A small test of Cloning Mediums and Cloning Techniques.

A while back i decided to test various cloning mediums and techniques (scientifically as i could, you be the judge) to see if there were any discernable differences in rooting times. I had at the time two mothers to test with a haze and a durban. I decided to take more of one mother (durban) to make sure that the results werent too skewed due to a difference in rooting times of the strains.
The clone box is a constant 78*. The control in this case was done with happy frog. i see roots in 9 days with the happy frog from both the haze and durban varieties.
The test was conducted on 8 durban and 4 haze cuttings.

It was a decidedly small test as i dont have alot of room.

Medium Used:
4 Rapid Rooters (wetted as per instructions)
4 Rockwool cubes (wetted and PH'd as per instructions)
4 Happy frog soil (straight fromt he bag with tap water)


Technique used:
The 1 haze each was cut on a 45* angle and put into rock wool and Rapid rooter. the remaining haze were placed into Happy Frog with just a 45* cut at the base.

The durbans on the other hand recived a variety of "tricks" for cloning. 3 RW - 3 RR - 2 HF
each clone was treated a different way in each medium. one was cut on a 45*, one had the base scraped on two sides and one was split down the middle.

All were dipped into Clonex gel.



The test:

this is the test set on the first day in the box.



You can see the two lone haze on the right in rapid rooters and rock wool, two trays of durbans in rapid rooters and rock wool, and then two trays of Happy frog'd haze and durban clones on the left. I labeled each to know which were scraped, split, and 45'd.

All the clones were in the same cloning box and given the same number of mistings throughout their life.

Days 1-5 were a little boring. I noticed that the clones in RW wilted slightly more compared to the RR and HF.

6 days in i noticed the bottom leaves on the RR had started to get yellow tips. No signs of root though. most of the other clones were still very green.

7 days in all the clones in the Rapid Rooter's had one or more roots poking out. The clone with most roots was a split durban clone. 1 haze clone in happy frog was showing a tap root, none of the rockwools had anything (the cubes were split to inspect closer).

8 days later everything but one haze in happy frog dropped roots. the 45* clone of the durban showed more roots then the other.

9 days in one of the durbans (45*) started showing roots from the bottom of the cube.

10 days all clones in the RW cubes had taken root. the final haze in Happy frog (labeled wimpy) took root. The rockwool cubes showed no difference in root mass from one technique to the other.



Analysis-

medium:
In my case, the Rapid rooters slightly outperformed the HF and Rockwool. the test was extremely close showing that there is very little to be gained from choosing one of the three mediums tested.

Technique:
The results suggest that 45* angle cut might offer an advantage over split or scrape. i would not discount any of the techniques tho as all produced viable rooted clones.

Id like to add that at 100% sucess this round, its rare for me to hit this number. There is always one for me that just gives up.


Hope this is helpful.. look forward to hearing from you guys.

in the future A proper test only has 1 independent variable not 4 or 5. do it as same strain, same media, same hormone dip, then cut 4 at a 45, scrape 4, and split 4. To test media same strain, same hormone, same cut. In order to have a scientifically valid test three replicates of the test should be performed ( three rounds).

So not trying to bag on you just a few constructive points. If you have the space to re run the test it would be great to see further analysis of the cut techniques.

thanks for the constructive critisim its taken well on this side. i have a round in there now of all RR , suprised? lol. ill grab some more RW cubes later on this month and give it another go around. this time testing just the medium with no variation of technique and all the same variety.

i found it interesting that regardless of strain and technique, the last test showed they all root around the same day depending on what medium they were in. the next test should support this claim. then again ti could be completely different. time will tell after the second test!

Very interesting, I wonder why the rapid rooters outperformed the rw and soil... hm.

glad you took it well thats what I meant. Maybe just do the end cut test? I would personally love to see a technique proven to work and not work.

I have performed the same test and also settled on Rapid Rooters giving me the fastest results. I also noticed that the RR clone leaves yellowed a little faster then the others and attribute that to them rooting faster and uptaking nutes from itself rather using what it gets from its unformed roots.

The other nice thing is that you don't need to pre-soak in acidic water like you do with rockwool to prevent PH shift.... so they are easier to use and more effective.

Hm, odd. I got better results from rockwood cubes than I did from rapid rooters (not sure of the brand though, they might have been some PLH knockoff). The RW were definitely cheaper.

I cut my teeth cloning with a bubbler. I got good enough results for my purposes, but then I made some new bubblers that crapped out on me twice. I was desperate, and tried something new, about 60/40 RR/RW. I got better results from the RW so I'm sticking with that for now.

My new bubble cloner crapped out on me because I didn't realize how dialed in they need to be. I built a couple, they worked, so I assumed they were super easy. Not so. I think the amount of water hitting the cuts makes a huge difference. I had the water level too high, so too much water was hitting the cuts, so I lost two rounds of cuts, well over a hundred each. I shelved the bubblers but now I'm trying them again with a much lower water level.

I think bubblers and blocks/rooters both have their ups and downs. Bubblers are a lower maintenance method once you get your bubbler dialed in; you just take your cuts and drop them in the hole. Blocks are more work handling, but they're far easier to get right the first time and don't really need dialing in.

Sorry if I'm intruding on your thread Hazy, but I learned a lot about cloning recently and wanted to share.

Smokesalot, I used Grodan cubes and the instructions specifically said I didn't need to pre-soak, just dunk them into water for a second and they're ready to go. Worked fine for me (I took 71 cuts and 55 sprouted in time for me to use in my SOG, and another 7 or 8 eventually sprouted).

smokesalot420 said:

I have performed the same test and also settled on Rapid Rooters giving me the fastest results. I also noticed that the RR clone leaves yellowed a little faster then the others and attribute that to them rooting faster and uptaking nutes from itself rather using what it gets from its unformed roots.

The other nice thing is that you don't need to pre-soak in acidic water like you do with rockwool to prevent PH shift.... so they are easier to use and more effective.

Click to expand...

I never soak the RW cubes ... they used to require it, but the stuff they selll now isn't a problem. (I do lower the ph on the water I use for cloning, but the RW cubes don't raise the ph noticably like the old version did)

Being an old guy, I don't know what Rapid Rooters are, however I always had the highest success rates and rooting speed using either jiffy pellets or Canadian Sphagnum peat moss packed into seedling trays. I attribute this to the high bacterial, flagellate and fungal content of the sphagnum peat moss (verified by me microscopically) which not only prevents fungal pathogens but provides an initial microbial nutrient loop through predation of bacteria by flagellates. (I'm sorry but I don't have citations off the top of my head to reinforce the prevention of fungal pathogens, so you'll have to take my word for it for now)

Mm i think rapid rooters are a brand of peat pellet or peat based rooters.

thanks for the test hazydreams. like you say it is difficult without much space - i have the same problem - but if you do a similar little test like this each time you take clones the results will add up.

VG