Hello Everyone.

There are several methods to cloning and mastering the art of cloning really isn't being a master of much at all. It only requires practice, patience and the proper environment all of which you need to be tuned into long before taking that first cutting.

There are many mediums to consider when cloning. Try to plan out your grow ahead of time and then come to a conclusion on which medium/system will work best for you and your setup. Will it be hydro-organic or soil? Will you use Rockwool cubes? How about GH Rapid Rooters, Perlite or maybe a Aeroclone machine just to name a few methods. It does not matter because we will cover it here so please sit back and pack the vapo and enjoy the read.

Lets start with the basics.
I know we have all read and seen that some growers like to take their seeds, mark them accordingly, raise the plants and take clones from each plant and mark the clones accordingly. Once the plant shows its sex then the grower can hull out their non keepers of the plants and the clones. Other growers may raise the plant from seeds and turn to 12-12(flowering cycle) and let the plants show their sex, choose their mothers and then take the cuttings and place them back into the Veg state for rooting. Both applications work great and you simply need to find and fit into the groove that suites you best. Once again, planning your entire grow ahead of schedule will tell you before hand which technique will serve you best. You can always leave the other options open and resort back to them if need be. I am the worlds worse at changing my mind right in the middle of a project and each of the above cloning techniques works great for me and in most applications.

Before you take your first cutting.
If you are new to growing and cloning then don't sweat it. Grab a piece of paper and mark yourself a 90* angle on the paper. Now take the 90*"L" and cut in in half with a 45* marking "/" thats the angle you need to make the cut with, a simple 45* angle is what you want to try to achieve. It doesn't have to be perfect and you can always practice on your next door neighbors Roses...LOL.

The Tools
In this trade the right tools can be costly and you may have to improvise as we move forward. I understand that many cannot afford a $200.+ multi meter but I have to stress to please save up and get yourself a Ph meter and a PPM meter. What good are $100.00 seeds if they never make it out of the shell? We can talk about not using a meter once you master your organic mixes to perfection.
You will need a NEW Razor blade, a Ph meter, a Spray-Mist bottle of RO water set at 100-150 PPM Ph balanced 6.0 Water, The cloning medium of your choice, a pair of Pre cleaned Latex Gloves to wear, Cloning Gel/Powder which is optional, but highly recommended, a Cloning tray and a humidity dome to cover the cuttings with. Aero clone users do not need a humidity dome. The aero spray in the res creates the humidity.
Last but never least you will need a light source to put the cuttings under. I use T-5s Full Spectrum lighting for my clones. Its 22watts x 4 bulbs per 1 tray. I give them a 16-8 veg period instead of my typical 24-0 veg periods. The years of experience have lead me to believe that Clones root much faster using dark periods although it's not a proven theory. I keep the light aprox: 16”-18” away from the top of the dome.
You can grab RO water at the local store, Just grab some distilled water. You may need to up the ppms on the RO water by mixing in a little tap water with it. Using RO water alone is not a good idea as it will rob your clones from their micro nutrients. Just look at it this way…if you were to drink nothing but distilled water then you would eventually die because of the lack of micro nutrients in your body. It’s the same for a plant. Sure you can go 0ppm but you better know what your doing when you mix the micro nutes so I find it easier to mix my RO with just enough tap water to bring the PPMs up to 100-150 PPM level and that will give you plenty of micros left in the water to sustain life for the clones until the first roots appear.

Stabilizing Hydro-organic Mediums.
The first thing I need to tell you is that if you choose rock wool it is not ph stable and it requires a pre-soaking of 24-48 hours in RO water of 100-200ppm balanced water at 6.0 to stabilize them correctly. You will know they have stabilized when the Ph quits rising. You will have to readjust it a couple of times while the rock wool is soaking. I generally make it a practice to stabilize any hydro mediums prior to cloning because it's the natural thing to do. I do it with Rapid Rooters and hydroton grow rocks & coco mixed with perlite.

It's Cutting time.
Now your grow is all planned out and your cloning facilities are set up and now all you need are the clones. You've been practicing on the neighbor’s roses and the Mrs. has 12 beautiful roses on the table so I guess it's time to go get that clone. Well hold on just a sec:wink: before we go get the clones lets give momma a small dosing of Nitrogen and a small shot of Cal-Mag if possible. Lets give momma a day to get those nutrients up to the future cuttings. This will ensure the longevity of the clone while it’s waiting to take root.
Now we can go get those cuttings...and now they are packing those extra nutes that they will need in the end days.

I usually like to take the main cutting from the top of the plant and then work my way down the branches of the inter nodes, depending on your strain will also depend on the amount of clones/inter nodes you have to work with. Once again planning all this ahead of time will remove the confusion of any "cut in run" application. Remember that taking clones will most probably cause your plant to branch out into a fatter/wider plant which also needs to be taken into consideration when space is an issue.
I make my cuttings right above the inter nodes using the 45* angle cut. I take my cuttings and remove the lower leaves and then gently scruff the sides of the cuttings. I apply the cloning gel/powder by q-tip and let it set according to the instructions of the gel. Please do not take the cutting and place it directly into the cloning jar. One diseased plant could lead to disaster so why even take the chance?
While the clone is setting I will take a little dab of the cloning gel and place it back on the plant where the cutting came from. This will avoid any air embolisms and yes they can also occur in plants.
Once the clone is ready (30 seconds) I place it in the medium and set it in the tray, I spray the clone and then drop the dome. If you still lack humidity then you can mist the inside of the dome cover also.





So now you have repeated this redundant process over and over and all of your cuttings are now set up in their mediums inside the trays with the dome cover and they are ready to go. Awesome job so far and you definitely deserve a little for tagging along this far. It's going to get better I promise.

The Waiting.
Now here is where there is a little discussion between growers. Some growers will tell you to keep the medium nice and moist at all times and at the same time you will most likely hear others say "Starve em for water" I like to let my clones start to droop before I mist them so I guess I do starve mine. It is important to not let the clones sit in a wet tray bottom and rock wool is the worlds worst when it comes to soaking up the bottom of the tray. Some propagation kits offer little platforms that fit inside the tray and keep the clone off the bottom of the tray letting it breathe from the bottom and it also lets it drain if it catches to much water from over misting and I highly recommend using them.


Depending on the vigor of the strain & the environment, you should have roots showing in 7-14 days. Aero cloners are much quicker and will produce roots within 5-10 days but the setup must be perfect. If the pump is running 24-7 and you are in a hot climate zone and the res water stays warm then you might as well grab the rapid rooters. It's simply not going to work and you will need a chiller for your Aero cloners res. It's a fine line to walk now isn't it but we are having sooooo much fun….aren’t we???

A few shots of different cloning mediums and Aero clones.

Rapid rooters


Rock Wool cubes



Aero cloner



Transplanting Clones.
When is the best time to transplant the clone? It really depends on what makes you most comfortable. I like to make sure several roots are exposed from the medium. Other growers may let them go a little longer but I transplant a couple of days after I see the roots.
The longer the roots, the harder it is for me to transplant.
I do have a very nice method for transplanting and I will be happy to explain this technique. It's a pretty simple procedure in where I set up a 5 gallon bucket with RO water at 100-150 ppm ph balanced at 6.0. I place the container with medium half full in the middle of the water and let the water fill up the medium and container. This displaces the weight of the medium away from the roots and lets me set the clone without any damage to the roots.





Here are a few clones rooted and back in the Ebb & Flow System.


Don’t expect to make a perfect clone every time. Mother nature isn’t that kind to us. You will loose a few here and there and some will yellow and some will take off instantly. Keep records of how your clones react and how they bounce back because the healthiest ones are usually the best ones for Moms and you never know when you may want to make a mom out of that keeper clone.



More to Come.
Love to all.
annaC

[skar]

nice thread annaC ! i already learned a few things..i'm traditional when it come to cloning but i'm open to learn new technics so i think i'm gonna try some of your tips.

can't wait for the part II

peace

[sparobis]

hey folks,
i never quit learning technics from a true pro!!!!!!!
buck has been a mentor/friend/bastard/confidant.....theres noone more luckier than me!!!!!he taught me all i know and always is here to answer ?'s and give awesome grow tips!!!
thanks bro!!!
peace
sparobis

Very nice Buck and I think that will help alot of people, May this would go nice in the cloning section so alot more folks can learn from this one

Mite as well be a sticky...we'll call it cloning 101!!!First class post Buck

LOL.....the gloves are a little over the top!!

[lc00p4]

yo annaC, first off great thread.

i recently did cloning for the first real time with 100% success. i noticed that you didn't clip the fan leaves down. since i cloned right in dirt, it was a sure fire way to know my clones rooted because the new growth would be full compared to the clipped leaves.

they all rooted in less than 10 days!!! i've got about 21 clones now from 11 plants and once they go into bud, i will try to keep some of the males, but move it to another lab.

next time, i plan on doing rapid rooters because then i can see how fast they root. great thread!

[cornflake]

Very nicely presented Buck, I guess MoMo was lending a paw hehe

I especially appreciate this common-sense thinking that I hadn't previously considered....

Stabilizing Hydro-organic Mediums.
The first thing I need to tell you is that if you choose rock wool it is not ph stable and it requires a pre-soaking of 24-48 hours in RO water of 100-200ppm balanced water at 6.0 to stabilize them correctly. You will know they have stabilized when the Ph quits rising. You will have to readjust it a couple of times while the rock wool is soaking. I generally make it a practice to stabilize any hydro mediums prior to cloning because it's the natural thing to do. I do it with Rapid Rooters and hydroton grow rocks & coco mixed with perlite.

Of course I feed with nice pH h2o but hadn't considered that the medium might effect the captured nutrient solution.

Take Reasonable Risks (in preference to my wishing you to "take Care") =p

Originally Posted by cornflake

Very nicely presented Buck, I guess MoMo was lending a paw hehe

I especially appreciate this common-sense thinking that I hadn't previously considered....



Of course I feed with nice pH h2o but hadn't considered that the medium might effect the captured nutrient solution.

Take Reasonable Risks (in preference to my wishing you to "take Care") =p

Thank ya cornflake.:wink:. MoMo did help a little but if I remember correctly he wasn't feeling to well because he had just caught the crab.



I guess the proper way to put it would be using common sense along with many years of trial and error......but mostly error:wink:...and grandpappy always use to say "if ya don't use your brain then ya might as well have two fannies:wink:

love to all.
Buck

[Danknuggz]

i have a question about the bubbler style cloning machine. should the bubbler be running 24/7 even if the lights are off or should it be on a timer like 5 minutes on 10 off or what should the schedule be to run the air pump? just built a diy one and it seems the stems are to wet meaning there is a constant drip off of them. thanks to anyone that can give me some answers on this one

Originally Posted by Danknuggz

i have a question about the bubbler style cloning machine. should the bubbler be running 24/7 even if the lights are off or should it be on a timer like 5 minutes on 10 off or what should the schedule be to run the air pump? just built a diy one and it seems the stems are to wet meaning there is a constant drip off of them. thanks to anyone that can give me some answers on this one

Hello Danknuggs
That's a good question. It may take a little research here at IC Mag in order to find the information you seek. Try doing a search using "Bubble Cloning" or "DWC Cloning". There are many DIY threads here and hopefully you can come to your own conclusion on what will work best for your conditions & grow environment.

I use a aeroponic cloner and I let the pump run 24-7 which provides a constant mist underneath.
If you do decide to use a timer then I would recommend to use a humidity dome on the top side and spray the clones with a fine mist of Ph balanced water.

Love to all.
Buck