rockclimber

"Fan leaves on clones should have their blades cut in half, to make the clone grow slowly while a root system develops" (Weezil, 03.12.2002)

In reality how many people on this board have used this technique? I would think that this would be detrimental to a young clone rather than benefiting it

St0ney

When I first started to clone, I was told (not here ) that it was to help stop wilting of the clone.. Something about less evaporation area or something like that..

I have since stopped this practice because I have found it of no use in my hydro. I don't really have any problem with wilting or dehydration... But it could just be me.

Later,

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3hounds

It is common practice to remove a percentage of the foliage when transplanting........ leaves transpire moisture, and when roots are torn, they cannot uptake enough moisture to keep up with the leaves. Any time you root prune (whether for transplantation, preparation to transplant in the future, revitilization, or to encourage growth) an equal percentage of foliage is generally removed. This is why you see truckloads of totally denuded palm trees on the Interstate.... they lose no moisture because the leaves have all been removed, and are thus able to recover more quickly when they are planted.
A clone with no roots faces an even tougher challenge.... keep the foliage alive with no roots at all. We keep them shaded (to reduce transpiration), humid (to reduce transpiration), and if need be, remove as much of the leaf area as possible. If the plant has less green to support, it can work harder on putting out those roots.
With MJ I cut clone leaves only when the piece I've cut has a very large leaf area.

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HydroSan

This is common practice amongst "normal?"gardeners, the easiest way to demonstrate to yourself what size clone needs trimming is to take various sizes of clone and see which ones get leaf damage on the ends, bigger clones can't sustain all the leaf area without absolutly perfect conditions.

San

weezil

Indeed, I intended that procedure for reduction of transpiration while the cuttings are setting root. It's not at all essential, but it's helpful when you can't lower your ambient temps to an acceptable (28C) level.

If you have wilting problems with your clones related to temp/humidity, it's of course smarter to fix the environment, but if you can't, lopping the fan blades will help slow the transpiration until the roots form.

The drawback is that fans are building-block factories and they will have to be regenerated later once there is a root system.

good luck,

-weez

weedchiller

<bigger clones can't sustain all the leaf area without absolutly perfect conditions. >
Any consensus on what these perfect conditions are?

HydroSan

Hi weedchiller,

*sticks neck out* 72 deg F with a fogger blowing on it for 80% humidity, with a sterile environment to avoid mold. keep it out of direct sunlight or under flouros.

San

weedchiller

I'm terrible at cloning, even the new aerocloner hasn't produced roots yet, after 9 days. Lazy gardening might suit plants, but not so cuttings, it seems.
I've got one more go at it before I flower my one and only in time to catch Father Christmas.

HydroSan

My cloning success went up tremendously when I got a scalpel used only for cloning, and brought everthing to the kitchen table where all my equipment, seed trays, humidity cover, skewer used as a dibber etc is sterilised with bleach and washed off before hand.

Potential clones are cut very long from the motherplant and put straight into a bucket (pre sterilised) of plain water then removed to the kitchen for the final cut with the scalpel. I also started pouring some gel hormone out of the bottle and dipping clones in that rather than contaminating the gel as I was before

My early "hit and miss" attempts had failures due to a less than clean workspace It's rare I get a failure these days, I supose the clone box helped too

San

JoseHempSeed

when i started the same technique, my clonong success rate went up 100%. olivia's can grow roots on rocks (well so it seems) i don't do the whole-setup sterilization, though - just start with a new razor blade each time.