I suck at cloning. That's not a question but this is

[gaiusmarius]

rooting hormon has to be used correctly, don't cover your stem in the shit, just touch 1 small area on one side of the stem with the stuff, otherwise it decreases the chances as it can clog them up. another good trick is to make the 45 degree cut by razor blade under water. a soup plate full of tap water works great, been making hundreds of clones over the last years and i have gotten to the point where i have 99% success rate. i use hormone tablets that are dissolved in water, then i will dip my clone stem in that water before sticking it in the aezy plug. i also remove all branches and leaves except the top, will cut those leaves right back too, so it has a very small amount of leaf left. i find they root more consistently, as leaving the leaves whole, causes them to shade each other which slows the rooting on the shaded clones.

 

[RumblefishTwist]

I've done well in damp coco. cut, dip in clonex, insert into hole in coco in a small cup and pack it in. I feel things happen best when under a covered dome to keep the ambient humidity high and prevent drying out.

I've also gotten roots by just putting a cutting in plain water.

My suggestion, if you are going to take more cuttings, is to try two or three different methods at one time. Put a few in water, and a few in whatever method you are currently using.

 

[gaiusmarius]

i bought a bunch of see through plastic boxes, cut holes in the lid and hey presto we have a cloning chamber, just need a neon tube and your golden

 

[starke]

I know this goes against convention with the ice cube tray cloner, but I would get rid of the vermiculite and try perlite. I truly believe the common denominator in my previous cloning failures was the vermiculite. I believe it holds too much moisture and can encourage damping off. Ice cube cloner, wick cloner whatever - try just perlite. This is purely anecdotal info based on my own experience. I have done no side by sides or other experiments.

 

[gaiusmarius]

Eazy Plugs for the fastest and highest success rate

 

[AgentPothead]

Eazy Plugs for the fastest and highest success rate

I have root riot, those kept them alive, over 2 weeks, but not a single root. Dood those Eazy Plugs look awesome! Air pruning the root system since it's a seedling. Do you use the Eazy Blocks and Eazy Pyramid too?

 

[AgentPothead]

And thank you to every single person who has replied here! I appreciate the help a hydroton.

 

[AgentPothead]

I've done well in damp coco. cut, dip in clonex, insert into hole in coco in a small cup and pack it in. I feel things happen best when under a covered dome to keep the ambient humidity high and prevent drying out.

I've also gotten roots by just putting a cutting in plain water.

My suggestion, if you are going to take more cuttings, is to try two or three different methods at one time. Put a few in water, and a few in whatever method you are currently using.

Yeah that's a great idea, I can't this time but next time I am gonna try the root riots, the ice tray, and just a glass of damn water.

I know this goes against convention with the ice cube tray cloner, but I would get rid of the vermiculite and try perlite. I truly believe the common denominator in my previous cloning failures was the vermiculite. I believe it holds too much moisture and can encourage damping off. Ice cube cloner, wick cloner whatever - try just perlite. This is purely anecdotal info based on my own experience. I have done no side by sides or other experiments.

I will give that a shot as well if/when this batch doesn't work out. I have 2 ice trays so I can run one perlite and one vermiculite even. I need to get some sort of working system down before I tried any kind of comparison though.

 

[gaiusmarius]

i use the smallest easy plugs for rooting, then i put it in RW cube, seems to work perfectly. RW cubes are way cheaper then the other coco type cubes. once the 5by 5 cm RW cube has roots coming out the bottom i put it on my coco slab system.

some strains will literally root in a jug of tap water, lmao. happened to some left overs recently, 10 days in the jug all bunched together and some 7 or 8 of them had lovely white roots all tangling up, took em out planted them in some coco and they all made it, most are already in use in various gardens and balconies.

 

[Bird of Hermes]

rooting hormon has to be used correctly, don't cover your stem in the shit, just touch 1 small area on one side of the stem with the stuff, otherwise it decreases the chances as it can clog them up. another good trick is to make the 45 degree cut by razor blade under water. a soup plate full of tap water works great, been making hundreds of clones over the last years and i have gotten to the point where i have 99% success rate. i use hormone tablets that are dissolved in water, then i will dip my clone stem in that water before sticking it in the aezy plug. i also remove all branches and leaves except the top, will cut those leaves right back too, so it has a very small amount of leaf left. i find they root more consistently, as leaving the leaves whole, causes them to shade each other which slows the rooting on the shaded clones.

Great tip about making a 45 degree cut under water I learned to do that awhile back to prevent a air embolism or whatever they call it when air gets trapped in the stem. I place mine in a bowl of water and cut off a inch or so and leave it for at least a hour so it can suck up some water. Starke makes a good point too vermicultie can be too moist causing dampening off perlite is king for cloning.

 

[gaiusmarius]

one other point that i saw mentioned, i have to open my clone box ever day and wave fresh air in with the lid for a minute. i can skip 1 day with no harm, but ifi just leave them in there without airing out regularly i get ones dieing off and making mold which then rots any plants it touches. so yeah take the lid off and give them a good fanning once a day to stop any losses to mold.

 

[oti$]

I know you are moving to an aero- cloner, but if you try anymore root riot plugs, you should give dip and grow rooting horemone a try. I was having poor strike rates a couple years back and once I switched to dip n' grow I've had nearly 100% every time in half the time. It sounds like you are having and issue with soggy stems which is usually caused by too much heat and moisture and not enough air movement. You might want to try to cut out the misting for now. Cloning can be a bitch sometimes. I hope you get it sorted. It seems everyone goes through a shit phase with them at some point. Good luck!

 

[gaiusmarius]

i never mist my clones, they sweat enough to keep the inside walls wet.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

Lots of good info here, really appreciate the input, as there are so many FAQS on cloning and guides, but sometimes the sticking point isn't obvious no matter how many tutorials are read. So these discussions help. For example I used a heating matt to bring the temps from 70F to 80F, but then I took the infra red gun someone mentioned on here, and the rockwool cube was hitting 90F. So I realized that air temp inside the dome is different then surface temp of that bottom tray. All the previously white roots were brown now from that heat.

3 Weeks as of tomorrow, only roots on 2/10 cuttings. Temps fluctuating between 70-85F, 85-95%RH. 2 Feet from a 32Watt Fluro Tube. Rockwell cubes (not over watered- I spin them in a salad spinner)

 

[DoubleTripleOG]

Lots of good info here, really appreciate the input, as there are so many FAQS on cloning and guides, but sometimes the sticking point isn't obvious no matter how many tutorials are read. So these discussions help. For example I used a heating matt to bring the temps from 70F to 80F, but then I took the infra red gun someone mentioned on here, and the rockwool cube was hitting 90F. So I realized that air temp inside the dome is different then surface temp of that bottom tray. All the previously white roots were brown now from that heat.

3 Weeks as of tomorrow, only roots on 2/10 cuttings. Temps fluctuating between 70-85F, 85-95%RH. 2 Feet from a 32Watt Fluro Tube. Rockwell cubes (not over watered- I spin them in a salad spinner)

Once winter is over, I never use a heat mat under my tray. Even in the winter I only use it when it's super cold outside. If you're keeping the room they are in, in the 70's. You should be good to go without a heta mat. In my book its always better to have cuts take a few days longer to root, rather than cooking them to death by accident with a heat mat.

 

[gaiusmarius]

yeah same here, i don't even have a heat mat, we have good central heating and insulation, so the house doesn't get cold. getting my clones to root inside of 10 days mostly, first roots start showing after 7 days, by 9 days, 80% of the try will be rooted, 2 days later the rest are done too. sometimes there might be 1 or 2 left over that are still not showing roots, those i chuck. i cut the tray of 150 cubes approx in the middle so i have a try with 80 and one with 70. so yeah 1 or 2 losses per 80 plants is no biggy. i should probably document my system once, i have gotten it quite well dialed in even if i say so myself, lol. just gone off sharing pics online in recent years.

 

[Zeez]

Lately I've been having problems cloning too. I noticed that adding Clonex to 6.0 water the ph goes down to 5.1 in a turbokloner. Seems like the stuff is really acidic. Next day the ph needs to be brought up again. Is this normal? Two different bluelab ph meters, both calibrated.

 

[MrBungle]

I honestly don't think pH is a very important part of the cloning equation I use tap water that is 8.0 out of the faucet.


The only thing I might do is run my cloner for a day or two without clones in it, to allow the chloramine to evaporate some, other than that its just good ol city tap


I won't say I'm 100 %, but I'm definitely over 75% and the ones that don't make it are the ones that are just taking too damn long....


I also think a lot of folks give up when they see stuff dying up top.... leaves will shrivel and yellow and blah blah blah.... as long as there is a little tinge of green at the top (apical meristem) it is alive and it has the potential to survive...

 

[Bobby Boucher]

I also suck at cloning. Spotty success with rockwool for years. Failed miserably with aero. Oasis cubes were my saving grace. No need to ph adjust or pre-charge, and they have a lower level of water retention than rockwool which makes them almost impossible to overwater, but they will dry out very quickly if left in low RH, or after roots have started to form.

I have also fallen in love with those translucent cereal storage containers you find at the grocery store. They can only house 3-4 clones at best, but they are very tall, very rigid, the locking lids are airtight, and their thickness makes for nice light diffusion. I keep a 15 w 2' fluorescent bulb about a foot above the container and get healthy roots in a week with very low light levels. The one I am currently using has a pretty opaque top, which I think might be helping my girls root even quicker.

The only failure I have experienced using this method over the years was once when the floors were too cold in the winter and I was in too much pain to check on my babies to see what they were up to for a couple days. Bought a seedling heat mat and a controller, set it to 80f, picked the clones up off the floor, and that was that.

I also like to set my gopro up so I can monitor them remotely and timelapse with my ipad for a week or so after I take them out of the domes and put them in their buckets, just in case.

 

[bsgospel]

Quality of clones/age of plant is a factor. If you take a cut and can see little to no phloem or cambium, your success is almost nil from the git go. With a new mom that hasn't been topped or had a chance to get calcium or silica to the shoots, the hollow squishy clones will have much lower success rates.

This may not be the time/place but I've wanted to address the 'embolism' discussion that's been around for a while. Someone once told me in way less nicer terms but there's plenty of evidence to dispel that air bubbles and embolisms are the cause of clones death. They're just simply not good cuts or are damping off :/ Not saying it's impossible but I've read enough and seen enough to trust that not only do plants have enough mechanics and evolution to prevent embolisms (or even fix them) but that it's so rare I doubt any of us have actually seen or quantified embolisms in plants.

If I've got to do a side by side, injecting air bubbles or holding a clone upside down for fifteen minutes before placing it, I will gladly take pictures

*Aaaand here come the pretzels!!!