Bubble Cloner Problems :(

[fizzbomb]

Hi Blaz3, im not very good at building things, i purchased this years ago and it will last forever, its called The Cutting Board and the company that make it is general hydroponic europe, 27 site, put 2 cuts in each hole and it doubles up to 54.

Devilman i was reading through your posts and i cant seem to find what type of light you have your clones under???, are they too close too the clones ??? i use a 2 tube set of florescent for rooting clones, you really dont need anything more as that can cause heat problems and also, where do you have your clones ???? try moving them to another part of the house if you think the problem might be temp related ?? tbh i think there is a good chance it is, ideally you want your water temp to be about 21c, anything more and your running the risk of the stems turning to mush, if its too cold then they will take forever to root, and also is it just airstones you are using and the water pump outside ??? as im pretty sure a lot of people were having problems with the ez cloner when it first came out, i have never seen 1 but im sure it had something to do with the water pump heating up the water too much, i think it was inside the cloner instead of outside, is your water pump inside or outside ??

also try using something like clonex as soon as you take your cut, its a rooting gel, i use 1 double airpump which sits outside the cloner with 2 airstones inside the cloner, ( airpump and airstones were purchased from a tropical fish store ), with a 2 tube set of florescent which sits inside a small cupboard about 2 ft above the clones, no where near the grow room or flower room, ideally you want your clones at room temp, not grow room or flower room temp as sometimes that can raise the temps up in the bubble cloner, too warm they will go to mush, too cold they will never root, room temp is perfect.

once your clones have established a good root system the water level can fall below the bottom of the stem as its the roots that will be keeping the plant alive, but until it has a good root system that stem has to be kept in the water, if the water level falls below the bottom of the stem and it dont have roots, it will die, no need at all to keep the stem just at the top of the water level, not leaving yourself any leeway whatsoever if the water level does drop, once i take my cuts they gets left unattended for 1 full week, i dont even need to check on them, after 1 week i will replace the water with fresh water, and leave them for another week, no maintenance whatsoever, i have tried rockwool, aeroponic propagator's but nothing is easier than a bubble cloner, rockwool was a joke, too much fucking about for me, aeroponic propagator was ok but the bubble cloner beat everything hands down for me, once you get your problems sorted Devilman which im confident you will, you will see how easy it is, keep at it m8, your nearly there. best of luck

 

[Devilman]

The clones were sat a few feet from my grow tent, so not in real bright light, probably 4 feet from a 4x56w T5 unit in the tent which is above other plants..

I have been using clonex etc.. but I found when I first started using the cloner, even with water temps around 20c and the water-level approx 2" from the top of the container, the stems got really mushy fast, so as I previously mentioned, I drained a lot of the water out to rely on bubbles bursting, which did work and I got roots, but since then they havent really moved on much. Main reason for lowering water level was to allow the stems a chance to dry slightly, since I didnt have a timer with short enough cycles to try that.

Since its only a small bucket (approx 2gal) It has no water pump, just an airpump with 2 of those large round stones in there. (couldnt find any long flat ones at the time)

Thats another reason I was wondering about peoples water temps and airpump Liter/min for both bubble cloners and DWC, as Im not sure if perhaps Im making too much bubbles which is causing stems to get far too wet above the waterline and also to have an idea of what to put together for a DWC trial run

I have wondered about lighting before, You often see figures thrown around for flowering intensities (such as min 50w/sqf etc..) but rarely have I seen any ballpark recommended figures for cloning / early veg / normal veg light intensities, I Would greatly appreciate any input here too

Thanks again.

 

[Scrogerman]

Hey Devil,
a few questions i often hear mate. i find it simple & dont think ive ever had a clone not take, even difficult strains.

Personally i like to use an aquarium heater set to low 80's(80-84f), for the rooting process "only"(they do root faster ime!!), then as soon as i have roots i start to reduce the sol temps back down to 68/70f over a few days. To 15/20litres of sol i use a 2x2 lpm(1 x dual outlet) cheap airpump & 2 x 12" cheap airstones in a 25/30L tote.

I use mild NPK nutes(low EC-0.4) & h2o2 every other day, ph6. i submerge my stems roughly 10/15mm & my stems are around 6-8" long usually. ive split stems, scuffed etc & found no diff in rooting times, with solution temps i have hence the heater. as for the airpump, always on 24/7.
theres a thread by Cortez on bubblecloning here somewhere, thats well worth a look. see if i can find a link for ya.

As for lighting, use low watt cool white floro or similar & keep em high as that'll encourage rooting as apposed to blasting them, not required.

stick with it & good luck!

 

[Scrogerman]

Bubble cloner thread by Cortez: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=26473&highlight=cortez

its a long one with varying opinions, but if you follow what i do i cant see how you can fail, i find bubblecloning faultless, but many good growers here have tried & never got to grips with it.

G'Luck

 

[Devilman]

Thats the exact thread i went through and I hate to say it, but a description and a few pictures is not an in-depth guide to bubble cloners.. its simply a "paint by numbers" guide of how to put one together..

It has no hard-and-fast figures to actually use in terms of temperatures, airpump flow ratings, water levels etc.. and these are the exact places I have been having problems, hence my request for the sort of temps / airflow etc.. people are using in their cloners / dwc setups, because your right it should be a simple thing to get setup and running correctly, but as is often the case... if you dont have all the information and are just following some pictures of how to put something together, rarely will it work properly, or understand exactly how it does work.

 

[Scrogerman]

Fair enough mate. but to be fair ive give you the info what works for me 100% of the time, so im sure you'll be ok & work it out! personally i think that thread is a good one but sorta see what your saying!

 

[St3ve]

less leaf more stem and putting your pump on a timer helps usally 15 off 30 sec to a minute on. Tap water at 250 ppm works good or a lite dose of nutes 300 to 400 ppm max. You need more stem sticking out lower. And healthy moms..

+1 need more stem

Plus I desagree with whomever said keep temps under 70F.. thats too cold to root quickly IME. There is a reason you put a heatpad under seeds to get them started..

1) I drop them down to get a few inches of stem if you can.
2) Keep the temp in the HIGH 70's.. I usually keep a heater in mine set at 78F
3) I also use a timer set to 1 min on and 5 off.. but thats aero not bubble
4) I have some strains that don't pop roots for 10 or even 12 days.. but most do in 5-7.
5) I prefer a pH of 5.5 in the cloner as per many cloner and cloning solutions instructions.

 

[ak-51]

I also use a cycle timer on my aero cloner to keep the temps down.

The air pumps I used to run my bubble cloner did not add enough heat for that to be necessary.