I suck and I'm venting

cloning has become a bit of a sore spot for me lately.

for years, i had no problem. my method is simple: take a cutting, nip it at 45 degrees underwater, dip it in rooting powder, place it in a dixie cup filled with perlite, put it in a dome under minimal light, wait 3 weeks (gradually opening the dome more and more along the way).

it wasn't the fastest or the best method, but i could usually count on about 80% success rate or higher.

nowadays, i just lose hope. i was getting less than 50% success for a couple of batches, so i switched my medium from perlite to a sand/peat moss mixture. that was a miserable failure. i tried more advanced techniques, such as taking the cutting right where the branch meets the main stem, slicing the tip of the cutting, exposing cambium, and whatnot, just bullshit and more bad luck.

i noticed some mold in the corner of the closet i leave my clones in, so i cleaned that up and thought i was in the clear. nope. the batch that i just put in there after cleaning is already 50% dead due to stem rot after 4 days. the previous patch had 50% success rate with the small patch of mold there.

i should mention that unlike before, when i had higher success, i have been way more careful about sterilizing my tools and myself before starting a batch of clones.

i had a friend of mine come by and try his technique, which is jiffy rooters into a real humidity dome and under a stronger light and a heating pad on at times (and gel instead of powder). had about 50% success on those, but they look much uglier by the time they root. will probably try that method again and see if i can't dial it in more.

i'm about to try rooting into a glass of water in dim, indirect sunlight.

people, tell me what a piece of shit i am and/or give me novel methods of cloning. i will try to root these things in cat food if i have to.

I have had more sucess since I started putting cuttings in the dark for a day after cutting. Then after that under 24/0 light under a few cfl's... nothing special. Sorry to hear about your problems..

Have you tried rapid rooters? Works for me.

Fungus among us. Spray everything with 10% bleach solution, clean it up.

try making a homemade water rooting machine I hade to make one for the winter time cause the temps are to cold in my dome with Rapid rooters and using a heating pad didnt help alot

black 5 gallon bucket & lid
6 neoprene pucks
3 ft 1/2 inch pvc.. 1 tee.. 4 elbows 1 cap glue
submergable pump 250gph (min)
6 full micro nozzels
1 airpump with a airstone

Most strains will root in 7-14 days some sooner some later....ph the water to 6...temps in the 70-80...Change the water every 3 days and you wont have to worry about any slime/bacteria problems

rockwool, water, rusty razor, cannibis plant thats all you need for 100% keep is simple man the more you out think it the harder it becomes. i also recommend building an aero cloner bucket

Keys to rooting are simple: proper temps, proper lighting, proper humidity.

I have a pretty ghetto clone box, but it works real good. I built a small box out of plywood that's 1'x1'x2'. I mounted a 2 foot 2 tube T12 flouro strip on top, and use a ghetto disposable roast tin from safeway with a plastic lid as a dome(around $3 for 3 tins with lids, aka ghetto humidity domes). You don't need a lot of light for clones, and the small box with the flouro tubes inside make it just the right temp without any heating pad. I use rapid rooters and gel. Light on 24/7. Mist with water or a rooting accelerator one a day. Close to 100% success.

I used to use a diy bubble cloner, but found it didn't work as fast or with as high of a % as my current system.

colonuggs said:

try making a homemade water rooting machine I hade to make one for the winter time cause the temps are to cold in my dome with Rapid rooters and using a heating pad didnt help alot

black 5 gallon bucket & lid
6 neoprene pucks
3 ft 1/2 inch pvc.. 1 tee.. 4 elbows 1 cap glue
submergable pump 250gph (min)
6 full micro nozzels
1 airpump with a airstone

Most strains will root in 7-14 days some sooner some later....ph the water to 6...temps in the 70-80...Change the water every 3 days and you wont have to worry about any slime/bacteria problems

Click to expand...

Great idea!!

rollitup said:

Fungus among us. Spray everything with 10% bleach solution, clean it up.

Click to expand...

yeah, i hit up that closet like a madman between batches. and i always clean my dixie cups and bin (which i use for a humidity dome in combination with clear kitchen plastic) with a bleach solution followed by a nice hot bath and some time to dry so there is no bleach residue.

i used to get the occasional stem rot clone, but nowadays i get a ton of them and right away.

it's not like i don't manage to get all the clones i need (i would usually give away half my clones when my success rate was better), but now it is just a nuisance to m confidence as a grower.

i went so far as to look for new cloning methods and found your glass of water method. i'm trying that next, PR.

Hey Buck, I recently started to encounter the same problem as you. I went from 100% clone success rates for years to suddenly my last batch having about a 50% and this last go around was a complete disaster and my cloning percentage was right about 10%.
I tried several batches since then just to see if something I did went wrong, or if I had suddenly changed something in the process without realizing it.
Of all the things required during one cycle of growing -cloning is the most finicky and challenging step. I thought I had it mastered too, but I guess not. I'm just trying to go back to what I know worked for years, and make sure I pay lots of attention to the clones.
I have considered building a DIY cloner recently again though, my first try at it years ago didn't go so well so I only tried it one time.

you know I had the same problem only worse. I use Take Root from Walmart and neveer had a problem. then all of a sudden the sh!t quit working. lost 3 god bud clones and one Monkey paw that all turned yellow and died? No rime or reason.

good to know i am not alone.

finicky fucking clones!

is it a new strain ub or the same old thing you've been running for ages now?

racerboy71 said:

is it a new strain ub or the same old thing you've been running for ages now?

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both.

i have some that i've been cloning for years and some which are newly acquired strains.

not good news unclebuck, do you put some of your clone powder in to a different container to use it and throw what you don't use away ?

unlucky said:

not good news unclebuck, do you put some of your clone powder in to a different container to use it and throw what you don't use away ?

Click to expand...

i used to reuse the old powder in the past, but as i started getting 'unlucky' i converted to using new powder every time.

and your sure its ALL clean 100%

unlucky said:

and your sure its ALL clean 100%

Click to expand...

fresh new bottle of cloning powder.

some strains are just hard to root ime.. i recently tried to root some sour strawberry kush from bog that i had going for like over 3 weeks before i gave up on them, and i just recently got roots on some purple berry diesel in 3 days using the same methods..