Transplanting, sex ID, root cuttings, starting plants
106 terms
A cloning method using a bucket with a pump that mists the bare stems of the cuttings rather than rooting them in a medium.
Jeremy mentions it as an alternative to pucks and says both methods work if you control the environment correctly.
ep 021
When root tips exposed to air stop elongating and branch instead, preventing long circling roots.
Jeremy wants to avoid air pruning too fast on rooted pucks so he can pour water in the bottom of the tray to keep roots growing.
ep 021
Soaking fresh cuttings in diluted aloe vera to provide natural rooting hormones and plant beneficials.
Jeremy soaks his cuts for one hour to 24 hours max in aloe plus RootWise before pucking them.
ep 015
A succulent plant whose inner gel contains salicylates and enzymes useful as a rooting aid and wetting supplement.
Jeremy adds about a half teaspoon of BuildASoil aloe per cup of water when pre-soaking cuttings, and some growers even stick cuts directly into an aloe leaf.
ep 021
Relying on existing grow room spill light for short-term uses like sprouts and microgreens rather than dedicated fixtures over a propagation rack.
Jeremy says the powerful LEDs in the tent give the seedling rack plenty of ambient light and that he will not hang dedicated fixtures on the rack itself.
ep 002
Spillover light inside a grow tent that can keep non-target plants (seedlings, veggies) alive without a dedicated light of their own.
Jeremy uses this to keep peppers and tomatoes alive on the unlit rack — combined with daily rotation it's enough.
ep 011
A non-photoperiod cannabis plant that flips to flower on its own clock regardless of light cycle. Because you cannot wait for recovery, autoflowers are more sensitive to stunting from over- or underwatering.
Jeremy recommends 4-5 gallon pots of Take-and-Bake and extra care with moisture.
ep 005
Breeding a hybrid back to one of its parents (or a parent-equivalent line) to reinforce desired traits.
AJ mentions doing a few back-crosses as part of the F2/F3 preservation workflow.
ep 025
A method of settling new soil around a freshly planted seedling by backfilling around the root ball and then tapping or slapping the container sides so the soil settles.
Jeremy deliberately overfills the container, then slaps the sides with his hand to get excess soil out the bottom and marry the mix together before a final gentle hand pack.
ep 002
An extra rooted cutting kept alive as insurance against losing the designated keeper.
Jeremy takes multiple cuts per genetic and keeps the non-keeper rooted pucks in the tray until the keepers prove themselves, then gives the extras away.
ep 021
A very small mother plant kept in a tiny container with frequent cutting back, used to preserve genetics in minimal footprint.
Jeremy points viewers to grow forums — 'Google bonsai mom or bonsai mum' — for tutorials.
ep 015
Jeremy's in-house selected phenotype kept from each round — the winning keeper that BuildASoil can give away or propagate forward.
He plans to keep clones of every plant, identify the keeper after harvest, and retain only the winner as 'the build a soil cut to give away.'
ep 014
A seedling-oriented BuildASoil mix — peat moss, fine worm castings, pumice and rice hulls — more balanced and less hot than the 3.0 mix. Its only compost fraction is worm castings.
Jeremy uses it for the tulsi, cherry tomato and reaper cups because it's great from seedling through veg. The 3.0 mix has too much nutrition for fresh seed.
ep 004, ep 010, ep 030
A brand of pump-up garden sprayer Jeremy uses for applying teas, waterings, and SST to his grow. Has a removable fan nozzle and hose mode for chunky liquids.
For SST application Jeremy removes the fan nozzle and runs the sprayer as a hose because the seed chunks clog the fan nozzle.
ep 004, ep 033
A rooted cutting taken from a mother plant to preserve its exact genetics — Jeremy plans to clone every plant before flower so a keeper can be identified after harvest.
He tells the story of throwing away a keeper mom in the past because it was a slow vegger and the best flower in the harvest turned out to be from that plant.
ep 014
Labelling each cutting with its mother's full identifier (e.g. 'halitosis number eight') so that after flower you can discard every clone except the one from the chosen keeper.
Jeremy's workflow is: take lower-branch clones before flower, label each with cultivar and plant number, flower the mother, pick a winner, then throw away every clone except the winner's.
ep 012
Successive vegetative propagation of a cultivar from its own clones over many generations without resetting to seed.
A viewer question asks what happens over many generations — AJ uses Chem D (20+ years) as an example and argues outdoor time and living soil mitigate drift.
ep 025
Taking a cutting from a mother cannabis plant and rooting it so it becomes a genetically identical daughter plant.
Jeremy refers to it throughout as 'rooting your cuts or cloning as they call it' and frames the whole episode around it.
ep 021
A humidity dome over a tray of cuttings in rooting pucks to keep vapor pressure high so leaves don't transpire excessively.
Jeremy sizes his cuttings to fit the dome and trims upper leaves so they don't overlap and create moisture pockets.
ep 015
A gel-based rooting product that coats the cut stem with hormones/nutrients before it goes into the medium.
Jeremy contrasts chemical commercial cloning gels with DIY natural gels made from aloe, chia seed, or seaweed.
ep 021
Sea moss — a wild-harvested marine plant (irish sea moss / chondrus) that grows on ocean rock, sold as a human superfood and usable as a gel base.
Jeremy is experimenting with turning wildcrafted african sea moss into a DIY cloning gel by mixing with aloe and seaweed. Transcript spells it 'cmos'.
ep 021
A plant Jeremy has already visually sexed as female before flower — here he points at Branson's Royal Revenge number 12 as 'confirmed' so the keeper hunt stays productive.
Mentioned in passing while praising his favourite plant of the 10x10.
ep 012
The first pair of seed leaves that emerge when a seed germinates, providing initial nutrition before the true leaves develop.
Jeremy points out the cotyledons and the first true leaves on a transplanted seedling and says living soil keeps the plant healthy all the way down so you can see every stage.
ep 002
The V where a branch or leaf comes off the main stalk of a cannabis plant — the site where pre-flower pistils or pollen sacs first appear.
Jeremy points directly into the crotch to demonstrate: 'right in that V in the bottom is where we're looking'.
ep 009
A branch tip severed from a mother plant, stripped of lower leaves and rooted to produce a genetic duplicate.
Jeremy takes two or three per plant to hedge against rooting failures, then picks the best to keep as a mother.
ep 015
A seedling disease where young stems collapse at soil level — often from overwatering or poor airflow.
Jeremy mentions a damping off issue with the tomatoes they addressed via top dress and watering changes.
ep 017
The moment when clones no longer need humidity domes — indicating they've rooted, hardened off, and are ready to grow as young plants rather than as baby cuttings.
Jeremy notes the domes are already off on the transplanted clones, meaning they're no longer babies and are ready to grow.
ep 024
The first filial generation from a cross — seeds from this generation show more traits of the mother and father and tend to be more uniform than later generations.
Jeremy explains F1 vs F2 while showing that quadrant two's Branson's Royal Revenge plants from seed still vary from each other.
ep 024
The second filial generation from a cross — seeds from this generation open up recessive genetics, producing wilder variability and traits not seen in the direct parent pool.
Jeremy notes that on F2 you start to really open up some of those recessive genetics and can find wild characteristics that weren't in the parents.
ep 024
Crossing a female back with a male to create subsequent filial generations as a long-term genetic preservation method.
AJ offers F2/F3 and a few back-crosses as one way to preserve a line long term when you only have a female clone.
ep 025
Cannabis seed bred to produce only female plants, skipping the need for sex identification.
Jeremy doesn't typically buy feminized seed but has a number of packs in his personal collection and will deploy them in Quadrant 4 of Season 2.
ep 042
Practices like outdoor annual mom cycling in living soil that help preserve vigour and expression across many clone generations.
AJ says putting moms outside mid-May through late July annually and bringing fresh cuts back inside mitigates clone-of-a-clone losses.
ep 025
A multi-plant comparison where each plant is genetically different (from seed) rather than cloned copies, so the differences reflect genetics as well as environment.
Jeremy says a proper pheno run would need more plants and identical clones; this is 'more anecdotal' but proves the recipes work.
ep 010
The unique genetic makeup of an individual seed — each seed of the same strain is a different genotype.
Jeremy has 10 different genotypes — two seed types, multiple individuals each — with clones labeled per plant for the winner.
ep 017
Slowly acclimating rooted clones to lower-humidity, higher-light conditions by opening dome vents progressively.
Done once they have their own roots so they aren't shocked going into a normal grow environment.
ep 021
The practice of intentionally slowing seedling growth by dimming lights or withholding food so plants do not outgrow their containers before transplant.
Jeremy describes dimming his lights before a weekend as 'running a marathon and I'm just going to kind of walk this next lap'.
ep 009
A clear plastic cover placed over a propagation tray to trap high humidity (90-100 percent) around the cuttings.
Jeremy uses one with adjustable vents that you gradually open to harden off the clones as they root.
ep 021
A small pre-formed rooting plug (a 'puck') made of a sponge-like substrate with a pre-made hole in the top for the cutting.
Jeremy's BuildASoil version is made from coco coir, peat moss, and biochar. He compares it to other brands that use proprietary peat moss glue.
ep 021
The active ingredient in most commercial cloning gels — a plant auxin that promotes root formation.
Jeremy calls it 'endobutric acid' and says it was originally taken from natural sources.
ep 021
The single selected clone of a given genetic that is kept forward for future runs.
Jeremy keeps one keeper per female genetic and will ultimately narrow those 10 keepers down to one winner after flower, smoke, and group evaluation.
ep 021
The individual plant from a population chosen to be cloned forward because it is the best expression of the genetics across the full lifecycle.
Jeremy's core warning: often the plant you write off and discard is actually the keeper — keep every mom until you know.
ep 042
A pheno-selected clone worth preserving and running forward into future cycles.
AJ suggests that if Branson's #9 and Halitosis #2 become the keepers out of the whole room, they should be run in separate quadrants so neither steals light from the other.
ep 025
The process of running multiple seeds of the same cultivar with minimal training so each plant can express its natural structure, letting you pick a favourite phenotype to clone forward.
Jeremy explicitly says this 10x10 is not a max-yield run; it is an educational run whose purpose is to identify 'which is your favorite to keep'. He plans to take and label clones of every plant before flip so the winner survives.
ep 012
A seaweed-derived input containing natural plant hormones useful for rooting.
Jeremy names kelp meal/kelp extract as the original natural source of rooting hormones.
ep 021
A lighter, less amended version of BuildASoil's living soil recipe used for clones, young plants, and transplants that don't need the full nutrient load of a flower-ready mix.
Jeremy's cuttings were transplanted into light soil with 100% success and are already showing new growth. Plant number 12 in quadrant two is growing in light soil as well.
ep 024
Removing the lowest fan leaves and very low branches at transplant so nothing touches the soil, light can reach the base, and the plant stops wasting energy on hopeless sites.
Jeremy strips lowers on every transplant and recommends using scissors rather than pinching to avoid accidentally ripping branches.
ep 010
A cannabis plant that hasn't clearly shown male or female preflowers, usually leaning female because all the males would have shown by now.
Jeremy has three 'maybes' at transplant. He gambles on the most convincing one (Halitosis number two), plants it, and promises to track the outcome.
ep 010
A plant kept in perpetual veg so cuttings can be taken from it over time to reproduce the same genetics.
Jeremy references how slow veggers often turn out to be the best flower and you're frustrated you 'didn't even keep a mom of it.'
ep 014
A vegetative cannabis plant kept alive indefinitely as a source of clone cuttings.
Jeremy only needs one slightly healthy clone per keeper to back up each plant as a future mom.
ep 015
A separate tent dedicated to keeping mother plants healthy and producing cuttings for future runs.
Season 2 cuttings are already rooting in the mom tent at the time of this review.
ep 042
The donor cannabis plant from which cuttings are taken repeatedly for cloning.
Jeremy calls a 'healthy mom' the single most important variable in successful cloning — more important than any product.
ep 021
A light top layer of worm castings, compost or bark over freshly sown seed to block light and improve germination rate.
Jeremy explains that almost any fine mulch works so long as it blocks light but doesn't stop germination.
ep 030
The point on a stem where a leaf emerges — also the most likely place for new roots to form when the stem is cut there.
Jeremy cuts stems down to the next node before pushing them into pucks so roots emerge more readily.
ep 015, ep 021
Old stored seed often germinates poorly while fresh seed from the same batch germinates almost perfectly — reason to cherry-pick from trays with mixed seed age.
Jeremy's cucumber experiment — old seed germinated very poorly while the rest did almost perfect. He cherry-picks the best plants.
ep 011
Moving a rooted seedling from its starter plug into a one-gallon pot of living soil, which gives roots room to establish before later up-potting.
Jeremy fills a rigid plastic one-gallon with Light Mix, flips the seedling by supporting the stalk between two fingers, sets it in place without teasing the roots and backfills.
ep 002
A protruding lip or rounded ball of plant material in the node crotch with no hair, which indicates a developing pollen sac and a male plant. Mature males show multiple overlapping balls.
Jeremy distinguishes the overbite shape from a smooth female crotch and notes that as a male develops 'there'll be multiple little balls with overlapping'.
ep 009
A nursery system using biodegradable paper pots that can be transplanted whole — Jeremy is trialing one with basil in quadrant four.
Mentioned as 'some basil over here which is in a paper pot system that we're trying.'
ep 014
A specialty hand-plow transplanting tool where a tray of paper pot cells unlinks in a straight line like machine-gun ammunition, feeding through a plow attachment that buries each cell and closes the furrow behind it.
Jeremy teases this as a future episode — claims an entire tray can be transplanted in about one minute. The cells are linked paper pots that separate during feeding.
ep 009, ep 011
Growing out multiple seeds of one or more strains to find the best-expressing phenotype for that grower's environment.
Jeremy says during a pheno run he is not concerned with maximizing yield — he just wants each plant to show its flowers so he can pick the winner. Clone runs prioritize yield.
ep 017
Growing out a number of plants from the same seed cross to find standout phenotypes worth keeping as mother plants or clones.
Jeremy floats doing fast-flowering phenohunt style runs in one-to-five gallon containers next cycle in one of the quadrants.
ep 024
The process of choosing keeper plants from a seed run based on desired traits like yield, flower time, quality, fertility, or terpene expression.
AJ lists yield, flower time, quality, and fertility (for breeders making seed) as selection criteria you use to decide which plants are keepers from a seed run.
ep 026
Genotype is the plant's genetic code; phenotype is the genotype plus the environment — meaning the same genetic plant expresses differently under different grow conditions.
Jeremy explains seeds carry genotypic differences so this side-by-side is really a 'geno run,' not a proper pheno hunt (which would use identical clones).
ep 010
A cannabis plant that flowers based on hours of dark per day. Contrasted with autoflowers — photoperiod plants give you control over the flip timing.
Host says these plants are very sensitive and a disrupted photoperiod in flower makes them sense something is wrong.
ep 005, ep 027
Tagging each container with the strain or plant ID using blue masking tape and a sharpie, or a plastic plant tag, so you can track genetics and notes through the grow.
Jeremy labels the first plant Branson's Royal Revenge and uses plastic plant tags that travel with the plant at every up-pot rather than staying stuck on the old container.
ep 002
The relationship between plant size and root-zone volume — matching plant size to container volume so the plant fills without becoming root-bound or wasting medium.
Jeremy times seed-starts in 5-gallons to clone-starts in big quadrants so the seed plants stay small enough not to overgrow the 5-gallons.
ep 042
The very first sex-indicating structure that forms at the node of a cannabis plant before the plant is flipped to flower, revealing male or female identity at the crotch of each branch.
Jeremy sexes plants at around five weeks from seed by inspecting pre-flowers rather than waiting for the flip. He notes some genetics take up to six weeks to show clear pre-flowers.
ep 009
Reading early pre-flower bracts on a cannabis plant before the flip to confirm male vs female sex.
Jeremy references plants they were guessing at in a previous episode — their intuition was correct and one was confirmed female.
ep 011
Identifying male vs female cannabis plants by examining early sex structures at the nodes while still under veg light.
Jeremy notes his 1-gallon plants are already showing pre-flowers under 18/6 before transplant so he can sex and select.
ep 007
A condition where roots fill the container and circle the inside wall, stressing the plant and limiting uptake.
Jeremy keeps his seedlings mobile and up-pots them before they can get root bound so they are always ready to go to the next cycle.
ep 001, ep 035
The white nubs/tissue that form at the base of a cut stem before true roots emerge.
Jeremy describes 'white nubs' that show up before rooting when you're using plain water on the kitchen counter.
ep 021
The observation that seedlings held in smaller containers until slightly root-bound tend to show pre-flowers faster than those bumped up to larger pots.
Jeremy says 'if I were to just go to a two gallon sometimes that delays the onset of telling the sex. A lot of times when they get a little more root bound they'll tell you faster'.
ep 009
Take cuttings from a selected mother, root them into independent plantlets, then plant those into the chosen containers — the standard cloning path.
Jeremy lays out the dependency chain for Season Two: choose the mother, take cuttings, root them, plant them into the chosen quadrants, and stagger any feminized seed starts so timelines stay fair.
ep 041
The principle that different parts of a cannabis plant carry different hormone concentrations, so clones from different positions root at different rates.
Jeremy cites this as a reason to take multiple clones from multiple spots on a healthy plant.
ep 015
A compound that triggers root cell formation at the base of a cut stem. Can be chemical or natural.
Jeremy lists indole butyric acid, kelp meal/extract, aloe vera, and willow water (salicylic acid) as natural or commercial rooting hormone sources.
ep 021
A small moisture-holding plug (Grodan-style or similar) into which a cutting is inserted to root.
Jeremy calls it a 'cloning puck' and mentions the Grossmart insert plus rooting pucks as his setup.
ep 015
Manually turning seedling trays so shaded halves get equal exposure to ambient light.
Used when no dedicated veg lighting is available under a rack — Jeremy concedes it's not ideal but it works with what you have.
ep 011
Taking cuttings from a confirmed-female seedling, rooting them, and running the rooted clones into the production beds instead of running the original seedling.
Jeremy offers this as one of three options when sex is ambiguous: 'I'll take my seedlings once I've identified them as female, I will take cuts, I will root those'.
ep 009
A plant hormone (aspirin) that functions as a rooting aid and immune signal.
Found in willow bark and is the reason willow water works as a rooting agent.
ep 021
Kelp-derived extract that contains natural plant hormones and feeds awakening microbes on the cutting.
Jeremy says RootWise contains seaweed extract which helps feed the microbes as they awaken and provides a little hormone.
ep 015
Plant seeds at a depth equal to their own size — small seeds only need to be a fraction of an inch below the surface.
Jeremy recites this rule while sowing lettuce and carrots and explains that too deep will just compost the seed.
ep 030
Fermenting saved tomato seeds in their jelly to break down the germination inhibitor before drying and storing.
Jeremy mentions that if viewers want to save tomato seed it requires fermenting and says he can cover the process if asked.
ep 030
The process of triggering seeds to break dormancy, pop a radicle, and establish as seedlings, whether for cannabis, vegetables, or culinary sprouts.
Jeremy says the food quadrant will also host sprouts and demonstrations of different seed germination and food propagation methods.
ep 001
A grow populated from seed rather than from cuttings of a single mother, producing phenotype variation between plants of the same strain.
AJ highlights that because this is a seed run and not a clone run, genotype differences are visible in hair density, thickness, and timing across the same strain.
ep 026, ep 029
Pressing seeds into contact with the soil surface by hand or with a weighted roller after sowing.
Jeremy shows his hand method and explains farms use weighted rollers — home scale and commercial scale are the same concept with different tools.
ep 030
The process of inspecting seedling pre-flowers to determine male vs female before committing plants to flower or to a permanent bed.
Jeremy says sex ID 'takes a little bit of time in this early stage and you really got to get in there and find out'.
ep 009
Determining whether a cannabis seedling is male or female by waiting for pre-flower signs to appear at nodes.
Jeremy says the side branches are popping up and the number of leaflets is climbing, so the plants are starting to show sex now — how many females turn up will dictate the rest of the 10x10 plan.
ep 006
Identifying male vs female cannabis plants while they are still in veg. Jeremy confirms plants can sex themselves under 18 hours of light with no special trick.
No light flip needed — just run 18/6 long enough.
ep 005
Identifying whether a young cannabis plant is male or female before flower, typically by inspecting preflower indicators after transplant.
Jeremy says it is time to transplant the seedlings to one-gallon pots and show viewers how BuildASoil sexes them.
ep 001
A small container used for growing kitchen-scale seed sprouts (alfalfa, broccoli etc.) you rinse and harvest quickly for salads and toppings.
Jeremy plans to start sprout cups in quadrant four for very-fast fresh food. Sprouts deliver vital energy from the seed itself and can top tacos, burgers, sandwiches and salads.
ep 028
When a young cannabis plant is developing dense new node sites and lateral branches tightly spaced along the main stem.
Jeremy: 'we're not even five weeks old and they're like stacking branches and showing sex'.
ep 009
A transplant technique of bracing the seedling stem between two fingers on the top side of the plug, then inverting to pop the root ball free without handling the roots.
Jeremy demonstrates placing his fingers across the stalk and flipping the seedling so the plug slides out cleanly with the roots untouched.
ep 002
Lightly rubbing the stem of a cannabis plant and smelling your fingers to check the early aromatic profile of the cultivar.
Jeremy does a stem rub on Branson's Royal Revenge number 9 at transplant and reports that it 'reeks already' and is 'pretty loud' — a good sign.
ep 010
Lightly scraping or splitting the base of a cutting with scissors to create an easier exit point for adventitious roots.
Jeremy does a light scrape, does not split the stalk, and has had good results with and without it.
ep 015
The first single root to emerge from a cutting before the lateral root system develops.
Jeremy says he waits until there is more than a single tap root before transplanting — a lone tap root can be too little to support the clone.
ep 021
Pulling extra seedlings after germination so the remaining plants aren't competing for space, water and nutrients.
Jeremy says you should thin carrot seedlings to roughly one per inch so they form full, straight roots instead of wiggly and thin.
ep 030
Propagating plant tissue in a sterile nutrient gel medium to clone, store, and clean plants of viruses.
AJ says not everyone can do it at home but tissue culture can preserve a genetic for many years and clean up virus infections.
ep 025
A watering mix applied at transplant time containing beneficial microbes, a wetting agent and optional plant tonics to inoculate the root zone and help moisture spread through fresh soil.
Jeremy's version is RootWise Microbe Complete, Saponaria or Therm-X 70 wetting agent and horticultural aloe in water. He says plain water and good soil are fine but he uses the drench to build the ecosystem he wants rather than leave it to chance.
ep 002, ep 010
The first watering given right at transplant — BuildASoil uses a specific transplant solution shown in the previous episode.
Referenced as the only amendment input so far on the quadrant three plants — since then only plain waterings.
ep 011
Moving a plant from a smaller container to a larger one as it grows — cup, to one gallon, to final.
Jeremy clarifies transplanting has no plant benefit, only logistics benefit — starting seeds in final containers wastes space and risks overwatering.
ep 017
Moving a seedling from its initial germination cell into a larger cup of soil to give it more root room and stem strength before final transplant.
Jeremy's wife up-pots vegetable seedlings into little cups before planting in farm beds
ep 004
Vacuum-sealing cannabis seeds and storing them unopened in the fridge to extend viability to 5-10 years or longer.
AJ says vacuum sealed in the fridge, don't open it, seeds could last 5 or 10 years maybe a little bit longer with proper storage.
ep 025
High humidity around cuttings lowers the transpiration pressure on leaves so the cutting does not fade before roots develop.
Jeremy references his BuildASoil blog post 'The Real Secret to Cloning Plants' which explains the principle.
ep 015
The concept that the grow environment either puts stress (pressure) on a plant forcing it to grow, or relaxes it so it can do other things like root.
Jeremy references his environmental video and explains cloning should minimise pressure so the plant focuses energy on root formation.
ep 021
A single white hair emerging from a small piece of tissue in the node crotch, the definitive female pre-flower signal.
Jeremy uses the phrase 'white hair coming out the top' as his primary female confirmation.
ep 009
A DIY rooting solution made by soaking willow tree parts in water, releasing salicylic acid (aspirin) — a natural rooting hormone.
Jeremy cites it as one of the old-school natural cloning methods growers used to use.
ep 021
Cutting an X instead of a circle in the Earth Box plastic mulch cover so the plant can be pulled through a slit and the four triangle flaps can close back around the stalk.
Jeremy prefers this to cutting a round hole because the plastic stretches when you rip it, displacing the plant from the intended spot.
ep 010