Enforcer
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Is this what clones are supposed to look like after a week? I’ve tried this three other times and never been able to make it work. What do you guys think?
Thanks man. Yeah, I'll get this cloning down eventually. I did build an aero cloner but that failed too. I think my water was too cold and the pump ran for 30 min on, 30 min off. Guy at the grow shop said I needed a short cycle timer and run the pump for 15 seconds every minute. Timer he wanted to sell me was almost $100. Haven't tried it since. How long are you running your pump?It really just depends on how thy're being cloned. That's not to say it's good though.
Cloning in soil I'd wind up with that look almost perpetually because it was hard to keep the soil moist enough without it being too moist and keeping oxygen levels low.
Generally if a clone is looking like that and NOT because it's too dry it's because it's not getting enough oxygen. That's usually caused by the cloning medium being too moist for too long.
I never tried plugs like those but I've cloned into rockwool and soil before and they both gave me the same fits as you're seeing there and rotten stems within 2 weeks instead of roots and the few that did take would take forever to root.
Switched to a homemade aero-cloner on a timer and running poolshock to keep it sterile and haven't looked back since. Really foolproof comparatively. No checking moisture levels and you can get roots in the same time it takes a skilled grower to get roots in plugs without trying near as hard. Just gotta keep up those daily poolshocks or things can go bad in but a few days. There's other ways to keep things clean but that's my foolproof go to.
If you're interested you can build an aero-cloner out of a 5 gallon bucket with a food seal lid (10-15 bucks online individually or 50 for 10 if you can't get locally), an 8 dollar aquarium pump, about 25 bucks worth of tubing can build 20 of the damn things, and 5 bucks of spray nozzles that also can build 20 of them. After that you can get 2" net pots for like 9 bucks for 50 and 50 2" neoprene inserts for around 25 bucks.
With that list you can build and rebuild a number of cloners for around 80 bucks with only the cost of extra buckets increasing it. For 50 bucks though you can get 10 food seal buckets delivered which brings down individual bucket cost. So for no more than 150 bucks you could build 15-20 cloners. The more you get materials for at once the more individual cost goes down.
Then again if you just need to build an individual cloner then for around 40-60 bucks you can build a cloner with backup disks and pots for when they get yucky. Way cheap than the 100-150 they want for the smallest premades online.
In the end though you can do just fine with what you've got. Just seems like you need to watch your moisture levels more closely but that's coming from a guy that never could get that to work. Good luck either way. Finding a way of cloning that works for you is a real AHA! moment.
Thanks man. Yeah, I'll get this cloning down eventually. I did build an aero cloner but that failed too. I think my water was too cold and the pump ran for 30 min on, 30 min off. Guy at the grow shop said I needed a short cycle timer and run the pump for 15 seconds every minute. Timer he wanted to sell me was almost $100. Haven't tried it since. How long are you running your pump?
Is this what clones are supposed to look like after a week? I’ve tried this three other times and never been able to make it work. What do you guys think?
Yeah, I guess I should have posted how I took them. Everything was cleaned, sterilized razor, right into a cup of water after cutting. 45* cut below a node, gently scraped sides, dipped in Clonex gel, then into rapid rooter plugs. In the dome on a heat mat set at 82*. Water added to the catch tray to provide humidity. RH is at 80%, air temp is 77*. I have watered the plugs about 4 times in a week with a 5ml pipette.I struggled with the peat plugs you are using in this pic for cuttings, but they were good for seeds. This is what I used on the spare cutting on the plate, this is the gell to buy, it's the dogs danglies.
http://www.growthtechnology.com/product/clonex/
Yeah, I guess I should have posted how I took them. Everything was cleaned, sterilized razor, right into a cup of water after cutting. 45* cut below a node, gently scraped sides, dipped in Clonex gel, then into rapid rooter plugs. In the dome on a heat mat set at 82*. Water added to the catch tray to provide humidity. RH is at 80%, air temp is 77*. I have watered the plugs about 4 times in a week with a 5ml pipette.
I checked the clones this morning before work and I have roots poking out of the plugs on all but one. I have been opening the vents to reduce the humidity. I'll give them another week in the propagation dome and then plant them in solo cups. They are still droopy, but hopefully as they push roots, and I reduce the humidity they'll perk up. I'll post up some pics when I get home. Super stoked to see roots this morning. Thanks for the tips guys.
I’m going to leave the dome off for a few hours, then put it back on. Or do you guys think I need to keep using it? I have been opening the vents.
I’ll put them in nursery pots today.Plant them in the medium your going to use to grow them in, but not a big pot, some thing around 7 inch. They should take off, that way the roots can pick up what they need, but no feed until they're established.
Potted up my first rooted clones today. Happy I get that merit badge. I was worried there for a second. I have leftover FoxFarms CocoLoco with 30% perlite added to it left over from my last indoor run. I decided to use the #2 square pot instead of a nursery pot. It just seemed like a more logical option. I flushed the soil with plan RO water to bring the EC out of the clouds, sprinkled some VAM mycorrhizae, and planted the clones. I watered them in with just a little (1ml per lt) of B-52. I checked the ph at 6.7 and didn’t adjust it. I clipped some of the more used up leaves, and put them under a 4 bulb 2’ T5 array with all four on.
I plan to grow these for a few weeks. Take a whole bunch of cuttings and root those. Then pick the best clones for my next run. Rinse and repeat. :D