Autoflower Clone

[Serapium]

About 4 weeks into a grow cycle I was doing some LST on an autoflower. It had already started flowering, but only by a few days. I accidentally broke off a branch while doing the LST. I'd heard time and again that there's no use to cloning an auto because there won't be enough time left in its life cycle for it to really produce anything.

Having never tried it myself, I thought I'd stick it in my cloner (aeroponic) and see what happened. This is the end result. The plant is now larger and has more buds than the original donor plant, which was harvested last week.

[Toker1]

Interesting! Did it stay in the aero system through out the entire grow? Or did you transfer it after it rooted?

[Toker1]

Yeah. That makes sense. It outpaced the other because the roots had more ability to gain access to nutrients and oxygen in that system.
Is the the king cloner? I think I have that exact same one.

[Serapium]

Toker1 it's a Clone King 36 according to the manual. Had to go look it up because I honestly didn't rmemeber!

[Toker1]

Lol. Nice I have the 25 site. Same manufacturer.

[starramus]

Wow another myth buster! I remember DrPhoton doing a lot of myth busting which made him unpopular with a few people. "No more traditions chains shall bind us!"

[starramus]

I am subscribed. I want to see how this develops. Maybe you should do a grow journal. Any previous pics as it developed?

[Serapium]

starramus I do have some somewhere. I'll see if I can dig them up. Pretty late for me to start a grow journal, I'll be cutting it pretty soon as it's gone cloudy in the trichs.

[Serapium]

starramus If I'd known what it was going to do I'd have documented it better. Based on everything I'd been told I fully expected it to stop growing and just flower out as a tiny stub, if it lived at all. I have started another round of some autos in addition to my ongoing pheno hunt, so I'm going to try and duplicate these results with one of the new plants. I'll add details to this thread as I continue the experiment.

[starramus]

I have a couple of GG4 Autos into bloom, and I am going to sacrifice a branch and maybe double my flower. I have a Clone King 36 as well, and will duplicate your procedure exactly. I cloned a White Russian 9 weeks into flower with my Clone King.

[starramus]

I am over 2 weeks into flower so have chickened out on a large branch. I did cut a little budless sprig from the bottom of the plant, and will bet on that, but only with a Rapid Rooter. I am not going to set up the cloner for one little sprig. Will see what develops if anything. Serapium I wish you had posted your thread a couple of weeks ago.

[Serapium]

starramus, the sprig I put in the cloner was about 4 inches long when it went in, and came from the bottom of the plant.

[abadtrip]

Yes I have found autos are not realy autos at all and u can veg them out and control when they flower so if u can veg an auto why can't u clone an auto nice work mate

[uncledoug]

Never heard that before, "Auto are not really autos" how do you control flowering? abadtrip

[Juicyj89]

Prove it...💁♂️

[Serapium]

As soon as I pull this one I'll repeat the process and document everything I do. We'll see if I can replicate the results.

[Rwise]

I dont see how one would control them,, I am no expert, these are my first autos,,, but what I do see is they can be slowed down with stress (such as not watering often enuf). And clones, it seems their timer is on hold until they start growing so would only be behind the mother by that delay time.

[starramus]

Serapium My little sprig is tilting up her head for some of that glorious light. Not looking very prospective, but I am waiting for the miracle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1EDKvXRKd0

[Serapium]

starramus when I put my little branch in the cloner it wilted and laid down for about two days. Then as soon as it started standing back up it was off to the races.

[starramus]

My sprig a bit smaller than yours of course following the norm, and laying down. However she's tasting the CMH, and striving for more. Will be great if she makes it. A race between root development, and leaf death. Come on roots! Thanks for the encouragement.

[Archaic]

I've cloned autos before when I was growing out males for a seed run. That way I can keep the main plant in a pollen free environment. The clones stayed pretty small, but even a small bud will make a lot of seeds.

I've never tried to produce mass from a clone, but it could probably be done in something like a SOG.

[starramus]

Wonderful another myth buster! Where did you get the male autos? I had a couple, but tossed them out. No way in hell to tell what strain they were.

[Archaic]

Normally I get them from the Autoflower Portal, but there are several breeders that sell auto-regs. Short Stuff, Top-Tao, etc. The genetics from the Portal are really strong, easily in the league with Mephisto. Even the feminized autos I buy I've started crossing with a male, then back crossing so that I'll have regs of everything I grow. I could reverse my females I guess, but I'm lazy and can't be bothered. Once I got to the point where I now have 1,000s of seeds - I'm not too worried about males anyway. I'll pop 6 seeds even if I only intend on growing out one female plant.

[Serapium]

Update on the autoflower clone. Got cut today, total plant weight (wet, whole plant hang dry) was 688 grams. I'll update again when dry and cured for final dry weight. In the meantime I'm going to reset this experiment and document it fully this time now that I kkown it can be done. Here's some pics of the finished plant.

[Serapium]

Ok, here goes round 2 of this experiment. The large plant in the pics is the donor. It's a Pineapple Express autoflower from Fast Buds, in living soil, on day 106. I cut two small shoots from the lower part of the plant, and tried three different techniques in terms of prepping them for the aeroponic cloner. Ended up with the three cuttings pictured. Nothing fancy, just snipped with scissors and dipped in clonex. I let the clonex sink in for about 5 minutes before putting them in the neoprene inserts. Cloner has a 1/4 strength mix of GH nutes mixed per the veg ratios on the bottle, RO water with a splash of calmag and Hydroguard. Now we wait

[Serapium]

Here is the end result from the first cloned autoflower. Total dry weight after dry and cure (cure not quite done but close) was 89.4 grams.

[Rwise]

Nice! How long before you see roots on the clones? I have taken the top from a Sweettooth and put it in a Pscycloner. About 20 hours now and no wilt, water only (this time). This, as the last is to make seed. The Headbanger made far less seed than I expected, only 10 or so seed from the clone. I got more from the bud I hit,,,

[Rwise]

How are the clones doing? I just went to soil with mine!

[Serapium]

Unfortunately they all died Got some sort of bacterial infestation in the clonwr despite using Hydroguard.

[Toker1]

Hydro guard is a bacteria made to inhabit the root zone. Does nothing for clones that have no roots yet. In fact, I would imagine hydro guard slowing down the cloning process.
Most likely your water temps were too high. That’s my guess.