Fine tuning my cloner

1st couple of go arounds I was having major issues due to extremely low humidity, but since that time I have added a homemade dome and a humidifier. Getting nearly 100% on the clones now.

Problem is that it takes too long. I hear people talking about 8-10 days and they are ready to move them, but I don't get roots until 2 weeks in (regardless of strain). And small ones at that. They dont really take off until after they hit the water and I take the dome off.

So a couple of things might just fine tune my set up here.

#1 Should I turn the bubbles on right away? this is what i have been doing, but it seems like that might not be giving the cuttings incentive to grow roots out as fast or as long if the water is being brought right up to the stems at all times. they are constantly wet.. very wet. Maybe I should turn the air hoses on only after the roots start reaching the water level???? Just rely on the humidifier to hold them over until they can pop out some roots of their own? is there a reason to have the air pump on and bringing water up to the stem at all prior to them getting roots? does the root under the net pot need to stay wet? should i put this on a timer as well, until they hit the water?

#2 Perhaps I am keeping the humidifier on too long? I keep it on a timer (on for 10 and off for 45 minutes), but it stays pretty damn wet inside my dome. Dripping wet as a matter of fact. I take the dome off and kill the humidifier once the roots hit the water, but that is obviously two weeks or more into and thats the problem.

Just wanting to get this working at an optimum level. Hearing everyone talk about getting rooted clones in 8 days makes me wonder what I am doing wrong or what i could do to improve things?

DWC type of cloner, btw. with lots of bubble action


TY

Cissy said:

1st couple of go arounds I was having major issues due to extremely low humidity, but since that time I have added a homemade dome and a humidifier. Getting nearly 100% on the clones now.

Problem is that it takes too long. I hear people talking about 8-10 days and they are ready to move them, but I don't get roots until 2 weeks in (regardless of strain). And small ones at that. They dont really take off until after they hit the water and I take the dome off.

So a couple of things might just fine tune my set up here.

#1 Should I turn the bubbles on right away? this is what i have been doing, but it seems like that might not be giving the cuttings incentive to grow roots out as fast or as long if the water is being brought right up to the stems at all times. they are constantly wet.. very wet. Maybe I should turn the air hoses on only after the roots start reaching the water level???? Just rely on the humidifier to hold them over until they can pop out some roots of their own? is there a reason to have the air pump on and bringing water up to the stem at all prior to them getting roots? does the root under the net pot need to stay wet? should i put this on a timer as well, until they hit the water?

#2 Perhaps I am keeping the humidifier on too long? I keep it on a timer (on for 10 and off for 45 minutes), but it stays pretty damn wet inside my dome. Dripping wet as a matter of fact. I take the dome off and kill the humidifier once the roots hit the water, but that is obviously two weeks or more into and thats the problem.

Just wanting to get this working at an optimum level. Hearing everyone talk about getting rooted clones in 8 days makes me wonder what I am doing wrong or what i could do to improve things?

DWC type of cloner, btw. with lots of bubble action


TY

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...you might want to trim some of the foilage (less leaf = quicker roots). I clip my clones form the bottom of my mothers, this also helps to speed things up....do you heat your res?

trichlone fiend said:

...you might want to trim some of the foilage (less leaf = quicker roots). I clip my clones form the bottom of my mothers, this also helps to speed things up....do you heat your res?

Click to expand...

I have trimmed the roots before, but that didn't seem to speed things up. Even this current batch of clones got trimmed (not all of them, but I trim them as needed so they fit and usually not the top of the plant where it grows from). Res is heated to about 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Should I go higher? Is that too high?

ty

Cissy said:

I have trimmed the roots before, but that didn't seem to speed things up. Even this current batch of clones got trimmed (not all of them, but I trim them as needed so they fit and usually not the top of the plant where it grows from). Res is heated to about 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Should I go higher? Is that too high?

ty

Click to expand...

...your temp is good.
...I was refer'n to your leaves...trim down the leaves.....are you using any ferts?

trichlone fiend said:

...your temp is good.
...I was refer'n to your leaves...trim down the leaves.....are you using any ferts?

Click to expand...

I have trimmed the fan leaves before and it really didn't seem to help.

I have added a small amount of nutes and cal mag, but not too much. This last time I added some cloning solution into the reservoir as well, to see if that will help. I have used cloning powder each time.

i use an aero cloner. i found that when i put ANY nutes in there at all they take over 2 weeks to root. now i use just straight tap water ph'd to around 6.0 and i have roots in no more than 10 days every time. gona try some Clonex next so maybe i can get the root time down to 5-7 days. i tried powder before and it seemed to slow the root growth as well, now i cut the clone from the mother and let it soak in some rooting gel for about a minute and it works like a charm. so i would say cut out all nutes, except for some Clonex or similar solution and get rid of the powder. good luck, hope that helps..

cmt1984 said:

i use an aero cloner. i found that when i put ANY nutes in there at all they take over 2 weeks to root. now i use just straight tap water ph'd to around 6.0 and i have roots in no more than 10 days every time. gona try some Clonex next so maybe i can get the root time down to 5-7 days. i tried powder before and it seemed to slow the root growth as well, now i cut the clone from the mother and let it soak in some rooting gel for about a minute and it works like a charm. so i would say cut out all nutes, except for some Clonex or similar solution and get rid of the powder. good luck, hope that helps..

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yo go with this,no nutes at first just water,keep res temp at 70 and you wil be good to go,i just finished cloning flowering tips aswell as reveged my moomma plant after harvesting,no more seeds for me .

thanks for the advice. but nobody answered yet - - do I turn the pump on right away or wait until the roots hit the water? I'd rather not run it for the 1st 2 weeks if it isn't necessary.

Cissy said:

thanks for the advice. but nobody answered yet - - do I turn the pump on right away or wait until the roots hit the water? I'd rather not run it for the 1st 2 weeks if it isn't necessary.

Click to expand...

Turn your pump on immediately...I run mine 24/7
Use straight tap water, dechlorinized, and pH'd at 6.0
No rooting hormones, no chemicals
Keep temps around 70F
In 7-10 days, you should have something like my pics below with 100 % success everytime. It's as easy as that.

Love the pics great stuff---pruning does promote root growth as the long feeders cut them and the short eaters that look like combs bunch out. Ph water 5.5-6 for me and Humidity all the way till they are t= planted for the first few days. Spray though by hand with spray gun 4 times most a day. Do not want them to get lazy and expect em to come in there. If they want it they can smell it bubblin below. Nature knows where the water is. I use a rapid rooter because it is a neutral medium. But I found if I keep them just moist and not wet I get better growth.
I use Olivias gel and have tried powder--- like the gel. Willow water if you got a tree around?
Def trim all leaves in half to send the signal " aint no picnic for food up here" Start making roots bitch!
she will then be shocked with trim job and 24hr light and will then revert to making roots. No Nitro no nutes till she shows roots. Then give her the reward of a small minuscule taste of big bud bloom 50 14 7 in a sprayer not to a bin or trough but just a mist once a day after she showed roots. that will bring the color back into the clones.
Maybe the more primitive or tougher the better? like Trichlone Fiend's rig.-- I like it too big for where I am, but I like it. Here is my pinchy 5 hole cloner for the F o I
water is best kept a few degrees above ambient temp--- so 85 out 87 88 reservoir.
per bible O.P nice rig BTW

subscribed ...just watching and learning. I am going to try and re-veg my lemon skunk after harvest.

valhalla88 said:

subscribed ...just watching and learning. I am going to try and re-veg my lemon skunk after harvest.

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I revegged a White Widow that was late into flower (i mean really late). I read that the longer it is in flower the more difficult it will be to root it (makes sense), but if you get it to root that it will have crazy growth and have different and stronger characteristics. Sounded like BS to me, since I couldn't imagine the plant changing in any way, since it is the same genetics after all... but this thing sure did grow out in a weird way. crazy growth right from the top of the buds. i cloned them and they rooted in 5 or 6 days (half the time as the others) and they are growing super fast. its like they are suddenly on steroids or something. very interested to see how they respond to flowering.

I revegged others that were only in flower for a couple weeks and nothing really changed. it just took a little longer, that's all. but this WW was in flower for a month and a half when i pulled it out.

Cissy said:

I revegged a White Widow that was late into flower (i mean really late). I read that the longer it is in flower the more difficult it will be to root it (makes sense), but if you get it to root that it will have crazy growth and have different and stronger characteristics. Sounded like BS to me, since I couldn't imagine the plant changing in any way, since it is the same genetics after all... but this thing sure did grow out in a weird way. crazy growth right from the top of the buds. i cloned them and they rooted in 5 or 6 days (half the time as the others) and they are growing super fast. its like they are suddenly on steroids or something. very interested to see how they respond to flowering.

I revegged others that were only in flower for a couple weeks and nothing really changed. it just took a little longer, that's all. but this WW was in flower for a month and a half when i pulled it out.

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I started with a straight 400 watt metal halide...then after 8 weeks of vegging I switched to straight hps on feb 24th...yesterday i switched to
a sunmaster neutral deluxe metal halide...it has a wide spectrum that they say imitates natural sunlight, so in theory the lumen go down a bit but the way a plant absorbs light from the visible spectrum is alot different than we do...in other words plants see light differently...so I have a increase in PAR watts ,which is the measurment of total light energy available for photosynthesis...so I basically am attempting to pack on more trichs and resin which is like a sunscreen for the plant to protect it from burn and to retain moisture.
So for the last two weeks I will finish with this bulb and we shall see...
So three bulbs used with my first grow...