Healthy Mother – Healthy Clone
The first step in getting healthy clones is to start with a healthy mother plant. Your plant should have strong growth, be free of pests or diseases and should not be displaying any symptoms of deficiencies or stress. Your mother plant should also be large enough to support taking cuttings from. This sounds obvious but you would be amazed at how many people kill their mother plant by over harvesting.
If the plant is a fresh seedling, give it time to develop so that there’s healthy side branches to cut from. Generally speaking, the best time to take a cutting is when the plants are actively growing.
Plant Life Tip – Spray your stock plants with seaweed and fulvic acid a few days before taking cuttings. This will prime the plant to hold on to nutrients longer, giving the cutting a better chance to survive in the fragile rooting environment.
Ensure Proper Moisture
The moisture content of your growth medium needs to be at the correct level. Over hydrated and you will develop mildew and rot, not enough and the plant starves. Moisture and humidity are key.
Wet media lowers the oxygen levels in the media, which usually leads to rotting stems. Two of the most common medias used in cloning are rockwool and starter plugs. Rockwool is preferred for hydroponics, but could be used in soil. Starter plugs can be used in both.
For preference, starter plugs have a greater capacity for aeration which means that the medium can breathe whilst retains the right amount of water. Rockwool needs to be properly prepared by soaking in a pH 5.5 solution of water and then squeezed out. If Rockwool is not prepared correctly it can cause problems such as mildew and rot.
Remember that you need air as well as water in the growth medium and saturation will push out all the air. With the starter plugs, give them a spray of water, but do not soak them other wise you will drive out all the air.