Trouble taking cuttings

[Erin Kerrik]

Ideas on what I'm doing wrong. This is the third time I've tried to root cuttings; they're doing a little better this time, but they aren't exactly vigorous. Six days from taking:



What I do:

Cut off unwanted foliage while on the plant, then take a cutting a little longer than my pinky, 4", leaving two sets of leaves, cutting off approx 1/3 of each leaf
Scar the part of stem going into rockwool
Dip in Rootmax gel
Place in rockwool soaked in 5.5 pH solution of 3 ml B'Cuzz root and 5ml Thrive Alive per gallon
Place in humidity dome under 4 40W florescents, over heat mat
Temps around 85, probe in rockwool says 5-10 degrees higher than air
Keep humidity 90-95% first 48 hours, opening dome 1x/day
Next 48 hours, leave dome cracked, humidity 80-90%
Take dome off on 5th day, turn on 4 more 32W tubes

There we are today. Help!

 

[steveoi812]

I'm no pro, so dont listen to me but I think you are burning them up with too much light. I successfully rooted cuts using only one 25 watt fluro. Someone more knowledgeable than myself should come along shortly. Good luck bro.

 

[hoyt]

you might need to keep that dome on until they root. have you noticed a bad change since you took off the dome? what day are you on now?

edit: after maven mentioned it, that pic looks like your rockwool might be soaked. no need to have it overly wet, just damp

 

[TheGreenMaven]

I'm no pro either, but I would tend to agree with Steve there about the light. I root in rockwool in the periphery of a 250W MH that's on 24hr. Also, clones really don't need anything except water while rooting (with the exception of the rooting gel). Not that using those other products doesn't work, but it's an added expense that is IMO too easy to overdo. Also, it is possible to keep the rockwool too wet for good rooting.
I'm also a little curious about your picture. Are those tip cuttings or mid segment cuttings?

 

[Erin Kerrik]

Hoyt - yes, they looked fine the first four days, started yellowing when the hood was taken off. At that point all but one had "rooted" in that you can pick up the cube by the stem. I'll try keeping the hood on and cracked longer.

GreenMaven - they are both tips and midsections: tips and midsections of seven week old GF and Cindy 99, and just tips of revegged BB and bagseed sativa.

 

[tuco]

might be a little re-veg stress?

anyway, i say patience, some strains are just stubborn...i had some apollo11 i recently cloned and it took 4 weeks until they realy took off.

 

[guineapig]

Have you noticed if your medium (rockwool) is excessively dry?

See these heat mats don't have a thermostat on them (cost 40 bucks extra), and they can quickly rise to very hot temperatures.....the root temp should be only 5 degrees higher than the ambient air, so something like seventy five or eighty degrees at the root zone is all you need.....I'm thinking that your heat mat is drying out the medium.....you can stack multiple trays underneath your clone tray, but if you set a flimsy plastic tray directly on a heat mat chances are that you will fry your poor little clones' delicate proto-roots and no roots will show and all the cuttings flop over....

But remember that it takes 1-3 weeks for rooting to happen, and many strains are super-slow in rooting......I would try cloning again without using the root-mat and make sure your pH of your rockwool is correct (5.5-5.8 i believe?)....

-gp

 

[Erin Kerrik]

tuco - the revegged plants were in full vegging, they're under 12/12 again now.

guineapig - the heat mat was something I tried this time. There are about 6 inches of stuff between the mat and flat: a plastic box, magazines and a board - that's what it took to make sure it didn't heat up too much. And I do believe the rockwool is wet enough.

 

[all messed up]

Keep rootmat cooler than 85 say 75. soak rockwool in light blooming solution not grow. Plants want more p and k then. N comes later. I don't like individual small blocks. Get bigger ones. Those leaves are too yellow. Mother plant must be healthy for sucess. Forget gels, use dip-n-grow and follow directions. Keep dome on for 24 hours. off for five minutes then another 24 hours.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Looks like a combo of high temps/high light levels and poorly fed mothers to me...

You can easily root more than 100 clones under a single 40w shop light bulb 1' away...giving them 160w of light when they have no roots to take in more nutes will force the plant to consume it's stored nutes in an effort to photosynthesize the light energy - which is bad since the plant is not using that energy to create roots. High temps will cause a similar effect since temps increase plant metabolism to a point.

 

[Bozo]

Looks to me like very poor quality cuts my eyes aint what they used to be but i dont see any healthy growth tips just few leaves on some stem
I know there are growth tips at each leave but i like a healthy tip to cut to start off with Maybe you could veg the mom alittle longer I think you will find it will actually save time in the long run good luck

 

[weed_snob]

I would say the most important thing in cloning is keeping the stem submerged in water every step of the way so that it never touches air. once air bubbles begin to 'infect' the plants water tubes(xylem phloem? whatever) they die and the more that die the longer the rooting takes.

I take large braches, durring the night cycle if possible so that the 'bubble' remains far from the cuts. then i submerge the stems in a bowl where they are going to be cut. I make sure there is water on the new cutting so that when i pull her out of the bowl drops of water will form on the new exposed end, then into the root gel. I ve noticed if you pull a few strips green 'skin' from the rooting end (while in gel, using tweasers) roots explode out of the eposed surface, much more effective than slashing.

you dont need any of those nutrients, the cloning gel has the very small amount of nutrients necessarry, make those roots search for food! also i stick with the humidity dome until they get into soil. and make sure your cubes arent scraping your gel off by dabing a little on the hole before you put them in

 

[sproutco]

You need to keep the dome on for a solid week before attempting to start cracking it any. Spray both the clones and interior portions of the dome with water. The dome should appear foggy. Puddles of water in the interior of dome is ok. This should be trying to evaporate. I like to have one node below ground with the leaves removed. Don't add any sort of nutrients other than the hormone. Ensure the mother plant is properly fed before taking cuttings.

 

[fredster420]

Your too hot = lower your temps - Ideal range for cuts is - 72-78 /

(place a temp guage in the prop)

I use Rapid Rooters/Olivias gel /B-Cuzz rooting juice & can get mine in soil in 10 days


Home made prop = works every time :wink:

 

[Guest]

you could also try an EZ clone ... they work really well

http://www.ezclone.com/

 

[Japanfreakier]

The more you look under the hood the lower the success rate is. keep the dome on and don't check for roots for at least a week.

 

[all messed up]

Lack of oxygen will cause anerobic decomposition.

 

[Erin Kerrik]

Thanks for all the suggestions, all. I'm about 2 weeks into flower, maybe one more try this grow: less light, more humidity for longer, a little cooler and only root gel & B'Cuzz root.

 

[SouthernSmoker]

Hoyt - yes, they looked fine the first four days, started yellowing when the hood was taken off. At that point all but one had "rooted" in that you can pick up the cube by the stem. I'll try keeping the hood on and cracked longer.

GreenMaven - they are both tips and midsections: tips and midsections of seven week old GF and Cindy 99, and just tips of revegged BB and bagseed sativa.

Hey Erin Kerrik
dont pick the clones up by the stems you could damage there small roots .

 

[zoolander]

i bring temps all the way up to 90 with 95% humidity and have no probs 100% success i mist 3 to 6 times a day i also use ro water