Cloning: To Use Domes or To Not Use Domes

[FreezerBoy]

But then had many clones die during transplant into vertical RW slabs. The unprotected roots simply could not take the shock.

I couldn't get roots at all with naked stems. When cloning in Rockwool cubes I pull them from the bubbler at the first nubbin that sticks out. By getting cubes in their final medium ASAP, the roots never have a chance to see anything else as "home".

Also, with the cuttings inserted into RW plugs and the plugs being misted at some set interval thus always leaving the RW plugs wet, I thought this would not be that much different if I just let the clone plugs sit in a watered tray. Why the need to run a pump and misting system and deal with the inherent problems of such?

I used to use a double tray successfully but, once I trashed the dome it was subject to high evaporation. Note that saturation only works with highly oxygenated water (I use a 60 gal airpump in a 2 gal tub) Surface turbulance is where water absorbs oxygen. If the water is still there's no absorbtion and the plant suffocates

Methods mentioned here differ, but the thread of logic that is running through everyone's post is that too much humidity is bad. With my method, I had not lifted the domes not once until they eventually came off. They went on for a week with vents fully closed. After one week, the vents were opened until sign of root. After which, the domes were removed. By then, mold would have taken hold.

Domes were a constant battle. Daily trimming of molded leaves, stem rot and then as much as 60% dying from dome removal. Once a plant gets used to high humidity it's loathe to survive without it. I found the need for high humidity to be caused by excessive plant material. The larger the plant, the more water it needs. Keeping cuts in the 3 inch range with well trimmed leaves allowed me to lose the dome

I also searched some threads here and some said they never use domes but did not elaborate on their methods. Did you not use domes in your systemic hydro cloner setup? Or did you not use domes for your clones and just let them sit the clone tray?

I started with the double tray shown above (with dome on top and airpump and heater in the bottom tray) Believing excess humidity was the problem I started with slow weaning. I cut a hole in the dome's top slightly smaller than a cd case and covered it with same. After roots showed, I'd move it slightly, increasing the opening, every day. Next run, I tried completing weaning by the time roots showed. Each successive run reduced both humidity and time under the dome until I used a well vented dome the first night only. Then I stopped using the dome altogether and gave each cut a single drop of water on day one. Now, they get nothing. If they want water, they know where it is.

I am also at that point of having barely enough mothers for clone stock, so I can't experiment/deviate too much from the tried and true method.

Never surrender a proven method till the new method proves superior. All my bubbler failures were on the side as were my first two DWCs. I'll keep trying the bubbler "properly" because I refuse to believe my IC family is lying to me. The answer to my problem has to be pilot error.

 

[B.C.]

You must first sacrifice a chicken, spilling it's blood over a candle lit alter. Then you must stand on one foot facing due west with the tail feathers of said chicken in each hand, with arms out stretched. You must then cross yer eyes and chant to the grow gods in demon tongue till you run outa breath. This will work! It's.....Vooooo-Dooooooooo! LOL! Sorry FB, I couldn't resist! We gotta have -some- fun around here, right? Take care.... BC *EDIT* You MUST be wearin plaid when you do this! LOL!

 

[FreezerBoy]

You must first sacrifice a chicken, spilling it's blood over a candle lit alter. Then you must stand on one foot facing due west with the tail feathers of said chicken in each hand, with arms out stretched. You must then cross yer eyes and chant to the grow gods in demon tongue till you run outa breath. This will work! It's.....Vooooo-Dooooooooo! LOL! Sorry FB, I couldn't resist! We gotta have -some- fun around here, right? Take care.... BC

You forgot the plaid. How could you forget the plaid? Gotta be wearin' plaid. :friends:

 

[niggenz]

You must first sacrifice a chicken, spilling it's blood over a candle lit alter. Then you must stand on one foot facing due west with the tail feathers of said chicken in each hand, with arms out stretched. You must then cross yer eyes and chant to the grow gods in demon tongue till you run outa breath. This will work! It's.....Vooooo-Dooooooooo! LOL! Sorry FB, I couldn't resist! We gotta have -some- fun around here, right? Take care.... BC *EDIT* You MUST be wearin plaid when you do this! LOL!

Somehow, I am reminded of that silly scene from Ocean's 12. But yeah, when my clone stock is more readily available.

 

[Dee9]

At first I did not believe this cloning business. Clone an annual?! I have cloned many perennial plants, but never an annual.

So, I took a cutting and stuck it in some soil outside under a shade cloth and forgot about it.

And it grew. Not very well, but it did not die and yielded quite a bit.

Well now I clone profusely.

Only once did I try a humidity dome - but removed it quickly, because of mold. I think because I live next to the coast, the humidity in the air is quite high, and I don't really need a dome.

I really dislike mold.

 

[KindHypnos]

Heh, no. I have a day job as a Silicon Valley Coal Miner and don't have as much time as I would like to tend to my garden. I trim up the clones so they have 1 or 2 growth nodes at most, this is standard. But I have yet to clip the leaf tips as stated. I'll start doing that with the next cutting cycle. The consensus is that clipping leaf tips helps a great deal. But what I do do is "pack 'em in"!

You can easily get away with only exchanging the air before and after work... especially if you have your dome cracked to some degree.

Do you have a hygrometer?? Could come in handy

I've always used domes for cloning, to varying degrees depending on a miriad of other factors, but they always start out under the dome.... I've had roots as quick as 5-6days with my homeade bubbler. Though avg is more like 7-10...

I trans straight into soil and/or coco ones roots are quite profuse... but that's jus' me

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

ITS AMAIZING HOW THINGS WORKS OUT SOMETIMES

ITS AMAIZING HOW THINGS WORKS OUT SOMETIMES

Before someone decides to say, neither. "Go with an aero cloner instead", let me say that I have built a few of these things and for my purposes, they cause more problems than benefit. Simply, I get roots with an aero cloner, but transplanting these babies into rock wool slabs with with the roots unprotected causes too many to die. I have tried encapsulating them in macro plugs, allowing roots to grow through the plugs, then transplanting into rockwool slabs but it proves to be more effort and still some die. In my v-sog set which takes 144 cuttings at a time, losing a number of cuttings is seriously detrimental.

So back to the old method. I notice after about a week, I get some terrible mold spores inside the dome. Sometimes after removing the dome, the mold has wiped out quite a number of clones. I am hearing of some that don't even use domes when rooting clones. If that is you, please educate me to your processes.

Here is what I am currently doing,

1. Fill tray with 5.5 pH'ed water with recommended amount of Thrive B1 Alive.
2. Dip cuttings into clonex. Plug dipped cuttings into pre-soaked plugs/cubes. Place in tray.
3. Put dome on tray with light 18" above leaf tops.
4. Let sit for one week.
5. Open vent on dome after one week.
6. Remove dome after 2nd week.
7. Refill nute solution. Add Vermicrop.

For the most part, I am successful, but the mold seems to fester under the domes. One thing I am not doing is trimming the leaf tips, which I shall be doing on the next set of cuttings. Just want to make sure if I go without the domes, what I should also be doing, how much longer must I wait for roots, etc.

Thanks!

ok once i saw this i had to respond ASAP!!!

i think the dome IS the cause of your troubles.

i was recently in the grow shop and they had a display up that made me curious. what they did was follow your same rules all except for the dome!!!

the setup was a tray with regular water, some clones of a tomato plant (two cuts were about 6" tall and in 3" rockwool cubes and 5 others were about 2-3" tall in 1" cubes). the tray also had a flexible aerator tube (its like a bendable air stone). the tray itself was filled up about half way with water and the "aeroator tube" was the extent of the tray.

the guy told me that they were in there for about 4-5 days and were already starting to show the new root nubs!!! it was really amazing to see. of course i wanted to take a pic but the4 guy said no, so the best i can do is describe it to you guys. the tray was just a regular black tray, like the ones from home depot, no dome and the floros shining down that wonderful blue light that clone appreciate so much.

they set it up to show that people DONT necessarily need a dome in order to get plants to root. i tried hydro and it moves to fat for me an my daily going on so i don't grow that way, but to anyone that would want ot go hydro i would defintiely suggest this method , since i saw the results for myself.

he also said that they change the water every day, the cuts were dipped into a cloning gel before they were placed in the tray.

sorry i didnt read the thread all the way, but i have a tendancy to forget things and wanted to get down as much of what i remembered so it could be helpful to some degree.

i guess PM me if you have any other questions that i may be able to answer about what i saw there.

hope this helps your situation a lil . . .

 

[Purkle]

Great thread. I learned alot about domes and when to start weening them off. Thanks for the input everyone, it was a real help to a mold problem!