I just built my new bubble cloner, rockwool has been kicking my ass so I though I would give it a try, any suggestions? Should I use a root hormone? All I have in liquid form is superthrive and greenfuze root stimulator, but I'm not using the latter because it's organic. Thanks

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Very nice. I made one too and had problems getting it to work the first few times. I experienced stem rot and bacteria growth, my first few tries. I attempted my third go at it this weekend. I've already posted this in another thread today, but I'll sum it up real quick right here.
It worked really well for me this time around. I soaked my cuttings for about 20 minutes in root hormone (had never left them in hormone for this long, it really seemed to make a huge difference). I decided not to put any kind of rooting solution (used to use superthrive) in the water. I have been chaning the water every day to prevent bacteria growth. It took three days for me to see roots this time.
So, make sure to use your rooting hormone to its full extent and fresh water is all you need. If you can't keep the water at optimum temp, or just don't have the means to check the water temp, just change it daily.

thanks! I always wondered about soaking my cuttings... I will have to give that a try!

I never got a cloning machine to work correctly. Soil clones or rockwool seem to be easiest with almost 100% success rates

Tell that to the pounds of rockwool I have gone through in the past two months.

If you're getting slow rooting in rockwool cubes, they're being kept too wet. Think damp, not wet or saturated. No air in the cube = no roots.

Shake all excess water out of the cube with a sharp snap of the wrist before plugging the cutting in. You can get the watering right by using a small set of scales. Dry 40mm cubes weigh 5.0 grams. A damp 40mm cube (before the cutting is plugged in) should weigh 25-30g. If it's any heavier, it's too wet.

Water rockwool cubes by dipping only the corner into pH adjusted water as shown for no more than 2-3 secs.



Heat mats go a long way to speeding things up. Proper horticultural mats are the way to go- don't try to use a heating pad for people.

Rockwool is a bit alkaline (pH higher than 7, more like 8.5). Soak cubes for 24 hours in fresh water, pH adjusted to about 5.0 before you put the cubes in.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

YOU ARE A GOD! No one has ever given me precise weights! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Oh and I think I may have jammed in the cutting too hard, the ends were dammaged and as a result, necrosis. So far over the past few hours my bubbler seems to actually be working! BUT. rockwool is far easyer and more stable so yeh

heh, no problem... I wet and weighed a cube just for you, too.

Cut the stems on a somewhat sharper angle and clear out a hole in the rockwool with a (sterilised!) piece of coathanger wire if the stems still won't go in easily.

The aero thingie can be made more reliable with H2O2. It's possible to overwater with aero as well.

Be interested to see how you go with the aerodoodad.

__________________
Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone