trying to save a cutting that is growing but not rooting,suggestions??

Indi

Active member
The cutting rooted great but after I transplanted it roots didnt grow enough to take so after 3 weeks I pulled it out,grodan cube in coco,and put it back in tray.
Its been another 3 weeks its growing but roots are coming out of cube.
Id like to save it,very nice sativa CS pheno,but I have no more ideas on what to try.
I thought of trying a mister so I may have to trim off a bit of rockwool cube??
Fuingus gnats got into roots but I treated and theyre gone but may be too late.
It produces tiny new leaves,has been for several weeks,but roots just wont take off.
 
When you say roots are coming out of the cube, do you mean growing out or falling out (dead)?

Sometimes rockwool can hold too much water for a young plant that is in trouble, the O2 gets used up and creates an unhealthy environment. That's what it sounds like you are describing.

I'd clean my hands thoroughly (wear a fresh pair of nitrile gloves) hold it gently with my fingers under the bottom of the cube, and swing it around to let centrifugal force get the water out of the bottom of the cube.
Then, flush it with hydrogen peroxide (H2o2.
Set it in a bed of clean perlite.

When she looks thirsty, use weak nute solution with some H2o2 in it.

Basically, you need to ill any opportunistic bacteria that may be trying to setup shop in there, and keep it from rotting while it heals and resumes vigorous transpiration/uptake of nutes.

Might be a good time to try some myco products focused on root growth.

Once you start myco, no more H2o2 (it will kill the myco), but clean it well as described above before you try it.
Just throwing out a few things.
 
PS: fungus gnats are common in soggy media. You probably overwatered the plant when you transplanted it into the coco. May want to try mixing in 15% perlite with your coco.

What is a "sativa CS pheno"?
Do you mean critical skunk?
just curious.
 
Yes strain croitical S but Ive never seen or had these hazy type phenos from CS.Also 9 different CS phenos finished in 8-9 weeks.
One has diesel aropma,one highly sativa characteristics and the rest just hazy looking.I was also getting some mango aromas from one pheno,but they all had skunk aroma also.
I got 2 packs of CS at same time and hopefully itll produce similar phenotypes for many cuttings I let go way too long in cubes and roots dried and with fungus gnats also the prize may not make it.This last pack of CS had some very unique phenotypes and I have no idea why its so different than last 50 females of CS Ive ran.

What percent h2o2 do I use?Ive read so many reciepes,use pure 3%,plus many more.

Ive had the best results for gnats using Azmax,regular neem doesnt seem to work even a fractionas good.One application of Azmax at 0.04% both on roots and foliarly knocked out 2-3 different diseases so I may go back to Azmax.
Stuff is costly but it does work.Is there any other neem products like Azmax?
 
it's hard to hurt the plants of cuttings with H2o2. Not knowing what you had available, I left it open.
It's been so long since I read instructions for that stuff.
If you can get the strong stuff from a hydro store (27% I believe) then dillute it a lot. I usually like it strong enough where it will still burn my skin (turn it white) but slowly.
If you are working with the stuff from the drug store (3%) run it straight from the bottle. You definitely won't hurt the plants with it.

Fungus gnats suck. Very stubborn to get rid of.

First, understand the conditions that bring them:
Soggy root balls
Dead plant matter laying around
standing water puddles

If you have plants struggling to root in these conditions and you start throwing heavy oil in the root zone like neem products, it can (in my experience) make things worse for the plant while not really bothering the gnats.

I've tried everything to get rid of them once they appear, and never really won. Lost some plants, but by fighting, some survived to harvest. After harvest, cleaned the room thoroughly and never made the mistake of letting those conditions that they breed in exist again.

It's been a few years since I've had to deal with them.
When I had them, the first thing I did was stop overwatering, and clean the crap out of everything.
No more dead leaves laying around. No puddles of standing nutes from clogged drains. Clean clean clean.
After that, I let the root balls dry out, pulled them out of the pots and removed any dead/infected areas of roots with a knife. The decomposing roots and waste from the pests can create very unhealthy conditions for the rest of the root zone.
Then, re-pot, first putting a good layer of Diatomaceous Earth on the bottom of the pot before adding new medium, and dust the root ball with it. Once re-potted, cover the top of the soil with Diatomaceous Earth.

I found a liquid that contained Bacillus thuringienis israelensis (the same stuff as in Mosquito Dunks product) and started adding that to my nutrients (hydro).
Just checked around and I can't find it for sale anymore, but the mosquito dunks people have a product called mosquito bits that might work better for you as top dressing or even mixed with new soil:
Summit Chemical Company | Mosquito and Insect Control Products – Mosquito Bits®

I would avoid putting any organic stuff like that in your hydro res. Made an awful mess and I suspect led to swings in Ph.

Regularly scrape any loose, dead stuff off the top of your pots and reapply diatomaceous earth and fresh mosquito bits.

good luck.
 
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forgot: use a shop vac to clean the tops of your pots, it removes bugs along with the crap they are eating and their waste.
 
Hi, i ve no problem anymore whith gnat,longtime now i use bacilius thurigiensis from neudorff ,i started to use it one Time à week in all substrat ihave in the house, now i use it one time all one or two month. it s quite long to see the result but after 2/4 month i had à gnat free garden. I also change oftenly the first centimeter of soil in my mom s pot.
 
Hi, i ve no problem anymore whith gnat,longtime now i use bacilius thurigiensis from neudorff ,i started to use it one Time à week in all substrat ihave in the house, now i use it one time all one or two month. it s quite long to see the result but after 2/4 month i had à gnat free garden. I also change oftenly the first centimeter of soil in my mom s pot.

thats a good one, but dont rely on the dosing on the bottle - as it is a burocracy thing .. ill explain

neudorff is against fruit flies and the bottle states a few drops per a few hundred liters, which is ok for fruit flies, but we all know BT works also on FG, just those buggers need a higher concentration 1:1000 to 1:500 , 1 or 2 ml per liter of water, sprayed and given as watering - will help always, and it will aid and help in combination with neem against other insects (thripses for example) ...

well, why isnt it written on the neudorff bottle that its great against FG, simply, bc neudorff would have to pay an astronomic fee, to let its product be signed against FG also, including the higher dosage ...

so its an unwritten law that "neudomück" works great against FG, not just fruit flies, and many ppl and workers in the field know that, but they arent "allowed" to sell it for this purpose, as for sale of "poisons" you need to have an allowance paper, and if you sell some underground-poison-detective the wrong stuff, your allowance, even your shop can be closed and its possible that you need to pay "reparations" if something went wrong ... ok thats no biggy with BT, but dont forget that we have really dangerous poisons for our hobby, which can lead to ultimate death, and the law isnt making big differences about the substances itself

you can make a test, ask next time for neudomück against FG, theoretically they arent allowed to sell it to you for that purpose (officially) - its another thing if you are in growshop / hydrostore that has its focus on cannabis, as many of them dont give 2 shits about the law and they will sell anything to make a buck - funny enough if they do sell it to you, you can freak them slightly out with this info given to you, saying that its not officially against it, and if you called the poison agency - they will close their shop - i bet you will get at least 10% discount for this fun ;)


oh, dont know if it has be said, root excelurator from house & garden works wonders on already established roots - it will help speeden up the root formation process
 
Good to know about using a higher concentration of BT on gnats.I tried it in bird barh form but it didnt even phase them.
 
Despite the fact that you guys have pretty much said it all I would like to list the problems that many people experience, at times unbeknownst, when cloning into rockwool..This isnt a step by step but some common errors made...
1. Always use sterile equipment. Cleaning your blades and humidity dome with bleach is the easiest way. Sure you dont need to but it will ensure a clean disease/pathogen free environment.
2. Dont over wet the cube. Pre-soak the cubes in straight or low ec pH adjusted water then before putting the cutting into the cube either squeeze out or shake out excess moisture. Get a feel for about 75% water content.
3. Never leave the cubes sitting in water/solution...always raise them on either expanded clay or trays built for the purpose. Roots hate an over wet media and rot loves it. Rockwool allowed to sit in water will oversaturate, excluding oxygen... These last two steps will ensure that there is ample oxygen available at the roots. Roots starved of oxygen will never thrive.
4. Ensure temperatures are moderate..anything below 20 and above 28 deg C will slow the rooting process. Higher temps promote rot.
5. Foliar feed with a kelp and fulvic acid solution...two wonders of nature, you will never look back.
6. Probably the one that should have been first...never take cuts of unhealthy or bug affected tissuez.
.
Good luck
 
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Hi deran , Nice infos . Do you use serenade and spinosad ? If some of you are intèresting , i can share my natural phyto shedule .


aloha
serenade is great thing, its active ingredient bacillus subtilis can be found in a lot of products , it is the "rat" of the soil, meaning this little fellow is "transforming" bad microorganisms, mostly mold and their spores into healthy food for the roots
recommended as preventive and as actual use of action !

unfortunately i cant say much about spinosad (alone) , no direct experience myself as this bacteria is also often part of other products , for example "great white"
https://www.plant-success.com/product/great-white/

and in there you can find both micro organisms, working hand in hand

the more the better, but beeing a part of it, means it cant be that bead either
 
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