Wtf with my clones?? What am I doin wrong??

TL;DR its been 8 days, and my clones are starting to yellow like the last batch I tried that ended up dying off... why? (PH is good 7.5, pellets are not soaking wet, but not dry either)

So, I've done this 10 years ago with great success. At one point I had 100% clones rate with minimal effort. This time around... its different...

Im using Alien OG Kush clones from mother grow from seed. I cut 45 degree with blade, scrape the side, dip in clonex - then put in peat pods.

I did a batch like this a few weeks ago and they all died eventually.

I put the clones in the clone dome about 8 days ago, and maybe twice or 3 times a day I'll pop the top off the dome for a few minutes to air out, then I spray the top and put it back on.

Recently I added the bubbler to make sure I had consistent humidity as I thought that might be my problem.

But here and now, I can see some of them are starting to yellow, like the last ones did before they died.

Back in the day, I never had a problem with this. I'd leave em be for like a week and they'd all pop roots.

This time around looks like i'm not going something right. Any ideas?

That method was tough for me never worked. Have you tried rootriot? Those the only thing that worked for me.

I haven't. As I mentioned - I did this same technique a decade ago and had tremendous success. It was pretty much to easy for me... Every. Single. One. Would. Root. No problems.

I could look at using a different medium - but why would that be the problem NOW when it wasn't a problem before?

Maybe the strain is hard to clone? Idk.

Any idea what the yellowing is from? Is that just normal stress? Too much humidity ( I thought 100% was ideal)?

All looks good just a tough method. Basically same thing happened to me but with aero cloning, only worked once. The root riots just provide a good amount of oxygen and just has some secrets to it idk why it works so well.

Then I used a ac infinity dome so it neatly comes with a dome, light, heatmat and lifted cubed tray. The lifted tray allows water to sit below and wick up through the pucks. The heat is the secret sauce, the tray and etc just helps it be set and forget well worth the $100 I spent. Very plug and play, set and forget.

Thats been my successful method for over a year cloning every two months. I add some KLN dyna gro hormone to the water and thats it. Top holes open of course so its vented.

When I got the heatmat and dome it just roots faster 5-10 days. My attempts before that worked, they just took much longer to root but they did.

Sometimes they didnt all root but the dome method we do that I learned from here made it work outstandingly which was very much needed for me perpetual grow.

hello @Dr. Funk, cloning can be more difficult for some strains than others. I find that a little bit of yellowing is normal for me especially around the last few days before rooting, however, I would check your PH, ensure the medium is wet but not too wet, and try to take bigger cuts, they seem pretty small to me.

Hmmm. Alright, well I guess I'm at the point of trying something different anyway.

I do have a heat mat, but I turned it off - otherwise the inside dome temp shoots up to 88 degrees or so - which I thought might be too much heat for the little dudes.

Appreciate it!

THT said:

hello @Dr. Funk, cloning can be more difficult for some strains than others. I find that a little bit of yellowing is normal for me especially around the last few days before rooting, however, I would check your PH, ensure the medium is wet but not too wet, and try to take bigger cuts, they seem pretty small to me.

Click to expand...

Thanks, PH is on point - medium should be good - not soaking wet, but not too dry.

I've always been of the opinion (and from what I recall experience) the brand new little guys root faster than the more mature ends...

I guess if these don't work out, I'll be taking a handful and trying a few different techniques see what works best.

Thanks!