Did anyone here increase rooting rate by adding more light intensity to unrooted cuts inside dome?

[hydrodreams]

I noticed that most people say light is a side-issue when trying to make cuts to root. In some forums I even read that you could make a cut root without any light at all or any ambient light-no matter how weak-is just fine....

Then I found other articles or videos (some of big known facilities) where they say 150μmol/s*m is about the best intensity for cuts to root. And some people say that light is indeed an important factor for cuts to root properly and that you can have indeed to little light...

So thats why I wanted to ask the question in the title of this thread:

Did anyone here increase rooting sucess rate by adding more light intensity to unrooted cuts by hanging the lights closer or using stronger lights?

This topic starts to become an issue since I still have a bad rooting rate and I canceled out many factors, so one thing that is left and would make sense is my 48W cfl hanging about 140cm above the dome, I also know about the inverse square law which says with doubling the distance, the ammount of light in the same area becomes 4 times less....

 

[nicolajanjak]

i think it depends on the size of the cuttings
if i give more than 100 micromoles 18 hours a day to my cuttings(cheese) they get sick, maybe some equatorial strains can take more but i doubt it's considerable

70 micromoles seems to be the optimal (i measure 35-40lux with the x100 setting with my cheap luxemeter, made the conversion on waveformlighting dot com)
if yours get wilted and pale your giving them more light than they can process and you get photodamage
leaves must be praying all the time

i would say less is more with light during rooting

 

[hydrodreams]

Hey nicolajanjak

thanks for your precise input.

What's the wattage of your clone lamps and how far away from the top of the clones are they hanging?

 

[Goodshit97]

My cloner sits on my dryer and i just leave the laundry room light on. So an 8.5 watt household led like 5 Feet above. Works juat fine.

 

[nicolajanjak]

i use two of these

2X18Watt LED, in 6500k
Over 2 garland titan trays

with a glass on the tray. keep a slit on a side to circulate air and keep just a bit of condensation on the glass.you never want a lot of condensation in the dome.
you can put 100 clones in each tray, with the 77 rockwool plugs trays

thats how i do it, you can also use the regular plastic dome with great success ( if you only need a few clones)
during winter place a heat mat under the trays to keep 25celsius

if you don't have a thermostat for the heat mats you can plug these on a regular timer and turn it on off by 15min increments
as long as you stay from 22 to 27C its good

 

[Ponky]

More light is not the way.
Root mat with precise heat. Quality water.

 

[GNick55]

i believe there’s truth to it be it under certain circumstances..
as if i cut clones and leave in tent or beside with dome etc because other room is not ready or whatever i do notice it’s quicker..
like the 2 i have down there now have already rooted with new leaf growth.., can’t be longer than a week ago i started them..
but maybe something i should pay closer attention too though no biggie either..

 

[Dummy buds]

I use those cheap under cabinet flourescent lights they sell at Walmart, I usually get 98 out of 100 to take in a couple days, humidity is key, to much, you'll kill it, not enough, you'll slow it down

 

[Anthem]

Cloning can vary more than some realize. Environment for quick roots is key. I am battling cool winter temperatures and that alone is causing rooting to take a couple days longer than normal. I use Rockwool because well I starting out in them and I always got darn near 100 percent rooting. The rapid rooters are much better for getting roots faster. I would say about 75 degrees is the ideal temperature for rapid roots. Lighting is really not that critical. I have ran 30 watt 24" fluorescents to LED undercounted lights and both product root in about the same amount of time. Rooting products are all about the same. So pick one. Clonex is a good idea because of the gel. I think powders would work well too. I just use the old standard Dip and Grow because I have a large bottle of it and it works.
Really the keys to decreasing rooting times are about the environment. What works for me is something like this.
Take cuts, I find the tops of plants to be better for clones that will be used for flowering. Take the cut, you do not have to cut right at the node anywhere within about 1/2" of a node is fine but on a 45 degree angle. Place in the rooting hormone. Place into the cube or rapid rooters. If in Rockwool do not use the precut hole for the clone. Flip the cube over and make your own hole offset from the pre made hole. Cut the leaves if you wish. It is not a requirement but if you are going to stuff a tray full of 32 clones you probably want to cut back the leaves. Spray the tops with plain 6.0 PH water. You can add a small amount of feed water but very small. I usually soak my cubes in PH water with about 32 OZ of feed water in 3 gallons of water. This helps promote clone growth while rooting. I put the dome on and leave the tray alone for 5 days. It only gets opened to remove excess condensation. After 5 days I start harding off the clones. I will take the dome off once or twice a day. Staring at about 10 minutes and increasing by about 5 minutes a day. At day 5 the dome vents are opened about 15 degrees. Each time I dry the inside of the dome and open the vents further. The idea is to slowly decrease the humidity in the dome. This does 2 things. #1. Is starts to harden off the clone from the high humidity and #2 is forces the cutting to begin rooting because each time you take the dome off and dry it. The moisture that comes back on the dome is coming out of the cubes and clones forcing the clone to start rooting.

 

[hydrodreams]

I use those cheap under cabinet flourescent lights they sell at Walmart, I usually get 98 out of 100 to take in a couple days, humidity is key, to much, you'll kill it, not enough, you'll slow it down

Why will to much humidity kill it? I think even Aquaman who is a staff here said that 100% is ok besides other people....

 

[Dummy buds]

Why will to much humidity kill it? I think even Aquaman who is a staff here said that 100% is ok besides other people....







Algae growth and root rot

 

[Anthem]

100 percent is fine but in some areas of the world it is going to cause problems. The problems are going to be in the form of molds and Meldew. I start off at 100 and taper back after around 5 days

 

[Aqua Man]

Yup 100% is no prob for few days On fresh cuttings. Ideally 80% at 80f air temp (72-74 root temp)

key is humidity and light intensity we want just enough to keep them from flowering and let them use stored energy for root development. If you force the plant to photosynthesize to try and make more usable energy before it has root system it will not be able to uptake enough nutrients to do so and you will see them yellow and ahow deficiencies.

under 150 ppfd and I usually do like 50ppfd until i see roots then i know they will be able to uptake nutrients and can start increasing the light intensity as soon as i see roots.

on a vigorous strain 5-7 days in a small rooter or 1” cube.

50ppfd, 80f air (or 72f root by heat mat), 80-100% rh for 3 days then drop to 80% until visual roots emerg.

Thats how i do it but its not the only way. Just what i find works best

 

[Aqua Man]

algae is not harmful, its a sign of to much light for a clone and perfectly fine any other time. Algae grows in a healthy environment.

root rot is caused by a weak or sick plant that has a vector for infection. Clones definitely fall into that category and should be treated sterile or with an inoculant such as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.

adding IBA like clonex can also help

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[nicolajanjak]

you should not get algae on rockwool
it's a sign you keep it too wet

after the first soak you need to shake the tray a few times to flush out the excess of water
then a week or so after they will be lighter, that's when you water again

never water the rockwool plugs from the top

just pour a thin layer of solution in a tray( a few mm) and immerse the clones 2 or 3 seconds MAX
this way it will never be too wet
your never want rockwool saturated when cloning

after this first watering they are usually reading to transplant

praying plants guaranteed

aquaman is right
around 50 micro moles 18 hours a day is fine
i currently use 6/2 light cycle with success for clones

you will never see a single algae doing this way
same with gnats
if they proliferate, thats the growers fault
adjustments need to be made

peace

 

[PipeCarver]

I noticed that most people say light is a side-issue when trying to make cuts to root. In some forums I even read that you could make a cut root without any light at all or any ambient light-no matter how weak-is just fine....

Then I found other articles or videos (some of big known facilities) where they say 150μmol/s*m is about the best intensity for cuts to root. And some people say that light is indeed an important factor for cuts to root properly and that you can have indeed to little light...

So thats why I wanted to ask the question in the title of this thread:

Did anyone here increase rooting sucess rate by adding more light intensity to unrooted cuts by hanging the lights closer or using stronger lights?

This topic starts to become an issue since I still have a bad rooting rate and I canceled out many factors, so one thing that is left and would make sense is my 48W cfl hanging about 140cm above the dome, I also know about the inverse square law which says with doubling the distance, the ammount of light in the same area becomes 4 times less....

I use a single t5 fluorescent about 3 ft from the dome, My last try I was 100% I prepared the cutting using then using Clonex on it and a drop in the hole in small solo cup with saturated Promix,
Spray daily the dome and the cuts , heat mat I use a 1/2" spacer because I don't have a controller, dome closed for the first 3-4 days at about 2 weeks remove the dome, transplant and watch them grow.

 

[hydrodreams]

i currently use 6/2 light cycle with success for clones

Does that mean lights are on for 6hrs and than off for two hrs? What made you go with that cycle instead of 18/6?

50ppfd, 80f air (or 72f root by heat mat)

Well m experience is that if you maintain 80f inside the dome, you will have more than 72f around the roots and if you create 72f trough a heat mat around the roots you will most likely have a way less than 80f airtemp inside the dome. I don't see how anyone would be able to maintain both relieably troughout the whole year.....

 

[RootsRuler]

Does that mean lights are on for 6hrs and than off for two hrs? What made you go with that cycle instead of 18/6?

It's a technique people like to use. The idea is that by adding in more rest intervals it'll give the plant more energy to thrive during lights on. Essentiually you're spreading your 18/6 over 3 separate light on/off periods.

Well m experience is that if you maintain 80f inside the dome, you will have more than 72f around the roots and if you create 72f trough a heat mat around the roots you will most likely have a way less than 80f airtemp inside the dome. I don't see how anyone would be able to maintain both relieably troughout the whole year.....

One of the personal warehouse grows I did I used the office bathroom as the propagation room. I realized the smaller room was much easier to control temp and humidity. Others I've seen will use rope light under the tray to keep them warm.

 

[nicolajanjak]

the trick is to put the sensor of the heating mat thermostat under the rockwool plug trays, against the floor of the grow tray.
set it at 27 degree C, this way it will oscillate between 27 and 28 degree UNDER the rockool, thats the optimal.

this way it takes less time for the sensor to feel the temperature change and turn off the mats

no root cooking

 

[RootsRuler]

the trick is to put the sensor of the heating mat thermostat under the rockwool plug trays, against the floor of the grow tray.
set it at 27 degree C, this way it will oscillate between 27 and 28 degree UNDER the rockool, thats the optimal.

this way it takes less time for the sensor to feel the temperature change and turn off the mats

no root cooking

Interesting. So you place the sensor in the actual tray between the cube holder and the catch tray? Is the sensor water proof? What about those that have heat mats that use ambient temps to control on/off since they don't have a movable probe?