The tubocloners I’ve used.(both were the version they were selling just b4 the “improved” versions; both the small and medium sized). I upgraded to the 55 because I just could not keep the water below 75 degrees as that is the temp I understand that slime will start, which it did during the summer. The medium sized clones wouldn’t stay below 75 during the summer either. The main cause is the heat from the pump. I’ve done everything from putting ice in the res 4x a day, putting a 4” duct against the side, using a cycle timer. None of these were a solution. The ice is impossible to maintain at 4x a day, the duct worked, but I had to make it so cold it slowed rooting and veg of everything in the tent at ~65 degrees and the cycle timer had to be off too long to keep temps below 75. A combination of these seemed to work ok, but despite using chloramine, slime was still forming, yielding low success rates for the 2 years I fiddled with it.
Considering the cost of the unit and all the chemicals/hormones and other gear I used made even a 100 percent success rate would still make me question whether the cost was worth it. This summer I retired mine, went back to the new peat cubes (seems to be a new medium to replace the Rockwool) in a 72 hole tray with dome til roots start. Haven’t had a success rate below 90% using the old method with a minimum cost and maintenance time.
I would think that the new models have to be better at cooling the water, but until I start seeing any manufacturer put the pump outside the resivoir, I’m done with this method, I don’t have the environmental condition suitable for cloning in the summer, despite full control over temps, fan, co2, etc....
I think that there should be a distinction made between the clones that use an external air pump vs an internal water pump. I may try an aeroponic cloner someday, til then, I can’t justify the cost in dollars and time, not to mention the success rate, the turbo cloner. It works great in the winter, must be the temps and humidity. It’s also much easier to keep clones for quite a while eventually giving them Canna Start. The cubes and tray are just too easy, more compact and much more stable.
I know that there are. Any people who have great success with their turbocloner, I just can’t seem to get it to work for me during the summer, which makes the cost totally unjustifiablefor me.
Also, I seem to get much better roots with the cubes/tray. The turbo clone roots would get to be 6-8”+ but seemed to die off to the length/density of those produced with the old method. It’s very nice to be able to introduce the clones to my Nector for the Gods regimeearlier as the roots consume the water or it’s poured off in 24hrs, never felt right using chloramine when I have been doing TLO for decades, something that counters the whole process, tho only for rooting, I just was never comfortable with that. Being able to let them alone for 4-6 Days at a time with 5 mins needed to water, not to mention that it’s a fraction of the cost ($ and time) and almost double the success rate for me. Much more forgiving Than the turbo cloner for me.
I did learn a lot about the cloning mechanism in the plant that I have been able to adopt in the current method surely responsible for the success rate. All that knowledge was obtained from thcfarmer. There is a lot of info on here regarding several methods that all work and are based on what I have come to learn are all very resourceful and are based on the biology of the plant as we know it to be today. So, even if you aren’t using a clone machine, the threads here are all helpful for cloning in general and will yield a lot of info that should unlock additional knowledge into the whole rooting process despite the gear.
