TAKING CUTTINGS Brad C (Temperance, MI): I just got my license for medical use. We are allowed to have 12 plants in any stage of growth and 1 ½ ounces of dried medicine. I am thinking of starting 12 seedlings of two different varieties. I will be using feminized seeds so I will have 12 plants. I will select the best for cloning until I have 6 cuttings growing vegetatively until the next batch is ready. When should I take the cuttings? Ed: Take the cuttings just as the plants go into flowering. If you took a cutting from each of the 12 plants you would be double the limit. If you took 6 cuttings you would have to discard 6 of the plants that are growing. Neither is a wonderful prospect. One idea is to set up two separate sections in your garden, the cloning/vegetative section and the flowering space. Start all 12 plants in the vegetative section. After a month place one of the plants in the flowering room. Then each week place an additional plant in the room. Approximately 8 weeks after placing the first plant in the flowering section you will be harvesting it. At the same time you would be taking your first cutting. The problem is that to stay within the limits you would have to take the cutting before you know how good the plant is, and if you have an exceptional plant among the first eight, which went into the flowering room without having a cutting taken. Instead, after you harvest the plant use regeneration to bring it back into vegetative growth. This takes about three weeks. Meanwhile you have a chance to evaluate the bud and yield. If you like the plant, let it continue in regenerate, if not destroy it. Do this for each plant as it matures. Eventually you will eliminate all but the best plants. The regenerated plants can be placed back into flowering once they have grown a bit. Most varieties grow extensive branching when they are regenerated. Prune off the smaller weaker ones so the plant puts its energy into growing the remaining ones larger.
Once the plants regenerate, you can take clones from them to build up the numbers to replace plants that were eliminated. Once the population has stabilized, take a cutting for cloning from each plant as it goes into flowering. If clones are available at dispensaries or patient self-help centers you may be able to purchase clones. This is a lot easier than maintaining your own clone center for several reasons. You don’t have to worry whether your clone has rooted, you are able to try pre-selected plants of varieties that you are interested in trying, and it speeds up your garden. REGENERATION Jordan (Internet): A friend of mine just recently gave me 4 plants that needed a home. They flowered them earlier than they wanted to (when they were about 10-16 inches tall) in an attempt to get some buds before they were kicked out of their house. I’ve set up a grow area for them and would like to know the best practices for reverting a plant back to vegetative growth. I’ve already got them under a 24-hour light cycle, but is there anything else I can do to help speed up the process and stress the plants as least as possible? Ed: To regenerate a plant, leave some vegetation and parts of buds on the plant when you are harvesting it and then place it back in vegetative under 20-24 hours of light daily and give them grow, rather than flowering formula fertilizer. Within a few weeks the plant will start growing vegetatively again. Once it has fully re-vegetated it can be re-flowered. SEEDED BUD Lee (Italy): I own a farm near Rome. I planted all my stash seeds so there are hundreds of plants of all sizes and styles growing on the property. I picked a few plants and found most of the buds were seeded. Some of the buds are ready, others still have unripe seeds. What should I do? Ed: Pick the buds as the seeds mature. Dry them. If the buds are all different and they can’t be identified by variety you may wish to process them in bulk. However if you can keep the plants or at least groups of plants separated, you will have (continued on page 50)
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