Copy and pasted from a lesser forum:
Root cloning is simply taking a few handfuls of roots from the side or bottom of the root ball (adventitious roots), leaving them in their growing medium (Pro Mix) with moisture, warmth and darkness. Within a few weeks to months the adventitious root pieces will develop calydons and there will be hundreds of shoots ready to plant.
I did this successfully when I first started growing, around the same time that I learned marijuana needs 12/12 to develop buds and the buds grow where the leaves are. The learning curve is not steep. I read about cloning on Overgrow and was trying root cloning, a bubbler and rockwool. The rockwool cuttings died; I had roots in a week with the bubbler; and a bucket of pro mix and dead roots. I jumped on the bubbler because of the early success and forgot about the root cloning.
Weeks to months later I was looking for a bucket and found hundreds of shoots in my root clone bucket. I planted two and threw the rest out. The plants grew fine and I forgot about them, just a couple more clones.
Looking at that bucket full of clone shoots I paused and thought: "Who the fuck would want hundreds of clones? And it takes forever, back to the bubbler." I assumed, and did until recently, that root cloning was a common method that commercial growers used. I was shocked at how little there is on the net about it, including horticultural and science sites.
Since I brought up root cloning and made the claim that it works I see it as my responsibility to prove the claim. In this thread I'll track, with pictures, root cloning trials until we have a technique developed for regular success. I'm hoping the first trial so I can be done with this.
This test is going to be like watching sod grow, perhaps not as interesting. I'll check the roots every week or so and post some pics if there's anything to see.
"... In particular, the natural ability of roots of many species to form buds that develop into new shoots has been long recognized, and lists of species capable of forming ‘root buds’ are extensive. In some species, shoot buds occur sporadically on roots only after the root has been excised, whereas in other species one of the main functions of the root system appears to be the production of root buds. The formation of buds on roots enables the propagation of plants by root cuttings and is an important means of spreading noxious weeds. A variety of root tissue may be involved in bud differentiation, and the development pattern therefore varies considerably depending on the region of the root in which bud initiation occurs. Root buds of herbaceous species frequently arise endogenously, in a manner similar to initiation of lateral or adventitious roots. Therefore, descriptions of buds arising from both the pericycle and the phellogen or related tissues are frequently reported"
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"In propagation by cuttage or layerage it is only necessary for a new root system to form, since the meristematic shoot apex comes directly from the parental plant. Many stem cells, even in mature plants, have the capability of producing adventitious roots. In fact, every vegetative cell in the plant contains the genetic information needed for an entire plant. Adventitious roots appear spontaneously from stems and old roots as opposed to systemic roots which appear along the developing root system originating in the embryo. In humid conditions (as in the tropics or a green house) adventitious roots occur naturally along the main stalk near the ground and along limbs where they droop and touch the ground."
