Long time listener first time caller… i mean poster. Anyways big fan of the show and the community but lets skip that and get right into the problem so i can get some help!
Growing Medium:
This is my 4th year growing outdoors in a 4×8 geopot with about 240 gallons of “no till or living soil” (mix of Fox Farm ocean forest, pro mix, roots organics, different types of compost, tons of worms, buildasoil 12 seed cover crop etc…) my soil is amended yearly with buildasoils re amend kit and then topped off with compost/soil.
My Problem:
I suck at hardening off clones. Like really badly. 4th year growing and 4th year burning them on the first day smh. This year i bought a $40 4×5 green house which is under my deck in the shade and rigged up 16 cfls coming out to 368 watts a small heater and a small computer fan as exhaust with a cheap controller from amazon to keep temps at 77F lowest humidity is 30% highest is 60%. I figured id have the clones in there for the colder nights(im in the bay area California) and put them out in the 4×8 bed for a couple hours each day until hardened off then transplant into the 4×8 bed.
on sunday i purchased clones and put them in 1/2 gallon pots and put them in a shady area for about 4 hours then they went into the green house for the night.
in the morning i noticed one plant had a slight burn, but she was one of the smaller clones. around 10am i put them back into the 4×8 bed for about an hour then i put up a weed blocker cloth to shade the clones and they went back into the green house at 1:30 and the lights stay on until 11pm.
i get home from work around 11:30 pm and to my surprise 60% of the clones are now burnt around the edges and here i am kicking myself because i know i just earned about a week of shock before these girls can really pick up again.
I dont think its my CFLs as ive seen people do grows where leaves are touching the CFLs and no burning is happening. It cant be my soil, as i potted them in a 1/2 gallon of roots organic with a top dressing of 1/4 tbs of neem, 1 tbs of gro kashi, 2 tbs of malted barley then barley straw and some red clover. So it must be the sunlight, right?
Really wish there was a better guide to hardening clones other than “couple hours in the shade each day then increase the direct sunlight as the days go on…” or maybe it is that easy and im just that stupid lol. Anyways i got time to wait for some help as i will be waiting for the plants to get out of shock!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Your attempt to link pictures failed.
damn. is there a way to edit and the add the pics? Ill make sure to just upload them on my next post.
You can upload them or post the links in the comments now and I’ll put them in.
Still do the shade but also put shade cloth or burlap over them. Then to straight shade. Then to cloudy day without shade and then ease into sun. Where I live it rains fairly often in the spring so I have found a string of a few rainy days is great for starting hardening off. Also I had a small cold frame with a polycarbonate lid propped open really helped. Just slow it down even more. Trust me I have killed many veggies over the years trying to harden off too quick
I am going to just give you an opinion here because I have no science to link to you to prove my points.
I think the problem might be solved by doing 2 things differently.
1. You are buying clones from someone else. Do you happen to know how the mother plant was grown (what medium, what grow style, what nutrients, etc.)? This may make a big difference on the stress the plant may or may not go through when planting in a new environment. If for example, the clones came off a mother in a RDWC set up, then that plant is going to be used to being force fed nutrition while never even touching organic soil. When you plant a clone into an entirely different medium and are trying to feed it organically when it is used to sitting in water and being fed synthetically, it is going to be trying to figure out that transition and then it gets bombarded with the power of the sun…
Fix this in 2 ways, Repot the clone (like you did) and just water it and let it grow a little inside under a grow light or a T5 shop light until it’s rooted decent and actively growing, then introduce it back outside, it will be much stronger and better equipped to handle the sun at that point. The Second way, would be, if you have an indoor grow going, you can pull your own clones, and the clones will already be used to your grow medium and grow style right out of the gate. I still start my clones inside and keep potting them up in size as they grow until they are at least a foot tall before I put mine in the ground outside, but I never have hardening off issues at that point.
So long story short, try to get your own clones or at least wait until the clones begin to actively grow (it is adding height or leaf mass) to reduce transplant shock and get it ready for going outside. If you get them to the point where they are in 5 gallon pots, then you should be fine.
One last trick of the trade. If your plants appear to be suffering from too much heat, you can spray them off with an atomizer or fine mist sprayer to both clean off the leaves and cool your plants.