OMEYEGOD - 4 Cuttings

[omeyegod]

Strain: Unknown
Lighting: Natural
Grow Media/Soil Mix: Water/Perlite
Fertilizer: None
Temperature Range: 67 -75
Humidity: ~50% ambient
Started From: Unrooted Clone
Start Date: 7/28/08

Other Details/Images:

Well I jumped on the 2 for one deal but when I opened the box today there were 4 unrooted cuttings. They actually spent a few extra days with the USPS but looked quite healthy. They already had some roots started. I left the rootlets on 2 cuttings where the rooting stem was a good green color. Two had roots coming from black stems which i cut off, dipping the fresh cutting in Shultz Take Root (indole-3-butyric acid .1%).

Following the very clear instructions emailled when the order shipped, I punched some holes in cups and holding the cutting off the bottom added perlite almost up to the top. These I placed in containers of water halfway up the rooting cup.


I'm heading off to a 5 day music fest in a day so the plan is to use the 2 liter humidity tent and hope for the best. Will this idea work?  Comments welcome.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Good luck on the grow. I don't have much experience with unrooted cuttings yet, but 5 days seems like it might be good to just let them sit and adjust to their new surroundings to get some roots growing. And yes, I would use a 2 Liter but leave the cap off for air exchange.

JARG

[omeyegod]

Day 11 Unrooted cuttings in perlite

When I returned from a 5 day music festival, I found 3 of the 4 cuttings with new growth and looking quite healthy. The 4th cutting was turning black and shriveled. Examining this cutting showed a dozen or so good new 1/2" white roots. I replaced the cutting in the perlite a bit higher so the bottom node was exposed. Hopefully we'll see some budding there soon.

I left the 4 cuttings with  2 liter bottle tents with the caps off. they were sprayed twice a day.   
   
 
Happy Babies


Poor Baby

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

You might want to cut off that black stem area just above the green section so it doesn't start to rot and attract mold. Looking good and glad to hear they made it the 5 days without you.

JARG

[omeyegod]

4 Cuttings - Day 16 --- NO ROOTS!!!

Cuttings have been in water/perlite for over 2 weeks now so I prepared some pots for planting. Much to my surprise. the cuttings had no roots. YIKES!!  My theory is not enough light, and not enough fresh water.

Here's what I'm trying:

 I added a 75W GE Plant Grow-N-Sho lamp at about 2 feet from the family. Previously they had one 60 watt CF at about 2 feet. 

I also opened up some holes just above the bottom of the red drink cups. I first set them up with only holes on the bottom. When I placed them in their water containers, of course the holes were blocked. DUH!

I had been changing the water (distilled) every few days. I'm going to use Britta filtered well water changed daily, allowing the plant cups to drain. This may bring some more O2 and trace minerals to the stem.

Unexpected Additions
When My cuttings first arrived, I had cut the bottoms of two of them that had roots starting from brown stems.  I stuck the cutoffs into shot glasses with water and forgot about them. They're GROWING!  Thought I'd try soil since they already had roots.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

omeygod, you might want to try adding an air stone to the plants if they are still in perlite to get them to root. It made a world of difference for me in getting my clones to take root. I couldn't get them to grow roots just leaving them in standing water. But as soon as I added an air stone under them they grew roots in just a couple days. I made an article on how to make a cheap one from some 2 liter bottles.

http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=2338

JARG

[omeyegod]

....... you might want to try adding an air stone to the plants if they are still in perlite to get them to root.
http://www.salviasource.org/forum/index.php?topic=2338

JARG

Thanks JARG ! I took your advice and now have two of my iffy cuttings on life support.

The one on the left, my newest clone, is the result of a cat incident. I had em on the windowsill getting some late afternoon sun (see photo above) and one of my fluffy-tailed cats perched on the back of the chair and whacked the top of my tallest cutting off with her tail. The stalk is re-sprouting tiny leaves.

The one on the right has just been getting droopier by the day so I'm hoping the extra  O2 bubbling through the perlite will turn her around.

[omeyegod]

News Flash - Overnight the droopy baby perked right up. The bubbler was the only factor that changed as I had been draining and replacing the water previously and had the extra light for a day or so.  Thanks JARG! I will be bubbling the other clones too.


24 hrs later!!! 

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

I am very glad I could be of help.

JARG

[omeyegod]

I got back from 10 days at Burning Man to find my babies had done very well without me ;-) I left them fully tented and watered with instructions to air out the tents (2 ltr bottles) daily.



Original cutting in the soil for 12 days


The piece my cat broke off. See stem below for the rest of the cutting.


One of the pieces cut from the brown bottom of a cutting.


The other cutoff


The stem my cat decapitated is now in the bubbles

The cutting that was browning from the top down browned all the way down despite cutting the brown off a few times.

The droopy one re-drooped in the bubbler, turned translucent and lost her leaves. R.I.P.

Everyone looks pretty stable now. Need to acclimate them to lower humidity now.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Looking good and doing well. I like how you can see all the little white hairs coming off the top of the leaves in the third picture from the top. All those extra roots above the soil are from the high humidity.

JARG

[black8teen]

So you received 4 in the mail, but with all the cuttings and breaks how many did you end up with surviving?


It sounded like you had 6 live plants now which is pretty cool.

[omeyegod]

Nope. I now have 5.  I made two more by cutting off the brown bottoms. My cat made 1 by whacking the top off one.

Would have been 7 but two of the original 4 didn't make it. 

[black8teen]

So do you have some new pictures to show us how your plants are all doing? 5 plants is a lot to get all at once.

[omeyegod]

Week 8 -
Unrooted cuttings
Blosser
Humidity: 50%
Soil Ph 7.0
Light 3hrs natural indirect am
13 hrs 24W CF

My poor baby (above), that's the one my cat decapitated, after 2 weeks in the bubbler had still not sprouted any roots. The stem was turning brown from the bottom up and the tiny leaves were not growing. I cut off the brown and laid it down in a pot almost covered with soil. We'll see how that idea works out. Constant Humidity Tent.


The Cutoffs: 
This one got it's new stem knocked off by me and the pepsi bottle tent. It took me a few days to find it and it had started growing ROOTS just laying on the soil! I planted it and here it is with the parent cutoff in the background.


The other cutoff seems to be doing fine. You can see the old brown square stem at the bottom of the pic.


The two unrooted cuttings that have had no trauma other than a ride in the mail truck:



I learned from the grower that they are indeed Blosser strains.  I have weaned them from the humidity tents and the seem to be acclimating.  All comments welcome...