Are clone machines worth it?

Baja.Beaches said:

I do OK with my clones, I seldom get the roots like BobBitchen’s but they are good enough.

It was the idea of throwing a cutting in a cup that caught my eye. A shame to fire up the cloner or even the dome with rapid rooters if I all I want is a couple. Never tried just sticking a cut in a cup like my wife does with house plants, but now I will.

Water wise my city water has been all over the place the last couple years but always alkaline. Worse now, they are replacing ancient pipe. Had 9.1 PH out of the tap a couple months back. RO for now.

Be a few months before I get a chance to try it tho, harvest time here. Sick of trimming.

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Damn trimming!!! Baja,take a lil bullshit cutting and drop it in a cup of your tap. No loss if it doesn't work. Just have to remember to top or change out up the water every 3-4 days.
Lol,I want you to try it just for kicks. Being that you only need a couple,come time for the need for a few clones,you may find you have all you need,bad water included.

I'll be lurking/stalking you in a few months...lol. Kidding brother.

CoB_nUt said:

Damn trimming!!! Baja,take a lil bullshit cutting and drop it in a cup of your tap. No loss if it doesn't work. Just have to remember to top or change out up the water every 3-4 days.
Lol,I want you to try it just for kicks. Being that you only need a couple,come time for the need for a few clones,you may find you have all you need,bad water included.

I'll be lurking/stalking you in a few months...lol. Kidding brother.

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Dang, now I wanna try it but I don't have anything in veg right now, I'm not running the indoor during summer, everything is in late flower or hanging. Winding down extra early this year for some reason.

I'll fire the tent up around Thanksgiving so pace yourself on your stalking.

All good.

CoB_nUt said:

Damn trimming!!! Baja,take a lil bullshit cutting and drop it in a cup of your tap. No loss if it doesn't work. Just have to remember to top or change out up the water every 3-4 days.
Lol,I want you to try it just for kicks. Being that you only need a couple,come time for the need for a few clones,you may find you have all you need,bad water included.

I'll be lurking/stalking you in a few months...lol. Kidding brother.

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I tried that method several times without success personally.

Rapid rooters 4 sure

make sure your mother plants are well hydrated before taking cuts

Sometimes overlooked

Huge difference in rooting time ime

TreeFiddy350 said:

so I suck major ass at cloning. It’s been 3 weeks since cutting clones and still not a freakin root. They’re in rockwool.
I was thinking about saying screw it and making a aerocloner.
Anybody have experience with these and thing it might be a good idea since I can’t seem to get the 7-10 day roots

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Dude I've been growing for 10 yrs and still cant get cloning down 100%

I've dealt with the white mold on my clones. Now I have this golden looking molding on the leaves.

RocketBoy said:

How TF are you messing up on rockwool? its simple. This is how I get 99-100% on clones -
1. Cut clone
2. Dip in water
3. Dip in Rooting powder ( Yes, the same one they sell at Homedepot )
4. Stick into a Damp (NOT overly saturated) Rockwool cube
5. Place into clone tray with dome
6. Finely spray clones with water
7. Wait
A week later roots will be popping out.

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What would u consider a damp cube? Weight wise on a digital scale?

BobBitchen said:

View attachment 4409285

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Those look like aerocloner roots.Root noodle soup...pearly whites

I love my ez cloners, though diy clone machines will do the same thing.

The biggest issues I've had with the clone machines is sterility, which lead to always having to replace collars and the clogged spray nozzles (roots) on the manifold.

The last few years been using permaclone collars, the kind you can sanitize in a goose bag in the microwave. Expensive up front but they pay for themselves after a couple runs, they've rooted at least a couple thousand with same collars, sometimes I double and triple up cuts per collar.

I never change my water in a clone cycle, only adding more to top off as they root and start to drink. Depending on need/schedule I will transplant as soon as rooted or let grow some wizard beards in the machine.

In the cloner I only use base nutes at same ppm of the moms, kln hormone, and a clear rez knockoff (https://www.rollitup.org/t/make-2200-worth-of-clear-rez-for-4.423650/). I see roots in as little as 10 days but most of the time I won't even check them for 2-3 wks.

Temps can be an issue for some, my 60 site I run on a chiller, but you can keep the slime away by adding clear rez equivalent up to every 3 days. I've tried 15on/15off on the sprayer manifold which works to keep temps lower, however have had pumps decide to not turn on so I just run the pumps 24/7.

I keep the lights over the clone machines off for the first few days, which helps keep the clones from yellowing. I have used the vitagrow anti-wilt in the past but find it unnecessary if the environment is ideal.

Used to be a domer with rapids or rockwool but once I got the cloners down to set-and-forget I haven't looked back.

I've never been great at cloning either, last time around I just did seed for each batch. I've got the cloneking 25 site now with a short cycle timer, hopefully will have better luck this time.

A simple bubbler is all that is needed. I build mine from any plastic container with lid and dish sponges. A few drops of bloom nutrients and chlorine a gallon is all that is needed. Rooting clones should be the least work intensive thing about growing, if not your method is sub par.

This is the one I built for my friend a couple of months ago. Simple yet effective. When I was young and broke I even used a clear plastic bottle with a dish sponge and airstone under my kitchen sink lamp. Rooted plenty clones this way.

No misting or anything. You fill the rez/plastic container and forget about them. This is my failsafe method, it always work.

TreeFiddy350 said:

so I suck major ass at cloning. It’s been 3 weeks since cutting clones and still not a freakin root. They’re in rockwool.
I was thinking about saying screw it and making a aerocloner.
Anybody have experience with these and thing it might be a good idea since I can’t seem to get the 7-10 day roots

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Dude i'm with you on this totally. I have tried cloning two times prior, neither time worked. Im on my third attempt with beautiful plants that i supercropped for flower time. i have a couple that have bent over sideways and the rest seem ok atm. I used Rapid Start from General Hydroponics and a root stim gel from shitty home depot. I have heard you cant go wrong with Clone-X gel. I will get some soon. Waiting to see results of this clone attempt. I did, this time, get a clear rubbermaid container to put clones in so i am hoping for a better success rate. I am spraying twice a day and keeping the RH at about 90% with 76-80F temps. What am i doing wrong?

Wastei said:

A simple bubbler is all that is needed. I build mine from any plastic container with lid and dish sponges. A few drops of bloom nutrients and chlorine a gallon is all that is needed. Rooting clones should be the least work intensive thing about growing, if not your method is sub par.

This is the one I built for my friend a couple of months ago. Simple yet effective. When I was young and broke I even used a clear plastic bottle with a dish sponge and airstone under my kitchen sink lamp. Rooted plenty clones this way.
View attachment 4427353
No misting or anything. You fill the rez/plastic container and forget about them. This is my failsafe method, it always work.

Click to expand...

Can you post some pics further away so I can get a look at what your have going on?

Renfro said:

Here is my thought on cloning machines.

Most won't need them. A simple tray of rapid rooters and a dome if you have low humidity is all you need.

However, many have problems rooting clones so I say whatever works for them. If a bubble cloner works then use it.

Whatever it takes to get good solid clones because thats a major leap in growing capability. The ability to maintain a known good mother plant and reproduce excellent and consistent results every run is much better than growing from seeds every run, never knowing what you will get and having extra veg time and plants that grow inconsistently depending on how stable the strain is.

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And cost if you are buying Fem seeds or autos(which i havent tried) its crazy. 5 seeds for 70 bucks where i am. Cloning is a must learn and i suck at it so far.

Clumpyoyster said:

Dude i'm with you on this totally. I have tried cloning two times prior, neither time worked. Im on my third attempt with beautiful plants that i supercropped for flower time. i have a couple that have bent over sideways and the rest seem ok atm. I used Rapid Start from General Hydroponics and a root stim gel from shitty home depot. I have heard you cant go wrong with Clone-X gel. I will get some soon. Waiting to see results of this clone attempt. I did, this time, get a clear rubbermaid container to put clones in so i am hoping for a better success rate. I am spraying twice a day and keeping the RH at about 90% with 76-80F temps. What am i doing wrong?

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I personally don't bother with rooting hormones anymore. It won't hurt but it doesn't matter if I see roots in 4 days or a week. I think people over complicate a lot of things with rooting clones. I never had great success rooting clones with a dome and cubes, it's to much work and not effective enough in my opinion.

Clumpyoyster said:

Can you post some pics further away so I can get a look at what your have going on?

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Sure! Here's my current grow journal. First attempt at Aeroponics! https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-attempt-at-aeroponics-first-grow-in-2-years.998721/#post-15169826

The cloner is just a rectangular plastic container with a clear lid (not optimal but it works great), cost me 2 dollar. 1 dollar for the sponges. Used a soldering iron to make holes in the top of the lid and made slits in the sponges to hold the plants. The cuttings sit in aerated water 24/7.

Wastei said:

A simple bubbler is all that is needed. I build mine from any plastic container with lid and dish sponges. A few drops of bloom nutrients and chlorine a gallon is all that is needed. Rooting clones should be the least work intensive thing about growing, if not your method is sub par.

This is the one I built for my friend a couple of months ago. Simple yet effective. When I was young and broke I even used a clear plastic bottle with a dish sponge and airstone under my kitchen sink lamp. Rooted plenty clones this way.
View attachment 4427353
No misting or anything. You fill the rez/plastic container and forget about them. This is my failsafe method, it always work.

Click to expand...

Also, adding chlorine is something new to me. Must be dependant on where your from and your tap water quality as well. We have high levels of chlorine where i am so i fill 5 gallon buckets with tap water and air them out with a pump and airstones before they hit the plants a day or two later.