Bubbleponic Cloner / Pineapple Express Grow

I have been growing for a few harvests now, indoors and out, with mixed results. All of my plants so far have been bought from a dispensery. Starting up my plan was to get a few good strains i liked, a couple of each, and flower one / mother one to keep a SOG type grow in perpetual motion... things didn't end up that way. After numerous try's to take cuttings, they either all wilted an died, or took 4-5 weeks to show any roots what so ever. Just the other day I saw a youtube video about a DIY bubbleponic cloner that was super easy and super cheap. So i tryed it out. Using a small rubbermaid roughneck container I cut 4 holes a little smaller than the rockwool im using, bought a cheap air pump from petco for 12 dollars along with some black tubing and an airstone, and took a couple a cuttings from the pineapple express I was transplanting outside. After filling it with water PH balanced to 5.43 that tested at 15 PPM, I added a drop a clonex and a few drops of General hydroponics Bio Root and plugged it in. Im happy to say that a week later they are showing roots, im planing on expanding into a veg and flower system too. Here is a couple of pics.

So there is this yellowish crap growing in the water. Light might be getting in a little bit, the water temps are about 73, balance the ph to 5.5, ppms around 98-100. Changed the res out and replaced the Bio roots, left out the piranah, even though the root development is going great since I added it. I thought it might be causing or might be adding to it. If that fixes the problem will find a liquid alternative. The fungus is starting to cling to the roots, dont want it to mess up a good thing. Here are some pics of the roots development and the lights I am using, two 125w cfl's.

After reading the general hydroponics website and talking to a few friends, I come to realize that the yellow foam that was in the res was from the piranah and biothrive grow I was giving them. Apparently if you recirculate with an airstone with small bubbles, the organic nutrients break down even more and create the foam. You can use a airstone that has large bubbles to prevent it, thats what General Hydroponics website recomended on the organic feeding chart. Or just take the airstones out completely and let the pump run through the tubing into the water. I just decided to go with a new line of hydroponic nutes, since I have an outdoor grow as well this stuff wont go to waste. Decided on canna Aqua series, Vega A and B, Cannazym, and rhizotonic. Flushed the little ladies with plain water p.h balanced to 5.5 for a day. I went to canna's website where they have a program that creates a feeding chart to your specifications, which said 12.5 mls of vega A & B, 12 mls of cannazym and 10 mls of rhizotonic. Coming to 880 ppms, i added 2 mls less of everything just to start off and ended up with 748 ppms with the ph still at 5.5.... Theese pics are from just a minute ago, one of the clones i bought as mothers Sour Alien, NYC Diesel, Dead Head Kush and Hindu Kush, one of the roots four days ago and one today to show the grow rate with the Bio roots, piranah mixture. I had alot of root growth but not alot of grow uptop, shure this will fix the problem.

After 24 hours the little ladies are adjusting to the canna nutes well. No wilting...
I will transplant them into the 5 gal buckets later today. Need to buy some hydroton.
Will post pics with the process.

ive been debating making one of these units.. i know it's the fastest way to get roots. check out the thread in my sig to see my cloning method.

Steadmanclan said:

ive been debating making one of these units.. i know it's the fastest way to get roots. check out the thread in my sig to see my cloning method.

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Checked out your post... I Tried the same method using roots organic soil with a few cuttings, after weeks they slowly wilted and died. looks like youve got your technique down, plants look happy dude. Ive wanted to grow some sour Diesel too, but never see any clones of it.
The whole reason I tried making this cloner was to try something new, hydroponics... something ive allways thought was cool, but looked like it was too time consuming... Im currently un-employed so, WTF you know... hahaha.
I worry about them constantly when im out. Soil seemed more forgiving compared to hydro, thats why I chose to use it. So thinking about some stupid pump going out and messing with my little ladies kinda sucks. But hey, I tried cloning a bunch of times using everyones tried and true method, and they failed for me. I spent under 20 dollars to make the machine (allready had container), another 25$ for Bio roots and rockwool, and spent 15 minutes setting it up and taking the cuttings. 2 days in it looked like a piece of hair was caught on the bottom of the stem, after a week they rooted... Im hooked on hydroponics!
Im also making the whole shift to hydro using DWC in some 5 gal buckets. I transplanted them today. Started using Canna nutes instead of the organics I used in soil, You really have to use allot to get near the 900 ppm range in the buckets... Kinda a drag, but they help you devour thier product by adding these handy mesuring devices built into the bottle. Hope the results ive seem others have comes my way.

I'm planning to make one of those today, hope it works as well as yours

bajafox said:

I'm planning to make one of those today, hope it works as well as yours

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Hope it goes well for you too, I let the bottom of the cutting sit about a half inch into the water, I have heard less is better, but It worked for me.
Also I read about cutting the stem in quarters after taking the initial 45 deg cut, dont know if it works better personally. Maybe next round Ill try it out... Good luck man. This is my first try at this but im happy to share any knowledge I have.. Hit me up with any questions.

socalpadawan said:

"...After filling it with water PH balanced to 5.43 that tested at 15 PPM, I added a drop a clonex and a few drops of General hydroponics Bio Root and plugged it in..."."

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I added more than a few drops of Bio roots, probably about 2 ml.

your setup looks really clean and your plants look mighty healthy. Good job

The summer heat is building up in my grow room.
Temps usually hover around 73-76 deg F, but for the last month it has progressively gotten worse, peaking today at 83.
Im sure the fact my attic is causing the problem, it gets up to 100 plus in there. Obviously the exhaust fans not doing the job.
The res temps are getting high too, at 79 deg when i checked today.... added a few ice cubes through out the day, kept it down to 68. The roots are turning a little yellow , dont know if that is because of the heat, but they are starting to grow through and hang.

Finally transplanted the one still in the cloner.

First I filled the bucket, then went to canna's website and used their nutrient calc. to see how much I would need for the 3 gallons. I put the airstones back in the bucket and started putting in the Rhizo and cannazym. Lately ive noticed that the Aqua Vega B Lowers my ph from 6 to 3 after I put it in... So I raised the ph to 8 and sure enough it settled at 5.

I used the following:
Rhizotonic- 22ml
Cannazym- 27.5ml
Vega A - 27.7ml
Vega B - 27.5

I let it sit for about 20 mins then checked it again...PPM of 806 and ph of 5.6.
After washing my hands, I cut one of the sure to grow rounds in half, taking the little cube out of the middle.
I laid the little girl inside letting the roots hang out the bottom, and set it inside of the 5 gal netpot lid. Then very gently pulled the roots through and set it in the bucket.
Set it back in and your done.
The little ladies are about 15", should be flowering them soon.

Nyc Diesel showed stipling ontop of some of the leaves, should of been more vigilant... Found some spidermites.
The little bastards must of migrated to the PE I just transplanted. It too was infested with the little bastards, Plus I found what looks like a catapillar eating one of the leaves.

Sorry that I havn't kept up on this thread... been looking for work and a place with my girl. Anyways, I am sad to say that spider mites have taken another life, after battling them for a few weeks I made the decision to cut my losses, and cut down the PE... I took a few clones beforehand but they too were riddled with the little bastards. The mother PE flowered outside beautifully, yeilding about 3 oz. that are a week into cure.

This is my new undertaking, more than I have ever grown at once. Currently I have 3 in flower. Sour Alien and Dead Head Kush were both put into flower on sep.5th, and are both showing first signs of flowering as of 3 days ago. I put the third, Hindu Kush in a week later on sep. 12th.
As of the 12th Hindu Kush is 34"in tall, Sour Alien is 47", and Dead Head Kush is 47" too. I have The Hindu Kush on a bucket up-side down, and the canopy level seems to be allmost even, with Sour Alien an inch or 2 taller.

I also have 25 other clones in various stages and in both soil and hydro. Using the same method of cloning as I did before, I took 2 cuttings of both Sour alien and Dead Head Kush and one of Hindu Kush. Also 4 more of Hindu Kush, now rooted and transplanted into red keg cups. I havnt had the best luck with cuttings in rockwool so allot of the clones Im a little worried about, but so far none have died.. but most are still wilted.

As for nutes ive been using fox farms full line with supplemented calmag, silica blast, piranah( in the soil ), for flower. For veg I use the same, but use canna for the hydro.
Please give advice, criticism, whatever...

The Sour Alien and Dead Head Kush are 3 weeks into flower, showing signs of buds top to bottom. The Clones I had in to machine were all wilted this morning... rot had set in... after looking into what might be the problem im shure it is my improper cleaning before using it, and the lack of humidity in the room, since my humidifier's filter needed to be replaced, and i didn't check on it, its been in-op for a week maybe two. After washing it well with soap and hot water, im running it for 24 hours or so in clean water and h202... as soon as I put the stones in they bubbled up crazy, maybe i should just get new ones, but ill try cleaning them in the h202 first.
Here are some pics of the ladies in flower plus a cutting of romulan I picked up from my club... Its my favorite strain can't wait to see her bloom!!

The res. still smells like mildew, going to buy a new one asap...

get some hygrozyme.. helps clean up your system

Hey bud, I'm subbed. Gave you some rep and would appreciate the same. I need to know about that 125W CFL. I tried to put it in a normal socket and it didn't work. Maybe I just got a dud? I couldn't afford to keep trying at 12.00 a pop. Did you have a special socket to get it running?

socalpadawan said:

After reading the general hydroponics website and talking to a few friends, I come to realize that the yellow foam that was in the res was from the piranah and biothrive grow I was giving them. Apparently if you recirculate with an airstone with small bubbles, the organic nutrients break down even more and create the foam. You can use a airstone that has large bubbles to prevent it, thats what General Hydroponics website recomended on the organic feeding chart. Or just take the airstones out completely and let the pump run through the tubing into the water. I just decided to go with a new line of hydroponic nutes, since I have an outdoor grow as well this stuff wont go to waste. Decided on canna Aqua series, Vega A and B, Cannazym, and rhizotonic. Flushed the little ladies with plain water p.h balanced to 5.5 for a day. I went to canna's website where they have a program that creates a feeding chart to your specifications, which said 12.5 mls of vega A & B, 12 mls of cannazym and 10 mls of rhizotonic. Coming to 880 ppms, i added 2 mls less of everything just to start off and ended up with 748 ppms with the ph still at 5.5.... Theese pics are from just a minute ago, one of the clones i bought as mothers Sour Alien, NYC Diesel, Dead Head Kush and Hindu Kush, one of the roots four days ago and one today to show the grow rate with the Bio roots, piranah mixture. I had alot of root growth but not alot of grow uptop, shure this will fix the problem.

Click to expand...

This is actually called foam fractation, is used extensively in terrestrial marine systems, and is the same thing that happens on the sea shore when foam washes up (the waves push small bubbles under which bond with organic proteins and collect in a foam at the surface). Anyway, an easy way to remove this is to use a small powerhead, like a maxijet/minijet instead of air, or use a airstone that produces larger bubbles.

FreeHeeling said:

Hey bud, I'm subbed. Gave you some rep and would appreciate the same. I need to know about that 125W CFL. I tried to put it in a normal socket and it didn't work. Maybe I just got a dud? I couldn't afford to keep trying at 12.00 a pop. Did you have a special socket to get it running?

Click to expand...

Well im not an electrician, but im pretty sure they designed to go with a certain socket. The bulbs I have come with a hood, it has a larger than normal socket, with the same threading... maybe the threading was wrong? Maybe you got a dud, My bulbs work awsome for vegging, although I think that regular T5's would be better for the cuttings and babies. I originally was checking this thread daily, will try to keep up on it.