I suck at cloning in coco. Can you help?

[bambam]

At first i had problems cloning!! You will find your way my man!! I just know you will. Oh and i need to send a pm but had to put up 50 post to do so that just means i had to come and read what was going on in the fine world of coco!! Now i think i will be able to clone in coco if need be! Gots to love icmag!

 

[clowntown]

Bubble-cloning isn't for everyone. Certainly isn't for me.

 

[smoke1sun]

I also would like some tips on coco cloning i do it now but my success is not were i would like it to be. IMH opinion keeping temps under control in my bubbler and diy ezcloner is a pain in my ass. I will admit when those factors are in check the speed is undeniable. But being a micro grower im limited in space. so if i could clone and veg in the same containers, it would be great. So any more COCO cloning tips would be great, and to all you successful bubble cloners, good job.

 

[clowntown]

Once. I have never measured the EC of my coco. Why? After using non coco specific nutes and having no problems, I figured worrying about EC of the coco was BS as well. Maybe not for cuttings.

Dunno, just wondering what you're doing differently...

Are you using rooting hormones?

 

[gregor_mendel]

Xtracritical and johnny5 don't actually disagree.

I have failed both ways.

 

[gregor_mendel]

Quote:
Originally Posted by gregor_mendel
Once. I have never measured the EC of my coco. Why? After using non coco specific nutes and having no problems, I figured worrying about EC of the coco was BS as well. Maybe not for cuttings.


Dunno, just wondering what you're doing differently...

Are you using rooting hormones?

After reading that, I think my "Why?" Is not clear. It is my audience asking me "why?", not me saying "Why would I do that"

I use RootTech gel. When I dip deeper than the media, roots will grow from the above ground stem down into the media. Just not with coco.

 

[Xtrakritical]

just trying to share the info I picked up along the way and what works for me...

I guess by disagreeing with me, you're saying everyone should submerge their cuts in 80 deg. water? Thats the best and only way? no but Im glad that works for you's guys.

like I said there is no one way, and of course other factors need to be taken into consideration....

But gregor practice makes perfect, just go with 1 or 2 diffrent methods and see what works for you. I know some folk prefer rockwool cubes, others right into dirt, etc.

keep at it, whatever IT is!

Xtra

 

[gregor_mendel]

I will keep at this and eventually report. At least until I toss my mothers cab to make room for rooted cuttings to be vegged.

I can say my usual reason for failure, even with those methods I am good at, is the variable temperature in my home year round.

When I have a mother room, which I don't now, I keep the cuttings in there.
They stay warm enough with no bottom heat, and rarely fail.

One thing that really grates me about this is I have never had a problem clong directly into 4 inch pots of promix. I don't want to use promix, though.

I can agree with all who said "Leave them alone."

That works best whatever the method.

 

[gregor_mendel]

I just checked my cuttings, and among the three plugs: rockwool, oasis cubes, and rapid rooters, the root structure on rapid rooters is the best.

They are also the most expensive plug, but they are available in sheets of 98 that fit a 1020. I like those better, as they stand up on their own.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

I'm very surprised to hear this.

I've cloned in Canna coco straight out of the bag in the 72-cell (filling only about 30-40 cuts per tray, though) and had great success.

Lately I've gone back to compressed, expanding peat pucks though, because they're a bit easier to transplant and still practically free. Cutting out cheese cloth to line the cells seems like a little too much work for my lazy ass.

My local growshop [UK] now has COCO in expanding pucks.......... I have been trying this out against straight COCO and organic foam blocks [like rapid rooters].......all work fine, but the pucks are slightly too big to happily go into the seed tray I have, so plain Canna COCO Professional has been my medium of choice. I find it really quick as you can just shove cuttings in there rather than mess about making "nice" holes for them so they go in without bending/rupturing the stems.


For rooting hormone, I like Synergol, a professional solution you have to keep refrigerated and dilute to suit, a fiddle, but IMO it clearly outperforms any Clonex type rooting gel on sale to the public.

 

[gregor_mendel]

About half of my 72 cell used those expanding pucks. The cut is fine, which is good, but I will just use my regular coco to fill it in the future as it is fine enough.

That Synergol is 55 pounds a liter! Does grow roots in 3 hours?

 

[Guest]

I like dip-n-grow. Best rooting hormone(s) available to consumers. I've had roots coming out of peat pucks in as little as 3 days.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

About half of my 72 cell used those expanding pucks. The cut is fine, which is good, but I will just use my regular coco to fill it in the future as it is fine enough.

That Synergol is 55 pounds a liter! Does grow roots in 3 hours?

LOL... no, but done right you get explosive roots in 5 days not 7/8.... you dilute it at 7 to 1, so in effect are getting 7 litres, but in different dilutions it can be used to root trees and shrubs - it is what the professionals use... as the scary price has probably alerted you to !

My friend who runs a growshop in the UK [now, after persuasion] sticks it in 10ml bottles and sells it in his shop for a couple of quid, his Clonex is gathering dust.

 

[spacecadet]

i make my own pucks and have been getting 100% growth rates using only tap water and a humdity dome check out my link below.

 

[gregor_mendel]

@ Chaos: Is there more than IBA and NAA in the Synergol? Do you know the concentration?

@ Spacecadet: that is some pretty good $hit3! Everyone should check out his thread!

 

[gregor_mendel]

Chaos:

I think your term, "explosive roots" is key.

In my experience, planting a plug that has a root or two results in a long time to being well rooted in the new medium. When they have explosive roots, they take right off. To date, my greatest success with explosive roots is in rapid rooters.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

@ Chaos: Is there more than IBA and NAA in the Synergol? Do you know the concentration?

It is 0.5% of each, according to the PDF on certiseurope.co.uk

Chaos:

I think your term, "explosive roots" is key.

In my experience, planting a plug that has a root or two results in a long time to being well rooted in the new medium. When they have explosive roots, they take right off. To date, my greatest success with explosive roots is in rapid rooters.

Exactly, this is what I have seen for years, rockwool always seemed to root best when damp not sodden wet, I never liked it. Rapid Rooters / Root Riot give not only very fast rooting, but crucially, that explosive root growth that unsurprisingly seems to always lead to your fattest buds.

 

[Tony Danza]

I run RO through it.

Try ph tap water and nothing else. Cloning's wierd, it seems to me that the less effort I put into it, the better it goes--totally the opposite of the rest of the growing process. My first run this year I built the H3ad "super cheap mass cloner" added some rapid rooters and got a very satisfactory 10/13 success rate in about 12 days from the simplest method I've ever tried. Then last week I was pruning a flowering girl that I had no clones of and I just chucked 3 branches into the bottom half of a 1 liter bottle with some botanicare coco rinsed in ph tap, I gave em a splash of water(not ph'd) everyday and 10 days later they cannot be pulled from the coco. I think keeping the dome off unless your rh gets well below 50% prevents half of the problems that kill clones.

so yeah uh, tap water, no dome, don't try so hard(then at least failure doesn't sting so much).

I remember when I was first starting to struggle with clones, I went over to a friends house who I had given some plants too, she had four cuts in a glass of water in the window. All four had roots like you'd see in an ez clone. I kinda hated her for that, aparently if you don't know how difficult something is, it's easy.

I hope you can make it work out, I just got lucky.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

After reading this thread a couple of weeks ago I gave coir a try for cloning. I used a loose organic coir product (local nursery supply company). I just put the cuttings into the usual 18 oz. Dixie Cup, no cloning solution - just put them under a dome and misted them.

Once I felt a little resistance to the stem I hit them with a kelp meal tea and a couple of days later the roots were growing out of the bottom of the cup.

Painless. Effective. Amazing.

 

[Sam Slambam]

I too am interested in cloning in straight Coco, as I am starting to lean towards it as my preferred medium and I rather like the idea of sticking with the medium the plants will be potted into. I have some Botanicare Power Clone and a Humidity Dome as well, fingers crossed, I'll report back on any success I have.