Why are these clones yellowing and shriveling?

What about not using heating pad first few days? And yeah they are pretty small but it's the standard rapid rooter size. I like rockwool but you gotta PH it and I've heard it doesn't fully flush and when you transfer it to soil it can be problematic

Maintaining a stable temp range 78-85 is important. Would have to be very warm in your space to do with out it.

Never have needed to ph anything since I went soil, I use dolomite lime a couple of times to make sure soil is stable.

You mentioned the stems being hard, woody is the term. They are difficult to clone with high rate of sucess.
The old growth on moms is not ideal place to take cuttings from,if that's the case.

KingOFthe710 said:

I used Schultz rooting powder from Lowe's along with foot tech gel. The Shultz was 3 percent indole butric acid which they said was only real ingredient that stimulates roots. What percentage of cuttings do you get to survive. Been thinking about going rockwool with perlite bottom instead of the rapid rooters. No ones been able to explain how or why they got so wet I really dont understand

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You can clone directly in soil with small plant starter pots also, same as Rock Wool or Rapid rooters.

Rock Wool is not truly the best for soil.

After looking at the pics you uploaded, it looks like you need to revisit cloning 101.. I apologize in advance for my lack of tact but your cuts suck... Your stems are way too long, I'll leave enough stem to bury it down in the party cups I use but I don't make any tall clones on long stems. I do like to take enough stem that I can bury a node or two in the cups.

I leave a couple top leaves and strip everything else off, party cups (with drainage holes in the bottom) of pro-mix, no rapid rooter bs... I use a blade off my aloe plant as a cloning gel, they root in about 10 -14 days. I use a makeshift humidome I threw together out of two small sterilite containers and keep almost air tight with a couple spring clamps. I mist once or twice a day and keep the humidity up, I never lose any clones.

These are about a week in and starting to look a little droopy but that's right around when they start rooting.



Here's my process...

First make sure your plant is healthy before you go cutting clones off of it, also I've heard smarter than I people claim that a light kelp foliar a week or so before taking clones helps get the plant hormones going and improves rooting.

Get your party cups of pro mix ready and moistened but not soaking wet, a small glass of distilled water (I use my dehumidifier water,) your trimmers and a blade of aloe vera.

Find a good cut to take, you want vigorous top shoots, not struggling for light and life side and bottom shoots and as others noted, you don't want to take woody stems..

Make your cut diagonally, gives more surface area for roots to take, immediately after you take your cut, dip the cut end into the cup of water.

Strip everything off but 2-3 top leaves, I usually cut the edges off the leaves like you did on yours, not sure if that really helps any but it does help me identify the new growth when they start rooting. I'll also usually rough up part of the stem that's going to be buried a little with the scissors, just scrape it a little.

Dip the stem into a blade of a fresh aloe plant, which is what I use for a rooting hormone. Insert stem into soil of party cup, use something to make a hole with if needed, usually I just shove the stem into the soil mix though.... After you have all your cups filled, take the aloe and squeeze it out into the water you were dipping your clones in and moisten the cups a little more with it.

About the 2nd week in as they start rooting, I'll often get a little yellowing and I'll hit them with a very light kelp foliar spray which always pulls them out of it and greens them back up, they're usually ready to remove from the dome about the same time.

I don't have a heating pad but there are two shop light fixtures directly underneath the top shelf that the clones are on that warms things up. My lighting for clones and seedlings is just a cheap T-8 dual bulb shop light fixture.

I don't PH the water.

I could be doing all kinds of stuff wrong, but this low tech method always works for me. Not telling you to give up on what you have, you might be able to pull them through and get them to root.

@davesnothere,

I didn't get to make the cuts on these a buddy did, he had to get rid of them he cut the main branches off and threw them in water in the garage I picked up like an hour later. None of the nodes coming off the branches were long enough to clone so I got greedy and tried to start some bigger clones and hope I'd have an advtange with shoots and nodes already started. Didn't think 8 inches would be too big but obviously I was wrong. Not sure what a blade of aloe Vera is I thought it was a hand lotion and if it's a plant I sure as hell can't grow within the weekend when I cut my mothers down probably starting tomorrow. I'll stick with root tech gel as I've seen hundreds of members using it on here with 100 percent, I am interested in soil it just seems harder to tell if soil is too damp or moist or maybe I'm just too specific and anal about things especially after just fucking that whole tray up. And you can't really check for process, these in tray stayed green and firm for a month with no roots developed on any of em, the whole bottom of the stem in the footer just turned to mush like it was soaked but I always felt rooters and they weren't ever dripping or more then damp. I only had em under a 23 watt cfl my T5 was making them wilt right over even though temp was only 78. Thinking about putting these cuttings to the side of the 400 watt MH turned down to 250 and up about 5 feet.

Dave, do you give 24/0 light or 18/6? I've seen statements swearing by both

KingOFthe710 said:

@davesnothere,

I didn't get to make the cuts on these a buddy did, he had to get rid of them he cut the main branches off and threw them in water in the garage I picked up like an hour later. None of the nodes coming off the branches were long enough to clone so I got greedy and tried to start some bigger clones and hope I'd have an advtange with shoots and nodes already started. Didn't think 8 inches would be too big but obviously I was wrong. Not sure what a blade of aloe Vera is I thought it was a hand lotion and if it's a plant I sure as hell can't grow within the weekend when I cut my mothers down probably starting tomorrow. I'll stick with root tech gel as I've seen hundreds of members using it on here with 100 percent, I am interested in soil it just seems harder to tell if soil is too damp or moist or maybe I'm just too specific and anal about things especially after just fucking that whole tray up. And you can't really check for process, these in tray stayed green and firm for a month with no roots developed on any of em, the whole bottom of the stem in the footer just turned to mush like it was soaked but I always felt rooters and they weren't ever dripping or more then damp. I only had em under a 23 watt cfl my T5 was making them wilt right over even though temp was only 78. Thinking about putting these cuttings to the side of the 400 watt MH turned down to 250 and up about 5 feet.

Dave, do you give 24/0 light or 18/6? I've seen statements swearing by both

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Probably the worst thing that happened to them was the time they sat in a garage for an hour or more after being cut. I'm not sure what effect the long stems have if any, I usually have long stems but they're buried in the party cups.

I use 18/6 light cycle myself, I would cut off the mushy parts of the stems, sounds like they're rotting to me.

Aloe vera is just your common aloe plant, you should be able to pick one up at any box store and the cloning gel probably works fine too.

Soil... I use Pro Mix which is a a soilless mix, it doesn't have any nutrients in it. Looks like soil but it's inert, potting soil is probably a little too hot for making clones but I've never tried it.

A slight spray like this -> pinch of beer+water will show you if there are saprophytes around thriving on dead matter.
Aprox 7h [cloner %Rh] to moldy white fuzz
ok ok...

Dave's Not Here said:

Probably the worst thing that happened to them was the time they sat in a garage for an hour or more after being cut. I'm not sure what effect the long stems have if any, I usually have long stems but they're buried in the party cups.

I use 18/6 light cycle myself, I would cut off the mushy parts of the stems, sounds like they're rotting to me.

Aloe vera is just your common aloe plant, you should be able to pick one up at any box store and the cloning gel probably works fine too.

Soil... I use Pro Mix which is a a soilless mix, it doesn't have any nutrients in it. Looks like soil but it's inert, potting soil is probably a little too hot for making clones but I've never tried it.

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Yeah the long stem is still 3 inches into the rapid footer then 8 inches after but those are dead I just cut down 150 more and have 4 trays full. Will keep thread updated on progress.


For so anyone growing in rapid rooters. It's been 24 hours since they were put in dome and closed, I have taken off to spray twice. Again the rapid rooters are much more wet then when I put them in. I only do 5 sprays total on a whole tray so should not be from spraying one time. Don't want them to turn to mush again but I know first two days high humidity is important so I don't wanna take too off for an hour to dry out the plugs but don't want them this wet. Not sure what to do next. Any input over next 8 hours would be greatly appreciated

platt said:

A slight spray like this -> pinch of beer+water will show you if there are saprophytes around thriving on dead matter.
Aprox 7h [cloner %Rh] to moldy white fuzz
ok ok...

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What

haha was meaning foliar them with a 5% beer-water to promote some molds. If they are dead this will show you which ones and what parts are dead (abcisions, leaf,stem)

I woulda tried it on this tray just to see if I could of cut the stem above the mush and still recloned them since they were so tall but I just figured theyd be stunted if they even did so I threw them out

KingOFthe710 said:

I woulda tried it on this tray just to see if I could of cut the stem above the mush and still recloned them since they were so tall but I just figured theyd be stunted if they even did so I threw them out

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Heck do some more clones. 100% is nice but you cant hit that forever.
I monster crop "crop in flower" in root riot cubes. I cut 2 dozen in week four of flower. Dropped em in Clonex then right into soaked cubes.
78deg heat pad. I have some water in the bottom of my dome. Vents closed 1st 3 days. I spray the dome, rarely the clones since they will not uptake water droplets as they are to big. They uptake the humidity in the dome. If the walls of the dome are dry spray the walls. A fog would work too. But dont use it. I do not ph or use nutes.
Day 4 I open vents half way n spray the walls. And spray the walls. By day 7 I usually see roots. The leaves from clone and bud are dying now. But a tiny speck of green growth is appearing on top.
As the next few weeks go by the new growth gets bigger and the old growth dies and I trim old growth thats really yellow. I do not keep mother plants I just keep cloning my blooming plant and never buy seeds or clones.
I plant 24, I only need 8 and pick the best 8. I loose 4-8 of them, buts thats ok and give the 8-16 clones I dont need to friends.

Optic1 said:

Heck do some more clones. 100% is nice but you cant hit that forever.
I monster crop "crop in flower" in root riot cubes. I cut 2 dozen in week four of flower. Dropped em in Clonex then right into soaked cubes.
78deg heat pad. I have some water in the bottom of my dome. Vents closed 1st 3 days. I spray the dome, rarely the clones since they will not uptake water droplets as they are to big. They uptake the humidity in the dome. If the walls of the dome are dry spray the walls. A fog would work too. But dont use it. I do not ph or use nutes.
Day 4 I open vents half way n spray the walls. And spray the walls. By day 7 I usually see roots. The leaves from clone and bud are dying now. But a tiny speck of green growth is appearing on top.
As the next few weeks go by the new growth gets bigger and the old growth dies and I trim old growth thats really yellow. I do not keep mother plants I just keep cloning my blooming plant and never buy seeds or clones.
I plant 24, I only need 8 and pick the best 8. I loose 4-8 of them, buts thats ok and give the 8-16 clones I dont need to friends.

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Let's be friends then. But I was looking at the root riot plugs but ended up with the rapid rooters. Little nervous since I fucked em up last time but I'm paying more attention and home more now so we'll see

KingOFthe710 said:

Let's be friends then. But I was looking at the root riot plugs but ended up with the rapid rooters. Little nervous since I fucked em up last time but I'm paying more attention and home more now so we'll see

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Hey no problem. Rapid Rooters are fine. Their the same thing I use em if i got em. I cut more than I need. Cubes are cheap. I cut 3 times what I need. Mainly so I can have my pick of the best ones. Hitting 100% only impressed other people, who cares, take a breath lol. People make some of this stuff so hard. All these different nutes n techniques n yada yada. 100 ways to do this stuff. Only problem is every grow room, water and setup is different. You might grow great and I follow you and my crap dies. Temps humidity its all different. Thats why i do so many. If 8 live out of 24 im 100% successful. Its all I need. I cut at 4 nodes. Then do my 45deg cut just under node 3. I skin some green and make a slight vertical slit. I try to keep size short. Have noticed that bigger clones have a tendency to fall over. It's just the weight it's trying to support. Some do some dont, thats my success rate lol no biggie.
Oh btw I use well water. They love it.

KingOFthe710 said:

Let's be friends then. But I was looking at the root riot plugs but ended up with the rapid rooters. Little nervous since I fucked em up last time but I'm paying more attention and home more now so we'll see

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Ok Friend just for you lol
I just took this pic, clone is 25 days old. Cut from a Holy Grail that was 4 weeks into bloom. Plain water in root riot cube. Havent sprayed plant. I use cutting edge solutions nutes now. I switched to CES nutes and love em love em love em. Much cheaper too.
So here is clone and my scrog is harvest at any day now. Just clone ur mothers in bloom and timing to replace mother is perfect. My girls are a 6X12 Scrog.

Optic1 said:

View attachment 3665549 View attachment 3665548 View attachment 3665544

Ok Friend just for you lol
I just took this pic, clone is 25 days old. Cut from a Holy Grail that was 4 weeks into bloom. Plain water in root riot cube. Havent sprayed plant. I use cutting edge solutions nutes now. I switched to CES nutes and love em love em love em. Much cheaper too.
So here is clone and my scrog is harvest at any day now. Just clone ur mothers in bloom and timing to replace mother is perfect. My girls are a 6X12 Scrog.

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Holy roots. Couple questions for ya if you don't mind your much better then I am.
1. You mean you don't ever spray your plants? Do you mean You just spray the dome of just keep cube moist watering under tray?
2.When did you start giving the nutes/what type do you give(kelp,cal mag or just reg veg) and when did roots first show?
3. Why do you leave them in there so long after rooting and what do you transplant into? I've heard about root rot, mildew or just tangling from leaving them in there but I'm assuming you have a reason for it and do you use a perlite bottom?
4. I've always loved the monster cropping and gonna take some off my buddy's in a few weeks once he switches them what do you have for a success rate?
5. And do you prep your mother's with anything the week of or just use the flowering nutes since you already are?
6. Last question do you use hps, flouros, cfls? And do you use 18/6? I've heard strong opinions on 18 and 24 hour

And only reason I'm trying to maximize my success rate is because they're going outdoors so trying to get as many as possible so I can pick through them as they're growing

KingOFthe710 said:

Holy roots. Couple questions for ya if you don't mind your much better then I am.
1. You mean you don't ever spray your plants? Do you mean You just spray the dome of just keep cube moist watering under tray?

I hit them every few days maybe to keep moist. The leaves take in humidity. They dont really absorb water if you spray it. Pores are to small to suck in water. Also cube is wet and they wick up the water. The leaves dont do much yet except die and feed energy.

2.When did you start giving the nutes/what type do you give(kelp,cal mag or just reg veg) and when did roots first show?

At about 10 - 14 days when roots exited cube. Just a mild 1/4-half strength nute to start.
I use CES and their mixing chart. There stuff is mild its fool proof. I buy 2.5 gal jugs from ebay or amazon.
http://www.cuttingedgesolutions.com/mixing-chart/

3. Why do you leave them in there so long after rooting and what do you transplant into? I've heard about root rot, mildew or just tangling from leaving them in there but I'm assuming you have a reason for it and do you use a perlite bottom?

I have the root riot cubes only in the 2" baskets. No need for perlite. Look close at the pick thats it. I cut bottoms out and put 2 rubber bands from top to bottom to keep cube from falling out bottom.
Next at home depot I buy the black 27gal containers with yellow lids. Those are cheap $8 bucks. Top has diamond shapes. So i put 23 2" holes in the lid in the diamond shapes. I have a danner mag drive pump. Kinda over kill. But it has a 3/4" female thread fitting. I 90deg up from that into a 1/2" "H" bar I built with 1/2" pvc connected w/ 1/2"-3/4" adapter and drill micro sprayers in it. Prolly 30 sprayers. The red ones, a 50 bag is a few bucks.
To keep container from leaking i run the black rubber window door seal around the top of rim the lid snaps on tight. I can get you a pic if you want. FYI. It can drip. I have mine in a garden tub. Or put in kiddie pool and use pump to drain excess water into a bucket. How to control water temps when pump gets hot you ask? Easy fill the tub its in. It cools it right off and stabilizes to room temp.

4. I've always loved the monster cropping and gonna take some off my buddy's in a few weeks once he switches them what do you have for a success rate?

Those type of clones are hit n miss. So 50-90%. I fill 22 clone sites. The 23rd site has my power cord and sensor wiring in it. Etc. my rule is take 22 and i need 8 of the best looking clones. Toss the rest or give to buddy.

5. And do you prep your mother's with anything the week of or just use the flowering nutes since you already are?

No, just cut em. Week 1 or Week 2 bloom is best. But they can be taken at anytime. Cut off all leaves but tops. Leave The Bud On It. All that stuff dies and crazy colas shoot everywhere. Do Not Crop These. No need to they go nuts.


6. Last question do you use hps, flouros, cfls? And do you use 18/6? I've heard strong opinions on 18 and 24 hour

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I run 1 48" cfl 6500k dual about 3' above it for first week. I put the dome right on container with heating pad about 78deg. Week 1 to 10 days roots form. Day 3 i open done vents plus take dome off 3 times a day for 5 minutes. Respray dome. U can shoot the plant but it just drips to root riot cube. Thats ok if it needs it. I run 24 hr light till I see roots then transfer to sprayer and run 3 dual cfls 6509k bulbs. Cheap at home depot. So is fixture. Make sure you have the temp controller for heat mat. All in all $50-$75 bucks 23 sites. 2" net pots. Works awesome.
My grow room is a system clone of the $3k under current system. I added top drip. I hate that air bubbler drip sound. I just pump the top drip in and it returns to resevoir nice n quiet. I have a 125 gal system for around $250. But i have a few bucks $$ into all my controllers and co2 system. Bets are in for 6lbs on a 6X12 scrog screen. We figured out a trick to make ur own bulkhead fittings for the containers 1-1/2" pipe for a few bucks instead of $15 ea. Man they work great.

Forgot to add dont let the cube dry out. Keep it moist.

Hope it helps any questions ask. I dont mind. This way no seeds no mother plants. You always produce second generation plants.
I have holy grail, lemon og kush and reserva privada kosher kush in bloom. I love the stretch lol.

from what I've heard this is normal. it is the plants using the only energy they have to form a root structure.