ASAP Cloning humidity tips and tricks? Rep +

Hey RIU. I just started cloning. I have 7 clones under a diy humidity box. I spray the walls and the plants regularly and for about 4 hours afterwards I can have nice high temps in 78 degree range with great humidity but after that the humidity drys out. I have them on an 18/6 schedule. I know of the benefits that a 24 hours cycle may or may not have depending on who you ask however I was concerned with the bulbs getting too hot or melting their sockets so I stayed at 18/6. These are ideas I have to remedy the problem: Change lights to 20/4
add a cup of warm water
lay down a wet towel under the containers
or most likely a combination of two of these.
Does anyone have methods they use to keep humidity high 24-7 or at least for 8-9 hours (while I sleep). Thanks in advance RIU.

Sit a little cup of water inside the dome or get a reptile heat mat or similar to put under the box to keep it warm and humid. I use a heated prop because where I kept my cuts got to cold and I had the same situation as you

Interesting....
Try using a spray mist and just spray the medium...
What is your medium?
Add as many lights as possible... more...if you can...
I use the simple red cup as a base filled with MG Seedling soil at 50%/mixed with 25% perilite, and 25% vermiculite
Then I use a clear knotched plastic cup on top of each clone cup...
That top of your DIY cloner looks a bit clunky to access clones, three times per day..
Open tops and spray medium...
Good Luck man...Keep us posted

Maybe the plastic u used to make the walls is porous?

if they are clones you shouldn't be accessing them several times a day; not even several times a week. if you give them a good spraying when you put them under the dome i wouldn't touch them for 4-5 days. it may not look humid inside the dome cause there is no condensation on the wall but my guess is that it is plenty humid enough. clones don't need a ton of light as they can't process it all...those bulbs aren't going to melt any socket either. they look like 23w cfl's. just leave them on 24/0 and if you are worried then turn 1 of them off every once and a while. chances are the problems you are having are from over spraying and constantly going under the dome.

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

if they are clones you shouldn't be accessing them several times a day; not even several times a week. if you give them a good spraying when you put them under the dome i wouldn't touch them for 4-5 days. it may not look humid inside the dome cause there is no condensation on the wall but my guess is that it is plenty humid enough. clones don't need a ton of light as they can't process it all...those bulbs aren't going to melt any socket either. they look like 23w cfl's. just leave them on 24/0 and if you are worried then turn 1 of them off every once and a while. chances are the problems you are having are from over spraying and constantly going under the dome.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I have been preparing for this for a few weeks now. I have been trying to make it a point not to check on them too frequently. From what I've read up on, once the environment is in check they should pretty much take care of themselves for the first 7-14 days. I am very concerned because after the condensation goes the leaves have started to get blackish tips so I'm worried they are getting too dry. I added a cup of water and the humidity actually dissipated faster this time - in less then an hour. I do have a 50cfm fan in a 6 cubic foot box so maybe that is what the problem is, I turned it off and only left a 10cfm fan on. I'll check again in an hour to see how they are doing. I'm going to add a wet towel. I'm not going to add any extra bulbs just yet because I'm pretty sure that will make my current dilemma worse. Should I switch asap to this container instead? Has anyone any experience with this tote? Depth is only about 5.25" >>>>>>vvvvvvvvvvv

Closetgardner said:

Maybe the plastic u used to make the walls is porous?

Click to expand...

It's not porous. I was worried that there was a seal issue but I resealed everything so I don't think so anymore.

do you have a hygrometer? how do you know the humidity level is dropping?

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

do you have a hygrometer? how do you know the humidity level is dropping?

Click to expand...

No, no hygrometer. The plants leaf tips are turning brown to black so I'm pretty sure the humidity is dissipating. Is this right? Here are some pics.

AllenHaze said:

Hey RIU. I just started cloning. I have 7 clones under a diy humidity box. I spray the walls and the plants regularly and for about 4 hours afterwards I can have nice high temps in 78 degree range with great humidity but after that the humidity drys out. I have them on an 18/6 schedule. I know of the benefits that a 24 hours cycle may or may not have depending on who you ask however I was concerned with the bulbs getting too hot or melting their sockets so I stayed at 18/6. These are ideas I have to remedy the problem: Change lights to 20/4
add a cup of warm water
lay down a wet towel under the containers
or most likely a combination of two of these.
Does anyone have methods they use to keep humidity high 24-7 or at least for 8-9 hours (while I sleep). Thanks in advance RIU.
View attachment 2945568View attachment 2945569

Click to expand...

Before I went the way of the bubble cloner with 99% success rate ...I too used this method, but only kept the humidity high for the first 24 hours, then eased of the wetness in 8 hour segments, to have the humidity at 25-30% of the start, to reduce any chance of a visit from the Pm angel, look into bubble cloning is better return and much fun too. ..meantime just leave a dish of water in there under a bulb

The leaf tips are turning brown. What is this from? I'm just really worried that they will dry out. I'm definitely going to be investing in an easier setup if I can't get this one to work.

IMO why don't you just go buy a dome and heat mat it's like 20$ lol ... But if you insist on DIY keep the lights on 24/7 (DIY or not) cuz you basically answered your own question light create heat heat and water create ... Humidity. Also if your worried about your DIY box melting you should take it down anyway just get clear plastic cups see through kind and put them on top of your current cups as lids they will do you way better. I've tried it. Also some janky math for your humidity levels. If each of those cups has moist soil in them let's say each one is one cup of moist soil right. And for arguments sake that dome is 100 cups big. And there are 8 cups in there . (I didn't count I'm just throwing out numbers lol) but do you think 8 cups of moist soil are going to humidify a 100 cup dome or will would they do better with one cup on each clone. Their own private domes and no more hassle of spraying just put some water in the soil or whatever your using in those cups.

Also the leaf tips changing brown is normal really if they are wet and brown they are rotting dry and brown not enough moisture either way they will turn brown and recover when they root and you put them in a normal environment. The plant is feeding off its leaves cuz it has no roots. They'll turn yellow brown all sorts of fun colors just don't let the center node where the fan leafs come from go brown and your straight.

I'm now using the tote, it's staying humid for much longer so that's sweet . I insulated the bottom of the grow box and am using a black trash bag underneath the pots to hold heat. The light cycle was switched to 24/0 as well. I mentioned earlier the 50cfm fan that is pulling plenty of air through the roughly 6 cu ft box, hopefully this will aid in keeping the bulbs cool while they're being run for over 168 hours straight (7 days or more). I understand that the leaves change color as nutrients are used to sustain the rooting, rootless clone. This is different I was sure, then the crispy, brown leaf tips my clones were experiencing which seemed heat or low water retention relative. The box was cardboard so it may have been pulling moisture from the air and the pots were raised slightly by means of cut drywall slabs another possible culprit to the rapidly diminishing humidity in the grow box. I'd like to just get a heat pad but I've already put too much into this project as it is. I have a heat rock out at the farm for some lizards my bro-in-law had but have yet to grab it. I'll post when all goes well. Thanks for the help.

Hi. Take your clones, put them in your propergator and leave them for 4 days. Do not touch them. Do not open the propergator. Leave them alone.

After 4 days, open your vents for an hour. If the leaves start to droop, close them again. If they stay up, leave the vents open.

Do not spray the clones, this won't help. It's a good Idea to spray the walls of your propergator though to help with humidity levels but only once. Also you will find that with some strains they will start to rot the leaves and stem if you wet them too much. So don't spray them.

After around 10 days, you should start seeing roots. If you haven't, a quick dunk in some ph water followed by a few more days and you should be fine.

I clone using jiffy cubes, a standard propergator with no heat mat and clonex rooting gel. I get around 90-95% hit rate.

Don't fall into the trap of pulling open your rock wool or jiffy pellets to see if roots are on their way. This will really mess them up if they have started to root.

Be a little patient.

Oh and I usually take around 60 clones and put them directly under my 200 watt cfl. I then bin the weaker half and put the stronger clones into my veg room.

Simple. Hope that helps a little.

Sounds like you have one hell of a set up by comparison to my own. I will be following your advice regarding the four day wait. It's been 2 so far, so I guess I won't open the box for another 48 hours? I have been opening it occasionally and breathing in some cO2 is this a waste of time IYO? Anyways, I switched the lighting to 23/1 instead to give the bulbs and surrounding material time to cool. Checked them this morning and there is still plenty of condensation on the container walls so this makes me feel better about the humidity. I'm hoping at this point I have the environment in check. Here is a pic. Is this how it should look for the full four days?

The new setup looks better than the first, lots of humidity in there. I tried cloning in dirt once and only had one out of about ten work out. The rest got all curled up and died like the one on your earlier picture. Personally i use a tall humidity dome and rapid rooter plugs. It costs a couple bucks to keep the system up and running but then i have the benifit of 100% success usually which means that i can sell the ones i dont want and that more than pays for my materials. I spray the inside of the dome three times a day lightly because my dome doesnt fit all that snugly and that seems to work well for me. I find it alot easier with rapid rooter plugs than dirt though, and even rock wool cubes. Its all personal preferance and practice. Good luck man

Hi

I just wanted to add to keep it sterile.
Always use rockwool or vermiculite, try not to over-handle anything going on the inside of the propogator, high humidity and low temps can cause damping off.
A heat mat is a must if you are going to be doing a lot of cloning and ambient temps are below approx 20C/68F.

Alienwidow said:

The new setup looks better than the first, lots of humidity in there. I tried cloning in dirt once and only had one out of about ten work out. The rest got all curled up and died like the one on your earlier picture. Personally i use a tall humidity dome and rapid rooter plugs. It costs a couple bucks to keep the system up and running but then i have the benifit of 100% success usually which means that i can sell the ones i dont want and that more than pays for my materials. I spray the inside of the dome three times a day lightly because my dome doesnt fit all that snugly and that seems to work well for me. I find it alot easier with rapid rooter plugs than dirt though, and even rock wool cubes. Its all personal preferance and practice. Good luck man

Click to expand...

Lol. Yea, I can't believe I even spent the time putting together the first one. I will def be investing in some rapid rooters or the like as well as a heat pad and taller humidity cover/dome. Thanks

IMO you are making it harder than it is. As long as you have the dome you shouldn't need to spray them all the time. Once a day if you want. Let the dome air out once or twice a day to keep mold/mildew away. Bubble cloners are a waist of money unless your cloning hundreds of clones a year. Also I would buy rock wool cubes since they are sterile and take up less space. Also you can tell when they root easier.