3 homemade Cloners (3x5 2 inch spots) - comments welcome...

AlcoholicO

Active Member
I've been building a few cloning machines myself, as I can't quite afford the models you can purchase online and where I stay, it's impossible to buy these things and most of what I've seen other people use for their machines, so I thought I'd post the results so far, as especially the cloner came out really nice.

CONTAINER:
I used a 21 Ltr/5 Gallon Styrofoam cooling box (they're also used for various other things and come in many sizes) which cost 1.25$ and it's easy to work with, though you have to be careful it doesn't break when full of water!

TOP LID:
I got a 2 inch drill for 3$ and my mate borrowed a drill. On each lid, I put 15 holes, 3x5.
Each of the round styrofoam pieces that comes out of drilling, can be used instead of neoprene lids, for a cheaper, but not very good alternative (they will fit in a net pot each, with a little help from a knife).
Netpots are cheap as dirt, so my mate got a bunch and cut off anything below 1cm or so and glued each of the 15 to a 2 inch neoprene lid that's about 3/4 inch thick (for the newer cloners we cut the thickness in half, doubling the amount). They fit perfectly in the styrofoam lid, which closed the box tightly, preventing water spills very effectively. 32 round 2inch neoprene tops/caps, die cut, with a slit for the cutting, cost me 12$ on eBay and when cut in half, comes to 64 tops, enough for 4 cloners with a few extra caps...

PUMP:
I got Aquarium water pumps, two models, one AP1600 and one AP2000, which cost 7$ and 9$ respectively, as well as a 38Ltr/Minute (10Gallons/minute) air pump, with 4 outputs, one for a stone in the water of each cloner (for extra aerated water). You'll need one Aquarium water pump for each cloner and the smallest of the models I got, was still more than sufficient.

SPRINKLERS:
As is evident from the pictures, I tried a bit of everything I could get, resulting in the first completely useless model (cloner 0) and later the ineffective Cloner 1. For these I used stuff that doesn't make sense, like much too large sprinklers and what appears to have been drippers (they don't necessarily speak English in the shops here).
After Cloner 1 however, I got the neoprene tops, along with 50 ez cloner sprayer heads, the little red ones - THAT worked well and they cost 17.50$ online.

WATER:
As the tapwater has 100-120ppm and isn't recommended for human consumption, we use mineral water for the cloners (once they are transplanted, we use tap water, to safe money), which has less than 5ppm. We added a bit less than 5ml clonex clone solution for each liter of water, purchased online (one Quart/Ltr with shipment came to a little less than 50$ - I know, MAD, but it will last a fairly long time, as we use the water for 2 weeks, before changing and putting in new clones).

Cloner 1.
As I couldn't find any misters, nor any decent sprinklers, the first cloner was made with two rotating top sprinklers that took up a spot each, with the pipe system also taking up a spot. This meant only 12 spots were available to grow and two of these hardly got water enough. Another problem quickly appeared in that the sprinklers of this design will at times get stuck - really not a good system at all, though it might've worked, but we never did a test run, as the ez cloner sprayer heads had arrived, so then came Cloner 2...

Cloner 2.
This system is a copy of Stinkbuds cloner, using 1/2 inch blue rigid PVC pipe (cheaper than the black flexible 1/2 inch PVC pipe) with 4 corners, 3 T pieces, with very short pieces of straight pipe and of course the PVC glue/solvent.
This cloner needed about 10-12Ltr of water, but as the sprinklers and pipe wasn't quite high enough, some of the clones didn't get enough water and as such, developed much less root mass.
The pictures showing roots, are all pictures of plants from this cloner, after around 10 days and these have all been transplanted to one bubble bucket system.

Cloner 3.
A much improved version of cloner 2, with 10 sprinklers, which have been adjusted to cover the area much better. Furthermore it comes with two legs, adding a lot of stability and the pipe system is somewhat taller, getting much closer to the cuttings and thus giving them a lot more water. This means that the cloner can use up to15 Liter of water, up from 10-12Liter in the previous system (though it will work with 10-12 as well).


Any comments or questions are welcome, as this is my first cloners and I'm interested in seeing what people think or if they have suggestions to make them better...
Cloner1_001.jpg
 

Attachments

vostok

Well-Known Member
I was hoping for something that was original ...nope! ....still a pic of the measure of your suck cess would be nice...no?
 

AlcoholicO

Active Member
check mine out in my signature.... seems a bit easier....
FrozenChosen - nice little cloner, though for me it would be hard to re-create here, as I doubt we can get the dart things, except expensively online, but then you never know. The final two cloners above both works fine, EXCEPT that I've changed the water pumps to much smaller models, as the water reservoir got too hot - Styrofoam clearly isolates and so the water would reach temperatures well above 40 degree Celsius, which would slow root growth, though all clones have recovered so far. We have 100% success rate with these and when the water doesn't get to hot, we can replant within a week or if we want extra large roots, within 2 weeks. Only question for me is whether the spraying from underneath is better than a bubble bucket setup and I'm beginning to have my doubts...

Also I don't see how it's much easier - I'd say could build any one of them in less than 30 minutes and yours probably a bit faster, but then I end up with 15 spots for clones and they can put on heavier roots and still easily be transplanted (wider hole), with cup and neoprene insert, directly into another setup (we use a normal simple bubblebucket).

Still, if I find some of those dart things, I might give it a try :)

I was hoping for something that was original ...nope! ....still a pic of the measure of your suck cess would be nice...no?
vostock - you're right, I should post a picture of the exact progress after e.g. a week or 10 days. I'll try to make a comparison, with one bucket being a standard bubble bucket and the other the cloner you see above, but with a much smaller water pump in it, so as to not over heat. HOWEVER, please be patient . . .
 

FrozenChozen

Well-Known Member
@AlcoholicO
I updated it just for you with links for cheap darts and pictures after 10 days... Fyi, an amphibian tank fogger works better than both spraying and bubbles, but IMHO bubbles are the quicker easier route to clones. bubbles don't add heat and the only maintaining that needs to be done is a once a week water change:bigjoint:
I'll have to show how to clone with an old automatic coffee maker next!
 

AlcoholicO

Active Member
@AlcoholicO
I updated it just for you with links for cheap darts and pictures after 10 days... Fyi, an amphibian tank fogger works better than both spraying and bubbles, but IMHO bubbles are the quicker easier route to clones. bubbles don't add heat and the only maintaining that needs to be done is a once a week water change:bigjoint:
I'll have to show how to clone with an old automatic coffee maker next!
I have yet to encounter an Amphibian tank fogger, though we have a fair amount of Amphibians in the garden and house where we grow. I did find fogger's at the local hydro store, but haven't tried them yet - I wanted to add a fogger to my PVC cloner, but the pressure wasn't high enough...
I hear you on the once a week water change, however, since we're adding clonex cloning solution and superthrive to mineral water, we try to use the water a bit longer, to save money. Usually ten days to a couple of weeks - basically my mate will do 15 clones in a day or two, to fill up a cloner, which we then run for a week, adding water when necessary. After that, depending on how much root mass they have, we transplant them or let them root a bit longer.
Hmm - now I've got to get a fogger . . . No way around it. Must have...
 

FrozenChozen

Well-Known Member
I have yet to encounter an Amphibian tank fogger, though we have a fair amount of Amphibians in the garden and house where we grow. I did find fogger's at the local hydro store, but haven't tried them yet - I wanted to add a fogger to my PVC cloner, but the pressure wasn't high enough...
I hear you on the once a week water change, however, since we're adding clonex cloning solution and superthrive to mineral water, we try to use the water a bit longer, to save money. Usually ten days to a couple of weeks - basically my mate will do 15 clones in a day or two, to fill up a cloner, which we then run for a week, adding water when necessary. After that, depending on how much root mass they have, we transplant them or let them root a bit longer.
Hmm - now I've got to get a fogger . . . No way around it. Must have...
google ultra sonic frog fogger
http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-foggers-misters/11442-105478/hagen-exo-terra-exo-terra-fogger-ultrasonic-fog-generator.html?utm_source=googleproductads&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=COb9p_zqvb8CFQiDfgodFokAjQ
thats what you're looking for! 100% success, 4-6 days and they're ready to plant, no clonex, no superthrive, just tap water
 
Top