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There are millions of methods documented here, but I'll he glad to walk you through mine.
First I round up a Jiffy seedling tray and pellets, an aloe leaf, a pinch of kelp meal, protekt, a glass, dechlorinated water, a cutting board, a wicked sharp sushi knife, and a mom plant of course. You don't want to be scrambling for gear mid-procedure.
Next I mix up my cloning water by adding a teaspoon of protekt, a pinch of kelp, and the squeezings of a small aloe leaf (very scientific, I know). Then fill the glass and rehydrate the peat pellets. I put just enough water in the tray to have the pellets saturated with just a touch of standing water.
Nothing to it but to do it now. Chop off good looking growing tips and immediately stick them in the glass. Once you've got enough or decimated mommy, go ahead and get the cuts moved into their final home. I use the sushi knife (that bad machine could perform surgery on a flea) to make a nice clean cut and insert the cutting into the pellet. You can break out the fiskars on excess leaf material, but I prefer to just use smaller cuts from the tips.
After that they get stashed in a warm corner with indirect light. If it dries out in there I'll add a little water, but there's not much to do except wait at this point. Only a few of my cuttings won't make it.
Fresh air is most overlooked. Mix soil with perlite 50/50, put in one oz cups with drainage holes, and water as needed (once or twice a week) without covering. The key is to not cover the cuttings. Rot is your enemy. Keep experimenting until you get to 100% success. Good luck!
Basics:
Low light. I use a single 2' T-5 over a domed std. 11x22 tray, and put 1 layer of white paper towel on top of dome.
Temp. I use a heat mat on a thermostatic switch and keep it set on 80 F.
No additional water until they root. Spray cuttings, dome them, don't spray again unless they wilt, and only spray the wilted ones. Once or twice a day spray inside of dome. After 3 days if not wilted, prop dome up an inch to allow air flow. Remove after 5 days. If surface of medium dries, spray with water only enough to wet surface. Important not to water medium.
In coco, I'm getting near 100% rooting. In the initial wetting of the coco, I include an inoculant like Plant Success Soluble or Great White, along with 1/3 strength transition nutes w/trace mins. Good Luck. -granger
See, now youre going to get many different answers here.
many people will say dont cover them, I among many will say to cover them.
heres what i do...
supplies-
green light rooting hormone (best stuff i have come across)
rapid rooters plugs
trays for the plugs
humidity dome and tray
high kelvin rating cfl bulb 15w will do
take your cuts, dip in water, dip in rooting hormone-cake it on good
have some rapid rooters soaking in clean water
squeeze out excess water till its just fairly moist
plug in your clone-set under humidity dome right away.
spray the dome to always keep humidity high
keep the light about 8 inches up and maintain your temps at 75*F- 80* no higher than 80, no lower than 75.
you can run them at 18/6 hrs or 24 hrs.
the main trick here is to keep the humidity up and the rapid rooters NOT TOO DRY, NOT TOO WET. right in between.
after about 5 days or so you can slightly prop the lid up and start giving them air here and there. if they droop they arent ready for air yet. as soon as they do root air is no longer an issue. toss them right into the veg room after planting.
but at about 7 days you should see roots.
i have 100% success rate using this method on various strains. some take longer than others but always root.
Intotheunknown: That is basically what I do, and I even have the Greenlight Rooting Hormone also. I think they are getting too wet, or getting too dry like you say. I think I could keep the temperature warmer. Im gonna buy the plugs again, I actually have been using the rapid rooter mat that you break up into cubes. I dont like it as much-dries out too quick. I think I will be buy a bag and see if my success rate goes up... Oh yeah, I have been using Clonex to soak the rooters. Should I also try just plain-clean water, should I pH the water? Thank you for the help!
I use 1 inch RW cubes. I only soak in ph adjusted water. I use Clonex rooting gel. Once plugged into the cubes they go in the tray with a humidity dome that has been sprayed. I then lay a 15 watt florescent bulb across the top. Check daily to spray dome or water if needed. And your cuttings won't root if the temps are cold. They want it to be warm. I used rapid rooters, But i prefer RW cubes. After they establish good roots then go into a soil mix.
A lot of folks make the mistake of misting the cuts in the dome instead of misting the dome itself.Keep it well misted the cuts need the high humidity."Pop the top" a couple times daily for fresh air then mist the dome bhefore replacing it.Mist mist mist.And if you're using rockwool cubes soak in 5.5 water over night to bring cubes down close to a neutral PH.A lot of people say its not necessary but its easy enough to do and RW cubes do have a real high PH
No, you shouldnt need to PH the water at all. And yes I would use just plain old chlorine free water to soak the rapid rooters.
That really is the main trick- maintain the plug's moisture, temps, and humidity.
you could have too much light as well.
i have done side by side comparisons using this method to test lighting. one side i had the light right above some clones and put other clones of the same strain further away from the light. and most definitely the side with less light rooted faster.
the plant youre taking cuts from is good and healthy, yeah?
Floridian-
GREAT point as well.
I mist the cuts twice during the whole cloning period. once right after theyre put under the dome, and after the first misting had evaporated/absorbed.
The rest of the time mist the DOME ONLY.
to add moisture to the plugs just pop them out of the tray and mist the circumference of the plug as needed.
Hello,
Ok, sounds good. I plan on cloning in the couple of days. Yes the plants are healthy. The way I do it is to cut clones, and then put her into flower. Alot havent rooted, so Ima have to monster crop a few of each strain. I raised the light about an hour ago. Thanks for help everyone!
Try rooting them on an 18/6 photoperiod and after they root,change to 12/12.Never really understood why someone would want to grow a flower on a popsicle stick but to each his own
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=187029- i rarely got better than 25%. 1 week ago i tried slow and easy's method and had 100% in 7 days. the key is to use rapid rooters and barely keep the grow medium wet