[Viral505]

I'm doing an experiment that I have seen some people do, I do not know the results truly and haven't seen anything posted here on it. I will do a comparison to the clonex and other methods later on (when I am more experienced) with pictures.

If anyone else does this, feel free to input. I found a similar method online from a few different sources, and I'm all about spreading knowledge, plus I'm one of those cheap people who would rather make something at home with stuff I already have over buying something at a store. But, this method may not be as good as Clonex or other brand name rooting powders/gels. I've heard that Aloe Vera works because of its Salicylic Acid content. Some people even just use a leaf from the Aloe plant and only use that Aloe juice as their rooting gel after soaking the cuttings in aloe water, then watering the medium with aloe vera juice water.

But, that being said, this is what I have done at the moment to my Flubber, Lemon Alien, Colorado Clementines, and Flowerbomb Kush plants

Step 1. Boil 16 ounces of chlorinated tap water with 1 Tablespoon of Raw Organic Unfiltered Honey, let it boil for like 5-10 minutes, you're just sterilizing the water a bit. Let it cool to room temp, set aside.

Step 2. Make some Aloe Vera & Coconut Water. I ripped a leaf off an Aloe plant & mixed it with Coconut Water I made from a Coconut Water Powder I got through BuildASoil.

Step 3. Get some solo party cups or seed starter tray filled with a soil of some kind, a lot of people use straight up peat moss, or just coco-coir, or the jiffy pellets, or rockwool, some people use potting mix which is the same stuff, this time I'm trying it in a mix of mushroom compost/peat moss/cococoir/perlite to see what happens, this mix I had was made for Ghost Peppers and Habaneros so it has a lot of perlite). Moisten it well with the Aloe Vera / Coconut Water.

Step 4. Cut some clones, place them in tap water until ready. Do whatever you do, however you choose to cut or peel the stems is up to you (what I've done is cut at a 45 degree angle or so, shave the lower part of the stem with the clean cutting tool just to expose the stem, split stem open at the 45 degree cut one or two times I've heard this helps, also cutting a lot of the bigger blades in half helps with transpiration, I do not cut or mess with the new growths on top).

Step 5. Dip clone's exposed stems in the Honey Water, swish it around, put cutting in soil, I push the soil down to pack it a little tight.

Step 6. Give plants ambient light only and heavy humidity for a few weeks until rooted. Once rooted, they can be transplanted, and they can be put under a T5 or something of the like, gradually increase the light they get if you can, starting low. My light has two switches to operate at half lumen, so I will be doing it 50% light and lowering my light as they acclimate when rooted.. The warmer the soil and room is, the faster the roots will happen, they will root at 65*F it just takes a lot more time, 75*-85*F would be fine and take about a months time, this is why people use the heating mats, but if you don't have one, just keep your room warm and be patient.

Step 7. Start a growing schedule.

[OregonBorn]

I made a few home made cheap but effective bubble cloners from stuff from the $1 store, an aquarium pump/air stones, a heat mat, and T8 bulbs. I use plain water for rooting in. Works well. I used to root in soil (a mix of pearlite, sand and peat), but it is hard to keep the right dampness in the soil, and I could not see if the roots were growing or not. I get a higher and faster rooting rate with the bubble cloners.

Also as far as salisylic acid? That is a lot higher in willow than in aloe. Willow also contains indole butyric acid (IBA), which is what most rooting hormones are made from. Make 'willow water' by cutting willow shoots in the spring, remove the leaves, pound the stems with a hammer, and then put the stems in a pot and add boiling water, and let stand overnight. An easy alternative to that is to crush up some aspirin tablets in water. Same result for getting a salisylic acid solution, but without IBA. Aloe is high in crysophanic acid (and a lot of other acidic compounds) which promotes cell growth, but it is not effective like salisylic acid for rooting plants. Crysophanic acid is effective for preventing human skin scaring and promoting faster skin and colon surface regeneration. So my advice would be to save the aloe for yourself, and use willow for rooting your plants with. I use a lot of aloe on bug bites, burns, cuts and scrapes.

Honey itself does not have rooting hormones. It creates a sanitary rooting environment though. It has been discovered that the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal component in honey is actually hydrogen peroxide. So adding a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to your rooting solution will act as a sterilizing agent and work as well as honey. 1 tsp per gallon will work just fine. Another antiseptic that I was unaware that I was using for years was my mouth! Typically when I take random stem cuttings of my Cannabis plants for cloning, I put the stems in my mouth to keep the cuts hydrated. It is a handy place to put them, as I never have a cup of water handy when I need it. But lately I read that this also has a sterilizing effect from the saliva. Simple saliva... spit! Who would have thunk it?

So willow or aspirin, hydrogen peroxide or spit, and that is all you really need. Or you can just buy Rootone.

[zeke99]

Originally Posted by OregonBorn

So willow or aspirin, hydrogen peroxide or spit, and that is all you really need. Or you can just buy Rootone.

Saliva does indeed work.

[Viral505]

Originally Posted by OregonBorn

I made a few home made cheap but effective bubble cloners from stuff from the $1 store, an aquarium pump/air stones, a heat mat, and T8 bulbs. I use plain water for rooting in. Works well. I used to root in soil (a mix of pearlite, sand and peat), but it is hard to keep the right dampness in the soil, and I could not see if the roots were growing or not. I get a higher and faster rooting rate with the bubble cloners.

Also as far as salisylic acid? That is a lot higher in willow than in aloe. Willow also contains indole butyric acid (IBA), which is what most rooting hormones are made from. Make 'willow water' by cutting willow shoots in the spring, remove the leaves, pound the stems with a hammer, and then put the stems in a pot and add boiling water, and let stand overnight. An easy alternative to that is to crush up some aspirin tablets in water. Same result for getting a salisylic acid solution, but without IBA. Aloe is high in crysophanic acid (and a lot of other acidic compounds) which promotes cell growth, but it is not effective like salisylic acid for rooting plants. Crysophanic acid is effective for preventing human skin scaring and promoting faster skin and colon surface regeneration. So my advice would be to save the aloe for yourself, and use willow for rooting your plants with. I use a lot of aloe on bug bites, burns, cuts and scrapes.

Honey itself does not have rooting hormones. It creates a sanitary rooting environment though. It has been discovered that the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal component in honey is actually hydrogen peroxide. So adding a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to your rooting solution will act as a sterilizing agent and work as well as honey. 1 tsp per gallon will work just fine. Another antiseptic that I was unaware that I was using for years was my mouth! Typically when I take random stem cuttings of my Cannabis plants for cloning, I put the stems in my mouth to keep the cuts hydrated. It is a handy place to put them, as I never have a cup of water handy when I need it. But lately I read that this also has a sterilizing effect from the saliva. Simple saliva... spit! Who would have thunk it?

So willow or aspirin, hydrogen peroxide or spit, and that is all you really need. Or you can just buy Rootone.

Crazy, I was just looking into making my own "oxyclone" box as well.

Thank you so much for the information! Unfortunately where I live, Willow doesn't grow, but we have Desert Willows, would those work?

[OregonBorn]

Originally Posted by Viral505

Crazy, I was just looking into making my own "oxyclone" box as well.

Thank you so much for the information! Unfortunately where I live, Willow doesn't grow, but we have Desert Willows, would those work?

Desert Willow is one common name for Chilopsis linearis, and is not in the genus Salix or related to willows. Sorry.

Anything in the genus Salix (any of the willows) will work well, including weeping willow and twisted or corkscrew willow. The related genus Populus which includes the true poplars, cottonwoods and aspens also have high salicylic acid levels. For that reason all the species in these two genera root rather fast and easily.

I do not know of any place in the US that does not have one native or imported species of poplar, cottonwood, aspen, or willow growing. Several poplars grow wild in the Mohave desert and in southwest Texas, like the Fremont, or Rio Grande Cottonwood. Usually weeping willows were planted on every homestead west of Appalachia.

[OregonBorn]

As for making cheap bubble cloners (part 1):

I bought 2 one gallon square plastic tubs with lids at Dollar Tree along with one pool noodle for $3. I cut a series of holes on the top of one of the tub lids 1-1/2 inch in diameter with a box cutter. I used a round pattern of holes, one in the center and 6 spaced evenly around it in the lid. Then I cut 7 x 1/2 inch slices of pool noodle foam that look like cored pineapple slides. I made a slit with the box cutter around the outside of the pool noodle slices about 1/4 inch deep half way down the sides. I then set the pool noodle foam pieces into the tub lid. This leaves a hole in the foam, and I then cut 2 more half inch pineapple slices of pool noodle, and cut them up into circular plugs to fill the noodle holes with. This allows for one or two stem cuttings to be placed in each hole with the plug holding them snugly in place. It also allows for easy removal of the clones after they have rooted. Then I cut a small hole in the side of the tub lid for the air line.

Then I covered the top and sides of the tub with aluminum foil duct tape, but anything to block the light will work file. Roots do not like light. I bought a 3" ring air stone at PetCo for $3.89, and an external cheap aquarium pump on Ebay for $8. I had a seed heat mat already, but they are $20-30 on Ebay. I recommend getting one with a digital thermostat. Then I set the heat mat up on a counter top. I put the tub on the heat mat. I threaded the air line through the lid and connected to the air stone. I put the air stone at the bottom of the tub, and put a small rock on it to keep it centered and on the bottom of the tub. Then I filled the tub with 80 F. degree water adjusted to pH 6.0 (using hot tub "pH Down" or distilled vinegar). I keep the water level at an inch and a half of air space at the top. Then I popped the lid on, and set the thermostat sensor through one of the noodle holes and into the water. It is important to keep the water at the right temp, not the air. I set thermostat to 76 F degrees. I found that 76 F is about ideal, and my thermostat will keep it between 74 and 78 F. Above 80 F and too much weird growth happens, below 70 and the plants root slower. At this point you could add willow water or a pinch of Rootone. My brother adds Rootone at this point. A crushed aspirin tablet also works. You can add a tsp of hydrogen peroxide as well to keep it more sterile. I fond that after a week using plain water it needs changing, as the air line gets slimy. All the bubble clone manufactures recommend using plain pH acid-adjusted water.

[OregonBorn]

Cheap bubble cloners (part 2):

At this point the cloner is ready to use. I use them under T8 floro bulbs, as the light levels are low and you want the cuttings to focus energy on rooting and not top growth. I cut good 1/8th inch stems 3 to 4 inches long and put them in my mouth, and then slice them at a 45 degree angle before placing them into the pool noodle plugs of the cloner, setting the stem bases just above the water level. My method allows one or two cuttings per pool noodle plug, or from 7 to 14 cuttings per gallon tub. I then use the the second dollar store tub flipped over as a top to keep the humidity high in the cloner. I came up with that idea the 2nd year I used these cloners. There is more than enough splash created when the bubbles pop at the water surface to keep the cuttings wet, and there is oxygen galore in there all the time as well as fresh CO2. With plain water I get roots usually in 7 to 10 days time. I do not cut my leaves back like a lot of people do. Leaves have the energy that is tapped by the cutting to survive and grow, so I leave then whole. After a week or so the leaves may start to die back, but it depends on the size of the cutting, the strain, and some other factors that I am likely not aware of. So what if they wither and fall off?

The advantage to bubble cloners over the other cloners are several. One is that they do not clog up like spray emitters always do. Another is that foggers get hot, and they build up too much heat inside small cloners like these. Another is that the aquarium pump heat remains outside of the cloner, unlike pumps that are inside cloner baths. Also this method pumps gobs of fresh air into the system. The small heat mat keeps the temp within a 4 degree range. The small heat mats will keep 2 one gallon tubs heated well. More than that and they do not keep up. I used an aquarium heater one year and that also worked well, but it cracked after a few months of use. It was a cheap $6 one off of Ebay. The hard part with using that was to keep it submerged (they like to float), and that is likely why it cracked.

I also built a larger cloner from a box store 3 gallon tub using the same pool noodle trick, but the heat mat will not keep it warm enough. I bought the aquarium heater for that which worked well. I did not make many clones last year and so I used the aquarium heater in a smaller tub, and it cracked. I use these bubble cloners for rooting cuttings, and to force flowers to sex standard seed run plants early. Cut a top, put it under 12/12 T8 light in the cloner, and they will usually bloom in a week. I toss the male clones, and snip the female flowers and dry them for early samples. I then put them back under 20/4 light to finish rooting. Works well for me. If you only run female clones then blooming is not required, unless you want an early sample of what you are going to get later on.

[Viral505]

That's awesome! Beyond helpful..

Out of the species you listed, we have Fremont Cottonwoods galore out here.

But I will for sure try to make a bubble cloner this year, that sounds awesome. I've heard of a lot of people getting excellent results using the bubblecloner.

Thank you for the replies, very insightful.

[OregonBorn]

Its amazing the price that they want for cloners, when you can make them so cheap and easy.

I found an old USDA tree guide to AZ and NM, and there are a lot of willows listed in NM, including Pacific willow. You also have black cottonwoods there in the mountains.

https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87871553/PDF

[Viral505]

Right? I hear that.. seems like everyone wants their pocket full of change in every industry haha.

Thank you for the read. I'll keep my eyes open to anything I can use here.