Help refining my cloning technique

...just as yourself, I've tried every technique when it comes to cutting clones. With those rockwool cubes, I found it best to presoak them in 5.0 filtered water over night. After the presoak, I place the rockwool under a humidity dome and on a seedling heating pad. I let the cubes warm-up, then I take the cuttings one by one, dipping them into rooting hormone gel before planting into the cubes. I mist only the dome 2-3 times a day keeping the humidity as high as possible for the first week or so. I remove the dome 1-2 times daily also to exchange new air. To check when to water, use an extra cube and water it as you water your babbies. ( if you can squeeze one drop of water out of your extra cube don't water) After 2-3 weeks, you should have a pretty good success rate.


...however, for best results, use an ezcloner (aeroponics).
I use dechlorinized tap water, pH'd @ 6.0, no rooting hormones, no chemicals...simple tap and I get 100% everytime, always. View post #2 in my grow journal >>> http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...ty-starting-journal-10-strains-many-pics.html

 

I will give you my ghetto cloning process that has a 98% success rate. There are many different ways but this works for me.

Things needed:
1) 20-30 gallon aquarium
2) rooting compound
3) one air pump
4) A piece of styrofoam
5) tank heater
6) Pot plants to clone off of obviously

First fill the aquarium with water. Put the tank heater and air pump into the filled tank. Take your piece of styrofoam,about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and cut it to the dimensions of the aquarium so that it fits inside the aquarium. It floats on the water in the tank. Poke holes in the styrofoam so you can put the stem of your clone right through the hole. The top of the clone i.e. leafy section rests on top of the styrofoam. The stem is submerged in the water on the underside of the styrofoam. Do all of your normal dipping in your cloning solution before you put the clone into its styrofoam hole. I lay my floros on top of the tank and run them at 19 on and 5 off. My water is normally around 70 degrees. After about 7-10 days you should start seeing roots off of your clones. I then put the clones into small 1 inch grodan blocks and then put that 1 inch block into the 3-4 inch block. Put that block under floros in your regular system and they will start growing immediately.

I have been experimenting with one thing different now which seems to work a bit better. Normally I just use Olivia's cloning gel on the clone but I have now started using clonex. Clonex is way more than Olivias in cost but I dip my clone in Clonex and after I'm done puting the clones in the styrofoam I pour some clonex directly into the water which creates a soapy bubbly look on top of the water. Olivias just sinks to the bottom of the tank and lays there in a glob.

In regular stoner fashion I also forgot to mention that I wrap duct tape around all the glass of the aquarium to seal light off from the sides of the tank.

Depending on what type of cloning gel you buy the whole setup is around 100-130 bucks total. I like it because it is very low maintenance once the clones are in the foam. Just check the water about once a week and if its low fill it but many times I don't have to do anything until the clones have rooted. My success rate is awesome and you can start a ton of clones in the tank.

Just my preference and very low maintenance. I have cloned about every way possible and this has worked so much better for me and faster than anything else. Hope this helped

 

i have tried 3 different methods from 1 plant and have had 100% success without any rooting hormones, or a heated trey, or anything special really. i've put them in a 2 liter cut in half (ghetto humidity dome) with perlite and a little water, within a week i had roots from 2 clones.

i've also build an aero bucket for them. this method took almost 3 1/2 weeks for the last one to root, but it did. the bucket had plain tap water (no nutes, or rooting gel), after 3 1/2 weeks i was 4 for 4. 3 took in root in 2 weeks...the last was a small cut but it did root. this method did not have a humidity dome, or anything of the sort.

the latest method was a humidity trey, an island of perlite in the trey and some rockwool cubes. i did not adjust the water to 5.5 before putting my clones in it. i did let the cubes soak in my tap water (ph 7.05) for 3 -4 hrs before putting my cuttings in it. i then put them in the trey and within 1 week all 4 clones have shown roots. again no rooting hormone was used. i have some rootech i haven't needed any yet.

i placed all of my clones under 1 26w cfl in a closet where them temp rarely gets below 80.

patience is probably the biggest thing. also, make sure you change out their water weekly. you can keep cloning a flowering mother, although rooting may take a little longer. another thing to consider, is genetics. some are a bitch to clone, and some take to certain methods better than others. i figured my aero bucket would be the fastest, in reality, it was the slowest but still effective.

 

I had sketchy at best results when I 1st started cloning, I read many times "even beginners have almost a 90% success rate" in several books,
in the beginning I had a higher success rate, it seemed every batch the numbers got worse to almost 0 success rate.
I built a Rumple Bucket with out any better results, that made me decide to go back to the beginning when I had the best numbers, back to rock wool & the dome.
I prep the rock wool soaking for 30min in 5.5-6.0 water & then rinsing with 6.0.
I cleaned the dome and do so now at least once every other week or month, take twice as many cutting as I need, if I keep getting good numbers I may not need to keep doing this, drain & water with 6.0 R/O & super thrive everyday, in the beginning I had no idea of
how often to drain & water, sometimes I would go 3 days.
I cut them to around 6"ss and split the bottom to expose the cambria (sp), use cloning gel-Clonex and then stab them into the rock wool.
I use 3x3 cubes and put 6-9 cuttings in each.
Use 7.0 water to spritz as often as I'm around them, I recently started using Seaplex to spritz with, its to soon to tell what effect its having, around 7-10 days I may add botanicare/bloom to the clone water for watering with.
Heat pad at 80^, 68w lights of America CFL porch light, I usually see roots around day 21, I recently had cuttings root from a month old plant in 11 days and t-planted around 14 days and are looking good in the veg box, this is a record for me .
I used to think it wasn't as important to trim the leaves down to 2-sets cut in half, I think it is important to keep trimmed back and cut away the older yellowing leaves if new healthier ones grow out of the clone,
there is a recommended carb feeding days before taking cuttings, I've never done this.
I definitely noticed my numbers increased when I started watering only with 6.0 water, before this I would use 7.0 because I had it and was to lazy to p/h it down to 6.0, reduce the R/H as they get older, 7 days plus.
I've been in one large clone room and the thing that stood out was the air circulation, it was a 5x8 room and all the walls were racked with clone domes and they had 5 oscillating fans running.
I made cloning the most important project for a few months, sometimes just practicing taking cuttings & prepping them, I now have a dedicated "box of tools" & what not for cloning, thats another issue being prepared when you sit down to make clones is important to me, having everything with in arms reach makes a big difference.
Spray the clones for S/M every 3-7 days, even if you don't see any signs, I think sometimes S/M are working on your clones and sapping them of there energy before you can see them with you eyes, my over all clone yellowing decreased when I became more S/M pro-active.
I hope this helps, I'm sure you know most or all of this, but sometimes we forget the basics.
K.I.S.S.
Seymor Skagneti

 

how about some pics? here's the island method...pretty simple. just a trey with a dome, a little perlite, water, and a rockwool cube. the water hasn't been changed (a week and 1/2 - 2 weeks old now), no nutes in the water and no rooting hormone either. 2 clones have already been set into the veg. cab (3 days ago). pretty cheap and effective. i didn't ph down the rockwool cube to 5.5, it is very acidic as it is. i let the cube soak in tap water for a few hours to bring the ph up a bit (they go to soil, so ph'ing for hydro is pointless imo). i don't cut leaves either, but i have. some yellow at the cut, some don't. some that don't get cut don't yellow at all. i've had different results with every method i've tried.

i also have pics of a simple aero bucket if you'd like to see those. 100% success with it as well.

 

I started out using jiffy pellets but had very lil luck with them so I switched to rockwool cudes and schlutz rooting hormone (powder from walmart).. Now I have a 100% success rate.. I also use to open the dome and spray down the clones 5 or 6 times a day which only lead to alot of mold problems but after several rounds of trial and error I found the answer to be simple.. Leave them the hell alone LOL.. First I soak my cubes in ph 5.5 distilled water with a drop of peroxide for about 30 minutes (make sure to squeeze out any excess water) then I take my cuttings at about a 45 degree angle place it in the rooting hormone then straight to the cube.. Once the clone is in the dome I only open the dome once in the morning tho spray them down and once before bed.. After you spray them down you simply pick up the cube and give it a light squeeze to release any exccess water.. Within 12 days you'll have a fully rooted clone.. The only other thing I can say is be patient.. Some plants take a lil longer to clone than others.. I have on several occasions ripped out a clone I thought to be a dud only to find roots.. Good luck!!!

 

I was told this is the best cloning solution on the market. I am currently using it:

Dip' N Grow

Supposedly 7 days fully rooted, Im on day two, I'll let you know what happens.

 

i wasted $17 on some rooting hormone that i haven't used or needed...to each their own i guess. keep trying things until you find an easy and reliable method and stick with it. it shouldn't be hard, if it was, i'd have quit growing by now. it shouldn't be complicated unless you are trying your hand at grafting, or cloning without removing a branch. simplicity and time can be your friends when it comes to cloning. just be patient most of all.

 

Are you cloning from a mother from seed or from clone?
Just wondering for ref.
Regards,
S.S.

 

Very good advise
I find the mold or green algae only happened when I used 7.0 P/H water, which I still use in my spritz bottle, watering with 6.0-6.5 seems to suppress the green algae and even makes it go away, I still get it and use H2O2 and a small 2" paint brush to apply by dabbing onto the green algae areas.
It drives me crazy when I read people getting roots in a week or so, thats my goal.
Some people never use any rooting gel and some folks just drop cuttings into a glass of water for a week or so & get roots, go figure.
Regards,
S.S.

 

i cloned mine from a mother that was grown from seed, that is now being flowered.

 

They say it shouldn't matter, I'm just curious.
One more thing I just remembered, I get better results with the more clones I have in the dome vs. having 6 or so, the fewer the lower the success rate vs. having 20 or so & getting 18 good rooted clones, might be nothing just an observation.
This last batch I had 2-cubes of 9 clones, same strain one cube from a month old plant and the other from a year old re-veg mother, the month old plant clones took off fast and the year old re-veg seemed to be almost keeping up, I removed & t-planted the stronger ones and a few days later the year old re-veg clones seemed to have lost its vigor, roots seemed to loose some size and slowed down, it seemed like it was getting something from the cube of stronger clones next to it until I removed them, just an observation.
I'm done rambling, thans for putting up with me.
Regards,
S.S.

 

here's my "aero" bucket...... just 2 buckets, an air pump, an air stone, and a gardeners kneeling pad. i recommend either dark buckets, or light proofing the bottom bucket, and the inside (bottom) of the top bucket so no light can reach the roots. i neglected to do this and set them back a week i think. after i taped it all up roots began to show in as little as 5 days. cut your pads a little bigger than your holes in the bucket so the pads won't fall through and will be snug enough to support the stem/top.


yes the rockwool is just sitting on top of the perlite. the rockwool acts as a wick sucking up the water the perlite is in. hence the "island" of perlite . i haven't misted, changed the water, or otherwise touched them, except to see if there are roots in either set up. just plain ole tap water, and time.

 

i put the stems about 1-2" into the water. it's just the air pump, stone and water. i don't slice up the bottom of the stem to form a Y, as some do. i did try to make cuts into the sides of the stem once but that didn't work. when i cut the nicks out, they rooted pretty quickly.

the buckets are sitting on top of one another. i have put screws in the buckets to keep enough distance between the buckets (when on top of each other) to not pinch the air tube. that's about it.

the neoprene knee pad was the most expensive part of the set up @ $12....go figure.

you could make this set up as small as a tissue box if you wanted to and it will work.