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Alright we can keep the discussion in here, This is my first attempt at cloning. I put together this "walmart cloner" as per instructions (used a 1/16" bit though) and took a couple of cuttings, I also stuck one in a cup of water to see if i can get good results doing that as well. I'm using Shultz rooting hormone at the moment, and I was wondering if I should add a few drops of superthrive to the water in the res. Reading about Super thrive it seems like it could benefit the plant by giving it a little bit of the vitamins and hormones that it would need while producing roots. Currently the RH is around 45% in the cab, with temps around 73-75. I have about 90 watts of CFL sitting 3'+ away from the cloner. Its been about 5 days and one of the cuttings is looking pretty ill right now. I'm not to confident in my method at this point, What should I do?
First I have made many comments about temps...imo one of the most important factors to success.... at least 80 not more than 85 is best....
The reason a clone wouldnt be doing well almost always means it doesnt have enough water....
My original directions said 1/16th however that proved too easy to plug....
better is 1/8th inch.....
Other factors could be using chunky verm.... which has too much air space and prevents good wicking...and not compressing the verm in the tubes enough....
i compress the medium quite firmly before I use it....
For better results a cloning gel like clonex is better but even with none the device should still work.....
RH doesnt seem to be a factor..... as long as the clones dont wilt...
I'm going to try compressing the verm more , and shutting off one of my exhaust fans to bring temps up. The original directions said to use 1/32"s bit, Do you mean make the jump from 1/32" to 1/16" or 1/16" to 1/8"? Seems to be plenty moist for me with 1/16" but if you had better results with 1/8th I'll try it. Is there any national big stores that will carry clonex? Such as HD lowes ace or walmart?
I'm not even sure that I have a problem at this point, its just that one of the 2 that I took is in bad shape, could very well be making roots though, time will tell. I'll make the adjustments and let you know how things turn out, thanks.
Turns out I didn't compact the verm enough, Once I pressed it down and added more i could tell it was much more moist at the top, and it was much easier for me to poke a hole for the stem. Took one small cutting so we'll see what happens. Temp @ 82 RH @ 35%.
my temps hoover around 84 i dunno the rh, it hasnt mattered as of yet. i also use shultz and it works in mine although i think it would work without anything. i would be careful putting them too close to the lights. my 1st time cloning i killed 2 due to placing it too close to a 20w tube fluro and that was after it had small roots showing.now i keep it on the bottom of my vegcab around 12-16 inches from my floro tubes except for my last run i was out of room in my cab so i hooked up a small lamp with a small cfl light and placed the cloner on the heatingpad on the dresser about 10 inches away from the bulb. at day10 there was roots growing out the bottom and day14 they had started vegging in the cloner. also when the vemiculite seems dry on top i just add water to the rez. ive learned that about 2" of water keeps mine working right. keep ya head up you'll get it
Starting to see roots develop on my oldest in the cloner. It wasn't packed down enough on this little girl from the start though so I'm not sure how well its going to do, but its results. Currently have 6 in there.
cool give it a few days and you'll see some killer results. if mine start wilting or generally looking unhealthy i start misting a few times daily with aged tap water. this seems to keep mine going till transplant when they take off. ill be trying to clone a new strain later in the week hopefully. its the 3ppp that i germinated in the cloner a few weeks ago
my 3ppp was a success!all 10 clones are showing vigorous growth in the cloner. no nutes just water and one small cfl. got a friend thats gunna try it now. hes a complete noob and dont believe that it will work. i cant wait to see the look on his face when he sees dem roots
cool. like the humidity dome thats with it. sure it would help with any struggling clones.
anyways when i transplanted my 3ppp i noticed the roots on the clones were relatively smaller than the roots of the bubblisious clones that had spent approx. the same time in the cloner before. also unlike the bubble that didnt grow much really in the cloner all the 3ppp grew with 2 of them growing almost 2 inches each. is this difference in root growth a difference between indica and sativa traits??