Soooo, once again, I'm trying to clone. I REALLY suck at it!!! I have killed at least 3 sets of clones & every seed I've germinated. Obviuosly I'm screwing up. I've read 100's of posts & several books. Tried different things- dang some of you get near 100% success. I go clones from someone else- they were 10 days old & hadn't rooted. I babied them & maybe a week later they took off. Those were the violator kush- The plants produced beatifully. At the same time I aquired blueberry clones- they took FOREVER. In fact I thought they were dead & I took one out & recut it & stuck it back in the oasis. It took like a couple of months more for them to root. wtf? The plants are gorgeous now. I never got a viable cone from the VK- I'm hoping the few shoots that were left after harvest will reveg & give me a little something. I took my first clones from the bb- PLEASE send some good vibes for them to take off!! I cut 3, used rooting POWDER (never used it before) and put in rapid rooters in adome. Grow shop dude says to put them in there (the rooters are well moistened) and don't touch them or the dome for 3 days. Then spray them. I cut them yesterday & haven't screwed with them since. They are a bit wilty- we'll see. I took 3 more today & put them in the neoprene disks with the water spraying from below (brain cramp on the name). Hoping 1 of them will work! My dh is out of town & he always thinks they need to be watered. Hoping that was the former issue. Are these strains exceptionally finicky? I've tried rapid rooters, stg, rockwool. Any ideas blades? The (expensive) seeds that I've tried either haven't germed or when they did- I killed them somehow. To wet maybe? The one that grew was male. I had a couple others that WANTED to grow, but ended up dieing when small. It's gotta be something simple that I'm doing wrong.
c&p: Start clones under 24hrs light till standing up (about a day) then switch to 16/8. Roots grow fastest at night, so all rooting clones should have a dark period. Use damp peat pucks buried in damp perlite. Cut all clones from a given mother at once, placing each in a shotglass of water immediately after it's cut. Re-cut each stem at an angle under water just before applying rooting hormone. Hold it in the water for a minute and then dip in rooting powder. Re-dipping in water after applying rooting powder has been tested and found to be a bad idea. Alternatively, they can be re-cut at an angle in liquid rooting hormone instead of water. Clones must be planted in the pucks immediately. We use a large metal pot with a glass lid set slightly ajar. A heating pad is mandatory and there must be plenty of insulation between the pad and the clone pot. Test the pot & pad setup for at least a day, adding extra insulation between them until the bottom of the pot gets only slightly warm. Use no fertilizers. Wet peat pucks with plain water ph'd to 5.8. Arrange the clones inside the pot and cover the peat pucks with damp perlite. Place the pot under fluorescents. The lid of the pot should have slight condensation on its underside. If water drips from the condensation, the humidity is too high. The humidity should be just high enough to keep the clones alive but still less than the dampness of the peat. If the clones get too much H2O from the air, they won't grow roots to reach out searching for water. Check the temperature at the bottom of the pot very regularly to avoid cooking your babies. Never spray rooting clones and try to avoid getting water on their leaves.
This is how I cloned this time. I got some good rooting gel (probably not needed) and mixed that with some unpasterized honey (heard in the organic section it is good for rooting solution). Take the clipping where you can cut a few leaves off and still keep the top node. Cut near the lower leaves on the stem you cut off at 45 degrees (the leaves cut off with help give a better success rate due to more places with the ability to root) then put it in a glass of water to prevent an air bubble). Then I covered this in my custom rooting solution (I went overboard with my solution I am sure rooting powder would be acceptable.) My clone mix is 90% coco and 10% earthworm casting. All my clones look great and don't need a humidome (they are not done rooting but look excellent and bet they will take off). Allow it to dry out for 2-3 days then water. I have heard straight coco was fine but I added the earthworm casting in hopes for a quicker start and it should be very easy on new roots at that rate and has humic and fulvic acid. They were taken a few days ago but I am thinking this is going to be my new method based on how healthy they look. Yes some strains are more difficult to clone then others.