when cloning...

[crisscross]

I took my first clones EVER last night. I have a humidity dome, 13 cuttings in rockwool that I soaked in 5.4 pH for 30 hours. When I took the cuttings I made long cuts at an angle and dipped the cuttings into clonex gel. I have been misting the clones every 6-8 hours and have a cfl over the clones. Clearly I have done some research on this matter.

My question is 'when will I know if the clones will root?' Will the cutting die in a day or two or what?

Another note; My plant (first ever in hydro) was in flower for 9 days before I took these cuttings. The reason for this is that I was not 100% sure the plant was female.

 

[crack-attack]

when they root, they will have nice new growth. when i take my clones they dont grow much till there are a decent amount of roots. but the best way to tell is to look at the bottom of the rockwool for roots. and as far as taking the clone 9 days into flower, your good.. juat might take a little longer to root. be patient your babies will take off

 

[FreezerBoy]

Where'd the cut come from? With your procedure, one week for the top, two for cuts from the bottom. You may need to add one week to either because you've been in 12/12 for over a week. Plant may need to reset.

If you have the plant material and time, try it without the dome and sprayer. Domes, spraying and high RH can be lethal. By making the plant dependent on toxic RH levels, it greatly increases chances of death come weaning time. I was loosing 60% and more of my cuts removing them from the dome so I dumped the dome altogether and death went with it. Using short cuts with well trimmed leaves, I've rooted dome free in RH as low as 15%

 

[Phaeton]

As far as your question goes, over three weeks.

I have had green cuttings not getting anywhere but keeping that healthy green color. I pull at three weeks, personal preference, and often those nice green cuttings have a soft mushy black moldy looking stem ends.
Sometimes itty bitty roots growing really really slow, but the leaf on top does not indicate until actual growth, usually by going pale in the center from underchlorophylled new leaf matter.

I pull at three weeks because I have babied green clones past five weeks only to find they never started. Secretive buggers.

 

[Ghudda]

All the info I've gleaned speaks of shooting for RH of 80-90% for clones. Is that incorrect?

 

[djingo]

-u should keep the rockwool moist, not too wet, otherwise the roots will not grow proper.
(not so in aerophonics)
-let them root at 24-25 celsius. the 1st 4-5 days no need to water them. than water each 2-3 days until you release them out of the propagator.
-In the propagator, I would not mist the leafs more often than 1 x in 24h. humidity of 90-100% is best, but too much water on the leafs causes mold and funghi issues.
-cuts need fresh air, release the cover every day for 1-2 min. than mist them again and cover.
-put 1-2cm moist perlite in the tray of your propagtor, it help to keep humidity up

roots are growing best if the cut and "clonex region" is directly at a internote.

good luck mayne, takin clones ain´t a science just do it correct.



a rooting booster will help.

 

[Phaeton]

I'm in the middle of clone taking in rockwool.
Two out of three rows are filled in the large tray, clones are on their second day, I pulled the humidity cover for the picture.

The small tray was cloned last week and the cover was removed two days ago.
The plants look the same still but the small tray has rooted, although the plants on the right are runts and will not grow well, I took extra's to allow for this.
I'll leave the runts in the cups and stick them in the budroom as is, good for about 7 grams.

 

[crisscross]

FB: cuts came mostly from the bottom but some from higher up.

Phaeton: It will take three weeks before I know for sure if my clones are rooted or not? That seems incredibly long.

Dj: I wish I would've know that I should make the cut @ the node and cover with clonex. I took the cut about 1 cm below the node. What is a rooting booster? What brand do you suggest?

Another question: I purchased 10-3" OD net pots. I plan on putting my clones into these net pots and using a large tupperware container to grow the next round. Now that I have the 3" in my hand, it seems ridiculously small in order to grow a plant. What are your thought?

 

[FreezerBoy]

All the info I've gleaned speaks of shooting for RH of 80-90% for clones. Is that incorrect?

15%-30% is fine. 80% is potentially lethal. Once cuts acclimate to deadly levels of RH, normal levels will kill it. A weaning process is now required which, again, brings death with it. On average, weaning killed 60% of my cuts.

If you "need" a dome for cuts, try smaller cuts with well trimmed leaves. If you need it for moisture retention in media, try strips of plastic wrap across the tray covering space between stems; Moisture is held in the media while cuts live in ambient RH.

They need to get into ambient RH eventually. Why not start them there if you can? First two photos are my bubbler and cuts. Photos 3&4 show excessive material trimmed via photoshop.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Now that I have the 3" in my hand, it seems ridiculously small in order to grow a plant. What are your thought?

Net cups are not required, they are simply a convenient way to prevent the plant from falling into the tub. However, plants do not "live" in the netcup. 99.44% of you roots live outside the cup in the tub. The tub is the limiting factor to root mass.



It may be a 3" cup will leave you with physical stability issues. Additional support of plants above the pots may be needed: ScrOG, ties, trellis. If using smaller plants (12/12 from the start), additional support may not be required.

 

[crisscross]

FB: I was thinking stability would be an issue.

I'm not planning on scrog. Ties and trellis may be an option...I would just have to find a effective and clean way to drain-and fill the tupperware container without removing the cover....I'm sure it can be done though. Anyways, do you know of any examples of trellised plants in such a manner? Thanks.

 

[Phaeton]

I don't give actual advice much, just show what happens with my plants.

This is an excellent example, humidity domes. I use them for up to a week. Advice goes back and forth, but the humidity level here in winter is zero. I spelled it out, zero, as not even 1%. Even a small tiny amount of moisture would make a difference, but zero is the number for the winter here. So I dome.

It can take up to three weeks for clones, unusual for me, but has happened. The clones in the picture started rooting in five days, I still won't transplant for another week, I like lots of roots in the cup. This is personal preference also.

I take extra clones to make up for runts and moldies. I also take clone cups apart to see what the roots are really doing. After plant vivisections every day for ten days I can tell how the roots are doing from the outside pretty well, not perfectly but pretty well.
I used to take 50 clones at a time for awhile, I had lots of extras to play with.

 

[Zen Master]

80 degree rootzone temps, not just ambient, sometimes they vary.

I dont mist, ever. Too much moisture, all you need if they are big or leafy clones is a dome (depending on RH).

I like taking bigger clones myself.

Depending on genetics they can root in 4-5 days or upwards of 3 weeks like others have said, most usually root in 1 to 2 weeks (in my experience) also if they are from a seed grown plant, they tend to root faster than a cutting from a cutting from a cutting (those 'clone only' varieties)


if you do decide to use a dome, burp it for a half hour or so at least once a day, after a week you should be able to leave it off for hours if not all the time by just slowly leaving it open a little longer each day, doing this allows me to take big ass clones that transition to ambient RH levels without any stress.


when they root you'll (hopefully) see fluffy white roots bustin' out all over the bottom of the RW cube.

I like them to be well rooted in the small cube before transplanting, that way when I put it in a 16 oz cup or small pot they just blow up.

 

[FreezerBoy]

'm not planning on scrog. Ties and trellis may be an option...I would just have to find a effective and clean way to drain-and fill the tupperware container without removing the cover....I'm sure it can be done though. Anyways, do you know of any examples of trellised plants in such a manner? Thanks.

How big is the tub? I house a small pond pump with hose in my tub for just this purpose. It wont empty the tub dry but, removes all but the last 1/4 inch. Use a pump filter to prevent jamming the pump with roots. Be prepared to perform a pumpectomy at the end of the grow.



Maybe a stake through the cup itself? Attached to the side of the cup with twist ties to stabilize the stake?

Note I do not claim 3" cups are a problem. They may be fine. Like Chess, we want to imagine several moves in advance.

 

[BudMuncher1]

I clone to straight coco pre charged with 1/4 strength maxi bloom. I use clonex gel. I cut them, dip, scrape and dip again. I use a dome the first week to 10 days. I spray the dome and plants once or twice a day. Iv3 been getting 100% success. roots in 7 and visible in 10 coming out of the cups. Same with rockwool cubes.

 

[blueberrydrumz]

Where'd the cut come from? With your procedure, one week for the top, two for cuts from the bottom. You may need to add one week to either because you've been in 12/12 for over a week. Plant may need to reset.

If you have the plant material and time, try it without the dome and sprayer. Domes, spraying and high RH can be lethal. By making the plant dependent on toxic RH levels, it greatly increases chances of death come weaning time. I was loosing 60% and more of my cuts removing them from the dome so I dumped the dome altogether and death went with it. Using short cuts with well trimmed leaves, I've rooted dome free in RH as low as 15%

hmm very interesting... but 15% RH is way to low.. wouldnt it make it dry up?

 

[FreezerBoy]

but 15% RH is way to low.. wouldnt it make it dry up?

With excessive plant material, yes. Properly trimmed, no.

My hygrometer bottoms out at 20%. Anything lower is marked as "LO". I've cloned in "LO" for extended periods and occasionally look to my local airstrip to provide actual RH with the record "LO" being 15%. For all I know it's been even lower on the days I didn't call the airport.

If you can't clone without a dome, use it. If you can do without, and you probably can, why introduce the dangers of toxic RH?

 

[son of sam]

freeze, i like your style. could i get more info on the bubbler. do u have nutes in the water? do u change the water out? what is the medium? i'll look at some of ur other stuff 2 try and find what im lookin 4. i just put a bubbler together that looks alot like urs is why im plaqn u. iv got some ak that is pretty amazing amd i just want 2 grow the shit out of it.

 

[SirTOKESalot]

Cut, Directly into water, then into pro mix, and in a week ish there are roots showing through the clear cup. Very good %.

 

[FreezerBoy]

freeze, i like your style. could i get more info on the bubbler. do u have nutes in the water? do u change the water out? what is the medium? i'll look at some of ur other stuff 2 try and find what im lookin 4. i just put a bubbler together that looks alot like urs is why im plaqn u. iv got some ak that is pretty amazing amd i just want 2 grow the shit out of it.

Technically, my bubbler is all "wrong". I just couldn't get it to work the official way. Moral of the story, adapt.

Anyway, check out CLONERS- a collection of various methods for details on both and every other major method I could find here at IC.