what is the best methods for cloneing of a mother?

[westhumboldt`]

I have had mixed results about my cloneing methods. any advise on the proper way to take cuttings? I have been using plugs, hydrodome, with a rooting gel, and distilled water. so far my results have not been so successfull. I am very much a newbe to taking cuttings. Please let me know your much need advise.

 

[been]

My best results are with Rapid Rooters.

 

[TheMadHatter]

I second that rapid rooters and a dome or a aero cloner bareback

 

[FastForward]

1. Take 45 degree cut
2. Dip cut in Clonex (or whatever cloning gel you prefer)
3. Put in a cup of coco (coco saturated with formulex and rhizotonic, or plant start, or whatever baby juice/mix you use)
4. Put cup with clone in it in a propagator
5. Spray inside of propagator and clone with baby juice
6. Spray twice daily (gives nutes, maintains humidity, opening adds air) - keep lid holes closed on the propagator
7. About 7-10 days later you should get roots poking out the bottom of the pot.

Voila :)

I have a very high success rate with this method (about 99% - very little doesn't root - and I take two cuts from each new strain just in case one doesn't take, and I end up giving those plants away to friends every single time).

FF

 

[TheMadHatter]

also try soaking your clones in a cup full of water for 24 hours before putting them in your cloneing medium.

 

[Oatmeleon]

I get 100% results every time with Rapid Rooters pre soaked in Olivias cloning solution.

I use Rootech rooting gel and Olivias solution.

The trick is to keep them very moist at first and let them gradually dry out so the roots grow in search of water...To achieve this I leave a decent amount of solution in the rooting tray and mist heavily twice a day after airing them out for 5-10 minutes.

After 3-5 days i drain all solution from the tray and air them for 20- 30 minutes a day. I still mist them heavily as there is no solution in the tray and voila in a few days I have roots. My clones usually have roots within 5-7 days..Temps are 76-80 F...

~Oat

 

[HerbalTea]

...any advise on the proper way to take cuttings? I have been using plugs, hydrodome, with a rooting gel, and distilled water. so far my results have not been so successfull...

Sounds similar to what I've been usin' WH, and I can offer a word or two...but be warned, you'll see it ain't a fast process in my garden and requires planning ahead. I also use chemicals, so my rooting mix isn't exactly organic. Take whatcha can use...

Ya don't mention a particular brand, but I've been using Jiffy peat plugs m'self. Soaking them in distilled water is fine, and here is where things take a while for me...I soak the plugs overnight to ensure they're completely saturated with no dry air pockets hiding inside. I use a mix of filtered water, Clonex feeding solution (2 tsp/qut), Liquid Karma (1 tsp/qut), and add a coupla drops of Super Thrive to it all. When the plugs come out no surprise they're pretty sodden, so I'll let them sit in the dome (a few days to weeks depending on my schedule...) to lose some of their wetness.

When I'm ready to take cuttings, I first use a 6" pair of tweezers to break up and loosen the plug's insides a bit. I don't distort the plug greatly, I still wanna be able to handle it, and I occasionally find crap like twigs in there. A new hole for the cutting to come, done as FF prescribed (though I like to scarify the stem first...), and I like to let some of the Clonex gel that I use drip off the stem down into the hole first. I'm pretty generous with it, but I try not to get too crazy...

If the plug feels a little light-weight to me after the cutting is in place, I'll give the plug a few misting shots of rooting mix before putting it in the dome. Generally I only mist the dome, and not the plants/plugs, but every once in a while I'll pick them up to check their heft and dryness, and spray 'em as needed. (Which should be rarely unless roots are showin'...)

Also...take a number of cuttings from your best plant, say at least 6 to a dozen, rather than only a few. Whatever turns out to be the best of the lot gets to be your next mother plant...I take cuttings about every 2 weeks here, and results are now 100% after tuning it all in...I got my best rooting results using only 10 watts/square foot.

Peace n' happy growin'.:rauch08:

 

[Oatmeleon]

*Tip: When using rapid rooters I don't put the cutting in the middle hole provided. I peel the rooter open on one side from top to bottom and clamp the cutting in between the split portions. This way the is more direct contact between the cutting stem and the rapid rooter

 

[HerbalTea]

...The trick is to keep them very moist at first and let them gradually dry out so the roots grow in search of water...

That's just what I try an' do with the peat plugs too.

 

[DoctorFungi]

Bubble Cloning = 100% success when done correctly, and low maintenance.

i clone using a cheap homemade DWC bubble cloner....no rooting hormone needed, it doesnt hurt to use "Dip N Grow" liquid rooting hormone tho in the beginning....basically you get an air pump, air stone, then find a container with a suitably sized lid for the amount of clones you intend on taking. The important thing is to then make your container completely opaque. I dont even use a lid tho, just Black/White poly acting as a lid and fastened with tape.....each clone's hole is then cut as needed to minimize any light leaking. U can cut holes for 1" net pots filled with hydroton or just do as i do and suspend the stems by the hole in the black/white poly. About 1-2 weeks later you magically have roots and you dont even need any humidity domes or anything, very cost efficient and a 100% success rating!

 

[Gromer]

You using a heatmat under your dome??I always use a heatmat with a thermostat set to 80 degrees F.That combined with an ambient temp of 70 degrees creates a humid enviroment within the dome.Holes in dome closed first three days open after that.Scraping or scarifying the last eighth inch of the cut before dipping into your hormone.The presoaking of your plugs b4 hand and my favorite cutting a slice down the side of your rooter so the cutting can be placed into the hole instead of shoved down in scraping off all your gel.Theres a million little idiosincretic things that you can posess over to get your clone count up.All these little tricks started netting me 100% everytime with roots after 4-5 days and fully rooted in 9-10days.I use Clonex Gel along with Hormex and Superthive for presoak and regular spreyings with ANs Jumpstart.Crazy healthy vigorous clones everytime.Works for me,hope some of this info helps you oh and CLEAN,CLEAN,CLEAN!!!

 

[MatthewRiot]

Wow.. I've been doing everything 100% as everyone is advising on here.. lots of trial and error and it's something I had picked up before joining this forum, however I have a percentage of about 20. MAYBE 10% survival rate. I find that if I score the bottom of the stem it gets all root rotty and slimy. Also, our air temp here is 85 degrees, so when I use a heatmat, and I have been it gets up to around 95degrees F which is wayyy too hot as I've found. Also, lots of rotting starts to happen on the leaves of the clones, as well. I've barely had any survive and it's quite a tragedy as I've lost two wonderful mothers due to some random BS killing them. I'm thinking probably heat stress because at the time I was running a 600w MH Conversion HPS without any fan pushing air through the 6" duct holes,. Anyway... anyone have any advice for this hotter climate? Here's EXACTLY what I've been doing.. tell me what to alter:

1 - I use rapid rooter plugs an trays or root riot plugs and trays.. In the bottom tray without holes I fill the tray up about half an inch thick with perlite, then I add Dutch Master APS Clone Food OR Flairform Twintech Cloning solutions.

2 - I take the cutting at a 45 degree angle, immediately submerge it in Either Clonex or Rootech, sometimes dip it in one for 15 seconds, then the other for another 15 seconds.

3 - I then place the cutting into the plug (root riot cubes are VERY similar to rapid rooter, except that they have MUCH smaller holes so the stem can make better contact with the plug. If it's a rapid rooter, I slive it almost in half, open it up and put the stem not quite in the center.

4 - I then mist the tops very lightly with RO Water.

5. I place a humidity dome on this with the holes closed for the first few days, as well as placing a heatmat (with no thermostat controls) directly under the bottommost tray that contains the perlite, cloning solution, and set the tray with the rapid rooter plugs and holes in the bottom on the perlite tray.

6. I check them after about 4 days, and this is where the mess begins.

Like I said, right now at 7:18PM PST in San Diego in my vegetative cloning section it is 84 degrees. it roughly stays about that temp

In this particular section I am using a Hydrofarm 6 Bulb T5 Setup with 3 Cool Blue bulbs and 3 Bulbs with more of a red spectrum...

As far as I can remember this is the whole process with the atmosphere..

I've owned several aeroponic cloners like Turboklone, Clonebucket, EZClone, and never once had success rooting clones. I was often told either that the water should be cool and that the water should be hot... I even ended up buying some submersible chiller from Novatec. At one point I ended up buying a water heater because I was told the water should be hot. I was using the Holland's Secret Trio of nutrients..supposed to be best for aeroponics and following the bottle schedule for aeroponics. The Turboklone even came with a humidity dome! And still never had ANY success.

I've seriously tried cloning thousands of stems and it's been a ridiculous uphill battle since day one. As for now I've pretty much given up on the cloning, even though I desperately need to clone some of my mothers.

HELP ME YOU GUYS AND GALS!

Matthew Riot

 

[mace]

Are you spraying the top of the clones themselves? If you're getting rot in the leafs themselves the humidity is too high in your cloning area.

I use rapid rooters, and have nearly 100% success. I've read what others have said and add these tips that have helped me:
*clean everything before opening your plants to bacteria
*use a sharp pair of scissors to cut three nods down, just above the 3rd node.
*use a razor blade, removing the clone from the water it's waiting in, and make the 45º cut. slightly shave some of the area on the back of the cut to get better rooting gel application.
*ONLY spray the inside of the dome, not the plants
*pre-soak plugs in 1/8th strength veg formula, use super thrive (and piranha if you have)

And since you are using RO water, dont forget clones enjoy cal/mag as well.

 

[DoctorFungi]

When using a bubble cloner a dome is not needed and neither are nutrients...the only issue would be water temp and like i said before it must be opaque, but u could definately control that without a water chiller....

 

[Kushtard]

rapid rooters are the coolest and the prefered way to clone for me. I get a good percent of cloning if I take alot of clones and let them go a week using the methods you have read about by everyone else. Fresh Rapid rooters are great.

However last time I was using old rapid rooter and I took four clones and nothing happened so I took an old coffee can and an airstone and dropped my clones in their. In a week I had full roots. I did not use any chemicals. I call this my emergency method. This a sure fire quick and cheap way to get roots. Now I am transplanting them into lightwarrior and seeing if this is easy. I have used the rapid rooters in soil with great success and the dwc method for hydro with great success, Now I will see if they match. If they do then it is dwc for me once this fresh bag of rapid rooters is gone. DWC is a lot less maintenace!

 

[Gromer]

Hmmm sounds like your ambient temps might just be a little high thats all.Its always harder gettin good cuts in the summer.This last round I took double so I wouldnt have to do any in august.HEAT SUXX!!!!