only 33% cloning success rate help please!

[medicalmj]

The reason IM using the 150w hps is because it was free. I just bought a darkroom and i plan on keeping the 150w to put in there, and it will be over 4 feet away from the tray im putting cuttings in. I am having better success this round mainly becuase i majorly cut down on the amount of water i was using. I will be taking much, much smaller cutting from here on out becuase it make perfect sense that less foliage means more effort can be put into creating roots. I guess i was thinking that more leaf area would mean more water absorption through the leaves to keep it alive but what do i know Im a noob at this.

What is your opinion on foliar feed with a highly diluted amt of nutes before rooting?

I tried a foliar spray once before cutting and I had a slower start. Wasnt scientific but I havent done it again.

Also, as I mentioned, and others have too, I use flouros. I custom made my last, cause I hate buying retail, that takes cfls. You have to a high K, think i have 6500K, which gives a great blue spectrum. Tried under a standard warm and it sucked.

But as someone alluded, and friend did this too, get a $10 clip on and throw a 6500k in it and you'll be rocking. I have 4 27w 6500k for my clone tray. So if you can get just one clip on and throw a big ole 100w cfl in it. Just that light up a bit as it'll throw some heat and light. Wayyy better than

 

[joe guy]

I kinda rigged my old generic adjusta wing to except a standard base cfl and still if i need a second hps the fixtuure is still there..and it works great see

Was super easy just.drilled a hole and ran the new.lamp set from wally world and waa bamm worlds first hps/cfl convertible lol the wonders of broke mans mind

 

[Avinash.miles]

no standing water at all in the tray of clones, just keep medium moist-ish. let dry out then remoisten do not constantly re-moisten, a lil dry out is ok
also lower ur light power, use t5s t8 (shop lights) or a cfl, 150hps is waaaaay over kill for clones.
next u gotta consider temp of ur medium, i like putting a heat mat under my cloning tray if the room is not nice and warm already.
hope that helps

 

[señorsloth]

i clone about 50 a month and rarely even lose one leaf, let alone an entire clone...

first you prep the rapid rooters, they come moist, but not moist enough, i squeeze out under water, to fully saturate them, then squeeze about half of that out...i ph my water to 7 before i do this...

so all i do is cut my clone, at a 45% angle, dip in water for a second, then dip in some cheepo shults rooting horemone from home depot, then i pop it into a rapid rooter and plug the hole with a chunk i tear off the side...thats pretty standard as far as cloning goes, except i don't waste my time sterilizing razor blades, often im just using a pocket knife...

the real part that makes it work 100% of the time is the chamber, you need the little thin plastic pot/trays that the rapid rooters fit into, this keeps them from drying out early, and you need a good humidity dome! thats the most important part. i put my humidity dome on a seedling mat, in the corner of my veg room, they don't get much light, and frankly, cloning works just as well with no light at all for the first week...it's just convienient for me to keep mine in my veg room so i do it...

you keep the vents on the humidity dome closed for a week, durring that week check every day, when the rapid rooters start to change to a lighter color they need more watering. after the first week i start to open the vent holes in the humidity dome, but you need to make sure you check the color of the rapid rooters DAILY at that point because without the vents close the rooters will dry out much faster...that is the reason i keep the vents closed completely the first week, clones clone best when the rapid rooter stays perfectly moist for about a week.

i like to also keep my clones away from the edges of my dome, it holds 72 pot/trays, but i only put in 48 so that i can leave a row around the outside empty, keeping my clones leaves from getting wet and molding...

if you do it exactly like that you should get near 100% success with just a little practice...

 

[Weird Jimmy]

Ditch the cubes completely. Hydroponic cloning is hands down the easiest way. Make a simple bubble cloner out of a bucket and air stone, and you'll have 100% rates with none of the hassle that comes with cubes (no humidity levels to worry about, no moisture levels to worry about)

 

[puddlebud]

Another thing you can do to improve your success rate is to take clones from flowering plants. I just got done taking clones two weeks before flowering, and then a week into flower. Put them under a 13 watt fluorescent and a few of the older clones got the benefit of a heat mat. The medium was straight coco. Within a week of taking the 3 flowering clones they showed a huge amount of roots while out of the 7 vegetative clones only the ones that had the benefit of the heat mat showed some roots at three weeks, most didn't make it. The whole transcriptome (genes that are transcribed into mRNA at points in the plants life cycle) changes when in flower. its perfect to take a clone from a flowering plant with the right genes turned on for rapid growth all the while reverting the clone back to the vegetative state, especially if your setup isn't dialed in.

 

[Leathermonster]

I got lucky and went over to a friends house to borrow a table saw and she showed me her basement where her ex husband used to grow. She gave me a flourescent light with two agro gro bulbs. I was thinking about using that instead of the 150w hps, but then i need to buy heating pads and I dont have the money to spend on them right now. Also, I was looking for a mh conversion bulb or a cmh buld to put in the 150w hps ballast. Can I just put a 150w cmh bulb in with no problems?

 

[joe guy]

If loot is the problem i did mine for under 20 bucks few walks thru thepark (pickin up cans and bottles) we have alot of drunks that sleep in the )park across the way and guess they are green bums (no recycling) and yeha with in the month u got 30 bucks in the trash can.. Simple high watt floro and bottle lamp kit from wally world and ur golden..

 

[Leathermonster]

If loot is the problem i did mine for under 20 bucks few walks thru thepark (pickin up cans and bottles) we have alot of drunks that sleep in the )park across the way and guess they are green bums (no recycling) and yeha with in the month u got 30 bucks in the trash can.. Simple high watt floro and bottle lamp kit from wally world and ur golden..

Hey thanks man thats a great idea! I have some cans in bags around the back of the house i could recycle. Ive also been trying to get work thru facebook, and I got a job wall mounting two tvs which will bank me about 300 bucks. Got three plants in flower now and my silent partner is helping with funds here and there but recycling is a great Idea. I wish I had a truck then i could make money no problem

 

[noyd666]

hi,the quest for succesful cloning goes on was only part succ with cubes,chucked them away, i even spun dried them with salad spinner, works perfect. as you can see everybody is differant, i cut 9'' clones, straight into jar water, about 20 a time, stick jar in dark about 10 hours, or overnight, water uptake, next cut angle, scrape on lower node,dip in dutch master rep, then into drink cup clear, se it growing, perlite in bottom ,then fill with coco, shove er in cut leaves in half so there not banging in to i another, water light, and light spray. 10 days most, 4 days once on some.ps putting them in dark first off seem to stop any wilt, spec on hot days. used twin fluros with cool white tubes, air, and heat where needed.

 

[medicalmj]

Hey thanks man thats a great idea! I have some cans in bags around the back of the house i could recycle. Ive also been trying to get work thru facebook, and I got a job wall mounting two tvs which will bank me about 300 bucks. Got three plants in flower now and my silent partner is helping with funds here and there but recycling is a great Idea. I wish I had a truck then i could make money no problem

Good old can and bottle deposits. While you're at it be sure to buy a $2 fish thermometer and put that inside the clone dome. If it is below 72 (I have best results in mid-upper 70's) you may need to buy a heat pad. You can buy the whole dome with heat pad for $20-25. I noticed if left on constantly temps would hit over 90, so you'll have to improvise. Ideas: add a couple layer of bottom trays, or a timer...and I guess collect more cans, lol.

 

[WelderDan]

I use perlite, Rootone rooting powder and tap water. No dome, no mist and cut down water bottles for containers because they are clear. Lighting is a couple CFL bulbs. Success rate is 95% +.

I think the most important things are cleanliness, avoiding embolisms and consistency. Use a new, clean razor and wipe off any preservative oil with alcohol and clean the blade with alcohol between cuts.

I cut however many clones I want (just a little longer than final length since I will cut them again just prior to dipping in rooting hormone to avoid an embolism) and set them aside, then fill my cups with perlite, soak it with tap water and let them absorb for a few minutes, then pour off any excess water. Then I use a toothpick to make a hole to drop the clone in.

I keep a cup of water handy for dipping the ends, and the rooting powder next to it. Dip, dip, into the perlite.

I like to make the final cuts just below a node. First I scrape/scarify the area I'm going to cut. Then I make the final cut at 45 degrees, dip in water, then rooting powder, then into the perlite. Making that final cut and quickly dipping in water is important to avoid an embolism.

I've tried gels, bubble cloners, plugs, sphagnum and plain old dirt. I get the best results with this method.

Regardless of medium used, I think the most important thing is cleanliness and avoiding embolisms. Like I said, I don't use domes or mist the clones, and I don't have issues with wilt.

 

[immaculate]

Is the wilt indicative of death? I just did a round of clones in pellets, and I think I may have over saturated them? Most are wilting, but I didn't squeeze excess water out after soaking the cubes because I thought they should have as much moisture as possible. Should I squeeze out excess moisture?

 

[Podink Stucky]

It figures that a thread such as this would be answered from all directions! Not everybody does anything the same. The basics of cloning.....always water the plant you are taking the clones form and then wait AT LEAST 20 MINUTES! This will allow the "mother" to hydrate to an acceptable level. Also a good idea to score the bottom of the cutting an inch or two gently with a fresh blade. This allows the rooting hormone to penetrate the stalk and promote root growth immediately. Don't use soils with ferts or amends, clones do best with very low ppm around 50 - 100. Good healthy cuttings always make the strongest clones!

 

[NorCalZero]

Take your rapid rooters and clone machine clones to any dispensary and watch how quick they get rejected (and no perlite dust or little perlite pellets everywhere for me, no thanks).....Rockwool is the standard for a reason, it is clean, super easy to transplant, mold resistant, and you can run them in soil or hydro.

Straight from Harborside: For ease of handling and watering, we
prefer rockwool slabs of 50 cubes/tray.

 

[medicalmj]

It figures that a thread such as this would be answered from all directions! Not everybody does anything the same. The basics of cloning.....always water the plant you are taking the clones form and then wait AT LEAST 20 MINUTES! This will allow the "mother" to hydrate to an acceptable level. Also a good idea to score the bottom of the cutting an inch or two gently with a fresh blade. This allows the rooting hormone to penetrate the stalk and promote root growth immediately. Don't use soils with ferts or amends, clones do best with very low ppm around 50 - 100. Good healthy cuttings always make the strongest clones!

Scoring is good...Be sure not to go to deep tho. I prefer to lightly scrape with the razor versus some who like to cut notches. That also depends on the cutting, soft stem or wooy.