What did I do to my "mums"?

[Whipit]

Thanks for any ideas!

I had a terrific first season. I found a great high yield/great potency phenotype of a cross that I can never find again. I ran DWC and had to take time away in the summer. I don't have any help. I cut two females way back before I left for several summer trips. When I got back I had bushes to cut back again before the next trip.

This strain was hard to clone, but I built two bubble cloners and always got some cuts to root. I have spent a month of trying to root in the bubble cloners and directly in peat. They do not want to set root now. I can keep cuts looking good in a bubble cloner for over two weeks (same in Jiffy 7s), but they won't root. I've used Olivia's and Clonex gel when taking cuts.

I have heard that you should take cuts early in the day, you should starve the mothers of nitrogen . . . Is there something that I can do (or a bunch of things) to encourage the plants to want to root cuts? They look great. I have to top them to keep them from hitting the lights. I'd hate to lose this strain, but I'm already cracking new strains if this is a lost cause.

I'm checking my PH. The mothers are getting regular nutrient changes. Please tell me that I can do something to recover from this setback. Thanks again!

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

sound like you just have bad luck cloning.. try jiffy pellets or rapid rooters... i even get 90% in RW...

in fact i clone in rw when im having trouble with everything else...

 

[Phychotron]

I'm relatively new to the process of cloning, but I was having terrible success with root cubes and soil all of a sudden (but i took some clones at my brothers house with 100% success on a strain i was trying to clone just a few weeks prior). So i built an aero cloner, wave one was not that great, because It was all during a heat wave, and I was using olivia's cloning gel.

For the aero cloner I had some tester branches from a plant that was just getting trimmed back. I didn't use any gel, as i was testing just scraping them with a brand new x-acto blade. I just let the weight of the knife do the work, and gently scraped a section away. The results were astonishing compared to clones that I dipped in gel and had in the cloner for 3x as long.

in the photo, the 4 doubled up cuttings are the one's i scraped (7 days in the cloner), and the one on the left is another one that i scraped, after I accidentally broke the stem off putting it back into the aero cloner--just pushed it down a little and scraped it. It was the first of a bunch of GDP clone's to root, and did so with explosive growth, compared to the very weak, 1-4 roots barely coming off the other few GDP's.

I tried this with soil a long time ago and it just made the cuttings more prone to rot

cut lower/new branches as they have greater amount of required hormones. I've been reading the book "Gardening Indoors with Soil and Hydroponics"
http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Indoors-Hydroponics-George-Patten/dp/1878823329
a great read so far. It gives you the low down on pretty much everything plant related. Great collection of info for beginners. I know "all" that info is online, but still good to have read a book from cover to cover.

 

[FreezerBoy]

The single biggest jump in success I experienced was from soaking stems for 1 minute in full strength Hormex (any iba, naa solution should do) prior to gel and cube.

 

[Stress_test]

Thanks for any ideas!

I had a terrific first season. I found a great high yield/great potency phenotype of a cross that I can never find again. I ran DWC and had to take time away in the summer. I don't have any help. I cut two females way back before I left for several summer trips. When I got back I had bushes to cut back again before the next trip.

This strain was hard to clone, but I built two bubble cloners and always got some cuts to root. I have spent a month of trying to root in the bubble cloners and directly in peat. They do not want to set root now. I can keep cuts looking good in a bubble cloner for over two weeks (same in Jiffy 7s), but they won't root. I've used Olivia's and Clonex gel when taking cuts.

I have heard that you should take cuts early in the day, you should starve the mothers of nitrogen . . . Is there something that I can do (or a bunch of things) to encourage the plants to want to root cuts? They look great. I have to top them to keep them from hitting the lights. I'd hate to lose this strain, but I'm already cracking new strains if this is a lost cause.

I'm checking my PH. The mothers are getting regular nutrient changes. Please tell me that I can do something to recover from this setback. Thanks again!

Yes there are many things you can try that might improve your cloning success-fulness.
I cut literally thousands of cuttings that go out to patients as "cuttings" and are allowed to root by either dispensary or patients. But I have these lil baggies that I put together, inside is a small plastic tray w/lid, a pair of surgical gloves, a new razor-blade, an empty medicine cup, and a small zip of Root-Tone.

EDIT: I just thought, Have you changed the air-stones in your bubbler. I have had em kill clones even after soaking in bleach or straight H2O2. Sometimes the get dirty and just need replaced.

Here is what I suggest: Clear off your table and cover it with waxed paper or butcher paper. I usually stretch some Saran-wrap over it.
Go to the store get a new pair of rubber gloves, NEW razor-blade, some fine or medium grade vermiculite, a new container of your favorite rooting gel/power, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and some 9oz clear solo-cups.

Pour 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide into a clean 1 quart squirt bottle and finish filling it with water.

Snip the bottoms of the cups to allow em to drain and fill em with vermiculite. Then set em in a pan of tap water to saturate.
Don't worry about the Ph because there aren't any roots yet that give a damn. While they are soaking, go cut your clones.

Lay everything out on the table and put on the gloves.

Prepare the cups by making small holes in the vermiculite with a pencil.

Thoroughly spray each cutting with the h2o2, angle cut the ends, dip em in your root-gel, into the vermiculite. Gently press the vermiculite around the stems.

I usually set em in front of a gentle breeze until they are dry.

Now your cuttings need to be placed in a dark place for a day.

Then if you will set em in your momma room kinda under moms skirt for a few days before giving them direct light, you'll have roots in a few days.

As soon as you see roots in the cups give em direct light.

If you take 3 cuttings and none of them root within 10 days, chuck em and try this technique.

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes.

 

[dansbuds]

You need to check out the cloning part of this thread . he's still putting together the whole thread but a good portion of the cloning section is there & its very informative . the man grows clones for a living so i'm pretty sure he knows his shit .

this thread ......https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=223183

good luck man you'll get it .... we all do .

 

[dansbuds]

LMAO ... i'm typing up a link to his thread & at the same time he's giving you his reply .

 

[Stress_test]

LMAO ... i'm typing up a link to his thread & at the same time he's giving you his reply .

Thanks for the Kudos, "I must spread some" before hittin ya.

 

[Whipit]

Thanks SO much to all of you!!!

I used all of the ideas and finally got my difficult ladies to produce clones! Fresh cuts, soaking cuts before gel, H2O2 - amazing stuff! Still want to produce clones on the plant and will, but I have my strain to continue on and you really don't know how much it means to me. I'd love to give you all a nice big cola when they finish!

I've been cloning other strains that I cracked from seeds and I was getting 100%. These plants really needed extra help and your ideas worked. Just saw my first roots popping through today.

This is why I wanted the strain to continue. The potency is better than the yield!

 

[dansbuds]

Glad it worked out for ya bro