Clones all dying

I have a lot of bag seed I'm going through looking for my favorite strains to grow, but i'm having some problems getting any clones to root.

I made this really cheap bubble cloner, but nothing has rooted in it.
The cheap cloner is just a Tupperware container full of plain tap water, with an air-stone in it.

This is the mother plant I am trying to clone, which is now about 1.5 weeks into flower. It looks a little funny in this pic cause I had just removed LST tiedowns and watered it. It had some problems as a seedling but seems fine now.


Here is the bubble cloner I made, I know its ghetto as fuck, I was trying to build a sort of prototype so I could see rather i wanted to go with this or build an aerocloner which will be a slightly bigger pain in the ass. I've heard that the strike rates of the 2 are virtually identical. As you can see, all of them have a pretty marked loss of pigment. Some of the leaves curl up on the edges and die. There is also a cherry tomato plant in there which i'm kinda using as a control. The roots on it are developing pretty well, but as you can see, the tops look very similar to the dying clones. I ran into a problem the first time I put clones into it where the stems developed large balls of brown slime on the tips. Didn't know what it was, but I started adding a cap of hydrogen peroxide to the water every day for about a week, wiped the slime off the stems and it went away quickly, but the roots never came. I've since completely sanitized the reservoir several times and used nothing but plain tap water changed out once a week and the problem hasn't reoccurred:


This is an additional control. Cherry tomato plant. This one is grown in ffof soil from seed. Anyways, Same discoloration and leaf problems. With this control I'm starting to suspect I'm having a lighting issue. Upon reflection, nothing has ever really been healthy under these lights I have.


This is another experiment. I am attempting to isolate a clone from all of the conditions affecting the other clones to get another basis for comparison. This is just a tiny clone in a glass of plain tap water. Its been there for about 4 days. I can see very very tiny hairlike structures, but i'm uncertain whether they are roots or just pieces of cellulite breaking off the soaking stem. I'm just leaving this one on my computer desk getting only ambient lighting. Basically, I'm just trying to get one freaking clone to root as a baseline for what works. (or what can work): being that the mother is already pretty well into flower, is it too late to take clones from her? I mean I know you can revert a cutting back to veg, but if I can't get vegetative clones to root what are the chances I get a clone to revert to veg and survive right?


The other thing I wanted to cover is the lighting. The fixture I made out of an old bucket holds 6 regular lightbulbs, so I have (3) 23watt CFL (Daylight) bulbs and I also run one warm white 23 watt bulb just cause it feels right to have a fuller spectrum. The bulbs are very close together and the top of the plants is about 6" from the bulbs. so any guesses as to whats happening here?

Easy fix man... cover the cloner in foil so no light can get through. also get rid of all those lights. use like 1 23 watt cfl like 2 ft over the cloner.

and clean your tank stone and lines with bleach before you reassemble. use only water in the container

Thank you for the reply! I suspected light stress but I thought these weak bulbs couldn't possibly be doing this.
Realistically, I should probably take the unit out of the veg space altogether I guess, maybe find a place near a window?
I'm thinking also about only using bottled water. Those plants are all pretty much toast now aren't they? or should I let them keep trying.

myself personally I would start over. you may be able to cut off the brown part of the stem and get it to throw roots but I have no expirience with that. I have mine in my veg space but i put up a little makeshift wall between the light and the cloner. If you want to use bottled water that is fine but i personally like the small amount of chlorine and other minerals from the tap. You shouldn't have problems either way

No need for bottle water, most likely the slime is from high water temp or light leaks. Keep water temp around 68 and don't submerge the stem, just let the bubbles pop right underneath the cut. Warm water holds very little O2 for those roots....

Well I don't know the temperature of the water, buy a thermometer place onto of the cloning unit reads 25 celcius. RH 43%. I placed foil over the majority of it to keep the light down to a minimum. and 2 clones sprouted some roots! But I'm afraid that it took so long that the plants might be damaged beyond saving. the stems are beet red, and they have burst open in a few spots, Most of the leaves are very unhealthy or dead. I took one and gently put it in soil to try to get it some nutes before its too dead to come back, the other i'm leaving in the bubbler to see which ends up working better. I also took 2 cuttings and placed them in shot glasses with a piece of tin foil over the top and a small hole for the stem to go in.

You are making things hard for your self,save the cloner but have a couple done the old fashioned way in medium under a humidity dome.

Never mess with a genetic line you want to save for future use,now your getting more and more into flowering,the more stress will be put on the new clones

get some rockwall and ph some water maybe add some hydro root stim

keep building them maybe over time you`ll get better at it

Yep, water temp appears to be the problem.
25c =77f
Way to warm. As tyke says, go with plugs under a dome. You'll develop a feel for cloning and then you will have greater success with the more advanced techniques such as the bubble cloner.

Thanks for the advise! I'll definitely do that, they are cheap. Do you think I should go rock wool, rapid rooters or peat plugs for the highest strike rate?

And good news, the 2 clones that did root are doing great. They've been vegging nicely for a while, and almost all of the new growth looks perfect and normal now after some initial funky, stubby growth. The cool thing is that the plants seem to have just said "fuck it" in regards to symmetry. Stems just grow wherever they can. I wonder if the cloning process has a really significant effect on auxin production. The clones grow as though the plant isn't internally regulating which stems to divert energy to. But its also possible it just appears like it because I have no idea what i'm doing yet. It could just be that i'm over-educated and under-experienced.

rock wall or rapid rooters them pu plugs are good the foam stuff

all pretty much the same I avoid peat would rather use coco if it comes to it but coco gives off small particles that build up and then bugs live in it so more cleaning