First Cloning Attempt - Need Advice

I attempted my first cloning.
I bought the little 12 pack peat pellet kit.

- I cut my clones at a 45 like suggested
- Lightly scraped the end of the stem
- Dipped in water
(used water from a bucket that I had opened for a few days to rid itself of any unwanted chlorine).
- Dipped stem in rooting powder
- Saturated peat pellet as instructions stated until it expanded to size
- Carefully inserted clone stem
- I set a 75w CFL over the tray about 2 feet or so.

The clones looked great for the first 4-5 days.
I then added a square thick plastic square box that I had over the top with the intention of the dome greenhouse affect like everyone recommends. The pellets still felt wet so I didn't water. The dome had a few holes drilled in it and did not seem to be showing any moisture build up. I still removed it for a few minutes each day to let in air and check the pellets. After about 7 days the plants leaves started yellowing and curling. It is now the 11th day and one looked like it was dying. I pulled it out of the cube and could see no root development. I tossed it in garbage can . The other 2 look like they are still ok. I plugged the holes on the box and have been misting for the last couple of days. The moisture is now showing up in the box. I am still concerned as it is 11 days and see no roots coming through the bottom. What did I do wrong?

Too slow dude, when you take a cutting, you gotta be fast. Air bubble formed in the end and choked it out..

Then why did they look great for the first 4-5 days?

A heat mat will help speed up root development. Remove dead or dying leaves, or cut off the dead parts. Thicker stems root quicker than thin stems.

I'm trying to save a unique strain that I got from another grower, it's in some shitty dense soil mix growing outdoors, all thin and wispy but it stinks already. I've transplanted in hopes of developing thicker stems to increase survival rates.

I use root riot cubes and clonex gel in a seedling starter tray w/ dome over a heat mat. I've done other setups but this one works best for me.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Xcon: Good luck on your transplant.

I'm off to trim off the yellow leaves..
Hope I will see some roots penetrating through.
I cut my light down today too from 24x7 to 18.
I set it to turn on at 6am (Which is about when the sun comes up here) and shut off at midnight.
See if that helps by giving the plant a little sleeping period

The only other thing that I can think that would cause the leaves yellowing and curling
is perhaps a water PH issue. But I never had this problem with any other plants. I know that
new rooters are much more sensitive though.

Bud B said:

Then why did they look great for the first 4-5 days?

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The humidity dome keeps them alive by preventing the leaves from losing water.. That's the whole point of the dome, it keeps them alive while the hormones create roots out of the exposed cambium, but the air bubble prevented this.

Yeah that makes sense, but the leaves turned yellowed, the tips brown, and curled after adding the dome.
I will take in your advise though and work faster on my next cloning if this helps eliminate the air bubbles you are referring to.

Thanks

Here are pictures of my clone in case it helps...

I can see in the photos that there is no water in the tray under the little peat pots. These need to stay real wet ie: standing water in the tray. Peat is a water wick and when it drys it can actually suck the moisture it wants right out of a living plant. I don't use peat ever, just me. If doing a soil grow you can start your clone in a small plastic cup of potting soil. One thing I do slightly different is instead of dipping in water then rooting powder I dip and hold the stem in SuperThrive for 15 sec then dip in rooting powder, I don't know if the ST really helps, but I get good results.

WattSaver said:

I can see in the photos that there is no water in the tray under the little peat pots. These need to stay real wet ie: standing water in the tray. Peat is a water wick and when it drys it can actually suck the moisture it wants right out of a living plant. I don't use peat ever, just me. If doing a soil grow you can start your clone in a small plastic cup of potting soil. One thing I do slightly different is instead of dipping in water then rooting powder I dip and hold the stem in SuperThrive for 15 sec then dip in rooting powder, I don't know if the ST really helps, but I get good results.

Click to expand...

I agree to keep the peat pellets moist, but have been told with the peat pellets to let them dry out a bit before introducing more water. The idea is to encourge the roots to go out and search for water. I know this doesn't mean let them dry out completely. It was recommended to mist the dome 3-4 times a day to keep the humidity high this should allow the peat pellets to retain enough moisture alone in this process. It is possible though that they did dry out more than they should have causing the problem. I did add more water to them since the initial yellowing and brown tips.

I basically followed the intructions initially by wetting the pellet in the tray with warm water until it expanded fully then poured excess runoff out of tray.

I heard about Superthrive and read where it contains a non natural hormone (NAA) requiring registration with the EPA as a pesticide. The sale of this is prohibited in some states as an unregistered pesticide.
If this is the same stuff, it didn't sound very good to me. I thought of introducing like a B1 vitamin in the water when misting. I was thinking of trying that.

Bud B said:

I agree to keep the peat pellets moist, but have been told with the peat pellets to let them dry out a bit before introducing more water. The idea is to encourge the roots to go out and search for water. I know this doesn't mean let them dry out completely. It was recommended to mist the dome 3-4 times a day to keep the humidity high this should allow the peat pellets to retain enough moisture alone in this process. It is possible though that they did dry out more than they should have causing the problem. I did add more water to them since the initial yellowing and brown tips.

I basically followed the intructions initially by wetting the pellet in the tray with warm water until it expanded fully then poured excess runoff out of tray.

I heard about Superthrive and read where it contains a non natural hormone (NAA) requiring registration with the EPA as a pesticide. The sale of this is prohibited in some states as an unregistered pesticide.
If this is the same stuff, it didn't sound very good to me. I thought of introducing like a B1 vitamin in the water when misting. I was thinking of trying that.

Click to expand...

You've got most everything right, I can see you've studied. During cloning the plant is uptaking it's water through its leaves,out of the air, and as you've done you have misted the dome not the plants, (try closing the vent holes on the lid, this will raise the humidity.) But the plant wants more h2O and thus will want to sprout roots. So the stem area needs to stay wet during this period. You are correct about letting the medium dry to promote root growth, but this is only after there are roots.

Peat works just fine if used properly millions of plants can't be wrong, but myself I've had problems with it clear back to the 80's, most likely my own lack of attention.

Now Super Thrive is something that I'll swear by, I just did a goggle for it's MSDS and couldn't find anything about it being listed as a pesticide, but would be interested if you had some info. This is the product I'm talking about http://www.superthrive.com/gallon.html
and the MSDS info I found http://www.hydrofarm.com/downloads/fc/Vitamin%20Institute%20Letter%20%28Re%20Superthrive%20MSDS%29_6809.pdf

I use this stuff with every watering, it's great.

Hey Watt...

Yeah I most definately have read up on cloning and general cannabis growing.
I've always taken a liking to growing plants. I am no expert by far, but do believe in studying and learning by the experiences of myself and others. I find weed the most interesting of all plants, and the best part is that you can smoke it

The only cloning experience I have ever had was just dropping cuttings in water, setting them on a window sill and letting them do their thing. It is amazing at how successful that can be. You don't even have to do anything, but make sure the water level stays above the root line. I've even taken cuttings and dropped them in clear plastic water bottles. The bottles work like a little greenhouse. The roots grow really well this way.

Your plants become like your kids.. you want to do what's best for them and nurture them so they can get big and strong When there is a problem, it sucks and you do everything you can to try to fix it.

I will have to look more into that ST (Super Thrive) stuff.
But sometimes when something sounds to good to be true it usually is.
I always approach with caution. But, I have been hearing this stuff mentioned a lot lately. If I find any useful information on it I will be happy to share it with you.

when did you put the dome over the top? after 4-5 days?

savinggrace1 said:

when did you put the dome over the top? after 4-5 days?

Click to expand...

Yeah...................

I'm brand new to growing indoors but I have had 100% success rate so far cloning. This is my method and again, i'm brand new just sharing my success. I've been taking cuttings from the lowest part of the plant making sure I have 3 sets of leaves (nodes?) anyhow, I cut from the plant about 1/4" out from the main stem make a 45* cut and then cut down the middle of the base of the clone cuttling about 1/8". Immediately dip it into CloneX rooting gel for about 5-10 seconds then directly into rockwool cubes in a cheap 50 clone tray. I guess I went a little backwards here but before I take the cuttings I soak the cubes in ph'd (6.5) water that has 1 drop of SuperThrive and the recommended feeding of CloneX. About 1/8" or less of water in the bottom of the tray on top of a heating pad with the clone tray dome on and only opened maybe 1/8" out of one of the vents. Mist the plants 2x per day, mist the top of the dome in the morning to create a severely humid environment. Anyhow, 100% success so far out of 30+. Oh, and roots are showing out the sides/bottom of the cubes in 5-6 days.. Attached is a picture of a super small clone I took but has since grown and caught up with others which were 3-4x the size. Again, i'm new any advice to help me or the OP would be helpful

Also, for the lighting i'm using an AeroGarden system (not for the aeroponics) just for the light because I had it laying around. 24 hrs of light until roots show then transplanting into dixie cups

ImBroken...

Thanks for sharing your info.
It sounds like I'm doing everything pretty much identical to you with the exception of using the Clonex Gel and the Superthrive.
As I said I tried 3 and 1 died, and the 2 are still hanging on. The concern is that the leaves had turned yellow and the ends turned brown after the first 5 days or so.
I then placed on the dome and started misting with water. I snipped the yellow leaves and brown spots and they are maintaining their health. The concerning part
is that it is now 11 days and see no roots poking through. I didn't want to pull them out of the peat pellet in case there is some good development going on.
I did cut the light from 24x0 to 18x6.

I will see how these go and if no progress in the next 5 days I will pull them and check the rooting.
At that point I would assume no to little rooting going on and will start all over.
This time I will use the dome from the get go. It is now about 100 degrees outside and 78 inside so I don't think I will need the heating mat.
I will check my local hardware store and see if they have some of that Superthrive stuff though to try. Sounds like everyone using it has 100percent success.
Also my problem could be with the water PH, as I never checked it.. I will also use my filtered water this time and get a PH kit just to check my tap and filtered water
so I know what I have going. I've never had a problem though watering any of my plants with it, but maybe these clones are just a little more sensative.

Thanks again..

-Peace-

Hey guys..

Just to let you know I changed my name from Bud B to dbudman.
My name has always been debudman, but someone had it here.

-peace-

Well Day 12..
No sign of roots yet
Opened dome, sprayed 3-4 shots of water mist on top and recovered.
Plants still looking ok though so that is a good sign.
Today I will go try to pickup some superthrive for my next try.

imbroken said:

the recommended feeding of CloneX.

Click to expand...

LOL, I use the same exact stuff right down to the root riot cubes(?) in your pic. I only have one question... what is the recommended dosage for soaking a medium in cloneX? (bottle doesn't say)