Creating a small cloning box with small led and vermiculite as substrate

Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Would moist vermiculite work well for rooting cuttings/clones? I’m trying to avoid aeroponics for sake of simplicity.

for the light it’s a small viparspectra p600 95w led. Figured it would work well for clones.

I would build a medium pyramid shaped box with the light at the top, and trays with little cups for the vermiculite at the bottom. Vermiculite holds plenty of water and I heard you can germinate in it. I’ll use it for clones mainly though.

looking to shoot for a size where I could root 10-20 clones.

I would likely add rooting hormone and some kind of cloning gel to the vermiculite.

once I make the box I’ll post pics and hopefully it will work. It will be made out of wood because that’s all I know how to work with. I might get lazy and just make it a square box.
 
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Tracker

Tracker

Well-Known Member
Do you want to use vermiculite because you want non-soil medium? Clones can be done a lot of ways. Vermiculite should be fine. I don't use it, so I'm not sure of any tips or tricks particular to that medium. Just keep the lower part of the stem with enough moisture. if you're not in water, dwc, or aero-style cloner, then you'll need something like a humidity dome to keep them from wilting. I've been growing in soil lately. I've rooted the cuttings mostly in rapid rooter type plugs (whatever similar ones I can find at discount), but I've also done straight in soil or just in a cup of water when i don't have the motivation to prep all the other stuff.

That light will output way more intensity than you need. You don't want to cause the cuttings to try to make too much photosynthesis and veg growth. You just want to give them low light until they grow roots. I have an LED above mine, but I have the power turned way down.

Good luck! Peace :peace:
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Thanks guys I was looking and it looks like if I get 2 bins, flip one over and cut a square hole for the light to sit in at the bottom and then use that as the top I’ll be golden. That will keep the light a good distance away and I’ll turn it down a good bit.
 
Father Earth

Father Earth

Well-Known Member
Milky Weed said:
Thanks guys I was looking and it looks like if I get 2 bins, flip one over and cut a square hole for the light to sit in at the bottom and then use that as the top I’ll be golden. That will keep the light a good distance away and I’ll turn it down a good bit.
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What is your Vermic going to be in? Pots or freely at the bottom?
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Father Earth said:
What is your Vermic going to be in? Pots or freely at the bottom?
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i was going to try and use individual little cups or pots so the roots don’t intertwine, like those small seedling trays.

I built my box, I will seal the little edges here and there because it’s going in a flowering room.

I don’t have the vermic or trays in there yet but this is the basic idea I also put a few holes at the bottom for airflow, I figure the little heat the light puts off will help bring cold air in through the bottom and vent hot out the top. I may cover those bottom holes with some filter to reduce light leakage. Nothing a little foil tape can’t fix

I can turn the light down to about 15% but then it starts to buzz, so I figure it will be good at 20-25%? It would be about 24” away from the tops of the plants, it’s 30” from that light to the bottom of the bin.

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Father Earth

Father Earth

Well-Known Member
I wouldnt use the little seedling trays unless you are going to be watering them twice a day. They dry out fast. You are using 100 Vermiculite? If so they may stay moist longer than my 50-50 Perlite & Vermic
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Father Earth said:
I wouldnt use the little seedling trays unless you are going to be watering them twice a day. They dry out fast. You are using 100 Vermiculite? If so they may stay moist longer than my 50-50 Perlite & Vermic
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Yes I was going to try and use 100% verm and not have any water in there to wick it up, and just water once a day. If that dosent work I’ll try 50/50 verm and perlite.

solo cups or little foam plastic cups may work better I’m just trying to fit a good bit in there.
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Father Earth said:
Ok great keep me posted
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This is my first attempt at cloning, I wanted to use RO water but had to ph some hard water. No clone gel nothing fancy just vermiculite and ph’d 5.9 water. Let’s hope they make it. I tried to follow good cloning procedures and being sterile. Light is turned down as far as I can without it whining, hopefully 20% of 100w is not too much. I could lower it to 15% but the driver complains. Last 2 pics are from inside the box while it is on.
 
Father Earth

Father Earth

Well-Known Member
I think it will work. I haven't had much success with cloning gel. But i know others never use it. You know how much humidity you got in there?
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Father Earth said:
I think it will work. I haven't had much success with cloning gel. But i know others never use it. You know how much humidity you got in there?
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I don’t have a probe to stick in there, but the room it’s sitting in is normally 60-70% humid, I have minimal airflow at the bottom of the box, hoping all that vermiculite will help keep it moist and humid in there. Now that you mention it I’m going to spritz the walls abit.
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
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Good news everyone! There all still alive, and the vermiculite stays nice and moist I still haven’t had to add any water. I likely don’t even need to spray the walls, it was too humid even with one spritz a day.
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
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I fked up and the top fell off for a whole day, they still got light but humidity dropped like a rock. Going to see if the wilted guys come back but I have not had to re wet this vermiculite even once and it is still quite moist. I’m going to assume they will have roots in another 5 days I can’t really dig em up and check.
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
So they are all still alive, a few wilted so I decided to pull and check for roots. I think my in-experience is showing. There were small chunky looking square roots coming out of the very base of stem where they were cut.

I have since learned it’s better to make a very long angled cut to expose more inner fibers. I also did not think about the ph of the vermiculite, it’s probably abit too high.

And lastly I forgot to pack down the vermiculite, it was very fluffy and I packed it down and re-wet with lower ph water and some root riot Humic acid and kelp extract at a very weak concentration, hopefully that helps.

this was more of an experiment I’m not worried about loosing the cuttings. I will likely do it a more traditional way next time with just dirt, rock wool or the like.

I also ended up testing Aza Max on them, to make sure it won’t horribly burn my plants if I have to use it. Poor things have been my test subjects that box was a MAGNET for gnats. Good news is I got to see how well aza max works

Also perhaps next time I will more carefully balance the verm so it is charged with a lower ph before the plants go in. One thing that is very nice though is the vermiculite really did not need to be re-wetted even after about a week and a half. That may be due to no roots though.
 
M

Middlereef

New Member
Milky Weed said:
View attachment 5007720
I fked up and the top fell off for a whole day, they still got light but humidity dropped like a rock. Going to see if the wilted guys come back but I have not had to re wet this vermiculite even once and it is still quite moist. I’m going to assume they will have roots in another 5 days I can’t really dig em up and check.
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Next time you do some more cuttings use clear cups and put them in another cup then all you need to do is pull cup out and check if they have rooted
 
T

Treesomewanted77

Well-Known Member
Milky Weed said:
So they are all still alive, a few wilted so I decided to pull and check for roots. I think my in-experience is showing. There were small chunky looking square roots coming out of the very base of stem where they were cut.

I have since learned it’s better to make a very long angled cut to expose more inner fibers. I also did not think about the ph of the vermiculite, it’s probably abit too high.

And lastly I forgot to pack down the vermiculite, it was very fluffy and I packed it down and re-wet with lower ph water and some root riot Humic acid and kelp extract at a very weak concentration, hopefully that helps.

this was more of an experiment I’m not worried about loosing the cuttings. I will likely do it a more traditional way next time with just dirt, rock wool or the like.

I also ended up testing Aza Max on them, to make sure it won’t horribly burn my plants if I have to use it. Poor things have been my test subjects that box was a MAGNET for gnats. Good news is I got to see how well aza max works

Also perhaps next time I will more carefully balance the verm so it is charged with a lower ph before the plants go in. One thing that is very nice though is the vermiculite really did not need to be re-wetted even after about a week and a half. That may be due to no roots though.
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I hope this is successful for ya but there is a much better and cheaper way to clone just get rooting plugs and some rooting gel and a humidity dome use a small seedling light and mist once twice a day it works really well I get 100% success rate this way and if you use a heating mat under the humidity dome tray it speeds up the process. I can get roots in 5-7 days in most strains. Now if all these supplies were leftovers you had kicking around then I get it but if you invested in these supplies I think you could have done it little easier and cheaper. I use the small K-cups from my coffee machine emptied out to put my root plugs in that way it holds them nicely in the humidity tray or you can get those tiny cups at dollar store. I tried the cloning machines hated those things took forever to get roots and they had to have a pump running all the time so I find this way works much better
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Rob Roy said:
I'd put the cloning gel directly on the cut part of the clone rather than in the vermiculite. Good luck.
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Yes like do a dip good idea, is it still a good idea to maybe wet the vermiculite with 200ppm nutrient water and then use regular water from then out?
 
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