Adding rooting hormone to the water in a bubble cloner

[PhenotypeX]

Hi i made a bubble cloner from a plastic shoebox with a bubble wand in the bottom. I added a powder rooting hormone called Rootone to the water, it made the water all murky but im thinking this will improve the rooting time of my cuttings. Any comments?

 

[MAZEinaHAZE]

don't think adding that powder to the water ( rez ) will do anything. i believe the cutting needs to be dipped into the rooting hormone, in order for it to adhere to the freshly cut stem.

i have the same stuff....a cheapie generic from Lowes, but i've had good success with it.

good luck, and dump that murky water and start from scratch

 

[Synthettek]

I've done many many tests on my bubble cloner and so far [for me, everyone's setup and water etc is different] the best method is plain tap.

I've tried rooting gels, powders, superthrive, etc and plain pure tap water gets me roots fastest.

Everyone's setup is different I realize, but this is what works for ME.

 

[PhenotypeX]

I wish i had 2 bubble cloners, id do a side by side comparison

 

[tjo]

im noob and i telling you,if you want roots in 7 days try
straight ro water.i have great success with this. just remember
stems must was inside the water.
i didnt use heaters and i dont even had the right humitity.
because i made a experiment with some sprayers,
my water temps was 30c so i pull the plug and the only think inside was 1 airstone.so simple.

after the clones shows roots i add 2ml micro and 3 ml grow.
the ppms goes to 200 and the clones seems happy.

and i never changed the water from the first day i put them in
the 5 litre bubbler.

 

[Cat Jockey]

It may work okay but keep in mind your res size. It would be easy to add too much of anything to a res that small and whack out your pH and ppm (i assume you to be meter-less). Were it me, somebody who has cloned with just about every method but air layering, I would dip the cuts in rooting hormone, but not add hormone directly to the res.

Keep in mind that the powder you dip the ends in will 'wash off' a bit and end up in your res anyway, like you are trying to achieve.

Your cuttings may root just fine ... but they'll root just fine if you just dip the ends in hormone and put straight water in your res, without adding the potential trouble that can come from what you have jumped into - mixing up a res of nutes by feel.

I will also add that although I haven't done the 'ol scientific method on it, but from various side by sides and running out of hormone at times, etc., I don't really get a faster rooting time with hormone, I get faster development of more roots.

I guess overall, if you are trying to achieve a quicker time, the two most important factors are, IMO,:

Initial health of the cutting and environmental conditions. To me, those two issues are the biggest determinate of rotting time. After that comes fancy water mixes. But keep in mind, it can be very easy to slow things down by a day or two, or longer, by coming up with a res mix that the cuttings don't like.

Good luck it could work just fine, but I think you might be flirting with trouble you don't need to and if it is the size of a shoebox, it won't cost too much money to dump it and go straight tap water.

 

[whiterasta]

GH nutes @ 1/4 strength and Liquinox B-1 with yucca @ .75ml/L, aerated reservoir has produced roots in as little as 39hrs but averages >5days and have outgrown the tray by 10-12days
GH nutes
Liquinox B-1
aeration of reservoir
growdan cubes
drip tray with emitters for each cube
Straight not diagonal cuts

 

[Cat Jockey]

Straight not diagonal cuts

Curious as to your reasoning behind straight cuts and what you believe it to do to speed the process.

 

[Cat Jockey]

One more questions for you. Which GH nutes and 1/4 strength of what formula and dosage?

(EDIT Okay more questions. PhenotypeX might be best suited, at this point, to dump the box, fill it with plain water, dip the cuts and have roots in 10 days. Easy, no hassle, small chance for operator error. For those of us that use nutes in our aero cloners or trays, fill us in on the details and show us the way. 39 hrs. is quite impressive and I am not embarrased to say that have never hit the 'roots in three days mark', how 'bout a bit of a thread hijack if PhenotypeX doesn't mind and fill in some of the blanks for us like environmental conditions, size of cuts, nodes, etc.

 

[PhenotypeX]

Wherever you guys wanna go with the thread is fine by me. I actually changed the water back to plain tap water a few hours after making this thread. I took the cuttings on 12/15/09 been 4 days so far. I have a heating pad under my cloner heating the temp to roughly 78 degrees. My cloner sits on my dresser with a 13w CFL lighting my bedroom. I will let you guys know when and if I get roots.

 

[whiterasta]

OK so here is the system that has rocked hard for almost 20yrs now
Consists of black abs tray with rows of pvc pipe and drippers.the tray has a drain back to the res.
the reservoir is a ~100l cooler which holds the pump, filter a "Y" from the filter which splits the flow to the manifold at the tray and an aspirator which provides constant aeration. it also hold a sumbersible aquarium heater which is set to 80-82F.
R/O water is used along with 3part GH nute formula
( green,pink,brown)at ~1.25ml/l
Liquinox B-1,the key to very quick rooting due to yucca extract, @ .75ml/l
Ph balanced to 6.5
Growdan 1.5" cubes are presoaked in solution then added to tray prepped and running
Cuts are quickest when taken at the transition between soft green growth and woody.The size is not as important as the position of the cut but best results come from cuts between pipecleaner and pencil diameter.
all cuttings are 'squared' that is the cut is made to be at right angles to the stalk.
I do this as the tip of a diagonal cut is weak and prone to rot. A square cut opens all of the stem to uptake equally across the cut
Cuts are placed into cubes that have been pre opened clear thru and pushed to the bottom of the tray.
the drippers carry the rooting/nute solution in consistant strength across the stem in the cube while pulling air along with it. tray drains back to cooler for further aeration and filtration prior to recirculation.
Clones usually grow about an inch during the process with usually no wilt at cut time. once roots form they grow very quickly and must be transplanted before the roots mat and tear when planting.
I will try and post some pics if i can find them in my files or take new ones when the system is free again.
The most important factors:
Liquinox B-1
80-82F
low strength nutes
square cut
WR

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Hi i made a bubble cloner from a plastic shoebox with a bubble wand in the bottom. I added a powder rooting hormone called Rootone to the water, it made the water all murky but im thinking this will improve the rooting time of my cuttings. Any comments?

I dont think rootone was designed to be used this way.

Not to say it doesn't work.. It might.

BTW Olivia makes a clone solution you can add to water. I do not know if this is is compatible with bubblers. Most likely it is.

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

The most important factors:
Liquinox B-1
80-82F
low strength nutes
square cut
WR

I agree.. my cloning is somewhat similar.

Razor blades for cuts. New blades only.

Water stuff:

A little bit of ST. (its for the B1)
A bit of GH micro and Bloom, 2:1 just enough to
add a bit of color to the water.

Medium:

Small growdan cube, soaked with solution.

I dunno, it works well for me I dont want to try something like a bubbler, my buddy tried a bubbler, and he hated it.

Thanks for sharing your method.

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

Wherever you guys wanna go with the thread is fine by me. I actually changed the water back to plain tap water a few hours after making this thread. I took the cuttings on 12/15/09 been 4 days so far. I have a heating pad under my cloner heating the temp to roughly 78 degrees. My cloner sits on my dresser with a 13w CFL lighting my bedroom. I will let you guys know when and if I get roots.

awe dude, i was hoping that you would have let that run. reason being is that your are one of the few i have ever seen use rootone besides me, its never let me down yet!! love this stuff.

but hope you get those roots poppin in no time, i recently started a cloner and was worried that things wouldnt work out, but it seems they needed a lot more time than i was willing to be patient about, lol

peace

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

awe dude, i was hoping that you would have let that run. reason being is that your are one of the few i have ever seen use rootone besides me, its never let me down yet!! love this stuff.

peace

I used rootone back in the 90's. At the time it was cheap, and easy to find. Hell, its still cheap today.. And yes it works. If cost is an issue, then I would use rootone again.

I think there are better products and methods than bubblers and rootone.

But if you can make it work. good for you.

 

[cannatastic]

Hi i made a bubble cloner from a plastic shoebox with a bubble wand in the bottom. I added a powder rooting hormone called Rootone to the water, it made the water all murky but im thinking this will improve the rooting time of my cuttings. Any comments?

I read that willow water, made from soaked willow tree sticks will give you 25% more roots. Maybe you should try that in your bubble cloner for more roots.

 

[PhenotypeX]

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

I've never seen it in a bottle like that.. wierd.

I've bought it in little foil packets.

BTW.. My friend and I had an interesting discussion about powder vs. gel.

He claims that cloning success is greater when using a powder like rootone.

I believe him, like everybody else that makes clones they always do a few extra.
He usually ends up throwing clones away. Or giving the extras to me Muhahhahaha.