I'm About to Give Up on Cloning

Make sure you cut them below your node about a half inch or so,thats where your roots start at

Mr.Therapy Man 2 said:

Make sure you cut them below your node about a half inch or so,thats where your roots start at

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Ok It seems my technique is all wrong, I'll post some pics of the cloner and make a list of the things I currently do. I'm fucking it up! now I know for sure. Brb

Cloning always seems to end up so complicated for people. Lots of additives and this and that.

I soak my rockwool in ph'ed water, cut my clone, dunk in out of date gel, pop in rockwool and leave in the heated propogator for a week or so checking it each day to add a touch of plain ph'ed water. Other than the cloning gel, no other chemicals involved, as there's simply and completely no need. Even the cloning gel's requirement can be debated.

Ok so here's what I do.

1.- Prep the mothers: I don't know how to simply low N. I'm trying AN sensi Formula for this batch so I just give them plain RO water a week before. Grow slows dramatically so I know N levels are low by the time I take the cuttings.
2.- Clean everything with H2o2 and bleach, I let my system run at leas 6 hours in that solution, rinse, and let it run another 6 hours with plain water. The netpots and the neoprene are floating inside during this process.
3.- I Fill the tote with water, add 10ml/quart as indicated in the bottle of Clonex Rooting solution plus 6ml of H2O2 since the tub holds 2 gallons.
4.- Got a really nice set of steel hair cutting sizzles. I use ER products to sterilize it in every cut, the whole thing looks like a cirgury.
5.- I take some rootech cloning gel from the container and fill a tequila shot cup with it and a small glass of plain RO water to dip the branch after it's cut.
6.- The action begins: I take the cut 3 nodes bellow the growing tip and immediately place it in the cup of plain RO water. I tweak it for 1 minute to prevent embolism, and roll off the last node leaves making sure some of the membrane is being ripped off. then it's put in the cloning gel for 30 seconds and while in there I put the neoprene disk and move it right into the cloner.
8.- I barely spray them as there's no apparent wilting so I thought it wasn't necessary. I also never use an humidity dome because I read that you don't have to if cloning the DWC or aeroponic way.
9.- I check the stems daily for changes. So far I'm seeing a white membrane making a small ring around the stem, also, in the 45 cut, there are some visible white spots. Perhaps I got it right this time...
10.- I start at PH 5.6, so far it's upped to 5.9 as it normally would and no correction has been made so far in that matter.
11.- I sit and wait for no roots to come.

Sorry about the low-q pics, I'll get you better ones soon. Thanks a million for all your help

Here is what I learned from my friend's Polish mom's old school way of cloning...

take the clone with a sharp instrument, cutting at 45 degree angle, leaving at least 3 nodes on the clone. (I immediately dip the clone in clone gel, but Polish mom often hides the flower cuttings in her purse till she gets home). Fill a cup of your choice with water high enough to cover a node or 2. Put clone in water. Leave clone for 2-4 weeks. You will have roots by then.

Oh, and i hereby call bollocks on the requirement of everything being sterile. Never cleaned or sterilized anything in my grow since i started a few years back. Still take my clones with a rusty old stanley knife blade, they do just dandy

My cloning habits are filthy but I still get 23 for 25 on a regular basis.

bro...youre doing WAY too much...take the cutting...make a 45˚ cut on the end of the stem. shave some skin of the tip where you made the cut..dip in rooting gel. put in rapid rooter. place clone with rooter plug in dome. put fluorescent tube on top of dome, and mist with r/o water..no other bs. place tray on heat pad, cover with dome..and BAM! 100% everytime.

i see all these noobs trying these advanced methods and constantly failing. hell...ive even placed cuttings in a cup of water(like a bouquet of flowers), and in three weeks i had roots on some of them.. and it was tap nasty ass water too. stop over doing things, and you'll see how easy it is.

Also, most people dont know this but fertilizer can affect the success rate of cloning. If your plant are being heavily fetilized before you take the clones you should flush first. Flush your plants for two-three days before you plan on taking clone. Otherwise id say your adding to much stuff to the water, and that your being a bit impatient. Dont give up. Grow a shwag plant you can practice on if you have to, that's how i learned.

Roots Excelurator, or GH Rapid Start, and reduce the ppm's of the Clonex solution by half. No peroxide. Just add water. Keep your temps in the mid 70's, you should be golden.

shnkrmn said:

My cloning habits are filthy but I still get 23 for 25 on a regular basis.

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I agree shnkrmn. I clone in a homemade bubble cloner. Not at all a sterile environment. But I get a 90% propagation. All you need is water at the proper ph and a little hydrogen peroxide (1 cap per liter) and leave them. I do
split the stem about 3 mil up before I dip it in cloning powder.

Ok so I built the aerocloner.. I used a gray rubbermaid tub, Should've got the blue one as the rooting zone was far from light tight.. Of course I failed again... Gonna try reusing the cuts and try again in a new cloner I'm working on.. btw. >>>> DO I NEED AN HUMIDITY DOME?<<< yes or no.

SmokeyMcSmokester said:

bro...youre doing WAY too much...take the cutting...make a 45&#730; cut on the end of the stem. shave some skin of the tip where you made the cut..dip in rooting gel. put in rapid rooter. place clone with rooter plug in dome. put fluorescent tube on top of dome, and mist with r/o water..no other bs. place tray on heat pad, cover with dome..and BAM! 100% everytime.

i see all these noobs trying these advanced methods and constantly failing. hell...ive even placed cuttings in a cup of water(like a bouquet of flowers), and in three weeks i had roots on some of them.. and it was tap nasty ass water too. stop over doing things, and you'll see how easy it is.

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Smokey is absolutely right...try rapid rooters, they work great. I don't even use any cloning gel or powders anymore, just RO water to keep 'em moist for 7-14 days in a warm (70-80 deg) space with one 26w cfl over top. Haven't had one failure out of 27 attempts so far, with five different strains. Hell, I have more clones than I can use right now - I just hate throwing away perfectly good cuttings from when I top my plants.

Rapid rooters are on their way but it'll take them at least two weeks to get here...I don't use them because I have to learn to do it with local supplies which are very very limited.

masp84 said:

Rapid rooters are on their way but it'll take them at least two weeks to get here...I don't use them because I have to learn to do it with local supplies which are very very limited.

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Gotcha. When you do get 'em, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how well they work. As long as you're cutting at the right place (maybe a quarter or half inch below a node), it should work just fine. I've used rockwool cubes with limited success (usually worked, but not always) and a diy bubble-cloner (good success, but more complicated), and I found RR plugs to be the easiest and most reliable so far. Unlike rockwool, they have just the right structure and "spongy-ness" to maintain the necessary air-pockets and retain enough water to give roots a chance to form and grow. If you keep your cuttings in some kind of humidity chamber (pics of my setup below), you should only have to "spritz" 'em with water every couple of days just to keep 'em moist



fyi, the 7-14 days is just the time it takes for me to see roots popping out of the plugs. No doubt the roots start forming earlier, but you can't really tell (unless maybe you tore one apart just to check).

Good luck, and hope it works out for ya like I think it will.

Ya know, I read everything you are doing and I agree rapid rooters work great but I think your problem may have been the bleach.
I know everyone says sterilize everything but honestly I never do it and have never had a problem. I wash out with plain water.

Good thing about those rooter cubes, you can tell how moist it is inside the cube by the color of the outside.
With Rapid rooters and clonex you can root a popsicle stick.

Here are a couple shots from my LEDT5/400w journal where I go over cloning with them. (link in sig)



Be sure to split the cube about half way down to make room for the cutting and have something to hold it together afterward.

BTW, this isn't MY technique. Here's a link to the thread where I stole the ideas from (https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-o...g-subcool-redundant-explanation-pictures.html). Def wanna give credit where credit is due. You might find some useful info in there.

xebeche said:

BTW, this isn't MY technique. Here's a link to the thread where I stole the ideas from (https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-o...g-subcool-redundant-explanation-pictures.html). Def wanna give credit where credit is due. You might find some useful info in there.

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I tried it one time with oasis but I got mold..Chopping it into little cubes works better but I've never tried it. Although I'm doing the rapid rooter way, I don't wanna rely my method on them since the only way to get them is shipping from the US

I have also been told that I have to be wary of the moon's cycle. that there's a special period for plants to be more likely to grow roots

I had similar problems cloning, My problem was my tap water. I read that you are using ro. I would recommend using spring water for cloning. It's .89 cents a gal, what can it hurt to try it. All , i had to do was switch my water and I have had no problems since.

masp84 said:

I tried it one time with oasis but I got mold..Chopping it into little cubes works better but I've never tried it. Although I'm doing the rapid rooter way, I don't wanna rely my method on them since the only way to get them is shipping from the US

I have also been told that I have to be wary of the moon's cycle. that there's a special period for plants to be more likely to grow roots

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I see. Well, maybe just order a couple of bags at one time. I think there's 50/bag, so could last a pretty long time depending on how many you do each time. I've had a bag stored in my garage for probly six months now with no reduction in efficacy.

I've read that thing about the moon cycles too, but I don't really believe it. I take my cuttings whenever it's time (regardless of what the moon is doing), and haven't noticed any significant difference in rates of root formation from one week (or month) to the next.

btw, forgot to mention: I do lift the lid on the "humidity dome" daily (for a brief period, maybe 10 mins) while they're rooting. It's very possible that mold could start forming if you don't refresh the air occasionally.