Everything said is false. 1. I use nutrients to clone with 100% success (GH Micro and Bloom @ 2ml each per gallon with R/O).
2.Total PPM is absolute, like the one guy said the plant still eats that good/bad crap in the tap water so why would that not be added?
To answer the question though what I was taught was to keep the PPM on clones around 300-400 ppms. It seems to be working just fine for me.
What medium do you clone in?
OK lets all get back on proper cloning ways and that starts from the source the parent plant for proper cloning you should only water the mother plant not using any type of nutrients for at least 1 week this will help for better success
secondly when measuring ppm in liquid you are measuring total disolved solids 1 part per million water has mineral content in it iron, copper , zinc etc the minerals of life so when testing water ppm is added into the equation you want 1000 ppm water is lets say 160ppm you need to mix nutrient strength to 840 ppm add them both up and you got 1000 ppm of disolved solids
Now getting back to cloning being water does have some disolved solids that alone will be sufficient till roots come once you see roots then clones are ready for light traces of nutrients remember if soil is to hot in nutients roots will not want to go there stress occurs disease and slow growth key to cloning is humidity and temps