Ok so my first attempt at cloning ill admit I was winging it. And although roots were growing slow it was going good for a week as my clippings were still very healthy looking. I had 4 clippings in 2 bottles of Arrowhead water with a drop of Superthrive in each. As I said though root growth was just starting to pop through after 7 days and I wanted quicker results. Someone told me that the roots were prob just sucking the water up and that's why roots didn't feel they needed to grow and they mentioned about ultrasonic foggers. I thought it'd make a cool project so I bought this one at the local pet store and quickly built a rig. They were in there new home for a day+ and doing fine but then that same someone told me keeping the water level as low as possible would create more fog. Boy if the saying it ain't broke don't fix it was ever true this was a time to abide by it but nope, instead I went and lowered the water level then left home for 24 hours and came back to find all 4 of my clones dead (pics of my rig w/ dead clones in it below) The fogger was still on when I came home but fog production was almost nonexistent and the stems only an inch away from the water level were dry as a bone. I added water and bam fog was pumping again. Oh well ya live and ya learn. I shouldn't have left um unattended like that Anywayz the mothers I got the initial clippings from have been in 12/12 for 2 weeks now and I've got to pull more clones from them so I've got a few questions. 1) Can I pull clone clippings from moms in 12/12? 2) Assuming I can do the above how best can I use the ultrasonic fogger? 3) Again assuming I can do #1 should I take the new clippings from the 12/12 there in now to 18/6 then 24/0 or go straight to 24/0? 4) As for ferts I only have MG veg nute 24-8-16, Superthrive, Sensi Bloom part A&B flowering nutes, and a bottle of Fox Farm Big Bloom. So what concoction and at what strength would you all recommend for the fog water to kick my 2nd patch of clones to come here into high gear? 5) At what temp should the water be at? Cuz I've noticed with the fogger unit in there it keeps it pretty warm.
Heres some information I dug up that might help: source: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/130897-new-guy-question-site-set-up-9.html source: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4911866.html EDITORS NOTE: 1.6mhz is the same specification as 1.7 because all foggers are rated at 1.7mhz +/- 40 khz, which is why some are rated 1.6. this means that all foggers labeled 1.6 OR 1.7 have essentially the same output. source: http://cgi.ebay.com/20mm-Float-Mist...9QQihZ010QQcategoryZ20569QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem source: http://www.fountainology.com/aaccess1.html ^^ I personally infer this all to mean that in order to have a perfect ultrasonic fogger cloner, there are a few general tricks. a: the more mist, the better, as the plants thrive on a lot of mist. b: make sure the mist dosn't escape the container, as the foger uses up to 300ml (~10oz) in one hour, so you could run low on water and drown your plants. c: make sure you get a floater, or make sure the fogger is at an optimal depth for fog production. (1 inch. Or at least make sure it is deep enough that it wont use all the water up by the time you can fill it again.) I hope this helps you.
yes, but do it as soon as possible, i havent really done it after there are buds formed, might be too stressful. cut at a 45* angle, and add lots of "gill" cuts for new root sites, if you have rooting powder it doesnt hurt here, or just toss it strait into a 6-7ph super low PPM water with a lil superthrive, maybe some hormex later on, a pinch of epsom salt is always good. toss em strait to 24/0, but cut em soon, the longer you wait the more stressful it is (hermie's suck btw..) what ever seems right, I wouldnt go over 500 PPM though, and cut those net baskets a LOT so you can salvage as much roostructure as possible for the transplant ( i mean cut a LOT) your clones will grow a massive rootball very quickly and veg extreamly fast even with just 4 store purchased floro tubes Warmer is better, warm water promotes growth, make sure you add some h202 if it gets nasty in there, and always always!!!! keep the water level as high as possible (like an inch below the netpots) so the fog is super dense at your cut sites, later on its good to leave an air gap so the roots are susspended in fog. have fun!
Thanks mordgrow, I appreicate ya getting back to me so fast. I took 4 more clippings last night, one from each plant, and although they looked a lil peaked at first there looking good now 24 hours later. I've got um in the fogger with just water and a drop of Superthrive. No root anything showing yet but hopefully soon
Ok so just to lay this out for you all I've got my clone fogger and the new set of 4 clones in it in a computer case to hide it when I'm not home. I've got four 23watt CFL's on 24/0 in there as well. I know it gets hot in there even though I've got two 80mm fans venting air so just now I decided to take the temp of the water to see HOW hot,.. which like I said earlier the fogger device in it makes really really warm,.. and its 117F!!! It's 84F in my room right now just to give you an idea of how much hotter the water gets. The leaves on the clones are green and not wilting but holy fuck man!
holy shit... 117? thats crazy. once i fell in a hot tub wit 115F water and had first degree burns on my back and my legs. i salvaged my dick
So 1 of the 4 clones was looking pretty peaked this afternoon at lunch. The leaves were wilted and after further inspection it's stem looked like it was pinched off about 1/2" up from the tip where I cut it on a 45*. To try and save it I snipped it above the pinch, which looked like a bottleneck in the stem to me, but it didn't save it as you can see from the pics. I don't know what the hell the problem is but i feel its going to happen to the other 3 as well in time, no matter how good there top half looks. Even though the fog is so thick it bellows out when I lift the lid and the roots are dripping also when I do so you can see in the picture the stem tips are all brown and that one on the left is starting to pinch off like the one that died. I'll be impressed if roots grow from that. Think the hot water is to blame?
I think that hot water may be harming your plants.... I would find a way to either take the top off completely so the heat isnt trapped or find a palce where you can put it and have a taller box.
Ya I was thinking a deeper tub might be the way to go but would the fog still be dense enough that far away and would the heat still reach the same temp around the roots since heat rises is the question...
well with a little work i got the heat down some,.. i was at about 85F in the fog,.. the water temp itself was 94. Couldn't save the remaining 3 clones though they were just in that heat for too long. I don't think I have the heart to clip 4 more bud spots, and the risk of the going hermi on me is even greater now that I'm another week into 12/12 I would suspect Guess ill just buy some more seeds!
damn kid, that shit is hot. you need to get that shit down to about 68 deg F have you ever seen the Nutramist fogger? it is basically the same as what you got except its not an in-tank fogger. you hook up a feed line from a reservoir, and let it drain into the fogger unit, then it blows the fog through a hose to the grow table or whatever you have the plants in. another good thing bout the nutramist is, the little heads that vibrate are coated in teflon, so if you use it with nutrients in your water, it will help reduce the build up of salt causing them to prematurely fail. i'm going to try a grow from clone/seed to finish only using a fogger.