YOUR CLONES JUST ARRIVED. NOW WHAT?

Clone care in the first two days matters more than anything in the next two weeks. Here is the whole arrival routine, in order.

Unbox your clones immediately

Do it the hour it lands if you can. Clones ship in the dark with no light and no airflow, and every extra hour in that box is an hour of stress. Cut the tape, lift the plants out, and look at them before you do anything else.

Some droop is normal. Leaves that have gone soft and folded will usually stand back up within a day once the plant has water and light. What you are checking for is real damage: snapped stems, dry brittle root plugs, or leaves with brown crispy edges rather than simple wilt.

Watering a new clone: the plug, not the leaves

Give the root plug a light watering with plain pH-adjusted water. Aim for 6.0 in soil, 5.8 in coco or rockwool. No nutrients on day one. The roots have not been feeding for a couple of days and hitting them with a full-strength solution is the fastest way to burn tips.

Water until the plug is damp all the way through but not sitting in a puddle. If your plug came in a small cube, a couple of ounces is plenty.

What light do clones need on day one?

Keep it gentle. Somewhere around 100 to 200 PPFD for the first two or three days, which for most LED panels means hanging high or running the dimmer near the bottom of its range. Eighteen hours on, six off.

Fresh clones have small root systems and cannot drink fast enough to keep up with intense light. Blast them at 600 PPFD on day one and you will watch them wilt in place even though the plug is wet.

The humidity clones actually need

Hold 65 to 70 percent relative humidity for the first three days. A clear dome works. So does a clean plastic bag propped up on skewers so it does not touch the leaves.

High humidity lets the plant absorb moisture through its leaves while the roots catch up. Vent the dome for a few minutes twice a day so you are not growing mold, then step the humidity down about five points a day until you reach a normal 50 to 60 percent room.

When do I transplant a clone?

Wait until you see white roots poking out of the sides or bottom of the plug, usually somewhere between day three and day seven. Transplanting before that tears the few roots the plant has.

Go into a one gallon pot, not a five gallon. A small plant in a huge pot sits in wet soil it cannot drink, and that is how you get root problems in week two.

When to first feed a new clone

Start feeding around day five to seven, at roughly a quarter of the label strength on your veg nutrient. Work up to half strength over the following week. Watch the newest growth, because that is where you see problems first.

If the tips of the new leaves darken or curl down, back off. If growth stalls and the older leaves pale, you can push a little harder.

What if a clone does not perk up?

Give it a full 72 hours before you decide anything. Plants that look finished on day one are often fine on day three.

If a plant is still limp after three days with a damp plug, correct pH, gentle light and a dome, take a photo and contact the nursery you bought from. Every cut we list ships from a working nursery that will look at a picture. Photograph the whole plant plus a close-up of the stem and root plug, because that is what they need to see.