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Page 1 of 8 Pennies from heaven. Taking cuttings is a little like reaping natures legacy. Kept happy and healthy your pampered cannabis plants will supply you with an infinite amount of happy healthy cuttings. The thrifty gardener needs only buy one pack of seeds in his or her life, for an ever lasting supply for the flower room. But for some, the very thought of sitting and snipping bits off your plants is just to much to bear, if each and every cuttings run ends with a propagator full of dead plants. Red Dragon talks us through his favoured method, and explains why you should expect no less than 90% success rates when taking cannabis clones. 
Almost good enough to eat in a green salad
Propagation - Cuttings
I reckon this is without a doubt, one of the most talked about subjects on the cannabis cultivation message boards. 'How to' take cuttings. The fact of the matter is, there are no hard & fast rules and whichever method proves most comfortable (or should that read most successful), is clearly the right method for you. If you're new to the cannabis growing scene, perhaps you're not sure what method to use? I hope this walk-thru will give you an insight into the important factors to bear in mind when keeping plants without roots for any period of time. By adhering to a couple of scientific principles its possible to increase your success rates beyond all recognition. Lets jump right in.
 a place for everything and everything in its place.. Tools in hand
Before sitting down and actually cutting bits off your plants its worth taking a look at the tools needed to do the job, and gathering everything into one place so you can put your hands on it when you need it.
There's nothing worse than needing a dibber, or a blade, and you have to put everything down, stand up, go rummaging for whatever it is your looking for etc.. It can turn a half hour job into a 5 hour endurance event which loses the key element after too long..fun! You need some good sharp scissors, a scalpel or similar (available in 'glue-together' model shops or garden centres) and any other cutting implements you envisage needing, (nail clippers, bonsai shears etc). I use two pairs of scissors (one broad blade and one fine blade), a stanley knife and a potato peeler as well as assorted bits of 'dibbing' material like chopsticks and cocktail sticks. The medium you intend to plant the cuttings into, also needs preparing beforehand. If you use small pots of compost its quick and easy, but if you intend to plant into an inert medium like rockwool or coco, it may need 'pre-treating' beforehand, with a pH adjusted weak nutrient solution. By pre-treating the medium we actually 'set' the pH and EC within the cubes etc, prior to the plants being planted. In this instance I used rockwool 1 inch cubes, soaked for 24 hours in a 'formulex' nutrient solution with an EC (electrical conductivity) of 0.4, and a pH of 5.5. When everything is gathered to the work space, I can sit down, with a joint and a cup of coffee, to a therapeutic hour of taking cuttings. |
Growing Cannabis 
