HOW TO TRANSPLANT A CLONE WITHOUT STALLING IT

When you transplant a clone, most of what gets called shock is really a timing mistake or a pot-size mistake.

When is a clone ready to transplant?

When you can see white roots at the sides or the bottom of the plug. On a rooted clone that has just shipped, that is usually day three to day seven after arrival, once it has recovered from transit.

Do not go by the calendar, go by the roots. A plug with roots showing will hold together when you lift it. A plug without them falls apart in your hand and takes the plant's root hairs with it.

What size pot should a clone go into?

One gallon. Occasionally two if the plant is unusually vigorous. Not five.

The instinct is to save yourself a step by going straight into the final container. The problem is that a small root system cannot drink the water held by a large volume of medium, so the medium stays wet for days. Roots in permanently wet soil do not branch out, and you have created the exact stall you were trying to avoid.

How to transplant a clone step by step

Water the clone lightly an hour beforehand so the plug holds together. Fill the new pot with pre-moistened medium and dig a hole slightly larger than the plug. Squeeze the sides of the old container to loosen it, then support the plant by the base of the stem and lift the whole root mass out in one motion.

Set it in so the top of the plug sits level with the new soil surface, not buried and not proud of it. Backfill gently and press just enough to remove air gaps. Water in with plain pH-adjusted water.

The mistake that causes most transplant shock

Handling the roots. Teasing them apart, shaking off medium and untangling the root ball all feel productive and all cause damage. Move the root mass as one intact block and it will barely notice the change.

Second most common: transplanting into dry medium and then watering heavily. Pre-moisten the new medium first so the roots move into damp soil rather than sitting in a wet pocket surrounded by dust.

Clone care for the next few days

Keep light where it was, do not increase it. Skip nutrients for two or three days and let the roots explore. Keep humidity in the normal 50 to 60 percent range.

Some drooping in the first day is common and resolves on its own. New growth within four or five days means the transplant worked.

When to pot a clone up again

When the plant has roughly filled the container, which you can gauge by how fast it dries out. A one gallon that needs water every day is ready to move up. From there most growers go to a three or five gallon for flowering.

Whichever cut you are running, the type and vigor listed on each plant in our marijuana clones catalog tells you roughly how aggressive it will be about filling a pot. Sativa-leaning plants tend to want the room sooner.