Preparing for cloning

I want to make a hospitable place for my future clones to grow roots. I'm imagining a 1.5'x1'x1' dome (or somewhere around there). I figured i mount a few, maybe 3-4 primitive fixtures for E27 sockets lightbulbs, and put in, say 23W 5600K lightbulbs in them. Does that sound about right?

Also, as i have space limitations, would it be ok to just clone my plants before starting the flowering process, instead of keeping a motherplant? I think she would require more space than i can offer atm.

I've seen a few guides on cloning, and wonder about the soil to clone in, should it be wet, or watered after the clone is placed, or is it enough to simply just misting the dome?

Try rockwool or perlite/verm mix instead of soil. Have the medium damp not wet/saturated when planting cuttings, clean and sterilize everything.

i use things called peat pellets they work brilliant, also the best thing you could buy for clones is a heated propagator, place the peat pellets in water until they expand then repoke the hole into it, take your cutting with a clean razor blade then dip clone straight into the rooting gel then place into the peat pellet, once youve done this get some scisors and cut the leaves so theres about a quarter in lengh left, then straight into propagator , mist them once a day and leave the lid off for 5-10 mins to replace with fresh air, don't do anything else to them like touch or see if roots are forming and within 7-10 days the roots will be poking through the pellets, good luck

Well the idea was to use a soil mixed with perlite, both for the plants and the clones. Isn't it ideal for the plants to have the same medium to grow in troughout its life to avoid stress? I've already bought a can of clonex, and i'm pretty familiar with the procedure as ROBSTERB describes it.

Look up on this site "cloning in a cup of water" looks and sounds like the easiest way and 100% success rate apparently

I second the "cloning in a cup of water" technique. Tried it once and had a 100% success rate as well. My set-up was really simple and cheap. The container was a 12 oz styro-foam cup cut down to about 3-4 inches above the base (cup height is subjective to cuttings and not too important as long a you fill the cup with enough water to submerge stems). I then wrapped the cup with black electrical tape to make it light proof (and also duct taped the bottom to avoid any leakage from accidental pokes by my syringe while aerating the water). Lastly I fashioned a top out of cardboard and poked a few small holes for the cuttings. (Keep in mind you will have to cut the stem out from the cardboard top once roots develop. Otherwise, pulling out the stem will damage the roots and/or making a large hole for cuttings will allow light to leak into the cup.) Once finished I placed the cup, with cuttings and all, on my window sill (facing east, so the cuttings only got a couple hours of direct sun light). I've read others say you don't want direct sun light, but in my experience, I don't think it matters. Anyways, the most important part is to make sure you aerate the water every day. I used a 20ml syringe to accomplish this; worked really well by sucking up the water and injecting it at a high speed back into the cup. Some stems take a little longer to root than others but they will all root given enough time. One week into the rooting process I added a drop of nute solution; don't know if this helped but the cuttings stayed green through out the whole ordeal.

No rooting hormone gel, rockwool, or humidity dome was needed, just pure aerated water, properly cut stems and time did the trick....

Thats the method i'll be using just for the simple fact its cheap to put together and the ease of the process as long as you follow all the steps perfectly in the "cloning in a cup of water"thread

ROBSTERB said:

get some scisors and cut the leaves so theres about a quarter in lengh left,

Click to expand...

I dont do much cloning but when i do i have never done that

but iv seen a lot of people who do

why cut the leaves ? what does that do when you do it

im not disagreeing with you

im just curious on the matter and what benefits it has

goten said:

I dont do much cloning but when i do i have never done that

but iv seen a lot of people who do

why cut the leaves ? what does that do when you do it

im not disagreeing with you

im just curious on the matter and what benefits it has

Click to expand...

It focuses the cutting on growing roots.

I use Coco to clone into ( and grow ) I use small net pots and fill them with Coco , Water them with PH balanced water (5.7) and half a mil of Rhizotonic ....Just a light water not soaked ...I try and water just the center of the pot and leave the surrounding Coco dry.. this allows oxygen close to the stem ( new roots )

I then put the pots with the Coco into a prop over night to get the Coco temp up ready to drop the clones in .

You don't need to have your lights close to the prop ...12 - 15 inches works for me , Don't allow the inside of the prop to get to hot or your clones will wilt ...mild warmth is all you need .

Trimming the tips from the fan leaves sends a signal to the clone to promote root growth .. just the tips is all you need to take off.

Never over water new clones as you will drown the new roots and starve them of oxygen .

I use a raised wire rack that raises the net pot to allow air to pass all round and under the pot .

Don't play with the pots ...let the clones do what they do

Hope some of that helps

Ok, that sounds simple to just put it in a cup, but what about the roots being exposed to light, that can't be good, can it? And how would you plant it in soil or whatever medium you use when the roots are just hanging loose there?

Also, about the required light amount, is there any rule of thumb i can go by to get this about right?

If you read the thread it explains it all follow all the step perfectly and you shouldnt have a problem, roots start with a little white bumps when you see them you can put it in your medium and use a dark cup to block the light

Cloning in a Cup of Water
Felt like I needed to expand on this subject considering other growers have begun to do this purely on my rants and raves on exactly how simple this method actually is!

First U cut the plant in the desired location.I prefer the Tops of the plants themselves(Topping).If U cut the stem be sure to leave at least one node for future growth on the stem.(Future Cloning) Or future (Bud sites)

Second Be sure to cut @ a 45 degree angle with a SHARP clean knife, shears or razor. I used a pearing knife for awhile.

Third Be sure to have a cup of water handy to place the cutting in directly upon cutting. Its Best to cut in water so air does not enter the main cutting stalk.

Fourth Scraping. This is done quickly. U want to scrape at least the bottom 1/2 inch "SKIN" off the bottom of of the main stalk of ur cutting.
THIS means removing only the OUTSIDE layer of green "SKIN".GENTLY. Just be carefull.

Fifth U can place these cuttings directly in the cup of water. Although ive been experimenting with dipping them in rooting hormone and superthrive ive had awesome results in just placing them in plain water.TAP WATER.

Sixth Cloning medium. This consists of the cup and the water. I cut my cups.( I use regular red plastic party cups found everywhere !)I cut the cups to size to be sufficient enuff to brace the tops of the cuttings (SIZE of cuttings).Meaning, the upper fan leaves dwell on the top of the cut cup.

Seventh This is the last step. WATER LEVEL IN CUP. I put enuff water in my cup to completely cover the area which I scraped. Usaully 1/2 inch to a quarter. THIS water is CHANGED AND WATCHED daily.

Reason being. Cutting drink lots of water sometimes so stay on top keep ur water level consistent. Changing ur water only enstills U are taking every action neccesary to be sure ur water will not stagnate on ur new babies.

Its that simple hope this clears up things for a few people. Its very simple.

Yeah, i saw that post, but to my logic that procedure sonds more fragile than to just dip it in roothormone and put it in soil or jiffypads. I guess you're right though, i've never done this before, lol.

But what i'm more confused about is the lighting, so please answer me this: how much light would i need? Say the dome is about 1,5ft x 1ft x 1ft, or just the area i'll be having my cuttings in, i guess i'll only have 4-6 cuttings at once. would 4x23w cfl bulbs in a given distace do the jobb, be to much or to little? I have no clue on how much is needed...

I have 1 cutting in water right now trying it out

its the first time iv done it this way

my other cuttings are in perlight/verc

but i do not seem to be having success with the water cloning

at first it seemed ok then the top got drooped over and wilted , so i pinched it off

the only thing that is left is a side node that is still ok so far

i used one of those neoprene inserts to hold it up right in the water

maybe ill try again and see how it goes

but as of now im having better results just using rooting hormone in my cups of perlight/verc

Im not saying this technique does not work

i know it does , iv seen several people do it

i personal am just not having any luck

I havent done that method either but will be in a month or so when im ready. If you follow his method then you would only need a minimal amount of light, so you could have them in the flower room on the floor being shaded by the rest of the plants.

Serial Violator said:

I havent done that method either but will be in a month or so when im ready. If you follow his method then you would only need a minimal amount of light, so you could have them in the flower room on the floor being shaded by the rest of the plants.

Click to expand...

I got them under 26w cfl`s

But when i flower, i'll have a 12/12 cycle. The clones likes 18-24 hours of light, right? I found this post, and based on that, a couple of 23W 5500k bulbs would do (i guess). Then i can get two of those cheap E27 sockets and mount them vertically just above the dome. I also see that this guy from the post is having two vetilation fans, but i don't understand that as the clones are in a airtight box... Maybe his box is multipurpose?

those lights should work fine for you

goten said:

I dont do much cloning but when i do i have never done that

but iv seen a lot of people who do

why cut the leaves ? what does that do when you do it

im not disagreeing with you

im just curious on the matter and what benefits it has

Click to expand...

hi gotten i do it because it was the way i was first shown how to take clones, but iv tried it without cutting the leaves and found that the weight of them seems to pull down on the unrooted clone and i got allot less success, when you cut the leaves the cutting just stands allot straighter and looks allot healthier, ive since found out that by cutting the leaves the cutting cant sweat as much so doesn't loose as much water, also the benefits for people who plant straight into pots it means they can see when there's new growth because the leaves arnt cut.