Test: Rescuing genetics via cloning

Good news* everyone, (*good news may vary) I have reason to assume that my wife's royal domina has caught some tobacco mosaic virus. The plant as a whole is doomed, if my assumption is right. There is no cure for the virus, but there is still hope, if we can obtain a small part of the plant, that is not already infected, we might be able to clone it and save the genetics. This should be a lot easier using tissue culture, I don't have the equipment and I always wanted to try cloning a cannabis plant. I would do more clones, just to increase my chances of success, but here in Germany we are legally capped to three plants per person and I planning a selection program for a very interesting mother plant #spoileralert stay tuned. So here we are. I chose a healthy looking part of the plant, removed most of the foliage using a fresh razor blade, then I proceed to taking the cutting and preparing it for cloning. I scraped of the outer layer of the branch and split it right down the middle, all using the same razor blade. The cutting got dipped in my very old batch of clonex prior to being planted in about 4 cm of fresh seramis. The mesh pot got placed in a pot with tap water and a bubbler. I am using my old 60x60x180 cm "Celsius" branded grow tent I bought years ago of Amazon. I am using a mars hydro TS 1000 lamp at 25 % intensity at 50 cm distance to the plant. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected.

Hello everyone, sorry for the late update, not a lot happened, her old leafs did spread a lot and started to yellow a bit so I did grant her a haircut. There is a bit of salt buildup on top of the seramis, but that is to be expected, this substrate comes pre fertilized and my DIY cloner has a bit of evaporation. I am quite positive she did root, now it's time to wait and see if she's healthy. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected.

Well hello there, I am fighting the urge to dig for roots, why am I so curious? Ok other than that, I think I should reduce the lighting to 18/6, there is no need to rush her, as long as she's not stretching for light. There is a little bit of yellowing at the edge of her leafs, maybe I should give her more than tap water, as dar as k know seramis is prefertilized with PK only so maybe she's just demanding some delicious N. Said and done 👍 Her mother got a final haircut, she's looking like a hollowed out Christmas tree, I am impressed how much phosphorus she's demanding, even though she didn't start flowering yet, but hey anything that makes her happy. 31.08. Even though it looks like nothing is changing, if we look closer, we can notice her leafs spreading. 01.09. Today was the first day we had some condensation on the main leaf so I decided to remove the humidity dome. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Welcome everyone, it's week 4, still no major growth, this is good, for a) it did not die (yet) and b) I want to be sure that the plant is not infected with any virus. The slower the growth, the faster a theoretically present virus will take over and thus be easier to notice. 06.09. Talking about noticing a virus I am afraid, I might be onto something. Or I am just a bad plant parent, will change the fertilizer solution, and I'll add some Calmag. I will remove all dubious leafs with a fresh razor blade and then we will wait. Said and done, I hope it is just a nutrient deficiency. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Well, hello there, did not find a lot of time to care vor the plant, life is stressful. Enough whining, at first glance she did recover well from being defoliated, new leafs did look a bit pale, more on that later. The roots are still not showing on the underside of the pot. Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Yay for me, the cloning progress is finally and officially over. Yes I could have done it faster, but I wanted to be sure I wasn't dealing with an phyto pathogen. That being said, the yellowing of the leafs last week was a pH shift to over 7.5 and most of the deformed leafs could be linked to a Calmag deficiency. There is still something that I can not pinpoint, but her mother is flowering beautiful and her leafs are 99ish % fine, I would imagine a virus to take over the whole plant. That did not happen, instead I think I have a very sensitive phenotype that did just try to communicate her needs to me. I did even slow down to clones growth as much as I dared and even the clone looks okish. I won't trust this particular plant for my mother of all plants project, so I will probably repot and train her to send her into flower. I did increase the light intensity to 50 %, let's see how she will take it, as it is an increase by 100 % This is going to be a first one, as I read somewhere that clones do react differently to toping and fiming than "normal" plants that have been grown from seed. Week 6 recap: Cloning is finally done 👍 Light intensity increased 25% - 50% Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Here we go, experience has been gathered, as soon as I turned up the light to 100 % the root growth just took off, pH drifted, leafs suffered, but after all she got a new pot. Of cause this wasn't a strictly new pot, this one I grew a Dr choice #1 in it and I did thoroughly flush the substrate prior to harvesting, this is the biggest mistake I did this week, because I did forget to rebuffer the coco and it will show next week. Lamp is now at 100% at 25 cm from the plant. This might also have been too close. Week 7 recap: Light up to 100 %, root growth did escalate, repotted to 13 l Week 6 recap: Cloning is finally done 👍 Light intensity increased 25% - 50% Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Hello, remember last weeks "experience earned" ? Well here are the consequences, I did not rebuffer the soil and now our plant does suffer from a huuuuuge calmag deficiency. But thats no biggie, she's a photoperiod plant, she will recover just fine. I added bonus Plagroon Calmag Pro, siphoned off the reservoir and flushed the soil. I am quite sure this will be sufficient, if I just keep the high dose of Calmag for the next few weeks, we will see. Interesting is the way her branches form, this is the first time I did grow a clone and I realized, that unlike seed grown plants, my clone does not form pairs at the nodes and instead have branches on alternating sides of every other node. Week 8 recap: started training, massive calmag deficiency, learned about branching behavior of clones Week 7 recap: Light up to 100 %, root growth did escalate, repotted to 13 l Week 6 recap: Cloning is finally done 👍 Light intensity increased 25% - 50% Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

I'd wish I'd had more time to spend, anyways, the growth did take off and I did some LST, I finally got my hands on a few tiny USB fans to replace old one that got worn out. Training clones ist strange, I did setup a bit of wire to tuck the twinks under. Will do some major defoliation next week, I did some more toppings to account for some uncontrolled branching. Sorry for the incoherent rambling, I did stuff, next week is gonna be fun. Week 9 recap: LST, topping, new fans Week 8 recap: started training, massive calmag deficiency, learned about branching behavior of clones Week 7 recap: Light up to 100 %, root growth did escalate, repotted to 13 l Week 6 recap: Cloning is finally done 👍 Light intensity increased 25% - 50% Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected

Ok, let's see, what did happen this week? We started the heating period at home, so temperature goes up. The Royal Domina is a very bushy girl and I would love to have her lollypopped, experience said that's not easy with her. But worry not, there's no time pressure. I plan to have her grow up a little more, let's say to 25 or 30 cm height, remove a few sucker branches, lollypop her and send her into flower. I did switch to advanced nutrients perfect grow-micro-bloom, a friend of mine gave me a positive review and that stuff seems to have a good price performance ratio. Had to harvest her mother plant, she grew outdoors and started flowering in September, now she caught a bit of powdery mildew, I am a bit sad her buds have been still so small, but she was marked for hash making so it's no drama. Anyways every emergency harvest makes my heart bleed. So long friends, enjoy the autumn. Week 10 recap: more Defoliation, switch to advanced nutrients Week 9 recap: LST, topping, new fans Week 8 recap: started training, massive calmag deficiency, learned about branching behavior of clones Week 7 recap: Light up to 100 %, root growth did escalate, repotted to 13 l Week 6 recap: Cloning is finally done 👍 Light intensity increased 25% - 50% Week 5 recap: Lack of focus, still no roots growing into reservoir. Week 4 recap: I think I saw symptoms of an infection. Did cut back and change fertilizer. Week 3 recap: Started fertilizing and switched to 18/6. Removed the humidity dome. Did start tracking humidity and temperature. Week 2 recap: Did cut of her old leafs. Week 1 recap: Cutting did survive and looks healthy, leafs started to regenerate a bit, indicating root growth. Progress even better as expected