Hey crew. I've been a serious grower for 7 years with dozens of grows and several hundred varieties grown.
I want to set up a perpetual grow situation and decided I needed to be a competent cloner to make that happen.
I have been taking 2 clones a week since August when I started cloning. By October I had a success rate less than 10%
and I had no idea what was working and what wasn't. But then things stared to click and fall into place. Today I am able to
report that the last 8 or 10 clones I've taken have all rooted and I am seeing roots as early as day 5 or 6. Here's the few big things
I learned --
* Small clones = small chance of success. If the potential clone you have picked out is too thin to have a hollow center it is too small.
Most of my early attempts were small little guys mabe 2 1/2 - 3 inches tall and not much thicker than a toothpick. I started cutting larger clones
and my success rate skyrocketed!
* Jiffy pellets over rockwool cubes. All the cloning guides say the media should be "moist but not soaking wet". With the rockwool cubes it is more
difficult to tell how wet it is than with the jiffy pellets. Overwatering is the single greatest cause of clone death, and it is too easy to over-water
with the cubes.
* Pellet preparation is important. Let the pellet sit in hot/warm water for 15-20 minutes to make sure the pellet is totally soggy. Squeeze as much water out
of the pellet as you can without wrecking the pellet.
* Snug is better. I use clear plastic cups with drainage holes in the bottom. I tried a bunch of different sizes and styles of plastic cups before discovering
something important. Use "skinny" plastic cups for the pellet. You want the pellet and clone to barely fit into the plastic cup. I use the larger 2" pellets
and settled on cups where the wet pellet fits snug in the cup.
* Cloning gel over cloning powder. I did necropsys on some of my failed attempts and noticed that many of the clones where I used cloning powder never even
started to root. I found that the powder formed like a hard scab over the 45-degree cut and no growth was possible. Problem went away when I switched to
RootTech, a cloning gel.
* Clones pulling right out of the media with no rooting action. I started making holes in the pellets smaller so the clone stem fit snug in the hole. This helped stability
by making the pellet and clone one unit. Use a rubberband around the pellet and clone to ensure a snug fit. After the clone is bottomed out in the pellet
I run a rubberband around the pellet at the same point the stem inside the pellet ends, about halfway up the pellet.
* Put the clone/pellet in the plastic cup and let some water soak into the pellet from the holes in the bottom of the cup. Just 2 or 3 seconds is enough.
* Place the clone/pellet into a second plastic cup, preferably not another clear cup. Light exposure kills roots so a second colored cup is used to protect
new roots as well as keeping the dome water from being absorbed by the holy pellet.
* Keep enough water in the humidity dome so that the floor of the dome is always completely covered. Clones need water and the high humidity found in a dome
gives them the external water they need. You need to see condensation inside the dome every time you check.
* Burping is good. When you open the dome notice how warm and humid the environment inside is. It is a good idea to remove the dome cover a few times
every day to let in new air. So burp the dome as often as you think about it.
* Don't even touch the clones until they've been in the dome 3or 4 days. Pick up each cup and heft for weight. If you can tell the pellet is wet leave it alone. In
fact, I find that most clones need a few drops of water just once or twice while in the dome. I mist the clones usually every time I burp.
* After 6 days or so you can check for roots by sliding the clear cup out of the colored cup and inspecting the sides.
I'm not offering any of these suggestions as gospel or sanctioned by your local gardening club. I'm just passing on some things I've worked out that make cloning a breeze now.
Hope it works as well for ya'll.
Good luck, BigSteve.
I want to set up a perpetual grow situation and decided I needed to be a competent cloner to make that happen.
I have been taking 2 clones a week since August when I started cloning. By October I had a success rate less than 10%
and I had no idea what was working and what wasn't. But then things stared to click and fall into place. Today I am able to
report that the last 8 or 10 clones I've taken have all rooted and I am seeing roots as early as day 5 or 6. Here's the few big things
I learned --
* Small clones = small chance of success. If the potential clone you have picked out is too thin to have a hollow center it is too small.
Most of my early attempts were small little guys mabe 2 1/2 - 3 inches tall and not much thicker than a toothpick. I started cutting larger clones
and my success rate skyrocketed!
* Jiffy pellets over rockwool cubes. All the cloning guides say the media should be "moist but not soaking wet". With the rockwool cubes it is more
difficult to tell how wet it is than with the jiffy pellets. Overwatering is the single greatest cause of clone death, and it is too easy to over-water
with the cubes.
* Pellet preparation is important. Let the pellet sit in hot/warm water for 15-20 minutes to make sure the pellet is totally soggy. Squeeze as much water out
of the pellet as you can without wrecking the pellet.
* Snug is better. I use clear plastic cups with drainage holes in the bottom. I tried a bunch of different sizes and styles of plastic cups before discovering
something important. Use "skinny" plastic cups for the pellet. You want the pellet and clone to barely fit into the plastic cup. I use the larger 2" pellets
and settled on cups where the wet pellet fits snug in the cup.
* Cloning gel over cloning powder. I did necropsys on some of my failed attempts and noticed that many of the clones where I used cloning powder never even
started to root. I found that the powder formed like a hard scab over the 45-degree cut and no growth was possible. Problem went away when I switched to
RootTech, a cloning gel.
* Clones pulling right out of the media with no rooting action. I started making holes in the pellets smaller so the clone stem fit snug in the hole. This helped stability
by making the pellet and clone one unit. Use a rubberband around the pellet and clone to ensure a snug fit. After the clone is bottomed out in the pellet
I run a rubberband around the pellet at the same point the stem inside the pellet ends, about halfway up the pellet.
* Put the clone/pellet in the plastic cup and let some water soak into the pellet from the holes in the bottom of the cup. Just 2 or 3 seconds is enough.
* Place the clone/pellet into a second plastic cup, preferably not another clear cup. Light exposure kills roots so a second colored cup is used to protect
new roots as well as keeping the dome water from being absorbed by the holy pellet.
* Keep enough water in the humidity dome so that the floor of the dome is always completely covered. Clones need water and the high humidity found in a dome
gives them the external water they need. You need to see condensation inside the dome every time you check.
* Burping is good. When you open the dome notice how warm and humid the environment inside is. It is a good idea to remove the dome cover a few times
every day to let in new air. So burp the dome as often as you think about it.
* Don't even touch the clones until they've been in the dome 3or 4 days. Pick up each cup and heft for weight. If you can tell the pellet is wet leave it alone. In
fact, I find that most clones need a few drops of water just once or twice while in the dome. I mist the clones usually every time I burp.
* After 6 days or so you can check for roots by sliding the clear cup out of the colored cup and inspecting the sides.
I'm not offering any of these suggestions as gospel or sanctioned by your local gardening club. I'm just passing on some things I've worked out that make cloning a breeze now.
Hope it works as well for ya'll.
Good luck, BigSteve.
