ongoing biweekly cloning attempts and failures

[Bobby Boucher]

Maybe im nuts but im just using heat pad meant for humans under my tray with a couple of boards to set it high so it doesnt touch. I stick a meat thermometer on the tray and try to keep it between 70° and 80°

I'm surprised yours stays on. Most are designed to automatically shut off after 30-60 minutes, and they get much warmer than a seedling mat. Seedling mats don't get very warm at all.

 

[wvkindbud38]

Sorry to bother you guys I thought this was a cloning thread. I'll figure out something to put in my cloner or not. I gotta thin down some mom's and try to get cuts from some different strains.

 

[Im'One]

Yea i dont know this is an old one we had laying around. I keep in on low most the time and its on the floor, carpet over concrete. The other night it got down below freezing so i cranked it up before going to bed, turned it down in the morning. Im just kind of forest gumping my way along.

 

[Im'One]

I should have my hydrometer mon, and I've gonna start my 45 site hortipots cloner. I really need to take cuts because the plants are getting huge. I'm give them plain water 2 days. I'll probably take them soon and try again. I'm trying to figure plain water 6.0 around 66 degress or should I put a very might veg solution or maybe a lil hormex??? I'm trying to decide if I need the doom, it's so humid. But I could probably use my extra therm pro to watch humidity

Ok sorry to bursst your bubble but we are telling you to stop obsessing and just make it happen. You will make it over complicated if you keep on.



Heres what works for ME.
WELL water at 350ppm about 6.8 ph
Peat pellet rooters
Dome for the first day then gradually take it off a few hours, an hour on day one two hours on day two...etc by the third or fourth day if your room is himid say 50 rh you can leave it off.
I was very frustrated until i re vegged a very healthy plant and tied her on a cross and started getting little shoots that each had a growth tip!
I cut about twice as many as i needed.

Use flouros or cfls a long ways from them!
Then be patient. You will learn the process.

Some of my strains refused to re veg...so they didnt get clones.

Shit happens.

 

[Im'One]

Spmething else i read that helped i think, was to increase the light hours during the laat week of my flowering before flipping the plant on to a revegging achedule. Also i give her big bloom which has no nitrogen just before taking cuts. It seems to hep....
I think the health of the mom has a lot to do with the health of her clones. It may sound crazy but i like to keep them in the room with mom, just a couple of feet away and under her so they dont get much light. My cfl lights in the cloning/mom room are on 20/4 off.
Works for me.

 

[Gazoo31]

I used to have poor clone rates. Switched to coco coir, 100 percent soaking wet, some on and closed 75 degrees. Exchange air twice a day and I get 100 percent success in 10 days. Lots of rooting hormone even sprinkle it on top of the coco. Last ones I did the stems were rooting into the air above the soil line lol.

 

[Im'One]

I think its one of those things where the harder you try the harder it becomes....

 

[mexweed]

my last cloning attempt failed too, I had a glass bowl with ph'd water and cloning solution mixed in and had it bubbling, cuts were in floater plugs and eventually started to rot where the plugs were hugging the stem

next attempt I am going to get one of the cheap trays with a dome for root riots and moisturize them with the cloning solution water

 

[Im'One]

Yes the bubble cloner never worked for me...i went with the tray and good quality plugs. Dome is flimsy yes but i am careful with it.

 

[hamstring]

Paulie

Nice thread hope I'm not intruding if I post a couple of questions. I will not take offense if you want me to start my own thread but you have a good one going.

stewart
Nice humidity dome . I bought the cheap one but saw those on line. How do you like that dome compared to the cheap ones at the big box store or grow shops?



I am also just getting back in to cloning after 20yrs. I have taken cuttings twice now and have some things to report back.

1st attempt:
I was using rapid rooters soaked in clonex and plain tap water (city water). I used cloning gel and humidity dome on top of a uncontrolled heat mat. I had cuttings under a shade cloth under a HID. It was what I had at the time.

Agree with the fact that the clones must be taken from healthy mothers. On my first attempt I took the clones too early. I had one out of 4 survive but even she had a good two weeks setback. I put the surviver into soil and after 22 days root growth continues( I looked) but no new veg growth which seems weird.



2nd attempt:
I am now using the temp controlled heating mat set at 75 but it varies from 75 - 78 degrees. They are now under a small compact LED. I believe its in the 150watt range. Something I had laying around. Ambient temp around 70 degrees. I kept them at 100% humidity for 4-5 days. I then opened the small vents on top. I again soaked the rapid rooters in clonex in plain tap water. Still under 50% more like 40% success range.

After 10 days I only have one where the roots are popping through the rapid rooter. The other ones I carefully pulled the rapid rooters apart and found small root tip emerging from the cutting.

So I have a couple of questions.

1. I didnt do any PH check or change. Is that a must do for greater success?

2. The one cutting with the roots sticking out of the rapid rooter. When can I put her into soil?

3. Any cutting with zero root production I threw them away after 10days. The really strange thing is most of them looked great. No wilting still nice deep green leaves but not a single root. Should I have left them or is that fools gold?

Update from my last post.

All of the cuttings that had any sign of a root all 100% made it. Just went into soil today. Could of and should of did it a 5 days ago but didn't have the time. Some of the roots were turning a bit brown but still plenty of white ones.

Like others have said don't fret too much. I let the rapid rooters dry out a couple of times and the cuttings wilted. A little bit of water and they perked right up.

Not sure but I'm thinking less light is better. The next time I clone if the cutting hasn't wilted I'm going to keep it even it doesn't show roots in 10 days.

I have a OGKB cut that was gifted by a fellow IC mager. Thanks brother I want to get her cloned so I can put her int flower. onward and upward.

Thanks for this thread I have learned a lot and still have a lot more to learn.

 

[noknees]

Not sure but I'm thinking less light is better.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

I finally broke through on my cloning trouble with a clean sprayer manifold cloner.

Temperature of the water getting too high leads to poor oxygen levels and a good climate for the growth of the dreaded slime.

Putting the entire unit in a large tub filled with water will increase the amount of water to absorb the pump's heat output.

Be sure to clean everything by running water and bleach solution for a while and soak the plugs in bleach and water solution in a large Ziploc making sure that you get inside every surface by squeezing them open pressing your fingers through the bag from the outside.

Less is certainly more when it comes to light. A T 12 at ten inches is plenty for cuts.

 

[hamstring]

I have an interesting situation that I wanted to get some feedback on.

One of the first clones I took --5-6weeks now since I first took the cutting. I trimmed all the small (just emerging)leaves completely off (have only did this one other time). These small leaves seem to be the first to show new growth. Without them the clone doesn't seem to grow???

Well this is a fully rooted clone and as stated before it only has the two larger(trimmed) leaves that I kept when I cloned it. It has now been 5-6 weeks and was transplanted in soil around 3 weeks ago. The two leaves are nice and dark green but zero new growth.

All my other clones are all showing big signs of growth with the formally small leaves getting larger and new leaves emerging.

Will this clone ever grow and show new growth. Do you always need to leave those small just emerging leaves on a clone to get new growth?

 

[pinkus]

That tip is the apical meristem and yes, it is usually the place cells multiply.

Others have used just leaves so I assume that it might grow, but I wouldn't be taking clones and cutting the meristem if I had options.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meristem

 

[hamstring]

That tip is the apical meristem and yes, it is usually the place cells multiply.

Others have used just leaves so I assume that it might grow, but I wouldn't be taking clones and cutting the meristem if I had options.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meristem

Thanks pinkus much appreciated . Also appreciate the help with terminology. It really helps to be able to speak the vernacular .

I will keep an eye on that plant (actually have two) to see if i ever do get any new growth. I will also refrain from cutting apical meristem.

 

[wvkindbud38]

Im doing everything, keeping them away from bright light and everything. Just keep trying things until I find it. It's very humid here, so I think I know I left the dome on to long once or twice. I got those lil hydrometers. What temp Fahrenheit to you guys think works the best?? I been going around 68 degrees F, I'm wondering if I should maybe go to 65 f. When I'm not doing things correctly I don't panic I just keep trying different procedures until I figure it out. I need to get the cuts so I can flower out the big plant I've cloned. So I don't overcrowd the Veg and mother area.

 

[SuperBadGrower]

66-82°F works here, ideally 80°F and 60-70% RH non-stagnant air... air flow. Doesn't really matter tho. this is yet another one. avg 73.4°F / 50% RH, never a dome, never sprayed, never cut the leaves (if you can help it, space wise), tap water at first, base nutrients when you see a root, just never fuck with them, it's too easy, 12 days




Heres my opinion: if you are not having success with clones from a healthy good growing plant, you are fuckin with it too much or you are not patient enough. It's either the dome (RH/pathogens) or the other rituals
My biggest failures are in a glass of water transparent or not. I can't clone in water, really slow root formation there, it's more inclined to rot than to root. So I may have success to share I suck at cloning in water. it's not like I'm the clone god. just giving my 2 cents maybe get yall off those damn plant killing domes

edit: Uh, but don't go domeless below 40%

 

[Maple_Flail]

cross contaminating pathogens are generally my biggest point of failure personally, if i don't spend a few days planing out a clone down something always get missed in cleaning.

my area needs a dome in a large part of the year due to the RH fluctuations must have something to do with the weird water tables around here, winter i can clone without a dome

there are always the chance of equipment failure, my last run have higher failure rate than usual, started investigating to find my old PH meter had taken the piss, was drunk and badly needed to go home.. and everything was 1.2 point less alkaline than it was reading upon aquiring a replacment.

so soil clones gettig 5.4ph or something like that, i'm surprised i had any success.. oh there was stunting.. but they've basiclly almost caught up to where they would be.

weak insect fras tea to begin then weak kelp tea once the leafs show signs of cannabilisim

 

[pinkus]

I'm going to mention something that I never see mentioned regarding cloning but I believe to be true: VARY the amount of light and moisture. Biological systems are ALWAYS dependant on concentration gradients.

Also move from more wet to more dry over time. I like to think of it as "tacking towards dry" . If you have never heard of tacking, it's a sailing term for moving towards something at an angle.

 

[PaulieWaulie]

Ok Here are the results for #4 RUN, which was posted on page 4, if you want to see what I did.

Turboklone - majority had stem rot, 0 roots. Res Temps had peaks of 76F, Only other change was I used hormex rooting hormone concentrate. I had no stem rotting on previous run, and temps hit 75. So Im not sure what the issue was, maybe the stronger light. Anyways I have retired the turboklone. I thought it would be easier to figure out and dial in, but it actually is harder than other methods. I just don't have the time or energy to try and figure it out. Ive done 4 consecutive runs. Im out!

Ok good news is I had close to 50% success with the jiffy,perlite,rockwool. Funny enough when I hit the 10 day mark and didn't see roots I was getting ready to pull the plug so I didn't care much and left the domes off, Used heating mats for other projects, removed one of the LED tubes to save electricity. every few days I checked them and roots where showing. I transplanted ones that had roots, and ones that looked like they were about to throw out roots (had scarring on stems) So I think I got at least 10 Gorilla bubble clones rooted, so enough for a solid run in the bloom room.