I have been experimenting with cloning for last 6 months. I only experimented with cloning in coco and rock wool cubes but tried a lot different mixes.
Results as of now:
Coco: 5-7 days, at least 6 in roots, ready for transplant.
Rockwool: 6-9 days at least a dozen 4 in hairs a sticking out of the rock wool.
Technique
Tea mix in R/O
Base nutes @ 1/4 strength
Cal-Mag @ 5 mL/gal
Roots Excelurator @ 1 mL/gal
Great White @ 1/2 scoop/gal
Ful-Power @ 15 mL/gal
Molasses @ 7 mL/gal
Silica Blast @ 5 mL/gal
Depending on the base nutes the pH should come out very close to 5.5-5.7.
Coco: Put the coco in a small container, I usually cut the top half of a small plastic water bottle and poke a lot of whole on the sides and bottom of the lower half.
Fill it with coco, and flush with the tea mix from above, with 50 percent run-off. Put it aside for a few hours or even a day to get the bacteria growing in there.
Then just dip the stem in cloning gel/power/solution. I have only used
clonex, I am sure others will probably work fine. After dipping poke it in the coco about 75% deep.
If the cuttings are weak then a humidity dome would be necessary, but I never use the dome for cloning in coco, I just flush it with the tea once and forget about it until the roots show up. As the coco drys, the start to grow crazy in search for water, if you humidity is too low and the coco dries up just use the tea at half strength and pH it to 5.5-5.7.
Rock Wool:
Dip the RW in 1/8 base nutes and pH to 5.5-5.7. I dip for 15 minutes and never had any problems rooting fast.
Then dip the stem in rooting stimulant and poke it in the RW.
Put all the RW cubes on a bed of perlite. Inject 2mL of tea mix from above in each cube and also wet the perlite with the tea mix as well. Place under the dome
Same thing here, I usually forget about them until roots show up.
***For RW, I grew the bacteria in the tea for 24 hours, just left it in the dark with an air line in it.
***For RW and Coco, if you aren't using special mother nutes, then putting the clones in a cup of RO for a day or two has really helped in cutting down the rooting time. I am thinking it helps leech or at least give the plant a chance to eat up a bit of those stored nutes.
some personal notes: i don't use sterilized blades or anything, I just use my finger which usually have hash on them most of the time. I cut off the clone and disturb the lower inch of the stem by scrapping it with my nails. I did do try the whole stereilized blade thing but it made no difference. Any bacteria from my fingers doesn't have a chance to grow next to the crazy selection of bacterias in the tea mix.
I haven't figured out the exact reasons for why my clones are rooting so fast. LOL this last batch of CJ rooted to fast, I need to modify the recipe for slower cloning so they could stay in the dome like old time for 20 days. It just gives me a huge rush when I see roots popping out after a couple of days.
Pic of CJ clone at the last hour of 6th day.
