cloning: wilting once it leaves cup of water?

hey i'm a newbie getting started (apparently) and i'm having trouble starting a clone...

when i cut them and put them in a cup of water, they're perfectly fine. the moment i take one out, slit it lengthwise at it's cut end for more surface area, dip it in clonex, and into pre-ready rockwool, it begins wilting to death...at the same rate as if i just cut it from the plant and left it to die :/

are those the symptoms of oxygen exposure, having to do everything under water until its in its medium? also i havent flushed the mother so maybe i should actually leave it in a cup of water to use up all its nutes healthily until it starts showing deficiency and maybe growing roots? it wouldn't suffocate that way would it? thanks

also, i did put these clones back under the same 400w bulb but since they're further down on the floor, i figured it was ok? i think less than 1000lumens, 500 maybe. should i put them under the shade of another plant? anyway, before they get a chance to settle they die off :/

stateless said:

also, i did put these clones back under the same 400w bulb but since they're further down on the floor, i figured it was ok? i think less than 1000lumens, 500 maybe. should i put them under the shade of another plant? anyway, before they get a chance to settle they die off :/

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Get a humidity dome $5, a couple of CFL's and a spray mister. you might want a heating pad.

Spray them for the first couple of days, then open the slits(in the humidity dome), then take off the top.

In 4-15 days (depending on the strain you will get roots.

Don't over water.

You probably left too much leaf material on the clone.

You have to balance the leaves which transpire water, with what the root system can take up. In this case there is no root system, just the cut stem which is no more than a little drinking straw.

Cut most of the leaves off the clone leaving only the top pair of small fans and the growing tip. If those fans are big, cut the blades in half.

Then like golddog says, cover them with a humidity dome, half a soda bottle, or a plastic bag.

Give them very little light. Again, light raises the temperature of the leaves and also promotes chemical reactions within the leaves both of which make the leaf increase its transpiration rate.

I agree with the above posters. Humidity dome, heat pad if you can, and keep the greenery to a minimum.

I did have one other suggestion though. Since you may not have anywhere else to put your clone, you can have it under the 400w. Just keep it as far off to the side as you can, then use a screen between the clone and the light. (Any old window screen will do)

ah ok so that's where transpiration plays a factor, it's making more sense now. i have a humidity dome and had a few fluoros set up and tried what i usually did, they just wilted slower. but now that i think about it, i was overwatering and left way too much foliage, thinking they'd use up their stored energy photosynthesizing faster. alright, thanks, i'll give it another go later on today.

also, how important is the spraying solution? i know no ferts, but would hard water unbalanced pH really be so bad compared to distilled pH balanced water?

lower your air temp to 65- 70 and it will slow transpiration. I built an easy clone and i just spray the f*** outta the tops for the first week or until they lift themselves up again. the bigger leaves always get eatin up. no biggie - I still maintain my 100% clone success rate!

no fert - testing clone time with no clone solution now. use distilled. theres no fert so dont worry about the ph.
tap water has lots of fertilizer - which your clones will not appreciate

also I tested out the slice up the center of the stem- what i found that was weird is when you stick them in rockwool it closes the stem back up, and none of the roots came out of there anyway. it did invite stem rot and other bacterial problems. the cons definetly beat the pros in that tech.

i was trying that for a good minute too, slicing up the stem halfway. been looking up some vids and i'll try the scraping the outer flesh method instead now. good lookin out.

alright, so spray with distilled water, cut leaves for less transpiration, get it back in the humidity dome for comfort, under fluoros (less light less transpiration?), lower temp for less transpiration, and spray first few days and lay off some as it gets goin againg. thanks for the help every1

stateless said:

i was trying that for a good minute too, slicing up the stem halfway. been looking up some vids and i'll try the scraping the outer flesh method instead now. good lookin out.

alright, so spray with distilled water, cut leaves for less transpiration, get it back in the humidity dome for comfort, under fluoros (less light less transpiration?), lower temp for less transpiration, and spray first few days and lay off some as it gets goin againg. thanks for the help every1

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Yes that's about everything. I've heard of people spraying plant wax on the leaves, again to slow transpiration but I dont think it's necessary. I dont know if tap water is a problem when spraying the leaves but I too use distilled water. The cuttings are very vulnerable at this stage and I worry about spores in the water.

I've tried splitting the base of the stem (The Butt Crack Method ) and found it makes no difference.

I put some superthrive or rooting hormone in the water.