First grow: can I cut the top and root it?

I'm growing 3 mothers from seed in my closet, they've been under 4 2" T5 VHO Fluorescents which outputs 20k Lumen for about a month. I'm watering every 2 to 3 days using GH nutes @ 800ppm. Growing rate is around 1" per day and seems to be increasing. My environment is completely stable at 25°C - 45/50% humidity.


Critical Sensi Star, Critical Jack Herer, Northern Lights Blue, all from delicious seeds. this picture is almost two days old so they're all almost 2" taller, (5 1/2", 6 1/2", 7" )
You can follow the journal on this grow here: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/294150-delicious-seeds-nothern-lights-blue.html


Ok, so I read that Cannabis needs at least 2 months of vegging before you cant take clones from it, is that correct?. also read that topping could/should be done during veg in order to keep your plants short and bushy. I only need one clone out of each plant right now so I wonder if I could cut say half of the plant, root it, and then veg it for 2 - 3 weeks.

Shouldn't the clones be ready to flower by the same time I was supposed to be just taking them which is a month from now, thus avoiding the 2-week cloning downtime and another 2 - 3 weeks of vegging?

Would my mothers benefit from this practice?, There are branches growing out of every node in all the plants, especially NLB which now resembles a Christmas tree.

My main concern is if the plants are too young to handle the stress and in case the clone doesn't make it, I could end up empty handed. I'd also hate to hurt my growing rate when I worked so hard to get it to "normal".

Any advice is appreciated
Thank you

FuZZyBUDz said:

yea leave a couple fan leafes, and use sum cloning hormones, as long as u got a decent space to scrape and plant, your good. but arent u gunna mother them??

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By mother them you mean they should remain untouched until maturity?

btw what's exactly an alternating internode? and is that a sign of maturity?

An alternating node is when the stems no longer grow directly across from each other, they stagger. Yes it's a sign of maturity, aka ready to flower.

wrocks said:

An alternating node is when the stems no longer grow directly across from each other, they stagger. Yes it's a sign of maturity, aka ready to flower.

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I'm sorry but I don't really get it, I thought an alternating node was that 45° branch coming out of the nodes, but from what you say I'm guessing it's just a branch that breaks the plants symmetry, is it something like that?

masp84 said:

I'm sorry but I don't really get it, I thought an alternating node was that 45° branch coming out of the nodes, but from what you say I'm guessing it's just a branch that breaks the plants symmetry, is it something like that?

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Yes that's correct. And it is a sign of maturity. And BTW I take clones from 4 to 6 week old plants with 100% success. But if you're planning on topping your plants and rooting the tops, I would be concerned that your tops aren't quite big enough unless you planned on cutting farther down the plant. At least that's how it looks from your pics but I could be wrong.

I top my plants down to just above the second true node, when they are only four-five nodes high - no stress to the plant. So yours are big enough to top if you like, and you should be able to root the tops. If you're interested in more info on topping, check out Uncle Ben's topping thread, it's stickied in the Advanced section.

Nodes grow up in pairs, directly across from one another. When the plant reaches sexual maturity, the nodes begin to grow singly, on alternating sides of the stalk.

Thank you that answers a lot! I'll be doing so next week and let you know how it goes. Nevertheless what did Fuzzybudz meant with mother them?

Peace

I would lower your lights before you do anything. Those things are stretching big time for the light. Fluorescents can be placed about 2-3 inches from the plants without burning them. This makes much more light available to them and helps the light to penetrate a little deeper. Topping will definitely help you get a bushier mother but only if you lower the lights. Otherwise they are gonna stretch right back out and you are gonna end up with scraggely branches that you are trying to clone.

"mothering" simply means keeping a mother plant in permanant veg to take clones ( children if you like) off, its common practice for several reasons, like you need never buy seeds again, to flower a clone early to tell sex , to maintain thne same standard and strain of your weed etd etc , read up a bit in the FAQ section, most questions are answered there WoW

Mr. Na$ty said:

I would lower your lights before you do anything. Those things are stretching big time for the light. Fluorescents can be placed about 2-3 inches from the plants without burning them. This makes much more light available to them and helps the light to penetrate a little deeper. Topping will definitely help you get a bushier mother but only if you lower the lights. Otherwise they are gonna stretch right back out and you are gonna end up with scraggely branches that you are trying to clone.

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I was aiming for a little stretch, do you reckon they're over stretching?

I lowered my lights and I have 2 big 85W CFL I can place behind them to help lower branch and leaf grothw, temp would go up 2°C so it'd be 27-28°C.

What's the ideal space between nodes?

Peace

"mothering" simply means keeping a mother plant in permanant veg to take clones ( children if you like) off, its common practice for several reasons, like you need never buy seeds again, to flower a clone early to tell sex , to maintain thne same standard and strain of your weed etd etc , read up a bit in the FAQ section, most questions are answered there WoW

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Yes this plants are gonna stay under perpetual veg, btw I'm using 1 lt pots, should I transplant now or should I wait a little longer?

masp84 said:

Yes this plants are gonna stay under perpetual veg, btw I'm using 1 lt pots, should I transplant now or should I wait a little longer?

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wenevers clever

I looked at them again and saw the measurements this time. Your actually not doing too bad on the stretching. I would definitely throw those CFLs up as it will help produce stronger healthier branches for cloning much sooner. You just want to make sure you rotate your plants a 1/4 turn everyday if you are only gonna have them side lit in the back. It would be ideal to have it lit from both sides and still rotate them daily.

It might not be a bad idea to look at transplanting into a bigger container. If they are gonna be kept exclusively for mothers I would put them in at least a 5 gal otherwise you will just have to transplant once again causing more stress on the plant. If you want to check if it is ready to be transplanted go in the day after you water and firmly holding the stem between your fingers with your hand flat on the soil slowly flip the container over. If everything easily slips out in one neat piece with roots starting to grow around the outside and bottom of the container it is time to transplant.

dont cut tops if you wont a single cola not to mention lack of space cutting tops doubbles so it takes up more space and will branch out more if your using cfl add a few to the ones you cut top the side shoots let the main top grow

slingblade said:

dont cut tops if you wont a single cola not to mention lack of space cutting tops doubbles so it takes up more space and will branch out more if your using cfl add a few to the ones you cut top the side shoots let the main top grow

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I could always bonsai her and get clones in the process right? I'm transplanting today, and maybe topping within a week. I

I checked my soil today for moist and notice some of it is really compacted around the stem area, it's like a dirt stone or something like that. is that normal? It makes me wonder if water is really penetraring or just going through the sides directly to run off, though the slow growth?.

I already transplanted all 3 to 5gal pots, I think it went flawless because plants seemed even happier than before with no signs of stress. Meanwhile rockwool has been soaking in 5.7Ph'd wated for 18 hours now and I was getting ready to take cuttings, before I noticed some of the new growth leaves I was planing to clone yellowing at the edges and some spots in the middle. The things is I stopped feeding them nutes a week ago as I read you should do before cloning. But now I don't really know what to do. Any Advices appreciated.

Peace