Ice-tube cloner from WallyWorld

[Leathermonster]

this could have been posted already but I dont think Walmart sells this ice cube tray any
ore I couldn't find it at my local store

I just bought a few at Walmart, tho i had to drive 20 miles away to get it. They have them. Look at walmart.com and search for "ice tube tray" available only in stores then call your local walmart and have them look it up. They can see which stores its available in and just call to confirm or ask the manager to order some for you

 

[Leathermonster]

Temp of 79.7 degrees results?

Temp of 79.7 degrees results?

Hey, I got about 39 clones going and i have them in water over a heating pad. the temp stays at 79.7 degrees. Will this just take a little longer since the temps a little low or should i rig up a way to raise the temp a few degrees? I dont mind waiting a few extra days, but Id like to get it right the first time.


BTW I did 5 clones as a test and Im day 8 now. I pulled one to look and it has a bunch of roots over and inch long! Its working great, but if raising the temp to say, 83-85 degree will speed things up significantly, I like to do that

THANKS SO MUCH YOUR REPLY IN MY THREAD ABOUT CLONES HAS SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!!!

 

[sumo]

just chill and wait. Sounds like you are already successful. It can take up to 2 weeks. Hard to rush without risking your 39 clones.

 

[justanotherbozo]

...um, i thought i'd jump in and mention that it is better to push your rooted clones out from the bottom rather than pulling them out from the top which can damage still fragile roots.

...and don't tug on your rooting cuts to see if they are rooting which also damages fragile roots, it's important you just leave them alone for the full 14 days, ...be patient and you will be rewarded.

here's a couple pics where you can see a ramrod i made by drilling a small hole in a penny and screwing it to a piece of dowel, ...it turns out a penny fits perfectly so you can also just push a penny up from the bottom with your finger but it's much easier with a ramrod.

bozo

 

[Leathermonster]

Thanks fellas

 

[Budley Doright]

Hey, I got about 39 clones going and i have them in water over a heating pad. the temp stays at 79.7 degrees. Will this just take a little longer since the temps a little low or should i rig up a way to raise the temp a few degrees? I dont mind waiting a few extra days, but Id like to get it right the first time.


BTW I did 5 clones as a test and Im day 8 now. I pulled one to look and it has a bunch of roots over and inch long! Its working great, but if raising the temp to say, 83-85 degree will speed things up significantly, I like to do that

THANKS SO MUCH YOUR REPLY IN MY THREAD ABOUT CLONES HAS SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!!!

I suggest a temprange from upper 70's thru mid 80's

When I first began sugesting those temps I was told that it would cause mold..

WIthout a dome Ive never seen mold....

My eperiments show best results at 82 or 83 degrees....

yours may differ slightly....

 

[Devilman]

Hey all. I've always been interested in different cloning methods and have tried a few myself, but after seeing this one, I figured I had to give it a go cus having a cloner that needs practically no attention from the time the clones are set into it, until they are rooted is pretty usefull thing.

Unfortunatly so far my experiments arent going so well. Since Im on the other side of the pond, access to things like those ice-tube moulds are non-existent, so instead I decided to cut-down a few pot-noodle pots to about 3.5" high, drilled a few 1mm holes in the bottom then filled with vermiculite.

So far though, Ive not really had any sucess, the clones appear to be kinda "damping off" (although I guess it could just as easily be a lack of water available) which is causing the stem below surface to kinda shrink up and go a bit mushy.

Im not sure if this is too much water in the verm, not enough water, too small clones, but advice is welcome. I was wondering if you guys give your vermiculite a rise out with PH'ed water or not (to remove the dust and drop the medium PH to around 5.8). I ask becuase I couldnt help but notice that when I filled my pots with dry verm then let the water wick upwards, the stuff got pretty darn hot! (well, warm) which at least to my mind shows there is some residual "something" in it? (maybe lime or similar from manufacturing?)

Or is the problem simply that my clones are "not big enough" ? typically I take clones that are maybe 1.5" - 2" long (stem) but Im wondering if this kind of wick cloner requires bigger, longer clones (to reach further down the medium closer to water)? If this is the case, could I just use a smaller container (or less verm) so I was closer to water level to start with?

I'll try and grab a couple pics in a moment, as they often speak a thousand words when trying to explain how things are setup

 

[justanotherbozo]

Hey all. I've always been interested in different cloning methods and have tried a few myself, but after seeing this one, I figured I had to give it a go cus having a cloner that needs practically no attention from the time the clones are set into it, until they are rooted is pretty usefull thing.

Unfortunatly so far my experiments arent going so well. Since Im on the other side of the pond, access to things like those ice-tube moulds are non-existent, so instead I decided to cut-down a few pot-noodle pots to about 3.5" high, drilled a few 1mm holes in the bottom then filled with vermiculite.

So far though, Ive not really had any sucess, the clones appear to be kinda "damping off" (although I guess it could just as easily be a lack of water available) which is causing the stem below surface to kinda shrink up and go a bit mushy.

Im not sure if this is too much water in the verm, not enough water, too small clones, but advice is welcome. I was wondering if you guys give your vermiculite a rise out with PH'ed water or not (to remove the dust and drop the medium PH to around 5.8). I ask becuase I couldnt help but notice that when I filled my pots with dry verm then let the water wick upwards, the stuff got pretty darn hot! (well, warm) which at least to my mind shows there is some residual "something" in it? (maybe lime or similar from manufacturing?)

Or is the problem simply that my clones are "not big enough" ? typically I take clones that are maybe 1.5" - 2" long (stem) but Im wondering if this kind of wick cloner requires bigger, longer clones (to reach further down the medium closer to water)? If this is the case, could I just use a smaller container (or less verm) so I was closer to water level to start with?

I'll try and grab a couple pics in a moment, as they often speak a thousand words when trying to explain how things are setup

yeah man, it's not the size of your cuts, my grobro takes some VERY little cuts, to my mind at least, lol.

...and here is a link to the ice-tube-trays at Amazon, i'd imagine they'd be willing to ship to your side of the pond.

ice-tube-trays

...and BR is right about the temps, 80 - 82 is your ideal reservoir temp so if you don't have an aquarium thermometer you'll need to get one, ...mine cost me about $2.00USD each.

here's a pic of my old cloning setup in my closet and you'll note the light coming from below, that's there to provide heat not light.

bozo

btw, i'd strongly recommend you take the time and trouble to actually read all the way through this thread, and i mean thoroughly, i know it'll be a pain but i promise you you will come away with a much better understanding of how this thing works and how to make it work for you.

 

[Devilman]

I have read through a great-deal of this thread which is why I wanted to try it (and get it working) and not just dismiss it as "another pointless cloning attempt"

I suspect amazon could indeed ship to my side of the pond, but to be honest, I fail to see the need. Yes the ice-pole moulds are nice, but frankly, any 4" long container that will hold medium will do the same job, no? Thats why I origionally went with what I had (which was cut-down pot-noodle pots lol) Of course the main difference is the quantity it holds.. Those Ice-tubes look to only be maybe 3/4" in diameter while my pots are probably closer to 2.5" - 3" in diameter.

The reason I wondered if my clones we're not big enough, was in a couple of these "wick cloner" threads I have seen comment made that the clones should really be long enough to reach the bottom of the container the verm is contained within, which surprised me somewhat as I would have thought that would caus significant "damping off" since the bottom of the cuttings stem would practically be submerged the whole time?

Could it be all the extra vermiculite getting too wet and damping off? (or possibly the opposite, not holding enough moisture)?

I have considered heatmat type setup too, but figured I would try to get the thing working first, before trying to optimise it. I usually have no issues at all cloning in Root Riot cubes and tried a few peat pellets the other day, also with great success.

But would much prefer a "passive" cloning method such as this, since its much less "need to be there" and so on.

 

[Devilman]

Managed to find my camera and snap a few pics. First one is just a general show-and-tell for how I have it setup. Nothing fancy, as you can see, just about 3/4" of water in the bottom.

Also you can see from second pic, I've done ok with cloning in root-riots and peat pellets and the plants I'm trying to clone are not difficult to get roots.

Last 2 pics show what is happening in the medium, As i say it almost looks like damping off, as the stems kinda shrunk down to practically nothing in thickness and a bit mushy, but I dont think my medium is too wet?

Could the larger capacity of the containers be making it too wet, compared to the smaller volume in the ice tubes? or could low root-zone temps be causing this?

Thanks for the reply bozo, do you (or anyone else) know what might be my problem?

 

[Devilman]

Bah, forgot to post the pics in the last reply lol, anyway, here they are.

Any tips / advice is welcome, as I would really like to stick with this as my cloning method due to its simplicity and ease
​

 

[justanotherbozo]

i've never tried to clone with the vermiculite in such a large container but, like you, i see no reason it wouldn't work, a much more likely culprit would be low res temps.

which might mean we're both wrong, lol. ...for me what works best is low light and high temps and no messin' with the cuts for 2 weeks, sometimes this is the hardest thing of all, i struggle to keep my hands off of them, lol, although not nearly so badly as once i did.

bozo

btw, a length of pvc about the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of a soda bottle cap can be cut down into multiple tubes and the caps could be used as bottoms, just be sure you put holes in them so the vermiculite can wick.

 

[Devilman]

i've never tried to clone with the vermiculite in such a large container but, like you, i see no reason it wouldn't work, a much more likely culprit would be low res temps.

which might mean we're both wrong, lol. ...for me what works best is low light and high temps and no messin' with the cuts for 2 weeks, sometimes this is the hardest thing of all, i struggle to keep my hands off of them, lol, although not nearly so badly as once i did.

bozo

btw, a length of pvc about the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of a soda bottle cap can be cut down into multiple tubes and the caps could be used as bottoms, just be sure you put holes in them so the vermiculite can wick.

Thats a nice idea on the pvc pipe. its similar to the idea I had been working on myself actually lol, was considering getting some 1/2" - 3/4" id clear plastic to make for tubes. (I was thinking clear simply becuase it would at least in theory let you see the roots through the tube within a few days of the cuts sucessfully rooting, so wouldnt have to disturb them)

Not sure what my res temps are at the moment, will take a look, The whole thing was sat inside my cab which sits about 25c all the time, so not sure if my res temps are that bad.

 

[Budley Doright]

When I wrote this I was pretty anal about stressing that temps are likely the biggest difference in rooting and not...

I can only suggest you become a little more anal....


I found that 83 degrees is where my clones were best rooted.... thats 2 or 3 degrees more than 25c....

 

[dansbuds]

(I was thinking clear simply becuase it would at least in theory let you see the roots through the tube within a few days of the cuts sucessfully rooting, so wouldnt have to disturb them)

Why disturb them at all ? as long as conditions are in check ..... you'll have roots growing out through the holes in the bottom in 3 weeks . if you know this going in .... you take your cuts as needed let them root & transplant to pots . no disturbance of the roots at all untill transplant . & even then its not as stressfull on the roots as you may think . if you need rooted cuts faster than that .... there are other ways of rooting cuts .... just not as reliable as this .

just my 2 cents

 

[Budley Doright]

Why disturb them at all ? as long as conditions are in check ..... you'll have roots growing out through the holes in the bottom in 3 weeks . if you know this going in .... you take your cuts as needed let them root & transplant to pots . no disturbance of the roots at all untill transplant . & even then its not as stressfull on the roots as you may think . if you need rooted cuts faster than that .... there are other ways of rooting cuts .... just not as reliable as this .

just my 2 cents

Thanks dan.... I say quite often that this is the best method for cloning that you dont plug in....

lol....

 

[justanotherbozo]

Thanks dan.... I say quite often that this is the best method for cloning that you dont plug in....

lol....

...depending on how you define 'better' i'd have to say better than those that do plug in as well, this is a nearly totally passive approach, you supply the correct environment and the plants do the rest, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

peace, bozo

 

[Devilman]

Thats very true, Its just gone 15 days now and I finally have a few root-hairs showing, which mainly looks down to low rootzone temps as most people have mentioned, slowed down the rooting.

I was concerned my verm may have been getting "too wet" as once it had been compressed down into the pots after wetted, you could see water squeeze out when I pressed it down in the pots, but I guess it was ok after all

Think I'm gonna have to take the "ghetto approach" for underheating at the moment and stick a lightbulb in a box, cus sadly the only heatmat I had was for reptiles (45c approx temp) and only about 1/5th of it actually works, Doh!

 

[thewhitelotus]

I have a quick question for all of ya! Instead of going and buying a 2cuft bag of vermiculite (maybe will only use a handful per grow), I have an extra bag of perlite laying around and some Black Gold Organic potting soil. Heres whats in the soil: Ours is strictly created with sphagnum peat moss, compost and finely ground forest products for water retention and overall nutrition. To prevent packing down and ensure perfect drainage, optimal proportions of coarse perlite and pumice are incorporated for a moist, yet aerated root zone

You think 1/2 soil/perlite would work as well? i feel like the soil might wick a little better than just straight perlite.

thanks in advance

 

[dansbuds]

Thanks dan.... I say quite often that this is the best method for cloning that you dont plug in....

lol....

No problem burnt ..... everybody i've turned on to this method here is having fantastic results with it !!!

I have a quick question for all of ya! Instead of going and buying a 2cuft bag of vermiculite (maybe will only use a handful per grow), I have an extra bag of perlite laying around and some Black Gold Organic potting soil.

whitelotus ..... you can buy the smaller bags at homedepot or lowes for like 5 bucks . the only other thing i've tried in the cloner is coco & it didn't work as well as the vermiculite .... so i'd say stick with the verm if ya want consistant results .