Bubble Cloner Issue

So, I built a second bubble cloner. Only problem is.. it's not working.

For some reason, the cuttings are dry..



The bubbles are also smaller, for some reason, even though I purchased the same exact air stones..



And overall, the cuttings are not happy.



So much so that I've had to drench them in the water. I figured it's not ideal but it's better than being bone-dry, right?

Can anyone give me an idea of what's going on?

I'm my opinion tons of tiny bubbles are good. Your bubble cloner looks to be working correctly. It looks like you took clones from a gal that was flowering. In my experience, its a bitch try to root clones that was flowering.

cassinfo said:

I'm my opinion tons of tiny bubbles are good. Your bubble cloner looks to be working correctly. It looks like you took clones from a gal that was flowering. In my experience, its a bitch try to root clones that was flowering.

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Yeah, I know. I had no choice..

But why are the bubbles hitting some of the cuttings and not other..? I can't understand this.

oh my

yea its tougher to root plants in flower but I've rooted clones 3 weeks in... To me it looks like your might have nuked em, what is the temp of your water? Only takes 1 day of being to hot to ruin a cut. For that reason I have not taken any for over a month waiting for temps to cool down in my area.

Add more air stones would be my suggestion

try pushing them down more so more stem sticks out of the neophrene collar.

Throw them out and start fresh. If you can't do that take retired's advice and push them down more

Grojak said:

yea its tougher to root plants in flower but I've rooted clones 3 weeks in... To me it looks like your might have nuked em, what is the temp of your water? Only takes 1 day of being to hot to ruin a cut. For that reason I have not taken any for over a month waiting for temps to cool down in my area.

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Around 80F.

I think it might have gotten to 85F once.. does that mean they're dead.. just because of one time..?

1 time of being too hot is all it takes... I'm not sure 85 is too hot though...

Grojak said:

1 time of being too hot is all it takes... I'm not sure 85 is too hot though...

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Well, I got it down to 75F. How do I know if it's too late or not?

Trackr said:

How do I know if it's too late or not?

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if it's too late and it sure does look that way, they'll die pmsl

if it's not too late they'll live

if at first you don't succeed try try try again

unless of course you were far too ambitious, thinking you were a "successful grower" and took cuttings from plants going into flower and don't have a mother plant for replacement cuttings

I've successfully taken cuttings and rooted them from plants 7wks into flower, rooted cuttings taken this late into flower are often called "monster cuts"

you may also want to research "stasis cuttings" so that you keep cuts in your fridge as backup, this can be done easily for up to 6wks

Teltek said:

if it's too late and it sure does look that way, they'll die pmsl

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Not from my experience. Cuttings look lively 4 weeks after cutting but refuse to root.

Also, PMSL? Really? Don't be a douchebag.

Teltek said:

if it's not too late they'll live

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But they still won't root, so who cares if they live.

Teltek said:

if at first you don't succeed try try try again

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Can't. Like I said, I've already taken about 80 cuttings and only 3 of them have rooted.

Teltek said:

unless of course you were far too ambitious, thinking you were a "successful grower" and took cuttings from plants going into flower and don't have a mother plant for replacement cuttings

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That sentence makes little sense.

So being too ambitious means not having a mother plant and taking cuttings from flowering plants?

Why? That sounds like grade-A bullshit to me, man.

So, if the cuttings had rooted I would be just ambitious enough and thus would be a successful grower?

Seems like a thin line between being some stupid poser and a good grower.. but then, everything seems black & white to people like you, doesn't it?

Teltek said:

I've successfully taken cuttings and rooted them from plants 7wks into flower, rooted cuttings taken this late into flower are often called "monster cuts"

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So, you were more ambitious than me but because your cuttings rooted that makes you better than me?

Now I'm PMSL.

Teltek said:

you may also want to research "stasis cuttings" so that you keep cuts in your fridge as backup, this can be done easily for up to 6wks

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Sorry, man. I don't have a big enough fridge for that ATM.

I use a bubble cloner as well.. The stem needs to be in the water, that's the only way my cloner works, or clones dry up and wither. I use tap water and that's it. Cut stem at 45 degree angle, scrape the lower part of the stem where you want roots to grow.. Put in cloner. Change water every 2-3 days. The bubbles popping and keeping the plant stem wet does not work in my experience. You have about 100x more bubbles than what my cloner makes, so I think yours is working properly. Just make sure the stem is submerged into the water.

AlphaPhase said:

I use a bubble cloner as well.. The stem needs to be in the water, that's the only way my cloner works, or clones dry up and wither. I use tap water and that's it. Cut stem at 45 degree angle, scrape the lower part of the stem where you want roots to grow.. Put in cloner. Change water every 2-3 days. The bubbles popping and keeping the plant stem wet does not work in my experience. You have about 100x more bubbles than what my cloner makes, so I think yours is working properly. Just make sure the stem is submerged into the water.

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I managed to clone pretty well with just bubbles, but not this time around..

What temps and pH you got?

Trackr said:

I managed to clone pretty well with just bubbles, but not this time around..

What temps and pH you got?

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Whatever the room temp is, usually around 77 degrees, I don't pH the water, my tap water runs at about 7.7-7.9, very high, but since the cuttings have no roots yet, it's OK. As soon as they get roots I veg for a week in the cloner with pH at 5.6.

Do you have your lights close to the clones? I never put lights over the cuttings, I use the ambient lighting from a low Watt floro and set the clones a couple feet away

Could it be since the bubbles are small that they don't pop enough to create that splash that is supposed to wet the stem? Bigger bubbles make a bigger splash possibly. I use a water pump with a air hose attachment. So it ccirculates the water as well as making bubbles. But there is literally 1% of the bubbles in mine compared to yours. Maybe it's not the water temp your experiencing, but possibly the room temp causing the cuttings to dry out above the cloner.

Something else just popped in to my head as well. How tight are the pucks around the stem? Could they be cutting off plant circulation?

I never knew there was such a thing as plant circulation.. yeah, they're pretty damn tight. But like I said, I managed to clone just fine with the same pucks.

It looks like you don't even have any airstones inside that thing. Odd.

My temps are now around 73F. I'm being told 77F is optimal so I'm trying to tweak it until it gets that high.

Trackr said:

I never knew there was such a thing as plant circulation.. yeah, they're pretty damn tight. But like I said, I managed to clone just fine with the same pucks.

It looks like you don't even have any airstones inside that thing. Odd.

My temps are now around 73F. I'm being told 77F is optimal so I'm trying to tweak it until it gets that high.

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I'm actually not positive about the plant circulation, but I've always been very careful to make sure the stems aren't strangled, per say, just snug, preferably.

There is no airstone, it's just a water pump inside the cloner that has this air hose attached. It has a simple control valve that you can adjust the water circulation and air. It's pretty cool, I never seen one until I bought this bubbler. It actually works very well providing air bubbles and keeping the water moving.

I hope you can figure out the cause of the cloning issue. 70-80 Temps are perfectly acceptable and if kept between those Temps, you'll be fine. How is the plant that you took the cuttings from? Was it healthy or did it have problems? Healthy plants make healthy clones, while stressed plants make stressed clones.

I'm sure we can figure out the problem.