Grafting Autoflowers onto a Non-auto base?

first off, check out the video below, its of a grafted mother plant, just watch...

[video=youtube;QGhWLaTopL4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhWLaTopL4[/video]

so my question is, do you think it would be possible to grow a base plant of a non auto flowering variety, preferably a big yielder, then graft autos onto it?

Here's where it gets interesting...because the base plant would be of the non auto-flowering variety keeping it in a 20/4 growth cycle would cause it to continually grow in a vegetative state, However the grafted on autos would complete their normal grow cycle veg/flower.

So do you think it would be possible? and if so, would it yield more (due to the large root mass of the base plant) and would it also be possible to use the same base plant for years, and get like 12 harvests of autos from the same base plant?

let me know what you think guys and gals...happy growing/smoking/general marijuana loving

Wow, i was just thinking of this type of thing(Grafting) and this just amazes me that it is actually possible.

As for the auto question. Though the video plant looks to be producing very well, i cant help but think that in the process of healing some of the passage for nutrients etc would be healed shut kinda restricting flow. The vid appears to say otherwise though.

Wow, this is an insanely great idea!!! Be honest, did you think of this while stoned? I hope somebody does this; this would be amazing if it works!!

Someone has gotta do this!

Hmmm.. this has gotta be too good to be true... so many different factors at play here how could anyone predict the outcome

TEST IT SOMEONE!!

well im thinking about doing it, especially if you guys think it could work! what mother base plant should i use, does anyone know of the highest yielding mainly indica hybrid to use as the base? i have some lsd fem seeds, and white widow clones but i dont think they're good enough for a base plant!

potpimp said:

Wow, this is an insanely great idea!!! Be honest, did you think of this while stoned? I hope somebody does this; this would be amazing if it works!!

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and yes...

i was stoned when this idea came into my head...

but thats all the time really so..

Wow Thats pretty crazy.Definately gotta try this.

It's a great question! I don't think you'll know for sure until you try it. I suppose it all depends on where the flowering hormones are produced.

White Widow sounds like it should make a decent root-stock. Just pick a really strong and healthy one. Initially, I would suggest using a scion that has a similar growth habit. IOW, an Indica on an Indica, or Sativa on a Sativa.

sk'mo said:

It's a great question! I don't think you'll know for sure until you try it. I suppose it all depends on where the flowering hormones are produced.

White Widow sounds like it should make a decent root-stock. Just pick a really strong and healthy one. Initially, I would suggest using a scion that has a similar growth habit. IOW, an Indica on an Indica, or Sativa on a Sativa.

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whats a scion dude?

ok just worked it out lol yea good idea thanks man, what if the base is a hybrid, that was say 60/40 Ind/Sat? should i try and match that with the auto too?

i have a lsd mother right now, shes 3 feet tall strong and healthy, i was thinking of getting some auto seeds and grafting an auto onto one of her middle nodes(about 1.5' up) wouldnt it be strange to have a veg plant with a big long bud sticking out the middle haha

Grafting is something I think a lot of people don't realize is HUGE and dates way back. Many fruits and ornamental plants are produced this way in nurseries, no seeds needed. I'm surprised this video is the first time I've actually seen it done with Cannabis, but I'm glad it's catching on. There are a few methods of grafting one plant onto another, and what they've done here is called a Whip Graft. Ever seen a Japanese Maple tree (has VERY MJ-shaped leaves) with both red and green foliage? That's because it's actually a cutting (or scion) of one plant grafted onto the rootbase of another (the stock), thus raising the value of these slow-growing trees. This type of grafting takes a lot of practice and a steady hand, but all you really need is a razor sharp blade (grafting knives are available), and what's called grafting tape. The goal of joining the scion to the stock is to maximize contact of each plant's Vascular Cambium with the other's. This is KEY to successful healing using this method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting

As for grafting a ruderalis species onto a sativa/indica species, I think it's a terrific idea, but when grafting you tend to have more success, the more closely-related your scion and stock are. So I would recommend starting off by picking your rootstock plant and going from there. Say if you wanted to use Blueberry as your rootstock plant, I would try a plant like Auto Blueberry to graft onto it first, just to get the technique down. Based on your success, you might go on to experiment with other, more diverse varieties and their compatability.

Since I have neither the space nor resources to try this, I can't wait for those of you who do to get to it and show us how it's done! One recommendation I would give before attempting a whip graft with Cannabis would be to FIM the branch of the stock plant that you intend on using as your base a couple weeks prior, just to get it lush and transport auxins (healing hormones) closer to the area you'll be cutting off. Happy grafting!

Honestly Dude, I've never grafted Cannabis, so I can't state anything for sure. Which is why I suggested using similar type plants. Just try to use similar sized stems so that the vascular tissues line up well enough to bond to eachother.

Sorry this doesn't really help. I think this will be a trial and error experiment. Maybe practice grafting some non-autos to get the technique down and then try the autos.

i bleed resin said:

Grafting is something I think a lot of people don't realize is HUGE and dates way back. Many fruits and ornamental plants are produced this way in nurseries, no seeds needed. I'm surprised this video is the first time I've actually seen it done with Cannabis, but I'm glad it's catching on. There are a few methods of grafting one plant onto another, and what they've done here is called a Whip Graft. Ever seen a Japanese Maple tree (has VERY MJ-shaped leaves) with both red and green foliage? That's because it's actually a cutting (or scion) of one plant grafted onto the rootbase of another (the stock), thus raising the value of these slow-growing trees. This type of grafting takes a lot of practice and a steady hand, but all you really need is a razor sharp blade (grafting knives are available), and what's called grafting tape. The goal of joining the scion to the stock is to maximize contact of each plant's Vascular Cambium with the other's. This is KEY to successful healing using this method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting

As for grafting a ruderalis species onto a sativa/indica species, I think it's a terrific idea, but when grafting you tend to have more success, the more closely-related your scion and stock are. So I would recommend starting off by picking your rootstock plant and going from there. Say if you wanted to use Blueberry as your rootstock plant, I would try a plant like Auto Blueberry to graft onto it first, just to get the technique down. Based on your success, you might go on to experiment with other, more diverse varieties and their compatability.

Since I have neither the space nor resources to try this, I can't wait for those of you who do to get to it and show us how it's done! One recommendation I would give before attempting a whip graft with Cannabis would be to FIM the branch of the stock plant that you intend on using as your base a couple weeks prior, just to get it lush and transport auxins (healing hormones) closer to the area you'll be cutting off. Happy grafting!

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^^^ What Resin said.

I think its a pretty good idea, but the things I would be worried about is stressing the auto. I dont think it will improve the yeild much if at all , butttttttt, it whould be a cool site to see, and a cool experiment at that. What do I know though I've never grafted a Marijuana plant of any sort. All in all, I would use a outdoor based plant with the ak-47 strain auto-flower to get the best yields. Good luck and make a journal cause THIS WILL BE very interesting and informational. Who knows you could have just thought of the greatest idea in the marijuana world!

JXChaos said:

I think its a pretty good idea, but the things I would be worried about is stressing the auto. I dont think it will improve the yeild much if at all , butttttttt, it whould be a cool site to see, and a cool experiment at that. What do I know though I've never grafted a Marijuana plant of any sort. All in all, I would use a outdoor based plant with the ak-47 strain auto-flower to get the best yields. Good luck and make a journal cause THIS WILL BE very interesting and informational. Who knows you could have just thought of the greatest idea in the marijuana world!

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I agree, there would seem to be a large stress risk to the autoflowering scion piece, and I think this is why it looks in the video to be a fairly small cutting. Hypothetically, if this works (I, for the record have tremendous faith that this can be done successfully), I think you would take the auto cutting when it's just vegged enough to be cut just above the base and let it do the last couple weeks of its vegetative growth on the stock plant, so that it is healthy and well-joined when it starts to flower.

All the infinite possibilities of ganja-grafting have my mind racing over how this may get down to a common, efficient practice. Like the guy on the video said, it's still just one plant, no matter how many grafts have been made. Just imagine a single monster rootstock plant directly under one light in your closet and being able to harvest different strains from it at different intervals!

mosh2metal said:

well im thinking about doing it, especially if you guys think it could work! what mother base plant should i use, does anyone know of the highest yielding mainly indica hybrid to use as the base? i have some lsd fem seeds, and white widow clones but i dont think they're good enough for a base plant!

Click to expand...

Other than supplying the graft with an established root system the graft itself will remain the same, it will retain it's same genetics and what it does will not in any way be altered by the plant it is grafted to. If someone had a plant to graft onto that produced ten pounds of herb the graft would not them produce like the plant it was grafted to. You may see some very slight increase but only because of the well established root system feeding the plant and graft, but it would not be major.

You also have to consider grafting plants with nutritional needs that are close enough so both the host plant and the graft will remain healthy. If the host plant, the one grafted to, is a heavy feeder and the graft is from a light feeding strain one or the other will suffer because you will be unable to feed both properly. The same applies to the reverse.

The best usage for grafting that I have thought up is if a medicinal grower and due to limits of numbers of plants you are unable to keep an adequate number of mother plants of different strains and still be able to have enough plants to flower you can, again if the nutritional needs are close enough, graft different plants/branches onto one or say two mothers. You could have one mother plant with two, three, four or more strains to clone from all on the same mother plant.

When you add a graft you hang a tag or a colored piece of yarn or colored plant tape on each new grafted branch so you can always identify it as the strain it is. You can turn one or two or three mothers into mothers of many different strains.

Other than to say time period does anyone here actually know what causes an auto-flowering plant to flower?

I just read this:

"Auto-Flowering Strains Another trend in southern Europe that varies significantly from other major grow centers is the marketability of auto-flowering strains. These are strains that require no “trigger” for flowering: They simply flower automatically whenever the plant senses that the time is right. This can be for a variety of reasons, including plant height, root-ball size or temperature change." "The big unknown that still remains in these new lines of marijuana is what is actually causing the flowering on a biological level? Is there an internal clock, a genetically predetermined number of cell divisions that must take place before the plant begins to put up buds? Another possibility is that once night-induced flowering hormone levels accumulate to certain levels within the plant it will begin to flower."


If what begins flowering is height the question is would that be based on actual growth height of the auto-flowering strain or would it sense the height of the plant it was grafted to, as in say by some internal timing device for moisture and nutrients to travel to the graft. If strictly by growth height then the graft should grow to normal size before flowering. If it went by some other sense of height it might begin to flower as soon as the graft healed, which would be sooner than desired.


If the root-ball is what is sensed then as soon as the graft healed then flowering would begin, and again that would be too soon to achieve any real production.



I can't believe it could be temperature change as the cause since auto-flowering strains are grown indoors in conditions were temperatures would seldom vary enough to begin flowering so I would have to believe that could safely be ruled out.


Something has to time them and they don't have calenders or watches.

In my experience with autos, stress makes them stop dead in their tracks from growing. I've had fully mature autos that were only 3 inches tall.

potpimp said:

In my experience with autos, stress makes them stop dead in their tracks from growing. I've had fully mature autos that were only 3 inches tall.

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I wouldn't know how they react to stresses. I have never grown one .... and I never will.

Can't say as I blame you; I fell for the hype. I am going to give the Iranian autos a shot since I've gotten good reports about them. They are 90 day autos rather than the typical 60 day ones. But I can't wait til spring to grow some monster trees here in sunny Cali!