Clones Getting Black Stem

Hi there,

I made a DWC cloner few weeks ago and the clones at the bottom of the stem are black, it also appears some kind of gelatin, you can see both in the pictures. Is this normal ? Is it bad ?

Whats in the DWC cloner solution? is anything in that solution black or debris like? If its just clear then the black stuff is probably rot, squeeze lightly with your fingers, does it mush up? If so its rot and your gonna need new clones. I have a aeroponics cloner which sprays the bottom of the cuttings with water and works great. Are you clone ends submerged in the water? If so I wouldn't recommend that, more chance for anaerobic bacteria to colonize the ends and cause the rot. trust me and look up aeroponic cloner, it works great. Im not saying DWC cloners dont work but one thing that I believe is important for success in a aeroponic cloner and probably DWC cloners is to not allow that bad (anerobic bacteria) to colonize your solution. To prevent this add microbialy active water to the cloner. Adding a microbial tea or a beneficial bacteria additive and running it for a day or 2 will bring up the bacteria count and prevent that black stuff. good luck

Finally a reply Thanks and +rep for you.

I'm using just water with a bit of fertilizer and an air pump making bubbles. I read about the aeroponic cloners being the best but I'd like to make this one work. Yes, I had a bit of the stem under water, I pulled it up already I'll be cutting some more clones in a couple of days so I'll try to put them just on top of the water level.

About that microbial tea... do you know if there is anything simple that would work ? like neem oil ? hydrogen peroxide ? bio grow or bio-bloom nutes ? lemon ? vinegar ? I really don't wanna spend more money in my grows until august/september.

lince said:

Finally a reply
About that microbial tea... do you know if there is anything simple that would work ? like neem oil ? hydrogen peroxide ? bio grow or bio-bloom nutes ? lemon ? vinegar ? I really don't wanna spend more money in my grows until august/september.

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Yeah, you could use H2O2. I think lemon or vinegar would just change the pH (?). There other products. I think the one that I tried was called Watermax. Also, I think you can even use bleach to help cut back bacteria. I've heard 7 drops per gallon (1tsp. is about 100 drops). Definitely a different approach than microbial tea... which you wouldn't want to do along with any of these things, since they will just kill the tea.

looks rotten to me boss...i've had great experience just using an empty cake pan and its lid for clones. just keep the humidity up and clean out everything with hot soapy water in between clonings. also, i used clonex root gel

Use Ro water for much cleaner results. Or soft water

Leothwyn said:

Yeah, you could use H2O2. I think lemon or vinegar would just change the pH (?). There other products. I think the one that I tried was called Watermax. Also, I think you can even use bleach to help cut back bacteria. I've heard 7 drops per gallon (1tsp. is about 100 drops). Definitely a different approach than microbial tea... which you wouldn't want to do along with any of these things, since they will just kill the tea.

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forgetting about lemon and vinegar, also won't use bleach so may try h2o2 as I bough a bottle two weeks ago thanks

White Ryno said:

looks rotten to me boss...i've had great experience just using an empty cake pan and its lid for clones. just keep the humidity up and clean out everything with hot soapy water in between clonings. also, i used clonex root gel

Click to expand...

Yep, I gotta clean the container, I'll do it tomorrow thoroughly and put some new and clean water on it I also use clonex but it's gone after a few days, that clone has been there for 11 days already.

mr.smileyface said:

Use Ro water for much cleaner results. Or soft water

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice but I really wanna make it work with normal water coz I know it's possible, I do use ph down thought to get the ph to around 5.5

lince said:

forgetting about lemon and vinegar, also won't use bleach so may try h2o2 as I bough a bottle two weeks ago thanks



Yep, I gotta clean the container, I'll do it tomorrow thoroughly and put some new and clean water on it I also use clonex but it's gone after a few days, that clone has been there for 11 days already.



Thanks for the advice but I really wanna make it work with normal water coz I know it's possible, I do use ph down thought to get the ph to around 5.5

Click to expand...

I used to do clones with normal city water and h2o2.
When i switched to well water that was 25ppm i got 95% and the other 5% died because the medium got to dry. I got roots in 8 days. The well water is around 6 so i didnt add anything to it. I just put them on a heating mat. Not one rotted. Even after i waterd them. ANd they were in PEAT!!!

List of things that help. Superthrive, a Product called "no Damp"

Dr. Bigbud said:

Whats in the DWC cloner solution? is anything in that solution black or debris like? If its just clear then the black stuff is probably rot, squeeze lightly with your fingers, does it mush up? If so its rot and your gonna need new clones. I have a aeroponics cloner which sprays the bottom of the cuttings with water and works great. Are you clone ends submerged in the water? If so I wouldn't recommend that, more chance for anaerobic bacteria to colonize the ends and cause the rot. trust me and look up aeroponic cloner, it works great. Im not saying DWC cloners dont work but one thing that I believe is important for success in a aeroponic cloner and probably DWC cloners is to not allow that bad (anerobic bacteria) to colonize your solution. To prevent this add microbialy active water to the cloner. Adding a microbial tea or a beneficial bacteria additive and running it for a day or 2 will bring up the bacteria count and prevent that black stuff. good luck

Click to expand...

Yes yes yes..... I use hydrozyme in mine straight tap water non PHed and no clonex, rez at 70 deg. The clones look close to popping ( white bumps) too bad you will lose some if you cant get this under control.
View attachment 1585649View attachment 1585650

lince said:

Finally a reply Thanks and +rep for you.

I'm using just water with a bit of fertilizer and an air pump making bubbles. I read about the aeroponic cloners being the best but I'd like to make this one work. Yes, I had a bit of the stem under water, I pulled it up already I'll be cutting some more clones in a couple of days so I'll try to put them just on top of the water level.

About that microbial tea... do you know if there is anything simple that would work ? like neem oil ? hydrogen peroxide ? bio grow or bio-bloom nutes ? lemon ? vinegar ? I really don't wanna spend more money in my grows until august/september.

Click to expand...

Bro if your going to grow with the big boys you have to spend the money to do it right or you will be on here asking questions all the time and fighting your grow

mr.smileyface said:

I used to do clones with normal city water and h2o2.
When i switched to well water that was 25ppm i got 95% and the other 5% died because the medium got to dry. I got roots in 8 days. The well water is around 6 so i didnt add anything to it. I just put them on a heating mat. Not one rotted. Even after i waterd them. ANd they were in PEAT!!!

Click to expand...

8 days sounds really good, with those aero cloners you are meant to get roots in 5-6 days so it sounds pretty good time to me I would be happy if I got roots in 10-15 days

sparkafire said:

Yes yes yes..... I use hydrozyme in mine straight tap water non PHed and no clonex, rez at 70 deg. The clones look close to popping (white bumps) too bad you will lose some if you cant get this under control.

Bro if your going to grow with the big boys you have to spend the money to do it right or you will be on here asking questions all the time and fighting your grow

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice sparkafire but I'm learning and I like learning. I'm cloning a male so I don't care if the clones die, right now I'm learning how to clone and how to keep a tiny mom with this male plant. I started with jiffy pellets, then switched to glasses of plain water and now the dwc clonner I built. I know and read about both your cloner and ez one and may build one in the future because it looks pretty cool and it works great but right now I just want to see some clones rooting nicely in this dwc cloner. The point for me is not having 20 clones in one of those cloners but to make just 6 with my home made cloner.

Different people have different needs and goals, but again, thanks for the advice

WHat I meant was somethings you just cant cut corners on without always fighting it. I think your DWC cloner would work fine you just have to keep up taking care of the pathogens that will breed in your tank and that costs money. Unless you have to go the homemade route I really cant help you there. Oh did you throw away that batch? Some still looked like they could go.

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/429470-hardcore-grow-tips-serious-growers.html
my own advice for cloning in jiffy.
The black is rot from to much moister.

sparkafire said:

WHat I meant was somethings you just cant cut corners on without always fighting it. I think your DWC cloner would work fine you just have to keep up taking care of the pathogens that will breed in your tank and that costs money. Unless you have to go the homemade route I really cant help you there. Oh did you throw away that batch? Some still looked like they could go.

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You may be right but I'm not 100% sure about that, when I was cloning with the glasses of water none of them rot so I think they may be some other reason for it, maybe the nutes ? Today I'll clean the container, put some clean and fresh water on it and I'll keep the clone to see if it roots (I've got only 1 right now, more almost ready to cut). I'll also try and spray the leaves some days coz I think it may also help and I haven't done it before. I have until half June to try different things so hopefully I'll get some clones rooting nicely by then

mr.smileyface said:

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/429470-hardcore-grow-tips-serious-growers.html
my own advice for cloning in jiffy.
The black is rot from to much moister.

Click to expand...

Good advice on the cloning, thanks for the sharing

I gotta agree with sparkafire to some extent, cloning, for somepeople is one of the most difficult things to do consistently. For the plant, its perhaps the most difficult thing your gonna ask it to do, grow roots after being hacked off its main life support. They problem you hare having is with fungus growing on the wound of the clone. Imagine if you could regrow your arm if you chopped it off but you had to leave it in water for 10 days for it to begin growing back it might be kind of difficult for you to prevent bacteria or fungus from contaminating the wound if you didnt do something to ensure that those pathogens dont grow. Adding the benificial bacteria will help 100%

If you simply clean the tub and then stick the clone back in it will continue to grow rot because you haven't disinfected the cutting. In these cases it not easy to just cut it off and put it back in, you probably need to start over with a new cutting. Do you use a cloning gel or liquid? I use DipnGrow and its an alcohol based rooting hormone that penetrates the cutting really well because of the alcohol mixture. Gels I find wash off and dont penetrate when using them in an aerocloner or DWC cloner. so I would recomment dip n grow, its cheap too!

But like we suggested, dont skimp on cloning, check out this thread here "breeding beneficial bacteria" the guy recomends Aquasheild as a starter culture for bacteria. And when I say dont skimp I dont mean to spend 100 dollars on equipment and nutrients but to problem solve as you learn though experience and try to find a cheap solution to each problem. Aquasheld Its a compost tea I believe and will add a little nutes to your water but should matter cuz you got the bacteria in there. I wouldnt add any cloning soution either, its not necessary but the water you add the bacteria too has to be dechlorinated so you can buy a dechlorinator from an aquarium store or use distilled water from your grocery store. The bacteria should not allow any of the fungus to grow and you should get 100% cloning rate. You can see what I did in my thread below when I cloned my babies. Keep at cloning with your DWC , you will get it right.