Rooting Best Practices

Even in the most dialed-in environment, plants will struggle if they have not been properly rooted into their grow medium. Maintaining an optimal root zone environment begin with a foundation that can only be set by rooting in clones successfully – laying the groundwork for good plant health, yields, and quality. In this post, we’ll break down best practices for rooting in plants.

Best Practices for Rooting Cannabis Clones

When planting clones or transferring crops to a new pot size or grow medium, growers must understand how to create an environment that will best foster their plants' ability to develop roots. The rooting in process should ideally allow clones to establish themselves as new, independent plants and nurture their ability to absorb water and nutrients from the substrate. When done successfully, plants will thrive and eventually produce high-quality buds. Here are some of the best practices growers can use to maximize their success rate when rooting clones:

Take Quality Cuttings

Sourcing cuttings from a healthy, disease-free mother plant not only helps keep pests and pathogens out of the garden while helping maintain crop uniformity – it’s also a great way for growers to get their rooting in right. Using sharp, sterilized trimmers or scissors and adopting a technique of making clean cuts just below the node will go a long way to ensure the cuttings have the best chance of rooting successfully.

Choose the Right Grow Medium

Part of selecting the right grow medium involves deciding which substrate can offer 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 the initial rooting process, maintaining higher humidity and temperature levels promotes faster root growth while helping prevent excessive moisture loss from the leaves. And since gentle light exposure is also important for root development, introducing light gradually can go a long way to 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 dry out. Monitoring drybacks 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, the rooting process can take anywhere from 7 to 21 days – so patience is key. Using sensors and crop registration to track and monitor new growth and other signs of rooting is the best way to determine where adjustments need to be made. But this approach isn’t just about rooting in the right way – it also helps growers hone in on the data they need to create an effective irrigation strategy.

Why Propper Rooting Matters

Approaching the rooting process with intention not only sets the foundation for keeping plants happy and healthy – but also enhances a grower’s ability to propagate specific strains and maintain genetic consistency throughout the garden. Dig more into the subject of rooting in by checking out Episode 65, Episode 76, and Episode 102 of Office Hours!