Cloning in plain water under fluoros

[Dropped Cat]

I have had some clones in water now for 16 days now and still nothing. They continue to look green with no wilting or yellowing, but man.....

My cuts in water go for at least two weeks, but I
change water every other day. Lightly chlorinated,
pH to 5.8 - 6.0. Low light levels too.

Cooler temps, I use the passive vermiculite tubes.

If no wilt or yellowing your cuts will nub out.

Keep us posted

 

[sdd420]

This last run I cut a couple branches off and jammed them into the rockwool cube of its mother. It was shaded under canopy and under 400hps no special treatment just pushed into cube and they grew no problem with the nutes I was running. Peace sdd

 

[jamesbrownghost]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've a couple of clones of mako haze and one of chocolope kush. One of the mako cuts is showing nubs (finally) but none of the others. But I would really like to see the Chocolope kush come thru though. It's the #3 Pheno; short indica dominant, smells like chocolate covered strawberries...man that's nice! I'd take a couple of shots but you guys already know what a rooting clone looks like.

 

[jamesbrownghost]

Ok I'm a believer! I have seen it for myself...the clones (or at least the most important one (chocolope kush) ) has rooted and I am beside myself! So did the mako haze, I have abunch of those cuts, but only one chocolopoe kush. This is cost effective and helps your feet to stay on the ground. Oh, happy fourth of July for those who care.

 

[ictiv]

@ Azure-

Probably 2+- weeks, then plant; a week in humidity dome proving there is alrady solid root system and a week, acclimating to new environment. As long as it has a healthy root system, plant her! Do the lighting the same as either indoors or outdoors light schedule.

Having used that method years ago, it works well...do all my house plants same way, too.

After planting them in soilless (perl+suns) how many days should i keep on plain water? Or should i start fertilizing right after planting the clone?

 

[jamesbrownghost]

I think that you can keep them in water for as long as you want. As far as I go, I planted into dirt and threw them into organic soil amended with Peruvian sea bird guano, Indonesian bat guano, worm castings, and some stuff that is supposed to help with nutrient up take and man are they green!

 

[ictiv]

Well this is my first experience growing and i wanna learn more about cloning, so after reading this thread im trying to do it here. I just have one space for veg/bloom so maybe this method can help me keeping alive my genetics while i flower them... So i dont really want to speed things up, read here of someone keeping the clone 2 months on water... The mother was 52 days, i took the cut from the exact spot shown on photo. I cut in 45 degrees and as fast as i could i puted it in the water... removed last leaves.I dont know if i will plant the clone, but anyway im doing for the experience. I will leave it in the corner of the tent, hope light are low enough for it. Will keep u update!

 

[ictiv]

In 3 days roots are starting to came out of the steam, seems like cloning n plain water is easy and effective!

 

[ictiv]

some pic

 

[militia420]

I want to add that if there is no willow in your area, you can also use stinging nettle to make an infusion (just like tea, boil the water and add chopped nettle). Then pour a bit of this home-made cloning solution to the water where you are rooting the cuttings. If you want to make the home made rooting liquid even more effective, make a mash of stinging nettle and water and let ferment for a couple of weeks (it will stink a bit, it's fine). Refrigerate and use in 1:10 water dilution.



Both willow and stinging nettle are natural sources of indole-butyric acid, which is the main ingredient in commercial rooting gels like Clonex, Dip n Grow, Rootech, Quick Clone, etc.

Nettle tea has the added benefits of having a ton of nutrients (it's actually considered to be a fertilizer, with trace elements that also help the cutting survive and thrive) and discourages pests, etc. Stinging nettle is really nature's perfect cloning agent.

Will this work with dried stinging nettle that I have sitting around from rosemountainherbs.com ? I use it for the nutrients and it helps with getting fluids moving in my bladder, if I remember correctly. It's a useful herb for people with metal toxicity.

Also, I think I have some clonex gel sitting around. Would adding some of this to my water be a good idea? I'm almost at 11 days and no roots. The leaves are starting to eat themselves and go yellow. I'm tempted to to add light foxfarm fertilizer tomorrow to keep the leaves healthy.

I desperately need to get 3 out of 6 of these strains to take.

 

[jamesbrownghost]

If the leaves are yellowing, the light that they are under is too bright. And don't worry, they will root if given enough time.

 

[militia420]

If the leaves are yellowing, the light that they are under is too bright. And don't worry, they will root if given enough time.

Well for the 1st 10 days I had them about 3 feet below a T5 flouro setup with a white garbage bag on a shelf in between them. I thought the 4 bulbs were too strong at that distance. I started to get rot in some leaves. I cut off all rotted spots (small areas for all clones). I cleanly recut the stems as the bottom 3mm's were showing rot. I washed out each container with soap. Put plain water back in. This time I turned on a 2 bulb t5 about 24 inches above them. 3 days later most clones are getting yellow on them. Last night I removed one bulb to reduce the light. Tonight I replaced water with this solution that is a subset of my seed starter solution:

8oz hydrogen peroxide
1oz distilled aloe vera
3 drops super thrive
1/2 teaspoon foxfarm liquid vegetative fert.

Within 2 hours most of the clones are looking healthier and greener. I didn't add coconut water as it's got sugars that could increase rot/bacteria.

So I think my biggest problem is nailing down the amount of light.

Has any one posted a range of good lighting from a light meter for fluoro's? That would make this easier. I saw some one else on another forum mentioning that they put their clones 12 inches away from a t5 light. I don't know how many bulbs they had. If I can get the light nailed down I think I'll be good to go.

Unless some one has a good reason for me to not use the above liquid for my clones to sit in I'm going to keep using it and rotating the solution every 3-4 days to avoid rot.

More advice is warmly welcomed.

 

[jamesbrownghost]

Militia420, you seem to have your routine down, I admire that. I say, keep pressing forward. My clones were cut from 3 and 4 week flowering plants so they took about 22 days to show nubs. Had them in plain distilled water, in a glass baby food jar on the windowsill in the kitchen...but away facing away from the sun. Still natural light can be harsh.

 

[militia420]

Militia420, you seem to have your routine down, I admire that. I say, keep pressing forward. My clones were cut from 3 and 4 week flowering plants so they took about 22 days to show nubs. Had them in plain distilled water, in a glass baby food jar on the windowsill in the kitchen...but away facing away from the sun. Still natural light can be harsh.

That's very useful information. I considered trying to move them to an indirect light area but decided against it for now because it seems like even that might be stronger than the fluoro (I'm in Hawaii). Even more so, that tid bit on when you took the cuttings is useful. I took mine on ~2-3 week old flowering plants. Some started as soon as I moved them outside, others lagged in that process, but all are flowering. My SSSHD haze based plant is lagged the most so I thought it might root the soonest. I'm on day 11 now, so I'll just try to stay on cruise control and keep an eye out for rot since I think the cuttings have the nutes that they need for now.

Thanks for those extra nuggets!

 

[jamesbrownghost]

Yeah, I do think your in the clear. I don't know if Haze plants take longer to show roots than a more indica leaning plant...mine is a Mako Haze and a Chocolope Kush. The haze took longer.

 

[Thcvhunter]

How Often do y'all chamge your water?

Have you found any tricks to increase the amount of time in between water changes?

 

[militia420]

How Often do y'all chamge your water?

Have you found any tricks to increase the amount of time in between water changes?

This is my first time doing it and I can tell you to AVOID waiting 10 days to change. On my 10th day I had minor rot spots showing up on leaf tips and scattered across the leaves. Every single stem out of 16 cuttings had 3mm worth of mild rot that had to be trimmed off.

You might be able to lengthen the changes by adding some hydrogen peroxide in with each new rotation of water. See above for the ratios I was using per gallon.

The changes might be a pain but it's an even bigger pain to lose cuttings to rot, especially for one of a kind plants that will be impossible or hard to get a hold of. Even if you've got plenty more of the same kind of plant you can look at the loss as a waste of your time and whatever energy you initially put into it.

I'd be conservative and change it like some of the other successful posters in this thread. Every 3-5 days seems conservative.

 

[jamesbrownghost]

I, on the other hand, have never changed my water and yet I have no rot or algae or scum or anything and the roots keep coming in...I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps the UV in the natural light keep that to a minimum? Sorry to hear that M420. That must suck.

 

[militia420]

I, on the other hand, have never changed my water and yet I have no rot or algae or scum or anything and the roots keep coming in...I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps the UV in the natural light keep that to a minimum? Sorry to hear that M420. That must suck.

It might have something to do with the Hawaiian jungle that I live in... I'm leaning towards not having the lighting nailed down right in the first 10 days though. I just changed the water again last night because the leaves started yellowing again. I used the same formula as mentioned earlier except I used 2 tsps of the foxfarm vegetative formula. They didn't respond to it as much as they did the first time.

I've been looking at the aero cloner setups. I think I'll try to make one when I feel good enough. If I can finish it before these root or rot I may switch them over. I'm already looking at other branches to take new clones from. They're 4 weeks into flowering, only one looks it though. The others got a slow veg to flowering cycle. I might also have to try to re-veg some of the girls after they just about finish flowering. I have 3 I do not want to lose. Gonna try to do backcrossing so I can get more seeds similar to the current girls if i can keep a mother going.

 

[jamesbrownghost]

What an awesome plan, I'd really appreciate you updating me on how that seeds making process goes. I also, am planing on making some seed with GDP. I had that strain once and I have to get my hands on much more. Hawaii must be a beautiful place to grow Cannabis. The plants must respond well to that Hawaiian sun. I don't know too very much but maybe that mother's genetics are beginning to give out. I hear that the cuttings from older mothers lose their vigor. Maybe it taking them longer to root than for rot to set in. Thoughts?