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Ice-tube cloner from WallyWorld

Family

Member
Ok so let me get this straight...

You soak the vermiculite before you put the clone in and then fill the water about an inch high from the bottom of resivour which it is sitting in? Is that enough water for the clone to get roots or do you need to keep watering it like a plant?
 
B

Bubble Puppy

Son of a bitch..what are the odds you and i get a similar idea? I swear i never saw your thread till today..Anyhow ,i threw the tube thig out,,but the caps looked perfect to use...Here's the walmart one i made ..Using the same tray tops ..
Cool idea ...we must think alike

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=93880

i wish mine was as cheap though,,,i got about $30 into mine ..but works great!!
 
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the_man

Member
Family said:
Ok so let me get this straight...

You soak the vermiculite before you put the clone in and then fill the water about an inch high from the bottom of resivour which it is sitting in? Is that enough water for the clone to get roots or do you need to keep watering it like a plant?


just fill the cloner with vermiculite then place it in container a little bigger then the cloner fill about half way with water

put your clones in the cloner and drop it in the water

when the water is gone your clones should be done

no need to water them like a plant
 

ConceptOfSleep

Active member
Just had to stop by here and give my thanks to Budley... I read this thread about 10 times when I was building my first cloner, and was still just a lowly lurker her at IC...

Anyway, I now have 3 of these set up as cloners, though I only use 1 right now...

I have had 100% success with clones taken during Veg...Ive had about 95% success with clones taken 2-3 weeks into flower as well...

I think I have spent about $7 on the trays, and $5 on a hge bag of vermiculite that has lasted an entire 9 months so far... So Id say I paid less than $15 bucks for a cloner that has given me great success and will give hundreds of healthy clones!

:respect: to Budley for showin me the way on this one!!

:joint:
 
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mjcuresall

Active member
Awesome. Glad to see this thread is still getting some attention. Big thanks to Budley and his incarnates for sharing the idea.
 
M

Mr Stinkweed

I wanted to say, I switched to this type cloner a few months back.

Ive really put it to the test.

I used to use a perlite and wick cloner and this one beats the perlite version in about every way.

This cloner doesnt look fancy but it works most fabulous.

I registered to say what a great idea.
 
Can't find these at the local wally world - seen them anywhere else?

edit: NM, went to a different one and found one, on a shelf where it completely didn't belong :D $3.22 later and I've got a bunch of clones going, will be interesting to see how well it works next to my ghetto bubble cloner. I like this better in concept since it is silent! I love doing it on the cheap...
 
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M

Mr Stinkweed

Hey Its great you found them.

In my store they are by the ice cube bins.

I tried the bubble cloner for a while and found it a pain in the ass.

The thing that was most surprising about this method was the temps.

The thread recommends hi temps... from 80 to 85 degrees.

I had always heard that these temps caused damp off(bacteria snot stem)

But that hasnt happened with even a single clone.

Probably because its new medium each time and clean.

The warm temps probably contribute to the good roots this system gets.

Ive tried with and without cloning gel and as you might expect cloning gel was a clear winner but organic works quite well just slower.

Anyway good luck but if you follow the thread you should get good results like I did.
 
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I've got clonex, so I'm covered there. I might need to get a seedling mat or aquarium heater - I know the ambient is 80-85 in my grow room during the day, but drops down to 65 or so at night. And it hasn't started getting cold yet :) Plus I'm thinking of moving this to my basement...veg chamber.

I'm about to pull my clones from the bubbler cause I don't see shit for roots on them yet, and it's been near a week. :) And to think I was going to buy a used powercloner for $175...I'm really hopeful this is what it appears to be :)
 
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M

Mr Stinkweed

There is pretty much a guarantee to success.

Thats a 1.50 thermometer.

I cloned for a long time without one but I must admit it was enlightening.
 
The more I think about it, I'm going to have to go all fancy pants and get an aquarium thermometer for about $15. No way I will be able to keep the temps at 80 in the basement without help. That said - $20 for a superior cloner is still a great deal.

oh I was browsing the other day, and for those of you who want the platinum plated edition of this...parkseed.com has "bio dome seed starters" that might be an interesting upgrade. Similar wick based system but with a dome and plugs. I'll stick with mine for now, probably going to try this with garden seeds next spring :)
 
M

Mr Stinkweed

I checked out the thing from park seeds.

the plugs look like long rapid rooters.

I did some experiments with rapid rooters and they wick very nicely.

the vermiculite was much cheaped and got similar results.

Here is a wick cloner using rapid rooters.

this one uses wicks but if the bottom of the rapid rooter is in water it will wick to the top of the rapid rooter.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=96215
 
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C

CrystalsCrystal

Has anyone made a hydroponic wick system similar to this using pots of vermic sitting in a shallow pool of aerated solution?
 
M

Mr Stinkweed

Ive not seen anything like that but if I were to do somthing like that I wouldnt use a whole container of verimiculite

There is a system using bottom watering called autopots. it has a little float valve which can let up to 1 inch of water into the pot. once the roots are in the bottom inch the plant is just fine.

There is a scrog around here thats very impressive using 2 plants in one of these.

Anyway I would use 2 or 3 inches of verm at the bottom.

then fill the remainder with something like coco.

the auto pot uses half coco and half perlite.

This would allow the bottom of the pot to sit in a shallow pool.and wick water up 2 or 3 inches into the vermiculite . then a more aerated medium above that.

Once the roots hit the vermiculite the plant would have access to as much water as it needs.

Then you need to control the amount of water the container sits in.

That may be the hard part.

I might do a recirculating system with a small pump. with an overflow that controls the max amount of water. but the vermiculite will cause sediment which would have to be filtered out prior to recirculating.
 

DrPoison

POISON GENETICS.
ICMag Donor
I just couldnt resist...

I just couldnt resist...

Sweet little set up Budley! I was looking into DIY wick type cloners and planned on making one after doing a bit of research and shopping around. Was about to start on a tub in a tub type w/ tiki torch wicks and perilite but then I saw this nifty lil thing. Went to Wallys and grabbed me an ice cube tray and within 20 mins of getting home I had me a brand new cloner. I must say that at 1st I wasnt sure how good it was going to work because it seemed like the verm wasnt wicking up the water very good. After leaving it for a bout 20 mins I came back to find all the lil ports nice and moist. After a day they seem to have a perfect water concentration and stay moist even in a hot dry area. My cloner has about 10 cuttings in it atm. Cant wait to see how many actually root within a week or two. What I can tell you, is that after 3 days all the cuttings are looking great. I am not using a dome, have a 80/20 verm/fine perilite mix, and temps that are a much higher than recommended. None the less, they seem to be striving just lovely. Will keep all of ya posted on my initial test run and the success rate. A world class cloner, suitable for about 30 cuttings, made in 15 minutes, for under $10.....now thats my type of product! Nice idea Budley!
-DrPoison :laughing:
 
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zolar

Member
great cloner just got a 72 cell speedling commercial grade
tray that sit in a water tray with deep pyramid shaped cells


but this is really the same thing just differing shape size

though the speedling tray will work for starting veggies and such in nice dirt mixes but this works fine

by the way a lot of commercial propagating is done at the
75-85 deg. range

these should work for seed starting too use sifted soil and vermiculite
 

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