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Neptune makes clones, roots in 7!

N

Neptune

Hey ICMAG, howzit?

I notice a lot of people having troubble with cloning, and I get a lot of questions on my technique... and since the wealth of information at OG is lost, I thought I'd do a little "How to Clone" thread.

Today I am taking 80 clones, the mothers were dosed up last night with a kelp and guano tea to help them survive the proccess a little better, plus the cuttings will have taken in some of the delicious juices to help them on their journey of making roots...

So here we go!!

I start by soaking Rockwool sheets in General Hydroponics 3 part Flora Series, at 2-2-2(grow-micro-bloom) ml per gallon. I use the rockwool sheets that have a 50 count per sheet. This gets my tap water to about 300 ppm, and a PH of ~ 6.2 roughly. PH is not too important during cloning, but it should be around the 5.8-6.4 range. I have a PH/TDS meter, but it is not needed if you stick to the 2-2-2 ml/gal.





The rockwool soaks in the GH solution for at least 1 hour, any longer is optional. Overnight is fine, and is my usual practice. I then collect my materials:

1) sharp scissors
2) poking thingy, a nail will work
3) exacto hobby knife
4) dip & grow rooting hormone, mixed to the "10x" concentration level.
5) iso alcohol for cleaning my utensils prior to use





I then remove each cube from the solution, and I shake out the excess moisture. This is important, Shake out the excess moisture!!! To do this, lightly move the cubes up and down firmly, as if shaking water off your hands after you have washed them.

Next, take your nail/pokey thing and drive a hole on the outside of the cube. Do not use the pre-made hole, poke your hole on the Outside area of the cube. There is more oxygen out here, and the cube breathes better here.. Place your finger beneath the nail/pokey and stop driving the nail as soon as you lightly feel it on the other side. Do not puncture through the cube!!!






Once all your cubes are shaked, and poked, you can start taking cuttings from your favorite mother plants. I take my cuttings from healthy, medium thick branches. cuts should be done with anything SHARP, I prefer these snip scissors. Take the cuttings at a 45 degree angle.





Immediatly dip the freshly cut end of the stem into your Dip&Grow rooting hormone, or whatever you have decided on. There are plenty of rooting hormones, and all of them work basically the same.

Remove all excess branches and new forming shoots on the first 1 inch of the stem... these small shoots and branches wil make it hard to drive the stem into the hole.

Soak them in the hormone for a few seconds, remove them and lightly shove them into the hole you made, you should not poke the stem through the bottom of the cube!

Finally remove or trim any super big leaves on your cuttings... you really don't want big leaves, as they will make it harder for the plants to root... Lots of water is lost through the leaves.

Once all the cubes are in the tray, place a dome over them with poked air vents. NEVER MIST THE CUTTINGS. If you have to water them for some reason, water the tray, not the leaves or the cubes... the humidity should be 90-95% during the rooting proccess. If you spray them regularly like most books say to do, you are spoiling them, they will not root as quickly if they have water sitting on their leaves... you want them to have to work for their water, force them to make roots faster.

Place the trays, with their domes on, onto a heat mat set to 70-75F. Heat mat is crucial. You will not be able to clone well without one! I even have a theromostat, which was a worthwhile investment. Think about it, the XX-Large mat is about $60.00, the thermostat is about $40.00, for a total of $100.00. That mesely $100.00 will gaurentee you healthy clones forever, that is a CMEMORY gaurentee... buy the mat, buy the thermostat. Take control.





LIGHTING
I forgot to mention a very important part..(thx VT)! I place my trays under a shoplight with two 40w flourescent tubes, for a total of 80 watts. No CFLs are used, just shoplight flouros... they cover more area with low intensity light... and use less power for the space they effectively "light", although as I have said the light is not intense.. the shoplights are 8-12" from the tops of my fresh cuttings. This is more than enough light to bring roots, as the plants at this stage are not photosynthesizing hardly at all.




Updates to come, we should see 100% roots within 7 days.
I'll put up some new pics and more explanations as the questions roll in...
Hope this helps some folks! :wave:
 
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N

Neptune

Oh, don't forget lunch.. becuase cloning can take a while... this batch of 80 took me 3 hours!!

Chicken tacos!


 

blazeoneup

The Helpful One
Moderator
Chat Moderator
Veteran
Well after looking at this thread i am now on the phone ordering some food,Nice taco and rooting method.Until next time be safe and take care :)
 
V

vhGhost

neptune , nicely done :D ... you know after 5 grows you'd think i would be a clone expert :D i guess not. i'll keep an "I" on this thread and hopefully finally learn.

Edit _ lol i find it funy how almost everyone i know and like you ! , has WAY more GH(GRO) than micro or bloom :D just something i noticed
 
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Blunt_69

the keeper of the creeper
Veteran
dude that chicken Taco looks SOOOOOO good... Nice job on the clone instructions
 
G

Guest

I followed you instrucitons...day 5 of clones...I took them 2 weekins into 12/12...I hope somthing happends...I keep failing!!!

Oh that does look like a good taco...


 
N

Neptune

Here they are after 24 hours on a heat mat...

First pic is the domes on, the clones are chillin and have not been misted. There is enough water in the rockwool cubes to take them through the entire rooting proccess ~ 5-7 days.



The second pic is some Purple Urkle, gifted to me by a very cool dude.. I hear they take 2 weeks+ to root, but I hope to beat that record!! :woohoo:



Maintain tempertures between 70-75 F, and 90%+ humidity. The digital thermometer reads 85% right now becuase I took the dome off for the picture, but it is usually hovering between 90-95% RH.

More updates to come.
:jump:
 
N

Neptune

Bandan, I wish you luck brother! Keep the humidity high, and the temps between 70-75F and you will be happy! I'll check for roots tomorrow, the 4th day since making the cuts... May be wishful thinking, but I have been surprised before!


BY THE WAY...

Rapid Rooters. Jiffy Peat Pellets, and most all other cloning mediums I treat EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. My fastest and best successes have been with Jiffy Peat Pellets actually, but RockWool is just much more versatile -- can be used in hydro... whereas Jiffy Peat is pretty much stuck with dirt farming, or soilless media. :dueling:
 
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G

Guest

Well Netptune my man..I owe you a thanks...took 2 weeks but they rooted..I always would cover the clones...this time I did not cover or water them once...I put them in upside down rapid rooters...and keept them in cups in water...since the rapid rooter is a spounge I figured it would be like a wick cloner...everytime I would put water in the cup the rapid rooter would take up all it needed to stay wet... thats the secret I guess never let the stem (rapid rooter) even get close to dry...if the rapid rooter isnt shiny and you can see water then its to dry and to keep the leaves dry...makes the plant force roots...i can see it all clearly....THANKS AGAIN!!


 
2

20kw dreams

Wow, why did this thread die?

Great tutorial Neptune. Have you ever tried using Liquid Karma, B'cuzz rooting solution, or any other kelp based nutrient instead of the GH line?

I haven't tried Dip & Grow yet, but I did a side by side w/ Olivia's and Clonex. The Clonex rooted them w/ in a week, while the Olivia's took more like 2. This was w/ multiple strains in rockwool and oasis cubes. Also, the little Olivia's jar got mold in it, and I have never seen the Clonex do that. Just another tidbit of info for anyone who might Give-A-Shit.
 
N

Neptune

Hey 20kw,

Yeah, I still clone in rockwool GH3part at 2-2-2 ml/gallon. I have only attempted to clone in GH 3 part, Flora Nova Grow, and Supernatural Brand Rockwool Soak.

Of the 3 above, the far and clear winner was the GH3part, all strains being equal. I have never tried any other gel/solution other than Dip N Grow. I had a real bad streak with clones for quite some time, and now that I have success with this method I have decided to just run with it.

I do have a homemade bubble cloner also, but I don't use it. Rockwool is the medium I now grow plants to full maturity in, so I also clone in the same medium.

Here's some moms I just cloned up for the next run.








they're on day 3 from cut :]
 
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ColoraDro

Active member
nice dude i will be using rockwool & rapid rooters in a day to see what roots faster...

NICE GDP plants bro i need to get my hands on a cut sometime
 

Raque

Member
Great tutorial - bud damn, does it really take you 3 hours?!?! I hope you were just kidding, if not I feel sorry for you.
It takes me less than 15 minutes per 50.
 

radium-

Member
Neptune: So when you mist the dome you mist with GH 3 part or just plain water? I have great results with plain RO water not even adjusted and no cloning gels or powders just cut at 45 put into cubes(soaked 24 hrs plain RO) and into the dome. Mist top and bottom of dome once daily(not the clones themselves) and roots in 7 days..... I think you're wasting your money on cloning gels,powders... try it again with nothing and compare also try with no nutes too... you can probably save yourself some nutes too and time when cloning.
 
N

Neptune

Radium-
I do not mist period. And if I do/did mist, I would use Tap water.
I have also cloned successfully without any rooting hormones... but as a safety net I still use them.

Raque
It does take me quite some time to clone numbers like 100. I am methodical and slow, each cutting gets the royal treatment... good to hear you clone at light speeds lol! I will get faster someday... :p

Bigtoke
Thanks brother, always glad to see you around!

Coloradro
We'll see if these Granddaddys are legit, there is some discusion going on that they could be Soma's Lavender, or something completely different.. but they look and smell very nice in veg :) We shall see!
 

l_d_d

Active member
Ya you are fast Raque. I guess its possible to do three+ a minute but thats a busy and super focused fifteen minutes... lol get some cardio going on there. I take my time, sometimes scrape em, jam out and usually smoke while Im cloning, that is definetly robot speed bro. It takes me a couple minutes just to get set up, then moving around/pruning moms takes more time. Gotta replace all the lil airlines and clean the cloners.

Takes me AT LEAST 30 minutes for fifty id say.... and Im just trimming and dropping in a styro cup, then later putting in cloner... no fancy dipping or poking or misting. ;)

Back when I used to use rapid rooters and clone the 'long' way ;) like N, Neptune, I took MUCH longer. With setting up everything and dipping and all that mess.... I noticed a big difference in cloning time.

Nice thread Neptune.

That GDP is was rooted and then only vegged for three days?? Its HUGE! :p Good luck bro.

Good luck with getting roots everybody.

edit: went back I see those are moms now, I knew I was trippin!
 
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