Operation Clone

[silvester growdrobe]

I'm rooting for ya man. Get it? Rooting for ya?...

 

I'll see my self out..

[Wacky Wardrobe]

4 hours ago, Crow River said:

I noticed the tips of a couple of leaves were starting to die off, going a dark colour. I thought maybe the humidity was too much in there, not enough air exchange.

I think you want the humidity at this early stage.

There's a lot of leaf surface area left on that cut and no root system yet to pump water into them.

I'd have trimmed some of that back to reduce transpiration personally.

Maybe snip off those two big leaves.

 

My fridge cut had large droopy leaves which I trimmed when I potted it. They continued to look droopy so i snipped them off. There's enough newer growth to get them going.

Both of mine are looking nice and perky so far with the propagator sealed and gently heated with a heat mat set to about 5 watts keeping it about 25c.

I'm moving them around to get good ambient light by day with a bit of domestic LED at night.

 

Good luck with Long Shot Linda!

:-)

[Crow River]

2 minutes ago, silvester growdrobe said:

I'm rooting for ya man. Get it? Rooting for ya?...

 

I'll see my self out..

 

Don't root for me, but for the wee cutting.

 

[Crow River]

@Wacky Wardrobe, thanks for the tips. I did put the cover back on a while ago, just thought the wee girl might need some fresh air.

 

I read mixed information about removing leaves. I did remove some lower leaves to get a node to root, but saw some growers don't do any more pruning, while others get rid of most. 

 

I read somewhere that the bigger leaves might be cannibalised by the plant to keep itself alive while rooting? Maybe this is what is going on. It does look as though there is some new growth there on the shoots. Question is whether this is cannibalism or some baby roots feeding the growth...

 

If I cut those big leaves off, won't it create a shock that the wee girl may not appreciate at this stage?

[Crow River]

Okay, so taking note of advice from @Wacky Wardrobe, and reading a bit more into cloning, I've tried to cut down transpiraion by trimming the fan leaves, rather than removing completely. With sterile scissors I removed any dead or dying tips, and chopped each finger of the bigger leaves to between 2/3 and 1/3 its original length. Hopefully this will allow the wee girl to devote more resources to growing roots...

[Wacky Wardrobe]

1 hour ago, Crow River said:

If I cut those big leaves off, won't it create a shock that the wee girl may not appreciate at this stage?

I think the excess transpiring leafage puts a strain on the internal irrigation system.

I've often felt that if they don't remain turgid they aren't sustaining themselves adequately.

In the past I've gradually introduced ventilation later on and observed if they start to wilt as the humidity reduces.

 

 

Just now, Crow River said:

cut down transpiraion by trimming the fan leaves

That's the ticket.

[Crow River]

Day 7 of this little experiment.

 

Observations are that the big fan leaves are yellowing at the edges and dying off. However the central top, and next node down, appear to be much healthier than a few days ago. Leaves are turgid, next node down they are starting to turn towards the light, and I may be mistaken but I think I detect some signs of new growth at the top. 

 

Anyway she's still alive, so will wait to see better signs of activity over the next few days.

 

[brock1]

Auto's can be cloned just fine. You should end up with a auto smaller than the parent. I often see people do auto cloning to create S1 seeds as the clone flowers later than the auto mother. Looking forward to seeing this one grow. 

[Crow River]

Yesterday I removed the large fan leaves completely. They were basically dead anyway so no big loss. If anything the wee girl seems more vigorous now. While inspecting her today, I noticed something I hadn't really seen before - small leaves growing at the second node down.

 

She's at Day 9 now since being placed in the soil. I reckon she has put down roots and is nearly ready to veg. I will start getting the small tent ready and have a think about when to transplant into her final pot. I'm tempted to go for 11-12 litres of soil, to give her the best possible chance of getting as big as she can manage. I have another washing up bowl and will put some drainage holes into it in preparation.

 

Finally I've changed my mind about the choice of grow light. The modular COB light is good, but given the lack of any dimmer and restricted headroom (tent only 100cm tall) adjusting height fully could be tricky. Anyone who's been following my posts on here will know I like cheap grow lights. I spotted a ridiculously inexpensive small grow light on Amazing, and it arrived today. It's a hybrid COB/blurple thing, draws 111w at the wall on full power. However it is fully dimmable - actually has two dimmers, one for 'veg' (blue LEDs and COB light) and one for 'bloom' (red LEDs). Seems a perfect option for a very small tent, as there's little need to adjust lamp height. So I'll be giving it a try. 

 

Some pics of the wee lass below. Hopefully you can make out the new leaves below the top.

 

[Crow River]

Day 10. Removed the propagator cover for most of this afternoon to see how this girl would get on in a less humid atmosphere. No signs of drooping, which is positive. Have popped cover back on for overnight, will take it off again tomorrow.

 

I'll give her another four days or so of similar treatment to harden off a little. Then if all's well I'll think about placing in final pot in the tent for veg.

[Crow River]

Day 11. Getting slightly concerned that the smaller set of fan leaves is slowly dying off, in the same way the larger set did before I removed. No wilting from the central set of small leaves, but most have yellow/brown tips. I hope this wee girl is going to make it...

[Crow River]

Day 12.

 

The Big Yield Auto cutting is still alive. Just.

That's about the best I can say at the moment. She's not looking very healthy. The fan leaves continue to yellow, and the top leaves are starting to yellow a bit too. Looks almost like light bleaching, but I'm assuming it's a nutrient deficiency which means the leaves are becoming unsustainable. Something's wrong, and there's not much to be done about it. Maybe the wee girl will pull through, maybe she won't. I've misted the leaves in the hope this might help a bit.

 

[Crow River]

I was thinking to rename this thread Operation Slow Death. But perhaps I did not have enough faith in this wee girl.

 

I compared recent photos with ones from ten days ago, and it’ appears the top leaves have actually grown a little bit. Which might indicate she has rooted successfully. There are definitely major issues, looks like a deficiency or maybe nutrient lockout. This could be due to the liquid seaweed, but also maybe environmental factors including possibly too much light. I’m letting her have a natural dark period now, and will see how she gets on. Not calling it a day just yet.

 

[Oldman2.0]

@Crow River Defo an improvement since the 31st of May, kinda like horse racing, i'd say there's a few of us willing this one along, persistence is a virtue 

[Crow River]

Well as the saying goes, what a difference a day makes.

 

Some 40 hours after the last photos were taken and this wee girl has perked up considerably. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she looks like a plant that is growing, and fast.  Yellowing of the leaves seems to be receding and they're getting a more normal colour. Maybe she didn't like 24 hour light, and wanted a wee sleep for a few hours a day, that might have been all she needed to consolidate her roots a bit. Even the yellowed fan leaves are looking healthier. Remarkable really.

 

So I'll need to get the wee tent sorted out, ready for her to be transplanted in a couple of days' time...