No joy yet with cloning

Right, where do I start! I have 3 healthy mother plants which I have been growing for about 12 weeks now and have taken 3 passes of clones from them. The first pass I was a little over confident that they would do well and followed Al B's cloning technique to the letter. I had no luck - in fact I'm certain that the plants formed root rot.

Having read a number of posts about cloners I decided that they would take all the hassle and worry out of the process so I tried again with rockwool (I didn't have the neoprene collars then!) however it was clear that the cloner was overwatering the cubes causing saturation. I admited defeat and purchased some neoprene collars being convinced that these would be the answer to my prayers.

The third pass was looking well - but it is now day 5 and I am seeing what looks like root rot and a thick milky residue at the base of the stems.

I leave the water running 24/7 and temp is around 26.5 C and humidity settles at around 60%. I did not mist though as have been advised that there is no point.

Does anyone have any ideas? Should I put the aeroponic cloner on a cycle?

|I cut reasonable large clones (5" - 9") and cut them just below a node. I dip them straight in to a container of rooting gel (gave up on powder) and straight in to the cloner after removing the required vegetative mass. Floro lights are on 24/7.

If I ar5e this up many more times I will have to go out and buy new seeds and start again as the mothers will not last too many more passes and are beginning to get too tall.

HELP!

I'd suggest shorter clones. Try 2-4in in a diy bubble cloner.

Bubble cloner = container of water with an airstone in it. Plain tap water, one or three drops of nutes (literally) if you like. Connect an aquarium air supply to a few airstones and place them in the water. Fashion a lid that supports the plants and keeps their stems barely submerged. Take the clones using sharp scissors and make an angled cut. No rooting gel, etc... For the container, lightproof is best, but you should be fine with just about anything. Hopefully you'll have roots within a week or two.

Thanks for your reply pokey. Just to confirm, this is the type of machine I am using...



The holes contain little mesh pots and these hold the neoprene collars.

There is a pump inside pushing water through a 'H' rig through 4 spray heads.

The 4 spray heads are on 24/7 and I worry that they wet the stems too much.

Not sure if it makes a difference but the strain is Big Bang feminised.

don't make it more complicated than it is. trust me i know. rockwool works fine and don't worry so much about soaking it. rockwool naturally retains alot of air. its hard to overwater rockwool. just take your cuttings, put them in the rockwool and LEAVE THEM ALONE !!!!! just assure they are moist/wet with a good temp and let mother nature do her thing. DO NOT CHECK THE PROGRESS.....no reason to even touch them except to see if the roots are comin out the bottom.. it takes at least a week and a half or longer for the cutting to root and only then if you LEAVE IT ALONE. tug on the cutting or checking inside the rockwool will only slow or kill your cutting. if you do as you have been and just let them do their thing it will work. you're doin the same thing i did at first.....trust me....take your cutting, follow the basics and then LEAVE IT ALONE.

Your clones might be to big, the bigger they are the harder it is to carry nutrients to the top, rockwool and a humidity dome work for me just make sure to presoak your cubes

I had better luck using rooting hormone powder without the fungucide they add...

instead of going directly into the powder though, I went into water first, then into the powder... the water helps the powder stick all over the plant cutting.. (make sure the water has been out for a day or so, etc..)

I have quite a few plants that worked out that way .. Just not the kind we're really interested in

admittedly, i know jack chit about cloning, but 60%RH seems low...

I am new at cloning myself. I took a large sample batch about 10 days ago. Using a combination of rockwool, rapid rooters, clonex, store bought cloning powder, and a homemade dwc cloner (plain bottled distilled water). All RW and RR were watered when taken, and misted twice a day. All of which were placed in clear drinking cups, (stacked on top of each other and taped together) as humidity domes. Bubbler cuttings also misted twice daily. DWC showing multiple root bumps. No action out of the RW yet. But all cuttings taken with rapid rooters and clonex gel are showing an inch of roots through the rr plugs. A big thank you to whoever it was that posted the clear solo cup method. Can't remember and name but it works great.