A batch of clones in rockwool

True, the 125 is a bit much. I have the two bulb flouros right now and I have the mogul socket fitted with a med base adapter for the mean time. The controler looks pretty good. I was looking at a unit earlier but it was kinda pricey. My veg chamber pretty well holds 60-64 or 5 % all the time. Do you think that would be adequate? The thing I worry about with humidomes is the lack of air movement around the leaves. I would think keeping them(humidome) off allows them to breathe a whole lot easier.

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by 4:21oops

True, the 125 is a bit much. I have the two bulb flouros right now and I have the mogul socket fitted with a med base adapter for the mean time.

Dunno, maybe the 125W CFL might be better used for vegging.

The controler looks pretty good. I was looking at a unit earlier but it was kinda pricey.

I think I paid $AUD40.00 for the tstat. If you live o'seas from Aus, you might pay $5-10 to ship it.

My veg chamber pretty well holds 60-64 or 5 % all the time. Do you think that would be adequate?

Sorry, did you mean 60-64F @ 5% RH?

Too cool. My clonebox thermostat is set for 26C (78.8F).

The thing I worry about with humidomes is the lack of air movement around the leaves. I would think keeping them(humidome) off allows them to breathe a whole lot easier.

Agreed. The cuttings came off a mature mother plant which was quite accustomed to good air motion and ability to transpire water due to reasonable RH (bout 50-60% in my mother area). A humidome would slow or stop transpiration, not necessary if the water can come up the stem. Encouraging water transpiration through the plant would reasonably encourage the formation of roots, too.

lts always fun to improvise. Heres a link to my new pics. In there you will be two or my veg chamber with some explanations in there. I think these new cheap fans going around are great! You can put them right where you need em.


http://forum.grasscity.com/photopost...&catp=pipdamem

No, about the temps in there. I meant 60 to 65 % RH. My ambient temps run about 74-78 F

[Al B. Fuct]

74-78 @ 60-65% is fine

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

74-78 @ 60-65% is fine

That ought to work just fine then. Thank you

[Al B. Fuct]

65% is as high as you should ever let it go. That's already pushing the limit for conditions favouring powdery mildew. Clones and vegging plants can tolerate a little higher humidity than flowering plants, but keep your eyes peeled for 'dusty' leaves.

Flowering areas should be kept under 50% RH and should have lots of air circulation to prevent bud mould.

[urgr8estfear]

No butt rot or Ul B. Fuctupdiaz.

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

65% is as high as you should ever let it go. That's already pushing the limit for conditions favouring powdery mildew. Clones and vegging plants can tolerate a little higher humidity than flowering plants, but keep your eyes peeled for 'dusty' leaves.

Flowering areas should be kept under 50% RH and should have lots of air circulation to prevent bud mould.

Thanks Al, I hear ya about the 50% on the flower room too.

Al, how goes it? Wanted to ask you how you keep your cuttings from falling over on themselves. I have a feeling that when I take my cuttings they are going to be too top heavy. How do you get around this or should I come up with some kind of grid for support? Thanx

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by 4:21oops

Al, how goes it? Wanted to ask you how you keep your cuttings from falling over on themselves. I have a feeling that when I take my cuttings they are going to be too top heavy. How do you get around this or should I come up with some kind of grid for support? Thanx

They lean against each other. 30 cuttings pretty well fills up the floorspace in the clonebox, so they are crowding a bit. Not a problem at this stage.

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

They lean against each other. 30 cuttings pretty well fills up the floorspace in the clonebox, so they are crowding a bit. Not a problem at this stage.

Yes, that makes sense..

[Todd324]

that is looking great, i cant wait to try cloning
unfortunetely my plant isnt big enough for cloning quite yet

[OmEGaGuy99]

Ya the cubes work better for me and its a fast process and quick results! nice post.

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

One thing I should mention is that the watering interval for different growers will invariably be different depending upon their particular clonebox conditions.

It has been a little cool here recently, so I just added a small fan to my clonebox to circulate warm air coming off the fluoro ballasts. The fan is a cheapo 100mm desktop fan, fixed in place above the fluoros, blowing air upward, away from the plants. However, the air still bounces off the interior top of the clonebox and makes its way down to the clones.

This fan has sped up the evaporation rate from the cubes dramatically. I checked them yesterday morning to find that 4 clones had wilted. Thankfully, they didn't totally collapse and were recoverable.

I normally water clones 1x day by dipping only the bottom 1/3 of the cube into the clone watering solution for 2-3 seconds. I've taken to dunking the whole cube now.

Without the thermostatic exhaust fan control (set to 26.5C), the 30C fixed-temp heatmat and now the circ fan which have combined to make for a high evaporation rate in the clonebox, dunking the cubes fully would quickly cause overwatering symptoms.

When setting up a new clonebox, one should wet some cubes, weigh them and run them (without any clones in them) in the clonebox for a few days until you get a good feel for how fast cubes will dry out in your particular conditions. Ideally, you're looking to have about 1/4-1/3 of the water weight remaining after 24 hours. If things dry out too fast but temps are still right, you may have to water more lightly but twice a day.

Keep in mind that once clones have developed a bunch of roots, they will suck up much more water than before they had set root. Check them at least a couple times a day.

If you must 'idle' rooted clones until you have space available for them, you may wish to shut off the heat mat and turn the air thermostat down a few degrees to slow them down a little. Clones work best when 'fresh,' though, and should be planted into growing media after several taproots are showing but before roots are overdeveloped.

Big Al, I was wanting to ask about the medium you have your donors in. What is it? How often do you water? Is it set up on automatic? Looks to be flakes of rockwool...Just curious. I'm getting closer to cutting day. They need to stretch some more. If I took cuttings now they would be pretty short and skinny. Peace