Hey WOH - well after years of use, my aero cloners are giving me hella problems, I lost a ton of clones in the past month or so, I think there are a few variables I can correct for but I'm worried I'm gonna lose another batch and that will really slow my production down. Stem rot is taking them out.. A few thoughts:
> Cloner and tent in my veg room with my 8 bulb t-5 - created a ton of heat and humidity. My res temps were up around 77-78*
> I have been using the same neoprene collars for months and months (a year?). The collar holes are getting stretched out, creating light gaps which, coupled with my high res temps, is probably creating the perfect environ for stem rot. As plants die and I pull them I am exposing further these light holes, compounding my problems. Solution: new collars and only use them a 1-2 times.
> Mother plants and clone size: I recently battled mites (again, so fun) and that I think contributed to my last batch going tits-up. I have them under control now and my moms are healthy again. I was previously taking super long stems for clones and I think I am getting too much woody-developed stems that wont clone well. I am going to shorten my clones up to 3-4", 4-5 nodes only.
> Cloners are moving to the spare bathroom in my basement so I can plug the tub and fill it up with water -- ice too if needed -- to keep my res temps in check. I am going to try frozen 2l bottles too. The temps don't get awful in the summer here in my area, but warm enough. I can vent the bathroom with the vent fan to keep temps/humd low
So I am going to try these techniques and try to recover. I am however looking into a side batch of clones using rockwool as a back up. Years ago when I started growing I cloned in those rapid rooter plugs but I've never tried RW and I dont see too many (none?) Hempy members using RW. Looking for your guys' advice on RW to 2l bottles. I worry I wont get the root length off the bat with RW cubes and when transplanting them I will need to veg and daily water until roots hit the res in my 2l bottles.
Has anyone in WOH used RW cubes-to-2l bottle method? Any advice otherwise?