E-mail – Cuttings with Yellow Leaves –

Doc,

I took several cuttings from a plant by cutting the branches near the base of the plant and am using the starter plugs form HTGSupply.com in a tray with a plastic dome. I keep the vents open, take the lid off each day and mist the plants. The problem is the lower leaves are yellowing and I don’t have any root growth yet.

Thanks for your question; it fits in with my last post on the blog… You may want to try the 8 site clone bucket if you are serious about taking cuttings.

… The yellow leaves may not mean all is lost. Since you said it is the lower leaves it could mean the nutrients from the lower leaves are going to the upper leaves which is where new growth is occurring. This means you should soon see roots and put the ‘new’ plants in soil or hydroponic system. You should then apply a fertilizer that has phosphorus to promote root growth and nitrogen, which should stop the leaf yellowing. The yellowing could also be due to low light levels, you need to walk a fine line and not over light the cuttings so they use up all the water in the leaves, but you need to provide enough light to keep the cells in the leaves active. Also, you should be giving cuttings a few hours of darkness (I’d recommend 6). Although they are small and you are treating them like seedlings they are the age of the mother plant, and will need a dark cycle.

Something else that is problematic with taking cuttings is that the stem/nodes where roots will form needs to be wet, but for most plants they can not be submerged in water. Roots of terrestrial plants need oxygen, and standing water runs out of it very quickly. I would make sure that you are not leaving water in the tray for most of the day. As I mentioned in previous posts, you can see the starter plugs start to get a lighter brown as they dry out. You do not want the plugs to dry out, but you don’t want them soaked with water all the time either. Good growers know the goldilocks principal, not too much, not too little, but just the right amount of everything is what plants need.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions,

Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers