Any easy cloning advice?

Not much to it, bud. In most plants - including cannabis - the "drive to survive" is so strong that they'll send roots into the substrate if you merely allow them to. As many outdoor growers have discovered, a branch will often root while it is still attached to the plant, if it ends up getting partially buried (or at least allowed to lay along the ground for a while).

Use a healthy / properly fed mother plant. Cut a stem end that's not "woody." When you get around to dealing with it (if you don't get to it right away, wrap it in a damp paper towel and stick it in the refrigerator, and it should be fine for 24 hours or so), recut the end so that your stem ends up being 3" to 4" long or so, this time at an angle in order to create maximum surface area at the cut. You can gently scrape away the outermost layer (only) of the stem up a half-inch or a little more from the cut, if you like, but it's not really necessary. If it has lots of leaves, trim some of them off. With no roots, it won't be able to support a high burden. But you don't have to get carried away, here - leaf a few on it. You can dip it in a "rooting" product such as Olivia's Cloning Gel, but that's not necessary, either. Stick it in some vermiculite. Or Perlite. Or soil. Or a 50:50 mix of perlite and vermiculite. Or a 50:50 mix of soil and vermiculite. Or a 33:trance:33 mix of perlite, vermiculite, and soil. Or...

If you don't have anything else, stick it in a glass of water, lofl.

Place it where it receives as many hours per day of "gentle" light as possible. A sunny windowsill will be plenty. Or on top of your medicine cabinet, if you have a CFL fixture over it and can keep it turned on all the time. Or in the corner of your grow space, down low where it won't be receiving direct, intense light. Or...

Water the thing in well, and gently press the medium to ensure that there aren't any "air spaces" around the stem. This probably isn't necessary, either, but it does seem to help.

Now leave it alone(!!!!!) until it droops from lack of water. Give it another drink and repeat this step until you walk in and "Hey, it's bigger!" passes through your mind.

That's about it. If you want to "see the magic," you can cut it, then wait for it to wilt. Then, when you do the above to it, you can return in an hour to find your (former) wet noodle has taken up a minimum of moisture and is now standing at attention.

If you live in a really dry location - for example, the surface of the sun - you might want to place it inside some kind of container so you can partially cover it with Seran Wrap. Otherwise, I wouldn't (and don't) bother. After all, the objective is to encourage root development, and quickly - not to rot the cutting.

That's my advice, for what it's worth. If you'd like to read others' opinions/advice, take a look at the pages linked to under "Cloning Info," "Cloning Methods," and "Cloning Systems: in this thread:

...or use the search link (at the top of every page here) and search the following sections of the forum for one or more of the (estimated) 420,000 "How do I root a cutting?" threads:
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • How to Grow Marijuana
  • Vegetative Cycle
  • Seeds, Clones, and Strains
 
First grow and I find the process nerve racking can any one provide tips or advice for minimal risk and maximum success, thx
Hi @Jman1982 and welcome to the forum! :welcome:
I always struggled with clones until I built my first bubble cloner. From then on, taking clones became easy and a 98% success rate made it very productive. Build one of these... you will love it.
 
I also have issue with clones. but I keep trying, being a dirt farmer I take my cutting stick it in a small container of very wet soil put a Ziploc bag over her ... an forget about it.
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I just stick the cuttings in the top of my humidifier, and leave it on the windowsill.
10 days later it's ready to pot.
No bags, no scraping, no cutting at angles, no chemicals, no special hygiene.
Woody or soft or straw, it does't matter, they all grow roots ...... soft is a couple of days faster.
IMG_20200414_122448.jpg
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I just throw my cuttings in cups of water. No special scissors or razorblades, no hormones, no machines. Plant + cup o' water = cup o' cuttings

Exactly. I've never been able to understand all the "I can't seem to root my cuttings" threads/posts over the years. The entire process is roughly as difficult as managing to hit the ground...

...after you have already fallen off the ladder, lol. I guess cuttings are like healing wounds - they're never going to progress if the person won't leave them alone.
 
The process itself is easy. But destructive fungal root-rot issues are invisible and hard to diagnose- which I’m sure helps cause so many cloning trouble threads.

It’s all easy when it’s easy- but when it’s not...
I wasted a lot of effort over the years with cloning. Sometimes they’d root 100%, other times they’d sit for a month and slowly die. There was no obvious cause.
If you’re having mysterious rooting troubles then a beneficial bacteria/enzyme product like Hydroguard or Z7 or similar is probably what you need.

Don’t do like I did. Trying a couple dozen different methods, building and buying various cloners, constantly reworking the setup and tweaking things, losing my favorite strains, etc. All pretty much a waste of time. Also don’t bother with peroxide IME.
Get the basics right, which is easy, and if that’s not working then look into beneficial bacteria.
 
I have read today that if you cut your clone from a lower stem your clone will quickly grow roots whereas, if you cut from stems near top they will quickly go into the flowering stage. The literature states that older parts of the plant contain most root hormones. Top parts of the plant whereas, contains most flowering hormones and less rooting hormones.

It seems that it depends on what you want to get at the end.

Editting: Literature adds that it is easier to root the stems cut from lower part of the plant compared to higher parts of it.
 
This is true... the part about upper plant cuttings going into flower mode simply is not true. If your cuttings are under 18/6 or 24/0 light, that can't happen.

I think what the author meant is not related to lighting schedule there. For sure lighting schedule determines flowering or vegetative stages. It instructs that the clones taken from top will enter pre-flowering stage faster than the lower part clones.
 
I have read today that if you cut your clone from a lower stem your clone will quickly grow roots whereas, if you cut from stems near top they will quickly go into the flowering stage. The literature states that older parts of the plant contain most root hormones. Top parts of the plant whereas, contains most flowering hormones and less rooting hormones.

It seems that it depends on what you want to get at the end.

Editting: Literature adds that it is easier to root the stems cut from lower part of the plant compared to higher parts of it.

Been cloning everything the past month, (lockdown caused boredom) toppings, straws, lower growth, old growth, new growth. Everything has rooted, the straws and more woody older growth just takes a few days longer for the roots to show. 8-10 days and they have roots and ready to pot.
 
I just stick the cuttings in the top of my humidifier, and leave it on the windowsill.
10 days later it's ready to pot.
No bags, no scraping, no cutting at angles, no chemicals, no special hygiene.
Woody or soft or straw, it does't matter, they all grow roots ...... soft is a couple of days faster.
IMG_20200414_122448.jpg
picture_2020_4_11_17_38_56_343.jpg
This is interesting. What’s that covering the humidifier, is it supporting the cut? Got a better pic or brand of that humidifier?
 
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