Critique my cloning method

lazyfish

lazyfish

Well-Known Member
Hello Everyone!

I love this website! Thank you all for all the information and help you have provided here...

Okay, I have not had much luck with cloning in the past. I stepped it up and got a thermostat for my heat mat and also paid more attention to sanitation and got some rockwool cubes.

Let's do this!

I soaked rockwool cubes in 5.0 pH water overnight. I then rinsed with a 1/2 dose of Elanores complete fert.

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New thermostat, set to 73f:

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Sanitation is important, this is bleach and water:

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The lady in question is a Blueberry OG. My Dad calls it Oregon Blueberry. I don't think he knows what OG means...\

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I even preheated the cubes:

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Bleach water all over everything! That is a half dose of Elanors Organic fertilizer.

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This step I am unsure about... Do I cut the leafs off like this?

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45 degree cut:

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A small dab of rooting hormone and:

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Before:

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After:

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Please, I encourage any comments, questions, encouragement, etc. I am trying really hard to get more than 1/5 success.

How am I doing?
 
Looks good. The only thing I might do differently, if you haven't, would have been to gently squeeze some of the water out of the cubes before inserting cuttings. I find that they hold too much water, and the #1 reason they seem to fail is from being too wet. I find that rooting takes place best when the cubes get quite dry- like down to 10-20% saturation levels. Wet to start is ok- as long as they slowly dry, and aren't so wet in a week or ten days from now.
 
Also you could scrape outside layer off of the bottom 1/2" of the cutting. Then slice up the cut end so it splits in half. Make that cut about 1/4"
This gives the clone more surface area for the roots to form.
 
I agree with both the above comments. I have used your method with much success till lately! Not sure why I have had a problem but tried the E-ZClone system. Water sprays (ph'd) from below and this allows for more visual ease. It took about 5-7 days to start showing roots but once it did they took off big time. They were much thicker and stronger than the method your using. I think my problems have actually turned out to be my benefit. The clones look great and I think I will continue with this method. Look it up you may like it. The cost is more but seemed worth it to me. You clean it and use it again and again! Good luck... Happy Growing...
 
I didn't scrape or cut the end of the stem but I did shake/ throw some of the water out of each cube.

Thanks for all the input! I posted my method because I really don't know what I am doing...I use what I read online and maybe some common sense. It's nice to have other people seeing what I'm doing and making sure I'm not overlooking something completely obvious...

Everyday for the next couple weeks I will at least lift the dome and let fresh air in. It's hard to tell when the cube is too wet.... How do I know? Do I not water for a few days? Do I water with the 1/2 fertilizer I started with? Spray the leaves?

My biggest trouble in the past has been leafs rotting, turning brown from the tips inward. And of course no roots...

BTW grimmreffer is a sweet name...hehehehe reefer.

Thanks Y'all
 
I don't mist or use a dome when I clone. I used to but for me it just seemed to cause rot and extra work. The humidity in my veg room is always at least 60% or higher. Maybe a dome is needed if you have a dry climate. You could try removing it and if the cuttings stay perky- you don't need the dome, IMO. Not to say you 'shouldn't' use one if it works for you- but I've just had problems with them.
Yes- probably don't water for a few days. The cubes will dry out through evaporation. Get a feel for how much a cube weighs when it's just moist. That's what the cutting's cubes should weigh. You can drizzle water on them, sit them in a shallow puddle of water, whatever you've got to do to get some water in them without soaking them right down.
I would skip the nutrient. They don't need anything much as they aren't really actually growing, and what tiny amount they do need will be supplied by leeching a bit from the leaves.
 
I saw a good trick in Soil girls journal.
She rolls up a wet towel and puts it on one side of the tray, the clones go on the other side. She then slightly elevates the side that the clones are on. This keeps the humidity up without the rockwool sitting in water
 
I've also had trouble with rot when using a dome but like weasel mentioned, at least in the summer, my humidity is always 55-65. I started putting clones straight in the 2liter bottle they will finish in with soaked soil and just letting the soil dry on its own for 7 days while misting daily with light light light nute mix. On day 8 I give the clones a full watering of plain water and they are off and running towards the light 9/10 times or better.

I do scrape the outside of the stem at the bottom and split it too but I found if I scraped too much it seemed to make worse than better but a light 4-5 slides of the razor down the sides and the. Split 1/2 inch up and dip in rooting powder has worked almost flawlessly now. Usually day seven roots are hitting the outside of the 2liter pot and starting downward. I keep one clear pot just to see the root progressions
 
Ricky Bobby said:
Usually day seven roots are hitting the outside of the 2liter pot and starting downward. I keep one clear pot just to see the root progressions
Click to expand...

Wow, I am lucky to have roots barely poking out of the cubes after 10 days.
I have tryed cloning in straight coco with no luck, I was
Using a dome though.
You said 2L, do you grow Hempy style?
 
Grimm, I guess in all honesty I should say that in 7 days the really strong clones I see roots at the edge. Some of the slower ones to take up to 10-14 days to fill in that well. I got lucky that whatever bag seed sativa I am using clones really easily.

Yessir, hempy style. I kind of recreated koolkids "come sog with me" grow journal with some minor changes.
 
My humidity is usually 50~60, maybe I will ditch the dome... something to think about. I like the idea of fresh air instead of stagnant dome air.
 
I agree there and my clones do too. I considered gluing some popsicle sticks to my dome to raise it about a half inch from the tray so that there would be some air but still higher humidity but once I tried with no dome at all I put my dome in storage and it's collecting dust. Might need it for a different strain at some point but not for now.
 
Nine days today and no sign of roots. I guess I will keep waiting and keep my hopes up. I have watered every other day because the cubes start to feel light right about then. These look a lot healthier than other clones I have taken, but I thought I would have seen roots by now.

If I only get one clone, I will be happy because I just put the mother into flower and I wanted to keep her around for a while because the seeds are hard to get sometimes...


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Thanks for stopping by!!!

:hippy:
 
In my experience- as long as your cubes are not wet and your temps are good- the cuttings will sit there happily enough for a month no problem and they root for me starting at about ten days. Rarely do I see roots much sooner than ten days. When the leaf tips start yellowing, as they run out of nitrogen and start thieving internal nutrients, that's when I start seeing roots usually.
 
Thank you for the reassuring words, weaselcracker.

So I woke up this morning to find one of the clones wilted. The cubes were pretty light even thought I have been giving a small amount (1 spray each) of water every couple days ad using one of the cubes as a reference for weight. I picked each one of them up to dip them in water so I could judge the weights for each of them and:

4 of them had roots!!!

I'm in a hurry, so I got to go. Just a quick update because I am pretty proud of myself!

Thanks again!
 
Thank you, mr. Reefer!

Here is the girl that wilted.. she had roots, too.


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I must have missed spraying her or just not watered enough at all because all the cubes were pretty light. I think I have a handle on cloning, now. I have at least 5 out of 10 that took root. I just needed something better than 1 in 5, and now I think I can improve my technique confidently. Thanks again, all.

:circle-of-love::peacetwo::blunt::green_heart:

I don't see a point in continuing this thread, so I will see y'all in the next one!!!
 
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