I want to start by thanking you to you my fellow farmers for sharing your cloning processes, techniques, equipment, ideas, and wisdom. More specifically, what you have found to work and what you have found not to work.
My motivation for checking out this thread to begin with was the desire to improve my cloning skills/results. This posting (my posting) started as being inspired by Oscar’s test of RX Life Cloning Solutions, the only cloning solution that is mentioned in this thread that I hadn’t tried…. and the fact that his results were better than mine.
Lastly, I am sharing this info with the intent to pay it forward. For those, who like me came to “the farm” seeking to learn from others.
Living in Gratitude of my fellow farmers and their contribution to my evolution as a grower!
Items Used in this Test:
Girl Scout Cookies - Thin Mint "mother" to take clones from
Fiskar 1 7/8" Micro Tip Pruning Snip
Scalpel
Cutting Board (Sterile)
Isopropyl Alcohol
Cup for holding alcohol used in sterilizing the cutting board and instruments
Clean Paper Towel
Nutrients: RX Life Cloning Gel, RX Life Cloning Solution,
Cultured Solutions “Veg A & B”,
Cultured Solutions “Roots”, pH Up, pH Down, Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water pH 5.5
Aeroponic Cloner: EZCloner 30 Place
Light: 2 Foot, Four Bulb (Blue Spectrum), Fluorescent Grow Light
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Getting Started:
Before anything, clean and disinfect all tools and cutting board with Alcohol.
I generally start with 16” well developed cuttings – with at a minimum, 5 nodes if not more on the top 2/3’s of the cutting. The closer the nodes are together, the better.
I take cuttings from the bottom of the plant as they have more rooting hormones than branches toward the top and have proven to grow roots faster than cuttings taken from the top of the plant. However, clones taken from any part of the plant will work.
I like large cuttings that have lots of new growth.
Transforming a Cutting to a Clone:
I only want vegetation growing on the top 1/3 of the clone when finished. All other energy the clone expends should be directed at root growth. I leave the top 1/3 with as much new growth as possible so that the clone will grow quickly once it develops roots.
Using the Micro Tip Pruning Snips, I defoliate the cutting. This includes trimming any leaf longer than 1” down to 1”. By clipping the tips of the leaves, the clone doesn’t over-exert herself trying to turn light into food, when she should be focused on roots. Remove all vegetation on the main stem below the top 1/3” of the cutting. (NOTE: I am constantly cleaning the Snips & Scalpel with alcohol. Storing them in alcohol when not in use. Taking the clean paper towel and drying the cutting tools prior to touching any plant material)
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Then I use the scalpel, find the largest node on the bottom of the cutting stem and cut the stem at 45 degree angels directly under that node (this will help the cutting heal faster). I find that nodes root faster than stem with no node.
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Next I split the bottom 1” of the stem with 4 cuts, exposing more “raw” rooting surface
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(NOTE: I use a scalpel or razor blade to cut the bottom of the stem. I don’t use pruning snips to cut the stem where I want rooting to take place because the snips as snips tend to crush the stem, blocking the ability of the stem veins to absorb water at the cut)
Place the marijuana clone immediately in the container containing RO water pH 5.5.
Preparing the EZCloner
Using the RX Life Cloning Solution (which is very acidic), nutrients (15 ml/gal) are added to RO Water
The Cloner is turned on and tested to make sure it is operating properly, mixing the nutrients at the same time. Once nutrients are thoroughly mixed, pH is tested and adjusted to 5.5
Clones are brought to the cloner and one by one the stems are removed from the RO Water they have been waiting in, dried, dipped in the RX Life Cloning Gel, collar placed around the clone and inserted into the cloner. I try and leave at least the bottom 3” of the clone into the ezcloner for rooting.
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(NOTE: I don’t use a shot glass to hold cloning gel as I find it is too wasteful. That practice is based in the idea of spreading bacteria into the original rooting hormone container. Instead I use extreme hygiene in the clone prep process and dip directly into the original gel container.)
Daily EZCloner Maintenance During Rooting
Air Temperatures are maintained at 76 to 80 degrees. Humidity is between 60 & 80%. Nutrient temperatures are maintained at 70 degrees F. I believe clones need water through their leaves right now, because their roots haven't formed. Even though humidity helps, I mist the cuttings a few times a day until they start forming roots.
Some growers don't use any grow lights at all for the first 1-2 days while clones get settled. Other growers do give light right from the beginning. I take my cuttings from mother plants in veg who are already on a 18/6 (Light/Dark) schedule. I maintain the same exact schedule for the cuttings thru the cloning process and ultimately back into veg. I have found this to produce my personal best results.
For the first week, every day I check to ensure that my equipment is functioning properly, clean the nutrient filter and make pH adjustments as needed.
Within 5 days, I have roots starting to consistently be formed on all stems in the cloning machine and generally there are at least one or two roots per stem that are 4 to 5 inches long.
On day 6 or 7, I flush the nutrient tank. This starts with removing the container holding the nutrients, dumping, cleaning and sterilizing it. After returning the container, I refill with fresh RO water and turn the circulation pump back on. Once the ezcloner is circulating the clean RO Water, I add Cultured
Solutions “Roots” at (5 ml/gal) and allow to circulate and mix in the cloner.
After the CS Roots has mixed, I add CS Veg A&B with a target ppm of 130 ppm on the 7 scale. Once nutrients are thoroughly mixed, pH is tested and adjusted to 5.8
Now I am back into daily maintenance mode. Checking the ppm’s, keeping them between 130 & 140 and pH at 5.8
(NOTE: The reason I adjust the pH to 5.8 is that the hormone in the rooting gel and cloning solution has already removed the epidural layer of the stem. Now I am wanting to nurture growth and feed the clone with its new roots. The CS Roots stimulates all root growth from here.)
Results!
Here are my best results after two tests with the RX Life Cloning Solution and Gel.
In the first test with RX Life solutions, I only used the RX Life Cloning Solution. The stems were not treated with a gel or powder. In this test, it took 12 days to produce stippling and first roots in the 4 to 5 inch range.
In the second test with RX Life Solutions, the only change made in the experiment was that I used the RX Life Cloning Solution and RX Life Cloning Gel.
Utilizing the gel cut my rooting time from 12 days to 5 days. At this point, some gardeners would transplant the clones.
The reason I flush, clean and add
Cultured Solutions “Roots” and “Veg A&B” is for good reason. By day 12 from first taking cuttings, I have 16” stems with 16” fully formed roots that are consuming 30 ppm’s of nutrient solution per day. Think about this…… 30 stems consuming 30 ppm’s of nutrient solution per day, 12 days after cutting. This is new for me and pretty exciting.
In both tests, I placed 5 stems which were not split (prepared to the point prior to being split) in with 25 stems that were split. Also….. I have found that the stems that are split consistently produce 10 times more root growth in the same amount of time as the stems that aren’t split.
Happy cloning everyone! Please don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions.
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