What's the big secret to successful clones?

[qanabose]

What's the big secret to successful clones?

I see roots begin appearing at around 2 weeks but more plentious at around 3 weeks. Perlite seems to dry out, rockwool seems to be OK but stays a lil' too damp perhaps...
A dome lids seem to keep all the steam in and they rot. Leave it open to the air and they dry out and wilt. Hardwood or softwood seems to make little difference.

Usually end up with around 60% strike rate...Doesn't seem to matter what strain...
Can anyone help me find a sure fire method of getting good, fast clone results please?

 

[Snype]

Some strains clone easy and some don't. I use an EZ Clone with a little B1 and water and just leave it for 7-10 days and transplant into Rockwool. Never had a death yet. Every other method i've used takes a lot more time.

 

[texas grass]

rapid rooters are my success, their the greatest

 

[scifreak69]

misting my clones seem to help me alot

 

[guineapig]

That's a very important question......

Many people have trouble with cloning and are looking for techniques to improve their success rate.....

Honestly, the people with the greatest success rates use the water-cloners like the EZ cloner......in this method, plant stems are inserted in a Neoprene collar and the bottom of the stem dangles in water that is being constantly oxygenated and bubbled with a very small amount of vitamin-B solution like Power Thrive.....

Rockwool and Rapid Rooters seem to be the next favorite cloning method.....the trick here is to make sure the sides of the rockwool/RR come into contact with the stem.....often, the pre-drilled holes in the rapid rooter or the rockwool are too large and thus do not make contact with the bottom of the stem (where all the "action" takes place, the "action" being the transformation of vegetative stem into roots).....people usually use root gels to ensure success with rockwool and Rapid Rooters......one trick with the Rapid Rooters is not to use the pre-drilled hole.....instead, rip the Rapid Rooter in half, stick in your cutting, and firmly press the Rapid Rooter back into its original form with a piece of tape or string to tightly secure the wet sponge-like material around the cutting.......often, when you stick the cutting in the pre-drilled hole, there is too much dry air around the bottom of the stem and it totally dries out and does not form roots.....

Back in the 1990s, the first method i used was a mixture of perlite and vermiculite.....this works better than pure vermiculite, due to the increased moisture provided by the wetting agent vermiculite.....vermiculite is very dusty and can contain asbestos fibers, so if you use this product please wear a mask....."Vermiculite ores from some sources have been found to contain asbestos minerals but asbestos is not intrinsic to vermiculite and only a few ore bodies have been found to contain more than tiny trace amounts" (EPA)......so really, vermiculite is quite safe, but i recommend a dust-mask anyway.....

Of course, some people use jiffy-pellets and these new Coconut-fiber-pucks.......maybe some people can chime in and comment on these products.....

kind regards from guineapig

 

[image reaper]

rapid rooters are my success, their the greatest

right on ! ... RapidRooters, aquarium heater, and a bubbler, you're good to go !

 

[arniewonka]

i'm no pro, but vermiculite/perlite is a very easy medium. the vermiculite's max absorption doesn't seem to be too much for young plants/clones

 

[asa42]

guineapig you said that very well. my s.o. uses the same soil mix for gals of all ages, from cuts up. found if we start 'em thinkin they goin hydro they dont like the transition to soil. for us its big cuts straight into cups. after years of successfully using scissors a new pair began fraying the cut site w/horrible results, be sure blades are sharp. we now use razor blades.

 

[qanabose]

thanks all for your response,

I realise I have a lot to take into account...hmmm so many years go by and I realise I'm really still just a learner

 

[Blest_1]

Ive had the best luck with the Aero cloner's

 

[Dr. G]

i 4th areo cloners

ilove em i just use clonex liquid in the cloner and i dip the cuttings in cloning gel

 

[SweetNightmare]

Look for the simple wick diy cloner... perlite + tubs + tiki torch wicks...

 

[Core]

cloning is easy..you just gotte get the hang of it....and a dome is nessecary the first few days......but i'm not gonne give ya tips...here's a awsome thread on cloning...what ever you need to know for succesfull cloning.....and more !!!

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=46778

 

[PharmaCan]

The big secret to successful cloning: "Keep a cutting alive long enough and it will grow roots." Anything beyond that is a matter of technique and personal preference. Like Core said, it's easy - you just have to get the hang of it.

Reading between the lines of your original post, this is what I would suggest you do to improve your results.

Plant the clones as soon as the roots show. There's no need to grow long roots before planting and the medium you use will determine how the roots grow.

There appear to be a couple problems with your dome use - or maybe it's just your English LOL - however, "steam" comes from heating water. If you have real steam in your dome, you are cooking your plants and need to reduce the temperature. If you just mean "water vapor" or "high humidity", well, that's the purpose of the dome. If your leaves are rotting, it's probably because you simply have too much leaf mass in an ultra-humid environment. Try trimming the leaves on your cuttings to about 1/3rd their original size - this will reduce both rotting and transpiration. When you mist, mist the inside of the dome, not the cuttings directly. Temps should be 70f - 95f, with the low 80's being ideal. Here's a pic of a clone with the leaves trimmed. (BTW - that clone is about 8 days since being cut.)





I use Clonex (liquid), Superthrive and Hygrozyme in my cloning solution, along with Green Light Rooting Hormone, available from Lowe's.

The second big secret to cloning is to learn to distinguish "moist" from "wet". Moist makes good clones; wet makes a lot of rot. Think about this - when a plant has no roots, what good will watering do it? Once you get that concept straight in your head, it makes the process easier. Soooo, you squeeze a Rapid Rooter like you would a kitchen sponge when you want to wipe the sink - moist not dripping wet - or you shake the r/w cube (since it has been sitting in conditioner overnight) until it is moist and not dripping water, put the cutting in your dome, open your dome 1-2 times per day to air it out, after about a week, mist the r/r or r/w to keep it moist.

Good luck!

PC

 

[stinkyattic]

I'd say these are what I found to be good rules, and the difference in my experience between rot before root and root before rot (that IS the goal, after all!):

-Clean your equipment well between uses. I love 'scrubbing bubbles' foaming bathroom cleaner, because you foam it on and you can see if you missed a spot, and it does a really good job of killing pathogens.

-Don't over-love your clones, just as you don't want to over-love your plants. Too much fussing usually includes too frequent mistings, and that in turn means that the plants get too used to taking in moisture through the stomata. You want to FORCE them to root.

-Air flow is surprisingly important! Over-crowded domes don't seem to root as fast as clones under a dome that is not crowded, and has space for the little plants to breathe, and for the actual medium to remain moist but not sopping wet.

-Stabilize your conditions. Fluctuations in temperature lead to condensation on the plants since the %RH under your dome is already quite high, and that creates rot conditions.

-Pick a medium that works for you, and get familiar with it. I love rapid rooters personally. They suit my environment, which is too dry in the wintertime to get good results with a domeless cloning system like an EZ.

-Do everything you can think of to prevent mold. On top of sterilizing your dome and tray, or your cloner system, I think that using a hormone with a fungicide already in it is a great idea. I started hitting the 100% survival mark when I switched to a combination of rapidrooters (with b. subtilis, a beneficial) and dip-n-grow, that contains a chem fungicide.

-Check expiration dates on your hormones, and if you use a gel type hormone, assume that it has a life of only a couple months from first unsealing. Never dip into the jar, and keep it in the fridge between uses to prolong this.

Happy cloning!

 

[qanabose]

I am also curious that if strains have something to do with the speed of the process, then what particular strains would be likely to strike the fastest?
And also, assuming I have one of the slowest strains, can I still get them down to a one week striking period using these methods?

 

[qanabose]

...or to put it another way, is there a difference between the speed of cloning sativas to indicas because I am thinking indica here...
and I'm hoping some of these techniques might make the diff, much obliged for everyone's input,

thanks heaps!

QB

 

[Guest]

Clone vigorous new growth not plant that are dormant from stresses.

 

[m00]

hi all.. first post um..

With Jiffy pellets you can root clones in under 7 days if you..

1) use a 6:1 mix of Clonex/B52 for the rooting solution
2) dont over soak the Jiffy pellets (they should be moist but not dripping)
3) make sure the holes in the pellets are clear so as much solution stays on the stem as possible
4) cut a long diagonal slice on the bottom of each cutting, dip in solution and place ~2cm into pellet
5) spray lightly with water+(a drop of B52)
6) put in heated propagator and leave for 7 days spraying with water with a drop of B52 on the 1st,3rd,5th day
7) by day 7 most or all of the pellets will have roots popping out the sides and should need watering. so either give them a light feed or pot them.

once you get the hang of it you should see the first roots popping on day 5 or 6.
I put 25 NLxHaze on last monday and they were all rooted by the following sunday. now (day 9) on some the roots are about 3-4 inches long out of the pellets.

 

[Leon Sanders]

Aero cloners are great, but I've switched to a couple wick buckets because of the ease of operation. No pumps, no leaks, no dome needed. 100 % success rate (except for the ones I tried to 'save', haha)

The best part about wick systems is the price, it shouldn't cost you more then $10 per bucket, which should easily hold 40-60 cuts.

I've only tried 100% perlite, maybe I'll try a mix with vermiculite next change and see if theres a noticeable difference.

I don't use hormones or B vitamins, just RO water.