@Jared they can struggle with to much light at the beginning stages, I picked up a cheap lux meter from amazon and there are some lux to ppfd calculators online so you can calculate a rough idea of how much energy you are giving your plants, I was having the same leaf curling (tacoing @Kronic 
) , once I figured out the right height for my lights the plants took off and look super happy!
5 Likes
Pictures of my first set of clones. They are looking way perkier since i hooked up tthe air bubbler a couple hours ago.
4 Likes
Hot glued a thin sheet of plastic to back of foam to stiffen it up some. The 1 in foam was a little too flexible for me floating on the water.
4 Likes
WHEn my clones get like that after rooting I like to pinch back the bigger sun leaves to promote new growth. Not all of them, but the 2 bigger ones near the soil for example. I like the idea of cal mag. But If cal mag doesn’t help,I then like to do a foliar feed with my spray bottle on mist mode. Side note: I find calmag deficiencies more a problem later when the big vegetative plants flip to bloom. Calmag away. If you are using new soil for your clones it should not be a problem. Unless your clones came from a mother all ready having calmag deficiency problems.
Don’t cringe, but the best thing to green and perk them up immediately is to foliar feed with ammonia. 
. Super diluted I put about a shot glass full in a standard lil mist bottle. It is a trick I learned from my mentor many years ago for killing powdery mildew on sun leaves. (You will never go back to milk or baking soda for PM problems. Fixes PM on pumpkins and cucumbers like a dream too. But enough of my tangent.). I noticed all my plants looked 3 shades greener the same day. It foliar feeds them nitrogen ( NH4+ reduces to NO3-) and they absorb it incredibly great that way. Especially clones trying to sprout more roots. Try it on only 1 if you don’t believe me. Here is the rules though:
-
Never mist them with ammonia in the sun outside or under high discharge light indoors. Mornings or evenings where there is no direct sun. They will burn ( just like neem oil or horticultural soap or spinosad). I do mist clones 2-3 times a day when needed under CLONER lights only. If you have strong lights on your clones dim them, raise them more, or just do it before or after on cycle. I use 13 watt 48” strip LED to clone now for example. Before I used a 48”. 2x 32watt T5HO.
-
Make sure the leaves have dried before you mist them again the same day. I usually do 3 mists per day while needed.
-
Minimize or kill fans for a couple hours. Ammonia reduces to nitrate in solution slower than it evaporates off as a gas. It would rather become a gas then reduce to nitrate while on the leaves in solution. It will evaporate away too fast under strong air flow and not be effective.
-
Only use on vegetative plants. Once they stack calyxes in bloom you don’t want to get ammonia on the buds. They don’t want nitrogen blast while blooming. It can slow flowering times by then.
That said, ammonia misting works faster for nitrogen deficient big plants than root feedings. (I guess I should say in my opinion…) Yellow leaves anybody? Not anymore. Adding nitrogen to the roots is still necessary for big veg plants or the plants will yellow again quickly. I mainly use this on clones but it has been a life saver when I get the occasional nitrogen hungry big beast in the raised bed. The other girls burn if you root feed to much N anywhere near the others.
- Lemon scented ammonia will do no harm. Many times that’s all I can find at retail stores. It was a big leap of faith to try the first time.
Please don’t think I am crazy. This works great. Best tip I have.
Thanks,
NoddyKitty near Seattle
5 Likes
@Noddykitty definitely will try that ammonia on a plant or two. I have plenty to work with now. How dose ammonia solve ph problems? Buy bypassing root systems? The clones all look good now. I am pretty sure i just messed up the ph the first week and kept making adjustments without givinfg things time to work. It got so stressful i just cut off all old leaves with any problems to make myself concentrate on the here and now. Worked just perfect for me as all the new growth is looking super healthy now and making baby clones.
2 Likes
That’s a great question to ask about pH. In my tip I am assuming that pH is already been checked and corrected if too high or low. I take it a little for granted around Seattle pH comes out of the tap slightly acidic and very low carbonate hardness. I never have to adjust it here. Your pH would definitely be one of the first things to check. Ideally before you pop seeds or cut clones. Also ammonia would make high pH problems worse. Ammonia is alkaline. That’s why it kills Powdery Mildew on leaves so well too.
3 Likes
Lol i was assuming ammonia was just a password for urine until Dwight said lemon scented would work.
2 Likes
The idea of the ammonia is not to adjust the PH. It is all about feeding. Misting the leaves lightly should very minimally effect PH and only be unhelpful if you are fighting high PH (resulting in nutrient lock) since ammonia is highly alkaline.
The idea is to feed the plants thru the leaves (N) before the roots can handle the job efficiently. If well fed (N) they can better handle MINOR ph problems, heat, light intensity issues… or worst case bugs.
I always mist my new clones with ammonia before they grow roots for the same reason. Hope that clears up why the ammonia is used.
4 Likes
Lol I have actually used urine too. Urine would work, but is harder to control the concentration. It tends to be stronger than retail store bought “cleaning ammonia”. Also if you are dehydrated or super hydrated it really varies. But mostly the urea really stinks up the place after use. Like worse than drying bud unless you are growing cat piss strains. Ha
I do use urine once they go outside. I float my compost (table scraps mostly) in 5 gal buckets in urine once they are full of compost. Piss until it’s to the lip. Soak a week and then dump in my compost tumblers. I did some experiments this past grow season using straight diluted urine and I was real impressed. I don’t have the technique refined enough to say much more yet. The results were good enough I won’t be mixing steer and chicken manure and worm and mushroom casting into my raised beds this year.
3 Likes
I am so glad to see I am not the only one. I use urine in my tea brew. I use it in my mulch pile. I use here and there and everywhere. (Guess Dr Seuss go in my head). I also check my ph and tds on it and water it down till I am satisfied. When used in small amounts, you do not get cat piss odor. Also first urine of the day is much different than any other urine.
2 Likes
I never thought to use the TDS meter. I use one in my planted Aquariums all the time. Thank you so much for the tip. I cannot believe I didn’t think of that.
I would say those look nice and happy. I liked the how you stiffened up the foam. Do the stems pass thru the hard back? Or just nestle in the foam?
I meant to mention to you and some of the others (@MDBuds, @DollarBill, @Mrb53004) to write a disclaimer on your posts like this. I appreciate your knowledge and think sometimes it’s lost on others to mind their manners and give credit where credit is due.
**Totally not calling anyone out, it’s something I’ve experienced in other places.
1 Like
It’s like they are waving. I love it!
1 Like
Very nice bounce back. They are looking good now! Good luck with them
I cut them long enough to hang in the water 1 inch or more. This is my first attempt at cloning in water but they seem to be liking it way better than using soil medium and i this way is zero maintenance. No misting or normal maintenance. I have a humidifier in the room set at 60% and temp is at 78. Litrly only have to check once a day.