my clones wont root, what am i doing wrong???

Hello,

On my last grow i tried taking cuttings from several diff bag seed plants and cloning them and nothing worked. I tried using an aerogarden and the cuttings lived for over 2 months before i threw them out but never grew roots. I tried putting cuttings in rooting powder and straight into peat pellets with a dome over them to keep in the humidity and they lived for over a month but never rooted so i threw them out too. I just tried to root 3 clones from a posion afghan plant in a bucket of water mixed with peroxide and an air stone like my book said and i changed the water after about 2 weeks and added a little fertilizer and super thrive before i went to ny and 5 days later the plants still shower no signs of roots and they looked crappy and the part that was in the water was covered in slime.

I've tried using cfl's and MH bulbs, i keep them in a humid warm enviroment, i picked soft flexible lower branches to try to clone and idk, they just dont root for me.

What am i doing wrong?

I was having the same problems, 8 months of trying every 100 percent sure to work method. Nothing worked until I switched to spring water for my cloning. My tap water is city water and it was killing me. hope this helps.

now i am throwing healthy female clones away because i don't have room for them. Such a bad problem to have. Sure you don't need to hear that.

I am having a difficult time getting clones to grow as well. I cut the branch at the base near the main trunk, cut at 45 angle, try pulling the skin down with the lowest nodes but mostly need to scrape it with the cutter blade, dip it in CLONEX, hold it in the basket while carefully pouring hydroton around it. it is in a home made sprinkler bucket (aero), running water at 6.1ph with about half of recommended nute strength under 4 T5 tubes (2 - 24" fixtures, 2 tubes each) - lights are fixed about 12 - 18 inches above. pics attached. One of my clones I just cut the whole top off to use as a clone - it was getting too tall. the 2 on the right have been sitting in there for at least 2 weeks, the other 4 were cut Monday and were droopy and dying by Tues morning. I spray with water several times a day, but I keep checking for roots and nothing is visible. What am I doing wrong?
And what do you mean by "spring water"?

Thanks in advance. pbp

you got a lot of leaves on those clones. cut some off you only want a little bit of leaves cause it has no roots to sustain them.. you dont have to spray them when their in a aeroponic system. are the stems actually getting wet in there? sometimes the sprayers have dry spots they have to be getting wet all the time.... i have never not had clones root and i used dwc. and dont put the light very close at all it doesnt need light. you dont want your plant trying to reach a light when your trying to get it to grow roots..... i just use tap water and it works fine

andar said:

you got a lot of leaves on those clones. cut some off you only want a little bit of leaves cause it has no roots to sustain them.. you dont have to spray them when their in a aeroponic system. are the stems actually getting wet in there? sometimes the sprayers have dry spots they have to be getting wet all the time.... i have never not had clones root and i used dwc. and dont put the light very close at all it doesnt need light. you dont want your plant trying to reach a light when your trying to get it to grow roots..... i just use tap water and it works fine

Click to expand...

Yup, the cuts will feed through their leaves, if you spray them all the time why should they make roots? Aero doesn't need mistings and soil you stop misting around 6 days, you say its been 2 weeks... those cuttings will just maintain till they rot/die which ever comes first.

OK. Thanks guys. I know the stems are getting wet, because the hydroton must catch enough water that the basket drops water every time I pick it up to check for roots, but you're right, the little sprinklers suck as far as a quality spray. I will try a couple without spraying the leaves.

not sure with aero but with soil i had really good results with just cliping the stem at a 45 and scrapeing about a half inch of the stem and then dipping them in root powder and shakeing off the excess then just keep em moist. I took 8 clippings and now have 8 living clones. It really shouldn't matter how you do it as long as you do those things. also what kind of light do you have? My friend said that his 400w kills his clones. I use a 8$ flourecent light from walmart and it works great.

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How are your cuttings?

We need a certain type of cells in the cutting stem to develop roots, if the stem is woody and hard it will not root. We have to get the stem when it's light green and pulpy, that's best done after dark periods. If you want to take a cutting from a mother in veg put it in 12/12 for a few days, or even 24/0 just before taking the cutting. This produces a type of cell that will develop into roots, where a hard woody dark cutting stem may never root even for the most experienced grower.

I don't keep a mother, I have 18 strains in veg and I keep only one plant of each in veg for most strains. I just take a cutting after a week in 12/12 and keep a genetic chain going, I've had 100 percent success rate cloning in Pro Mix since I've started doing this.

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Single Cutting Cloners
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I clone but don't keep a mother plant - after the first week of flower I take two clones (for safety) and keep the genetic chain going. I've got 15 strains now, cutting back on one plant per strain, the mother, really makes life easier.

I didn't want to run a bubbler for 2 clones so I picked up fruit cups from the supermarket, the kind they use for cut up strawberries. I use them as a humidity dome, the top never comes off and I never have to tend them, just pop the top when I want to transplant.

Moisten your peat pad or pro mix as normal, put in the cutting with rooting powder, leave it. I haven't touched these since February 19 (the earliest ones), no water, they're all rooting.

What I like about them best, they're idiot proof. Pick a good cutting, scarification and 45 degree angle cut, rooting powder, plant, forget about it. Biosphere Cloners.









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Props to you guys!! I stopped spraying the leaves and they drooped for about a day or two and now there are roots. Thanks so much for the advice.

pbp.

Glad to hear it. With practice comes skill, keep at it.