Rooting best practices

Best practices for rooting cannabis clones

When planting clones or moving crops into new pots or grow media, it’s important to create the right environment for root development. The goal is to help clones establish as strong, independent plants that can absorb water and nutrients from the substrate. Proper rooting helps plants thrive and produce high-quality buds. Here are some best practices to improve success when rooting clones.

Take quality cuttings

Sourcing cuttings from a healthy, disease-free mother plant helps keep pests and pathogens out of the garden while helping maintain crop uniformity. Using sharp, sterilized trimmers or scissors and making clean cuts just below the node will ensure cuttings have the best chance of rooting successfully.

Choose the right grow medium

Part of selecting the right grow medium involves deciding which substrate offers plants the best possible moisture retention. Indoor growers weighing coco versus Rockwool, for example, have several factors to consider that can impact the rooting process. For example, coco’s higher cation exchange capacity makes it less susceptible to quick changes, plus it’s typically more forgiving than Rockwool. But growers have long used Rockwool in hydroponic setups due largely to its ability to retain water longer. Whichever substrate a grower chooses, they must create the optimal rooting-in environment by ensuring the medium is properly pre-soaked and pH-balanced.

Check your environment

Rooting clones isn’t just about setting ideal root zone parameters; growers must also create optimal environmental conditions. During rooting, maintaining higher humidity and temperature levels promotes faster root growth while helping prevent excessive moisture loss from the leaves. Since gentle light exposure is also important for root development, introducing light gradually can prevent plant stress.

Start with small irrigations

Once the plants are in their new medium, the grower must maintain a substrate environment that facilitates root development. That means starting out with small irrigations every day to encourage the roots to follow the flow of water and get fresh nutrients, all of which helps keep the plants from drying out. Monitoring dry backs and keeping an eye on water content is especially important at this stage and using precision sensor technology is the best way to do it.

Track, monitor, and adjust

Depending on the cultivar and overall conditions, rooting can take anywhere from seven to 21 days, so patience is key. Tracking new growth and other signs of rooting with sensors and crop registration is the best way to identify where adjustments are needed. It also helps growers hone in on the data needed to create an effective irrigation strategy.

Why proper rooting matters

Approaching rooting with intention sets the foundation for keeping plants happy and healthy. It also enhances a grower’s ability to propagate specific strains and maintain genetic consistency.

Dig more into rooting by checking out Episode 65, Episode 76, and Episode 102 of Office Hours.

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