What am I doing WRONG w/ my clones>??

[norcalkell]

I've taken 150 cutting and 50+ are still strying.. It's so sad when they just die.. Now I'm set back a few weeks..

I wear gloves, clean razor, dip in gel, place in rapid rooter mist a lil and dome them.. URRRR

If this does not work maybe I should use rockwol or the ezclone...
Should I add a lil rizotonic next time they need food????

 

[GrassRoots]

It's so crazy how the same methods will provide such different results for different people when it comes to cloning. I cloned into Rapid Rooters 19 days ago, just finished transplanting about 8 more of them yesterday for a total of 35 out of 38 successfully rooted. 2 of the 3 left over are still looking good and have a couple roots popping out, the last one looks fine but just no sign of roots yet.

Here are a couple things that stand out as different from what I do and what I see you doing. First I take smaller cuts, I clone from the most spindly lower branches and I trim all the leaves by about 33%.

I also don't mist the plants directly, only the dome itself, I do this 2 times a day after I take the dome off to give them fresh air for 5-15 minutes. not sure if you're doing that or not.

I keep my RR's pretty moist, those ones on the left of all of the pictures that are a lighter brown are way to dry looking to me. This time I must not have had my tray sitting on a 100% level surface because on the left side of my tray the RR's were always WAY wetter than the others, more wet than I would want them to be, yet I still got 100% success on those particular cuts.

Lid has those vents like yours and I open them a little after about 5 days of not opening except for the twice daily venting and misting I wrote about above. The max I open those vents is about 1/2 way open.

You didn't mention your temps and I didn't measure mine this time or any time with my clones for that matter but this time around I'd say they were ~60-70 degrees, I didn't use a heating mat or anything just let them be at room temp in my house (which I keep pretty cool). I think this made them root a little slower than what I normally get but the bottom line is that they are all rooting, right?

That's all I really see and can think of for now. But don't give up on this inexpensive and effective method, I'm sure you can get it down.

By the way your practice of sterilized razors and gloves certainly isn't hurting anything but I stopped worrying so much about keeping things clean and it has had no effect on my success rates. They've actually gone up the less I've worried about cleanliness while cloning. Just letting you know in case you're taking the time to sterilize the blade after every cut like I used to. This time around I used the same blade I used last time, not sterile or anything.

This pretty much sums up cloning for me:

I cut the clone from the plant (along with some excess stem). Remove the excess leaves. Cut the excess stem at ~45 degree angle in between two nodes making sure one node is close enough to where it will end up inside the RR. I scape the stem a bit with the razor. I paint on some rooting gel with a Q-Tip. I widen the RR hole with a meat thermometer. I place the cut inside of a RR that I had soaking in tap water (but squeezed out most of the excess moisture). Finally I tear a little piece of the RR off and stuff it in the hole next to where the stem enters the RR. That's it, next cut..

Again man, best of luck with your clones!

Edit: Sorry for calling you man if you're not. Bad habit that's tough to break when I'm not seeing peoples faces.

 

[xu2x]

Instead of using Rapid Rooters or Rockwool, why don't u just try putting them in soil without the RR or RW? Just try a couple that way and not 150 at a shot.

I used RR for a long time and it usually took 12 to 16 days before I would see roots coming out of the RR. Well, last summer I took cuttings but they would always die/yellow up long before any roots would show up. By the time roots would show the plant would be all but dead.

Take cutting with razor blade, dip in gel, pro-mix soil in cup that is wet the whole way through, mist cuttings 3 times a day, humidity dome for first 5-7 days and seedling heat mat underneath.

Well, guess what? At day 6 or 7 I would turn the cup upside down to check it out and low and behold there were roots starting to go around the edge of the cup. Who would have thunk it, huh? Before, the roots would only start coming out of the RR around day 12 if not longer! The roots are eventually gonna be going in soil so why even bother putting them in RR or RW? It only makes sense unless you're using a hydro set up to grow. Everyone is different but this works killer for me.

 

[Greyskull]

Sorry man. I cannot clone for sit in rooters or rockwool either.
Gimme a bubble cloner or an ezcloner (what I am using now) any day of the week.
Good luck.

 

[smurfin'herb]

75-85 degrees F,
90-100% humidity, (a full dome of cuts will need 2 mistings/ day for 7-10 days)
blue spectrum shoplight @18inches from canopy
keep media a few degrees warmer than ambient temp if possible(in this case 80-85F)
circulate air every time u mist. When u mist make sure to remove the entire dome lid and not just mist thru the vents in the top. Blow around the under-canopy to get air movement, then replace the lid. Take 5'' cuts and and trim the bottom 2/3rds of them so mold wont take over.

If all of these requirements are met, you will for sure have roots in 2 weeks. Hope it helps bro!

b.t.w. DO NOT let the clones get so dry that they wilt! especially in the first week. If you keep the RH correct this will not happen, but if it does, your rooting success rates and times will be decreased.

 

[samuraioro]

I tried the Rapid Rooter route and out of like 40 cuttings tried over a staggered period I got 1 viable plant. Now I'm going bubble.



Less then $15 for all the parts and about 30 minutes of work. A lot less hassle in the end.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

norcalkell.... in the second photo you appear to have dry cubes on the left and wet ones on the right ?

If you have a wet environment around the base, you should have vents open as much as possible [without causing wilt] as humidity over 85% will slow down what slow growth is going on and provides a perfect environment for mould and rot.

There are big differences in the varieties and how easily they root, especially those that can be happy in less than perfect environments.

 

[FreezerBoy]

It's so crazy how the same methods will provide such different results for different people when it comes to cloning.

That's the secret to cloning right there. What guarantees success for some guarantees death for others. Just keep trying different things till something works.

What worked for me was throwing the dome in the trash. 15% RH is enough. Keep cuts short and well trimmed. Water temps 75º-80º. My biggest single improvement came from soaking each stem in Hormex (any IBA, NAA cloning solution will do) prior to gel and cube.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I use a few drops of VB1 in a bucket.

I too use tiny cuts with about 1/3-2/3rds of each leaf cut off.

I also soak my cuts overnight. (Or at least an hour)



My biggest issue is giving them too much light. The weaker the light, the more they concentrate on rooting.

 

[mexilandrace]

one thing you need to do is trim a ton of those leaves, that entire setup is over crowded and has way too big of leaves on pretty much every single clone.

You really need to start smaller, I get what you are doing but seriously its a hell of a lot easier to figure out how to clone once than it is to cut 100 and hope for the best.

You really need to learn how to trim the leaves too.