DIY Aero Cloner the EZ-Cloner Replica in 10 Easy Steps!

[mango420]

I just built my aero cloner. I got the Danner 375 GPH pump for $35.00 in a 22 gallon roughneck. I used 12 of the green sprayers. I only made 25 sites for the time being(25 pucks per sheet). I'll make more as the need arises. I put 8 c99 cuts, 6 white widow cuts and 3 ruderalis cuts in it. I have 1 question though. What is the best temp for the water to be? After reading all the posts here it seems to vary from as low as 60 to as high as 80. I have an aquarium heater set at 78 right now but I can lower it if I need to. I am using Clonex at 5 mil. a gallon with R.O. water ph'd to 5.5. If everything works out I'll go with just straight water but for now, since I have such an abysmally low success rate, I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks for the great info so far!

Hey sickworm, hopefully i can help ya out, been through the struggle of dismal cloning success until i made a custom aero cloner. Took almost a year to get dialed into 85-90%. The best temp I found to work is 80f+ up to 85 is ok for some strains. You will find that different strains root at diff temps, some strains may pop in 7days at 80 and some may pop at mid 70's. Any temp under 80 I found would take up to 2weeks to pop, and as soon as i turned the heat up they were rooted the next day. But be carefull some strains may "melt" in the cloner at 80+. Takes awile to dial in the strain. Stay around 78-82f for your first run, if they havent popped after 8-10 days and havent melted turn up the temp to around 84F. Dont trust the thermometer on the heater either, buy a seperate aquarium thermometer and that will tell you exactly what temp your water is. I would also suggest using straight tap water if its around neutral ph. Any additives or gels i ever used just made the water murky and more dead clones due to slime buildup. U want to look in your cloner and the water to be crystal clear. Hope that helps, also make sure after EVER clone cycle you wash out your cloner with a bleach solution and let it run through your pump and sprayers for a few minutes. Any questions dont hesitate to ask, cheers.

 

[onegreenday]

great thread!!

Wondering if 1.5"-2" rockwool cubes can placed on the stem before roots have shown while being misted/sprayed? Seems like it might be tricky placing the cubes over the fresh roots, may damage them and be a pain.

Would be easy to transition from a cube to soil compared to without...

you don't need the rockwool if you r going into soil.
Just get some nice root growth (I just started pruning roots in my cloner for bushy root growth) and transplant to soil;
eliminates the RW

 

[flatcurve]

In my experience the bubble cloner tends to make longer water roots and the aero-type cloners get roots branching and spreading much more quickly. I'm pretty rough with my plants... I don't worry too much about things like sanitation or breaking roots during transplanting and i've had no problems with my fogloner. The fogloner, in my opinion, is about as cheap as buying air pumps and stones and tubing (especially around Halloween). The electricity usage is about the same and it's even quieter than quietest air pump i could find (although the stone probably makes more noise than the pump). Also the ultrasonic transducer-discs on the foggers warm and sterilize the water (but not the container) without over-heating the water. All this and even quicker more consistent root growth from a wider range of cuttings. Why are people still using bubblers?

P.S. I think i could get even better vigor if i use a slight bit of veg nuts in the water, but i won't do that until i replace the non-teflon coated discs with teflon. Then of course i'll have to start res changes and make a float for the foggers so the change isn't as often or wasteful... <sigh>

dude I'm so glad I found this. I used to use ultrasonic foggers to create mist and high humidity environments for mushrooms. I've got a ton of these sitting around. I was looking at an aerocloner the other day and thinking to myself "I could probably just use my foggers for this"

Thanks for being the proof of concept! I'm going to throw one together right now.

Also, where did you get your cyclic timer from? I'm having a hard time locating a reasonably priced one that can do one minute on, one minute off cycles. The one I have only does increments of 15 minutes.

 

[ft100]

well just an update on my cloner situation for hopefully some learning. i used the cloner outside on concrete i believe with a 15 on 15 off timer and rooted id say 18 clones out of 40 then i bought the adjustable repeat cycle timer and took 40 and they all died. so i bleached it and changed the water 5 times to make sure no bleach. cut 40 clones and 7 days in the stems are mush with the 15 on off cycle again. so i cut the mush off and scored the sides of the stems cause now i have nothing to lose. i trimmed the leaves very short as well. they are back in the cloner with some superthrive and a capful of hydrogen peroxide. that is where i am at. why can i not get this thing to work? please help peace smoke respect

 

[Pipedream]

What are your water temps? If you're outside on a sunny day the temps inside a black tub will be way too high.

 

[ft100]

i switched back to the repeat cycle timer to lower temps, 1 on 4 off now. we will see, probably will have to throw away 40 clones and take 40 more, this method of cloning does not seem to be working for me so it might be time to move on to something else. we will see...........

 

[Saint Cannabis]

dude I'm so glad I found this. I used to use ultrasonic foggers to create mist and high humidity environments for mushrooms. I've got a ton of these sitting around. I was looking at an aerocloner the other day and thinking to myself "I could probably just use my foggers for this"

Thanks for being the proof of concept! I'm going to throw one together right now.

Also, where did you get your cyclic timer from? I'm having a hard time locating a reasonably priced one that can do one minute on, one minute off cycles. The one I have only does increments of 15 minutes.

Yes they are expensive. Sux don't it. It's the most expensive part of the operation and proportionately such a small part in the operation.

 

[kwamtime]

maximum thanks

maximum thanks

Thanks for the step by step, mine came out perfect! Works like a charm.

 

[ft100]

7/40 in beer cups, hopefully will take. took 54 cuttings today using the water bottle ice cube maker method. cost was 35 bucks total. we will see which works better for my situation. has to beat 7/40. anyone want to buy a cloner? but really i believe if i fine tuned my method with this equipment i would be fine. but it might be easier this other way. we shall see.

 

[t33to]

Do you glue the little green mister into the PVC? Do you use Superthrive or anything?

 

[Pipedream]

My misters are threaded in, but alot of folks just pressure fit them. It really doesn't matter is they leak a bit, where's the water going to go? If you need to glue them be careful not to clog the mister and fully flush it before use.

Plain water is all I ever use.

 

[SmokyMtnToker]

I think I screwed up, OP. I used 1 and 1/4 inch PVC and fittings. The unit looks exactly like in your pics, but with inch and a quarter pipe. Will this be an issue? I bought a 300-500 gph pump ...will this be enough to pressurize and fill the pipe? dear God I hope I do not have to trash this whole thing after all this and start over.

I blew it reading the specs and instead of half inch I went crazy and saw 1 & 1/4...If the pipe is simply too huge to work i will trash it all and use half inch...what a day.

 

[t33to]

My misters are threaded in, but alot of folks just pressure fit them. It really doesn't matter is they leak a bit, where's the water going to go? If you need to glue them be careful not to clog the mister and fully flush it before use.

Plain water is all I ever use.

How long does it take before your clones show roots using just plain water and how long before they are ready to be transplanted somewhere else? Also, what GPH rating is that pump. Me and a buddy built one last night using your guide (thanks so much btw) and I think our pump is way over kill and it's really loud. It's a 540gph and it has 10 misters on it.

 

[Pipedream]

II used 1 and 1/4 inch PVC and fittings. .....I bought a 300-500 gph pump ...will this be enough to pressurize and fill the pipe?.

WHile your pipe is obviously much larger, the input pressure and the outlet are exactly the same. Other than needing a bit more water in the system it should function fine. My only concern would be the weight of the larger manifold with its volume of water and how you will support it.

How long does it take before your clones show roots using just plain water and how long before they are ready to be transplanted somewhere else? Also, what GPH rating is that pump.

I get the start of roots in about 1 week. However I leave them in the system for another full two weeks or even more before moving them. In the third week I add a drop of nutes & brighter lighting so the system is basically an "aero-grow" system at that point. This allows them to develop a good root mass, additional foilage, and be placed directly into my flower area when I remove them. Many growers pull them much sooner and allow them to develop in their own grow containers.

I run a 500GPH delivering water thru 12 misters, but I'm sure I could with less of both!

 

[t33to]

Thanks for the step by step, mine came out perfect! Works like a charm.

What pump is that. I see you have a filter of some sort on it. I want that kind of set up.

 

[tsc]

Easy Bro,
I've been making my own aero and hydro set ups for a while, the quality of the "set up kits" is shite, yours is almost identical to mine (Different colour pipes) Thanks for the idea of disregarding the net pots. I`m gonna be following your lead on that one.
Tell the World
tsc

 

[BlueberryNutz]

i built my own and mine still arent rooting. i think its because they were in beginning flower. anyone here use the liquid rooting stuff in their rez???

 

[2uptown]

sweet

sweet

aero cloner rules

 

[SmokyMtnToker]

I built another one with 1/2 inch as specified...so now I have two!! I will use the half inch and my thought now is to use the inch and a quarter unit for a larger tub for growing the clones bigger before placing in my Aerojet.

Might as well stick to the same technology...from clones to bigger in the same type units. I think I will get a 50-60 gallon container and make 3-4 inch holes for either net pots or the pucks..

I kind of went crazy on the sprayers...I ordered in 24 more 360 degree sprayers and now my unit has 29 in it!! I can always take some out and plug the holes..but for now it should be a massive spray area under that lid.

Thanks for the plans...it is sound and should do great.

 

[ft100]

did a full bleach and will buy a res temp gauge and maybe a heating mat to make sure things stay optimal. also have some clonex gel as well. does anyone use the gel or reccommend how they use it? gonna give her another shot before I sell this cloner. wish me luck. peace smoke