maybe baking cookies...that sorta thing

 

Once the first clones set roots it's like they emit hormones or auxins into the clone machine water and then everything starts taking off at a very rapid rate.

A fresh batch can then set roots in 4-7 days and each mama can produce 5-10 shoots ready for cloning in the same time span.

When it's humming well, the two mamas can produce 30-50 clones per month between them.

 

For this run the quotas have been met...a couple growers have been supplied with clones and now I'm left with the final cycle.

The 3rd cut session was just for me and since I pulled more than enough Bandit Breaths with the first two cycles the 3rd and final cycle is solely Zkittles clones for my own grow ops.

They'll be used to test a new light, test a new soil, and test my skills as a grower managing a crop of a rather finicky strain that seems to demand more attention than most strains.

 

The mamas have moved on...Zkittles mama is in my bloom space and the bandit breath has moved in with another grower where she'll supply many more clones for that grower and his 2019 outdoor project.

 

What's left in the tent are some Zkittles ready for planting, 2 Zkittles testing a new soil blend, and some left over bandits in the cloner which I've been thinking about leaving in and growing them out DWC but in a clone machine.

Only thing is I dont have any nutes suitable for DWC and there's nothing left in my grow budget to buy any so I've inquired to Botanicare and Veg + Bloom for some free samples. If one of them comes thru then I'll grow them DWC but if not I'll cancel the project and send them to compost.

 

 

life exceeding art

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

last call on the zkittles

 

 

 

 

After roots are set they get planted into airpots and innoculated with mycos.

They'll spend a day or two in this state of shock then begin to take off with veg growth. I hope to send them to flower no later than the end of the month. This last cycle being loaded with tiny slips might need an extra week of veg compared to the large clones taken in weeks prior.

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out this thread and I hope you enjoyed it!

I take a commercial style approach to cloning which anybody can do. What works for pros works great for personal growers as well and it's ez to adapt by condensing a commercial operation into a micro space, essentially creating a mini marijuana factory, taking 2 plants and turning them into a couple dozen in only a months time period.

 

Peace, Luv, and Happy Ganja Farming!