What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Cloning in Coco Experiment

L-Immortal

Member
Hey dizzle nice thread you got going here. I can tell you first hand I have run many, many batches of the exact same clones. Two trays of 50 one using dip n grow and the other using clonex. You want to peak into the last page of the journal? 100% roots in 7-10 days for both products in rapid rooter/root riot cubes.

Oh yeah no difference with the plugs either. I have had plenty of blown cloning endeavors in the past, it was my Achilles heel for a while. So I made a project out of it and now its second nature.

For the record I “chop,dip,and stick” (sounds cool) I know some “cut” then stick in room temp water then on to the dip and stick. Like I say 100% without the water step so why bother.

I think the biggest reason for 100% or near success is…
1 really the health of the moms
2 keeping rooting cubes constantly moist (Not saturated)
3 Make sure domes seal right (don’t directly mist cuttings just the dome) don’t open dome daily Dome should be fogged out
4 Temps near 80 degrees (check dome with laser temp gun)
5 I may add some hygrozyme & Roots accelerator once but is not necessary

Sunday morning rant carry on gents…
 

magiccannabus

Next Stop: Outer Space!
Veteran
Cloning in coco is something I have been doing for years now. Back when I was Klompen on OG, I wrote an entire guide to how to build and use a bubble cloner. Don't get me wrong, the bubble cloner is awesome, but it requires cleaning and the results it produces are not quite as easy to plant. Now I mainly clone in coir pellets. The brand I use is called Fibergrow, and it's just like Jiffy Pellets, only coir and better fabric.

To clone, I smear my x-acto blade with honey, then I use it to gently cut away a branch for cloning. The cutting doesn't need to be big. I need a stem at least 2 inches long though to be serious about it. The smallest I ever did was 1 centimeter, but it later died of mite attack ironically enough. Anyway, the honey seals the wound as the blade cuts, avoiding air ever entering the wound, plus honey is just good for wounds.

I then take the cutting and put the severed end in my mouth, getting a little coating of saliva on it. Then it's dipped in honey again, and sometimes the end is recut if it didn't turn out right.

After that I stick it in a wet & warm(not hot) coir puck. Hot water makes them expand really fast, so use hot water to expand them and let them sit 15 minutes or whatever until they're just pleasantly warm. Not necessary strictly, but I find it works a little better for whatever reason. Then the puck goes into the cloner, which is just a serving tray with a layer of perlite in the bottom. I get the perlite up to field capacity, then the pucks sit on top of it. The perlite regulates the humidity, which is a little trick I learned growing cubensis mushrooms. They go in low light next to the grow chamber, kept off the floor for more stable temperatures, and in a week or so I have roots. No growth hormones.

Here is a picture of it with the lid off:
picture.php
 

Greeco

Member
Hey all! Still planning on doing more experimentation with micro-propagating in coir. However there's so many things to test i dont really know where to start. I have a lot on the plate right now so it'll be a few weeks until i do more experimentation with micro-propagation. I was getting a little ahead of myself with trying to test multiple variables with micro-propagating in coir without ever finding a successful method to micro-propagate in coir to compare my results to. Im gonna go back to the old experimentation rule of 1 variable per test and a control group for every experiment.

Right now i wanna hear what you guys want me to start experimenting with. do you want me to test:

Applications of Triacontanol or Epibrassinolide to the foliage?
Applications of IAA, IBA and/or 6-BAP to the substrate (coir)?
Different cloning products ( e.g. gels, powders, alcohols)?
Different substrate soaks ( e.g. microbe teas, hormones, chlorinated water)?
Rockwool vs Coir?
Trimmed foliage vs untrimmed?

or any other ideas you have. I wanna hear from the people who are actually reading this what they want to see tested.

It all sounds great and I will be following your work very closely. I think experimentation of what works would be better to do first before jumping to applications of TRIA,BAP,IAA,IBA or any other hormone outside the cloning solutions ingredients at first. Then proceed to throw more variables into the mix. Also if you do decide to cloning products I would like to donate a bottle of Woods rooting compound to the experiment if you don't mind. Love your work sir. :respect:
 

Jbonez

Active member
Veteran
lol, cloning in coco is the tits.

you need a solo cup, coco (any works as well as the next) and rooting powder from home depot.

take the lid off your dome after a few days and you should have roots in 5 days, if not you are doing something wrong.
 

purple_man

Well-known member
Veteran
the problem with rooting with cocos in my opinion, is the water retention ability of cocos, hence, one needs small enough segments in trays/small pots, for it to work properly... if the container used is to big, the cocos wont be drying out fast enough... (at least what i experienced in my tests)... a big pro with cocos is, you dont need a dome, plus if the container is small enough, the plants root like crazy :)

blessss
 

homebrew420

Member
Half a solo cup filled with coco, hormone, no dome little over a week in a very neglectful setting. Cant believe I used cube, plugs etc for so long. Nice thread

Peace
 

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Check out the "How I got Roots in 6 Days" thread. I searched for it, and got an error, Basically, coco in clear 9 oz. cups, set in colored cups. Coco charged with 1/3 strength veg nutes w/cal/mag and trace, soaked well, then moisture squeezed out forcefully, then fluff coco, but firm. I dump coco out, fluff, put back in cups, firm. Std. 11x22 tray holds 24. Tall dome, with slowly increasing ventilation after 5 days. Heat mat @ 80 F. Mist cuts once only unless wilting occurs, then mist only the wilted. Do not water till rooted. Mist inside of dome 2wice/day. Important- low light. I use 1 T-5 x2" 18" above cuts with 1 layer of paper towel on top of dome. Stay as close to 80 degrees and 80% humidity as you can. I get 90-100% rooting in 6-14 days, strain dependent. Last batch, I inoculated with Actinovate with charge nutes. Hormone faster, but not necessary. So much easier than my Power Cloner. Good luck. -granger
 
G

gloryoskie

Cloning in coco. Yup.

Good stuff. Here's my cloning journey:

Jiffy plugs. 7 out of ten for a couple years. Roots in 10-14 days.

Then I went with plain water, 9 out of ten for a few months, roots in 14-21 days.

Coco. 10 for 10 so far, roots in 10-14 days.

Heat mat in winter, under 48w PLL, no dome ever. Summer temps in the 90's.
 

noworries

Member
Cloning in coco. Yup.

Good stuff. Here's my cloning journey:

Jiffy plugs. 7 out of ten for a couple years. Roots in 10-14 days.

Then I went with plain water, 9 out of ten for a few months, roots in 14-21 days.

Coco. 10 for 10 so far, roots in 10-14 days.

Heat mat in winter, under 48w PLL, no dome ever. Summer temps in the 90's.


Heat mat only in winter, what are your air temps in winter? I see 65f at night, not sure if this will slow me down significantly. Heat pad keeps the medium warm tho
 

Hempsmoke

Active member
Hey
Since im relatively new to coco i didnt do much experimenting with it, but on my first attempt with 10 clones it worked 100%. Even with clones i thought wouldnt survive.
I used coco from bag watered with 10ml/10l canna coco solution and clonex.
 
N

noyd666

i just chuck mine out on back lawn and overnight dew keeps em going,lol just joking ,,but once years ago i chucked a handfull of unwanted cuts behind a garden bush, weeding out weeks later most had good roots lol, i used some.weed is a survivor,, its a weed. herb.
meant to say also use cups, coco and perlite. tops heat mat in winter, lost 6 this week lol not bad out of a few. tip for anyone using rockwool cubes for cloning if cube to wet, put in salad spinner usedto do all mine with it, will fling water out to where you want the dampness to be without crushing cube.
 
Last edited:

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
Ive been cloning in coco since the day Atami Bcuzz was launched. Havent looked back since. A few things ive learned cloning in coco....

1-Always check salinity of the coco (tds, ppm ect..) Adjust if neccessary. It can and will fluctuate SIGNIFICANTLY with different batches, and brands. This directly correlates to where the coco was harvested from geographically, how old it was, and what type of water they use to rinse it, if they even rinse it at all. Sometimes its pretty much residual salts from ocean water, and you can tell when you see a batch at 2,200ppm!

2- Pre-Rinse with a ph'ed R/o solution, and root promoter of your choice. I like to add beneficial micros at this point. Right off the bat. Some say ph isnt important here, but i would rather ph it and have that peace of mind. Ive had 100percent success with ph'ing and without. Microbes, humics, fulvics help out with ph, if you like to be sloppy.

3- Get the excess water out! Take a single fist full, and squeeze almost as hard as you can. Dont try to kill yourself, just good solid squeeze until it stops running and starts to drip slowly. This is the conistency you are looking for. After you get a feel for it, you can take a paint strainer, and strain the rest out to that consistency.

4-Your good to go! When i see the first few roots or yellow leafs (5-7days), i add 1/10th strength nute solution (75-100ppm), vitamin supplement, silicate, enzymes, sugars ect... Also, adding full strength cal-mag or a bit more than that, will help alleviate problems down the road. Do this to the coco you are transplanting into. This is because of the CEC of coir. It tends to hold on the calcium and store it up, essentially stealing it from the plant. So if you load up all the little pockets in in the coco with calcium, then the preceeding applications of it will slide right thru the medium and be available to the plant. I call it "feeding the coco, before you feed the coco" lol. Products like Drip clean, and fasilitator will help pull out some of that stored calcium as well, so if your using those products, you could probably get away with using less cal-mag than you normally would. Just make sure if you use these products, that you are incorporating them every time you feed. Add them FIRST before anything else hits the rez. This goes for any silicate product.

There is no need for perlite to be involved when cloning in coco. The media can dry out too fast. It is possible, just more maintenance from my experiences. The way i do it, (squeeze method consistency) the plants are always rooting and sucking water before the media could ever dry out on its own. I water/feed clones once after insertion, usually on day 10 when 95% are rooted. I give them 4 more days to establish a good root system. Never transplant a clone if it wobbles around the base, or if the coco falls apart when you pop it out of the insert. The roots should be holding the coco in tact. If you have to let them go 17, 18 even 21 days to achieve that, then do it! You will have better, stronger, higher yielding plants in the long run. Ive seen guys transplant clones with only nubs, makes me sick. Your just setting yourself up for failure. Clones are like kids, if they dont have a strong foundation and proper nourishment while they are young, they grow up to be runts and rejects.
 
Top