Planting clones

[dwyndorf]

Hello again,

 

My clones have been in an aero kit for about 3 months now, they are still looking good although a couple of them are showing preflowers under 18/6 light cycle. The roots on some of the clones are very long, should I cut the roots back before planting them into the net pots in my DWC setup?

 

Cheers

 

dwyndorf

[Luke Skywalker]

Yes. Aero roots, (if it's true aeroponics) are different structurally from Deep Water Culture roots, due to the environment they grow in. So trim back to the waterline at least, and provided they aren't too huge above the rootsystem they should go straight into the water and love it.

 

And you said you have had these clones in this system for three months vegging? That's a long time... Preflowers are a good sign, it means they're ready to bloom, it's when they start to streeeeeetch and bloom properly that you have to panic.

 

But yeah, sounds like you've had them under a fluoro? If you're moving up to a hps for the flowering I'd suggest taking it easy on the lighting for the first week in acclimatisation. But that's only going on what I'm assuming, and when we assume, we usually makes an ass out of u and me both.

 

*Goes away nattering and mulls up*

[F420]

Luke would cutting the roots cause the plant to drop leaves??

[Luke Skywalker]

Drop, well, it depends. It'd likely simply slump and have problems getting enough water to the plant, but that would likely only happen if the above ground part of the plant was substantially larger than the rootmass after the trimming.

 

Don't forget, stress can be quick or long term. Leaving aero roots to go into a DWC water system would only drown them, and you'd end up with dead, disease forming roots whilst it recovers, if ever. A prune can certainly help the plant to acclimatise quicker, but it's something that has to be done carefully, and with a bit of forethought.

 

Don't go mangling the roots with a pair of dirty scissors or pliers or something to start with, and you can certainly not do it at all if the plant is tiny and doesn't really need to be trimmed.

 

Hope that helps.