Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

periods.
    Set up a vegetative pre-growing area that is lit with an HID or bright compact fluorescent lamp for the rooted clones. Place them in this area to let them grow the first week or two of vegetation. This area needs to be just big enough to accommodate plants from the time they are a few inches tall until they are about a foot tall and ready to be moved into the flowering room.
Air layering
    There is a good sequence of air layering in Marijuana Botany, by Robert C. Clarke. To date, I have never seen anybody use this technique. It is interesting, but normally not necessary. Cannabis is easy to root or clone.
Cloning for Sex
    Determine plant sex accurately, 100 percent of the time, by “cloning for sex.” To clone for sex, take two cuttings (in case one dies) from each parent plant in question. Use waterproof labels and an indelible marker to identify sets of clones and corresponding parents.
    Give rooting clones a 12-hour light/dark regimen. After a 12-hour day, set clones in a dark closet, or place a box over them. The dark period must be total and uninterrupted to induce flowering. Clones usually show sex within two weeks. Cull out all males except those used for breeding. Flower little females, and keep their mothers growing under 18-24 hours of light.
    Growers with only one room root clones in a nursery flat, and cover it with a light-tight cardboard box for 12 hours every night. Remove the cardboard box after the lights go out to increase air circulation and ventilation.
Clones from a Flowering Female
    You can clone a favorite flowering plant, but it is difficult. Clones take longer to root, and results are not always the best. Powerful flowering hormones must be reversed, and rooting hormone signals must be sent. Now is the time to give plants 24 hours of light to signal them to grow.
    Cut clones from the lower green branch tips. Cut a one to two-inch-long (3-5 cm) stem. Trim off flowers and lower leaves. Keep two or three green leaves. If leaves have yellowed, survival chances diminish exponentially.

You can take clones from flowering plants and revert them to vegetative growth once rooted.
    The earlier in the flowering stage cuttings are taken, the more rapid the rooting and the re-vegetation rate. Once a plant reaches the senescence point, growth hormones have dissipated, leaving not enough to initiate roots.
Storing Clones
    To store cuttings for later use, wrap recently cut and trimmed stems in a damp cloth or paper towel. Put the wrapped clones into a plastic bag, and store in the refrigerator. On a daily basis, remove the water that condenses inside the bag in the cool refrigerator. Keep the temperature above 40°F (5°C). Temperatures below this level may cause plant cells to rupture. Cuttings should last in the refrigerator for about three weeks.
    Clonex Root Matrix, a Growth Technology product, is a gel that allows cut clones to root and be held until they are needed.
     
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Transplanting

Mix the clone dip, and use a rag to cover and contain soil when dipping.

Submerge the entire clone in the dip to ensure miticide covers all foliage.

Remove the clone, and shake off excess dip before transplanting.
    Dip rooted clones into a miticidal/fungicidal solution before transplanting and before moving into the flowering room.
    Mix a miticidal/fungicidal dip (I like Einstein Oil) to disinfect clones before sticking them in the growing medium. Fill a container with low pH water (5-6) and add a natural fungicide such as hydrogen peroxide in a two percent solution. Or include a ten percent mix of chlorine or vinegar. Do not mix vinegar and chlorine! The resulting gas is hazardous. See “Transplanting.”
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Transplanting
    When plants are too big for their containers, they must be transplanted to continue rapid growth. Inhibited, cramped root systems grow sickly, stunted plants. Signs of root bound plants include slow, sickly growth and branches that develop with more distance between limbs. Severely root-bound plants tend to grow straight up with few branches that stretch beyond the sides of the pot. To check for root-bound symptoms, remove a plant from its pot to see if roots are deeply matted on the bottom or surrounding the sides of the pot.
    When growing short plants that reach full maturity in 90 days, there is little need for containers larger than three gallons (11 L). Large mother plants will need a large pot if they are kept for more than a few months.

In this container, roots are