This thread is a revision of my 1st RDWC guide. I changed a few things and I will show my exact techniques and formulas from cuttings all the way through to harvest and cure. The journey continues! Stay tuned...
The cuttings were taken and put into an EZ Cloner. After no more than 10 days, I have full blown healthy roots. Most growers seem to think that water temperatures must stay under 73 degrees F. This is simply not true. I can run my temperatures in the 90's and still get healthy full blown roots. The trick is to use 1 PPM of Chlorine and don't use the air pump that came with your cloner. I use a much bigger air pump than my cloner came with. There is no way that you can use too much air. In fact, the more air that you can use the better.
I have to say that I'm pretty excited about my cloning formula! I've done about a couple years of testing on this formula and the results just keep getting better. The last run, I got root nubs formed in 72 hours! Some of you may be skeptical but if you are why not give it a try and see what happens. I hate to be promoting one of the products that I think is the key to my formula but I have to put this information out there.
First I'd like to start out by stating that I do not use any gels or powders to dip the cuttings. I don't dip any cuttings in anything. I also do not score or shave any part of the cutting whatsoever and I think that it is crazy to do that. All that I do is cut the cutting at a 45 degree angle with a pair of scissors and stick it in the EZ Clone 60.
Before I place any cuttings into the cloner, I make sure that the cloner is 100% sterile. If it is not, I give 6 treatments of Erythromycin for 6 days. Once my treatments are done and my cloner is rinsed out real well, I place new sprayers, tubing and neoprene and add 10 Gallons of tap water to the cloner.
After I add 10 Gallons of tap water, I add:
20 mL General Hydroponic FloraMicro
30 mL General Hydroponic FloraBloom
3 mL SuperTHRIVE
0.5 mL Clorox Bleach
I make sure to pH the solution to 6.0 after I add in all the above products. This will leave me with:
PPM (0.5 / 500 / NaCl): 440
pH: 6.0
After 10 days and the top offs with tap water, I'm left with:
PPM (0.5 / 500 / NaCl): 400
pH: 6.1
I can't stress this enough, every single step in my process is very important. There is not one that is more important than the other. It is extremely important that the MOMS that you take your cuts from are in extremely excellent health. Not only that, it's also important that the run-off of your medium is in line. Soil run-off should be 6.0 - 6.5, hydro run-off should be 5.8 - 6.2. Coco should be somewhere in between soil and hydro. It is also important that your mothers are well fed about 5 days before you take the cuttings and the medium is not dry at the time that you take the cuttings.
Once you follow the steps above, I also advise to change out the air pump of the cloner to a size of how ever much solution the cloner holds, your air pump should equal at least half those liters or gallons per minute. So if you have an EZ Clone 60 which holds 10 Gallons of Solution (37.9 Liter), your air pump should be rated at 19 Liters / Minute. I use 4 air stones with the EZ Clone 60.
Now after all that work, all you have to do is place your cuttings in the cloner and wait a few days to see root nubs appear! I like my solution to be somewhere in the range of 75-82 degrees F. Also remember that some strains are harder to root than others but on easier strains, you can get root nubs in 3 days and roots like this in 10 days or less:
And these are the Root Nubs forming on the 3rd day:
Please also check out my other cloning thread in the New Growers Section for those who are taking cuttings in Rockwool.
Snype's Guide To Cloning In Rockwool Or Aeroponics With 100% Success Rates!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=268211
The cuttings were taken and put into an EZ Cloner. After no more than 10 days, I have full blown healthy roots. Most growers seem to think that water temperatures must stay under 73 degrees F. This is simply not true. I can run my temperatures in the 90's and still get healthy full blown roots. The trick is to use 1 PPM of Chlorine and don't use the air pump that came with your cloner. I use a much bigger air pump than my cloner came with. There is no way that you can use too much air. In fact, the more air that you can use the better.
I have to say that I'm pretty excited about my cloning formula! I've done about a couple years of testing on this formula and the results just keep getting better. The last run, I got root nubs formed in 72 hours! Some of you may be skeptical but if you are why not give it a try and see what happens. I hate to be promoting one of the products that I think is the key to my formula but I have to put this information out there.
First I'd like to start out by stating that I do not use any gels or powders to dip the cuttings. I don't dip any cuttings in anything. I also do not score or shave any part of the cutting whatsoever and I think that it is crazy to do that. All that I do is cut the cutting at a 45 degree angle with a pair of scissors and stick it in the EZ Clone 60.
Before I place any cuttings into the cloner, I make sure that the cloner is 100% sterile. If it is not, I give 6 treatments of Erythromycin for 6 days. Once my treatments are done and my cloner is rinsed out real well, I place new sprayers, tubing and neoprene and add 10 Gallons of tap water to the cloner.
After I add 10 Gallons of tap water, I add:
20 mL General Hydroponic FloraMicro
30 mL General Hydroponic FloraBloom
3 mL SuperTHRIVE
0.5 mL Clorox Bleach
I make sure to pH the solution to 6.0 after I add in all the above products. This will leave me with:
PPM (0.5 / 500 / NaCl): 440
pH: 6.0
After 10 days and the top offs with tap water, I'm left with:
PPM (0.5 / 500 / NaCl): 400
pH: 6.1
I can't stress this enough, every single step in my process is very important. There is not one that is more important than the other. It is extremely important that the MOMS that you take your cuts from are in extremely excellent health. Not only that, it's also important that the run-off of your medium is in line. Soil run-off should be 6.0 - 6.5, hydro run-off should be 5.8 - 6.2. Coco should be somewhere in between soil and hydro. It is also important that your mothers are well fed about 5 days before you take the cuttings and the medium is not dry at the time that you take the cuttings.
Once you follow the steps above, I also advise to change out the air pump of the cloner to a size of how ever much solution the cloner holds, your air pump should equal at least half those liters or gallons per minute. So if you have an EZ Clone 60 which holds 10 Gallons of Solution (37.9 Liter), your air pump should be rated at 19 Liters / Minute. I use 4 air stones with the EZ Clone 60.
Now after all that work, all you have to do is place your cuttings in the cloner and wait a few days to see root nubs appear! I like my solution to be somewhere in the range of 75-82 degrees F. Also remember that some strains are harder to root than others but on easier strains, you can get root nubs in 3 days and roots like this in 10 days or less:
And these are the Root Nubs forming on the 3rd day:
Please also check out my other cloning thread in the New Growers Section for those who are taking cuttings in Rockwool.
Snype's Guide To Cloning In Rockwool Or Aeroponics With 100% Success Rates!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=268211