Good stuff guys thanks for weighing in.
Of course I’m not squeezing the rockwool I totally conflated that - it’s the peat pucks that get squeezed. I’m glad you noticed that Rexer.
It occurs to me that some of the things we do are a bit automatic. It has to be this way. That’s why - when learning new techniques - it’s important to learn good habits. It is a truism that it is easier to learn a good habit than it is to unlearn a bad one.
Anyone trying to clone a cut will do well to keep a few things dead simple and you guys are dead right.
Clones are the only thing that has kept this leaky boat afloat. So I started out ok, then by the time my cloning had gone from ok to average I took my foot off the gas.
I got very sick in December, worse than now. Worse than I let on. Part of my shift to mega crop was just that (I was no longer well enough to look at a plant and wonder what its damn problem was I had enough of my own).
By this time I had changed my veg light schedule to 16/8. And then forgot.
For the next few months I threw an excess of cuts into cups of soil and had enough pull through that we are still here. I wasn’t even using new soil.
It wasn’t til I could catch my breath and have a look at my variables that I even noticed how bad I’d let it get.
I was using a blunt and dirty blade for a start. Am I the only gardener anywhere who can’t find razor blades to buy? They used to be everywhere. Men (get this) used to shaaave (I know) their faces (right?) and you could buy these anywhere. Not so now.
Sterile and sharp surgical blades are important.
I was dunking stems in my cloning gel. Not now. This stays sterile too.
Overwatering is almost too easy that you don’t notice you’re doing it. Set and forget. Hands in pockets.
I came across a discussion in a podcast where results were in on some research around cloning.
As a result I am no longer shortening the leaves, I am removing them. This gives the cutting one instead of five wounds to heal at each leaf site.
They found their highest survival rates on cuttings with only one, two or three leaves.
They found no correlation between the site of the cutting’s removal (ie, upper or lower) and the vigour of the cutting.
So a few pointers, a few reminders. I’ve linked to the podcast I’m talking about a few times. I can find it again if anyone wants.
I also had it cold. Too cold. It’s ridiculous how cold it is here sometimes. (This last night was so cold it was painful. There better be some snow somewhere today).
So I started to pull some of this together again. I was even using new soil in cups again. I was still using a crappy old blade, but sometimes I’d remember to wipe it with alcohol.
I was still scratching my head.
Anyone who remembers Sam Vimes in Feet Of Clay (this is the third of the city watch series of Pratchett’s Discworld stories. If you haven’t yet, do) remembers the frustration of seeing him looking for something without noticing the candle he was searching by (spoiler
averted danced all over).
It was like that anyway. 16 hours of light is not enough. The veg tent is now on 18/6.
(Hmm. The fact I look to the Discworld series to untangle real world issues is perhaps more telling than I would have liked
).
The other thing I was going to say about upping my cloning game lately is this, and it’s also almost too obvious to notice. You can’t take a healthy cut from an unhealthy plant.
Now, my veg light is only 40w so leaf vigour is not something I even noticed I was missing. Now everyone in the veg tent (and anyone less than a week in 12/12) gets a foliar feed every 5-7 days. Leaves love it.
I’m also spraying the leaves of the cuttings in Schrodinger’s tray and that’s the only time I mess with them at all. I spray the inside of their dome with plain water twice a day.
I like the tip about the hydroton balls (why is that fun to say? Hydroton balls!) under the cube for somewhere dry and sterile to stand. (You don’t necessarily think of soil (dirt?) as being sterile do you?)
The only thing I’ll add on the peat pucks is that a lot of folk find benefit from tearing that mesh packet open so that it can be removed when roots show without damaging them. I’ll put a picture up when my next cbd drops out of superposition.
I’m sure to be missing something, but thanks to you all for your help in getting all this straightened out.
Ka kite ano (See youse!)
).
Good to see you!
People are just too ... something 
The top left corner shows a bit of the shelf I installed. I was surprised a plank and some brackets was going to run me fifty bucks at the hardware depot. It’s a beer crate. It gets my ballast and multi board off the floor increasing both safety and room for plants. 
