[dizzlekush]

I was recently gifted a dozen clones that had about 3 weeks of growth on them. since i had zero interest in them, i decided to butcher them and run a cloning experiment. this will be my first time cloning in coco. i do not like growing with coco, and prefer peat myself, but coco is cheaper compared to rockwool and other substrates commonly used for cloning, is a natural bi-product that is formed in under a year, and many growers have had great success cloning in it.


THE EQUIPMENT
1 bag of Black Gold's "Just Coir", 2 cubic ft - $12
400 Dixie cups (cut holes in bottom for drainage)- $3
- With this $15 i can make 400 clones, so at least the price for cloning in coco is right. -

Rooting Agents:
Clonex - 0.3% IBA, Thiamine in a gel base
Dip-N-Grow - 1.0% IBA, 0.5% NAA, Thiamine in an alcohol base

Substrate Soaks:
Olivia's Cloning Solution (label application rates)
Dyna Gro's K-L-N (label application rates)
Homemade Bacteria Brew:
-In 1 gallon of reverse osmosis water-
a drizzle of Horticultural Molasses
.4g Technafloras Soluble Seaweed Extract,
3ml SaferGros Humax
1.1ml House & Gardens Roots Excelurator
1/3 tsp General Hydroponics Subculture B

Foliar Spray:
- In 1 liter of water -
.15g Technafloras Soluble Seaweed Extract (1-1-16)
.9ml 8% Fulvic Acid
.6ml Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro (9-3-6)
.5ml Polysorbate 20

3 gallons reverse osmosis water
pH Down (phosphoric acid)


TREATING THE COCO
Since i have found most companies coco treatment to have inadequate results, I decided to further treat the coco used for the test. i flushed the coco very thoroughly w/ tap water (EC of .4, pH ~7.5) to remove excess Na, Cl, and K and to supplement small amounts of Ca and Mg while also sterilizing the medium with chlorine/monochloramine. While the coco was being washed, i sifted the coco and water through a 300 micron screen to remove the finest particles to increase air capacity and prevent water logging, since the coco will be unamended. I then heated the coco to ~175-200 degrees multiple times to completely sterilize the medium of all fungi, bacteria and insects [eggs], to remove all chlorine/monochloramines, and to remove excess moisture without making the substrate hydrophobic. The resulting product i would consider a significantly more adequate cloning substrate than coco straight from the bag.


THE EXPERIMENT
I am testing 2 different types of cloning solutions, Clonex Rooting Gel and Dip-N-Grow Rooting Concentrate (at 10X dilution for 'semi-hardwoods'). Both of these are each considered the 'industry standard' for their individual type of cloning solution that has been made available for hobby growers.

Along with testing 2 different cloning solutions i am testing 4 different 'soaks' for the cloning substrate (coco). These 'soaks' are Dyna Gro's K-L-N, Olivia's Cloning Solution, my homemade bacteria brew, and tap water.
By pure bad luck, or maybe something to do with the holidays, the grocery store that i buy deionized & distilled water from was out of both, so Reverse Osmosis water was used instead for mixing the K-L-N, Olivia's and Bacteria Brew, as well as for diluting the Dip-N-Gro. The K-L-N, Olivia's and tap water final solutions were all adjusted to a pH of ~5.6-5.7, while the bacteria brew's pH was left adjusted, resulting in a pH of ~6.4. All 4 preparations we're equally aerated except for the Bacteria Brew, which had additional aeration to provide extra oxygen for the microbes.

To reiterate, here are the 8 test groups:
[Cloning Solution, Substrate Soak]

Clonex Rooting Gel, Dyna-Gro's K-L-N
Clonex Rooting Gel, Olivia's Cloning Solution
Clonex Rooting Gel, Homemade Bacteria Brew
Clonex Rooting Gel, Tap Water
Dip-N Gro (10x dilution), Dyna-Gro's K-L-N
Dip-N Gro (10x dilution), Olivia's Cloning Solution
Dip-N Gro (10x dilution), Homemade Bacteria Brew
Dip-N Gro (10x dilution), Tap Water

Each test group has 9 clones provided. All cuttings were taken, prepared, and transplanted yesterday. The cuttings were put in propagation trays & humidity domes and placed on top of heat mats, underneath T8's. They were sprayed with a (described above) foliar spray solution immediately after transplanting and again 24 hours later.

Feel free to ask any questions that come to mind and stay tuned for results.

[Herborizer]

Sub'd

[Slimm]

Nice experiment

[mayan]

Great thread - exceedingly interesting. Of late, I have been trying to clone directly in coco. It has not been a rousing success - compared to my previous outstanding results with Rapid Rooters. I put that down more to my own stumblebum approach rather than to the media, however. I am hopeful that I can kick my direct-to-coco game up a few notches so will be reading of your experiments with great interest.

[Smokindogcujo]

Good luck with the experiment! I love cloning in coco and always seem to have good results. Looking forward to your results.

Grow Safe

SDC

[1and1]

Coco works great for me. I just rinse well, pre charge with very weak nutes and stab a clone in there. I toss em in a rubbermaid tub with a clear lid and neglect them for a couple weeks till they're good to go. I look forward to seeing the results of your more scientific approach.

[robbiedublu]

Originally Posted by 1and1

Coco works great for me. I just rinse well, pre charge with very weak nutes and stab a clone in there. I toss em in a rubbermaid tub with a clear lid and neglect them for a couple weeks till they're good to go. I look forward to seeing the results of your more scientific approach.

Thats what works for me also ( for years) with a 90+ % success rate. I think one of the keys is to take cuttings with a stem at least 4" - 6" long.

[mayan]

(Not to hijack a very interesting thread - but while we're waiting for results...) When you describe pre-charging with weak nutes...what kind of proportions are you using? Also, do you use cal/mag or the like? Thanks.

[NotaProfessor]

Hi Dizzlekush,

Here are some things I noticed about your experiment:
1) No control, i.e. no cloning solution, no substrate soak. Sounds trivial but it is actually crucial to have controls.
2) There are 8 test groups of 9 cuttings each for a total of 72 cuttings. All the cuttings from one mom? From multiple moms of one strain? From multiple moms of multiple strains?
3) If answer to #2 is something other than 'from one mom', how are you tracking the different strains/moms among the cuttings?

[dizzlekush]

@NotaProfessor

to answer your first question about controls, i find it a bit unrealistic/pointless to try to clone cannabis with a high success % without some sort of cloning product (Gel, alcohols, powders, slurry's etc.) and without also having the substrate that the cuttings will be placed in wettened. so IMO a true control in the sense would be pointless. Cannabis cuttings dont root particularly well and coco isnt a miracle substrate, it would be throwing a whole potential test group in the trash for, what would be in this case, a wasteful rule of experimentation. I do agree that controls are important in many forms of experimentation though. however a cloning product w/ no hormones, such as Olivias gel, i could see being a 'control' (in a sense) worth testing. for a control for the substrate soak i used pH'ed tap water, as i considered it to be used in reality much more than other possible controls (Reverse osmosis, distilled, deionized) and that ultra purified water might leech nutrients out of the cutting through natural osmosis, but perhaps a root system is required for this action to happen. i possibly should not have pH'ed it if i wanted a more traditional control, but that would be changing a variable in the control group, which i didnt see fit.

I already half answered your 2nd question in the beginning of my post. the cuttings were taken from a dozen different clones that had about 3 weeks of growth on them. all of those dozen clones were of the same cultivar, cut from the same 'Afgoo' mom, and looked like they were, like clones...

hope this answers your questions and please ask any more that might come to mind or other additional comments.