AeroCloning Problem!?!

here's something that seemed to make an immediate effect on the overall health of my clones...

if you are using a gel for cloning, take a solo cup or a glass jar and put about 2-3 inches of water in the cup. put about 5 to 7 drops of the cloning gel in the water and stir it up real well till the water takes on the color tinge of the gel. then take your cuts off the plant, make your 45 degree cut (or even split the bottom inch of the stem in half after you make the 45 degree cut). place cuts in the diluted gel water for 24 hours (so just the bottom 2-3 inches of the stem are in the water). then place the cuts in your cloner after 24 hrs has passed! i generally do not keep my cloner directly under a light (250 MH veg) so the fringe is fine. i also will snip off a few leaf ends off to help the cutting slow down transpiration and prevent any wilting from happening. I get 100% every time with these methods in just tap water. if you want to go crazy, get a product meant to go in the cloner water and Ph to 5.0-5.5 once they start to look like they're showing roots. I go from cloner to soil in about 7 days typically.

ShLUbY said:

here's something that seemed to make an immediate effect on the overall health of my clones...

if you are using a gel for cloning, take a solo cup or a glass jar and put about 2-3 inches of water in the cup. put about 5 to 7 drops of the cloning gel in the water and stir it up real well till the water takes on the color tinge of the gel. then take your cuts off the plant, make your 45 degree cut (or even split the bottom inch of the stem in half after you make the 45 degree cut). place cuts in the diluted gel water for 24 hours (so just the bottom 2-3 inches of the stem are in the water). then place the cuts in your cloner after 24 hrs has passed! i generally do not keep my cloner directly under a light (250 MH veg) so the fringe is fine. i also will snip off a few leaf ends off to help the cutting slow down transpiration and prevent any wilting from happening. I get 100% every time with these methods in just tap water. if you want to go crazy, get a product meant to go in the cloner water and Ph to 5.0-5.5 once they start to look like they're showing roots. I go from cloner to soil in about 7 days typically.

Click to expand...

Awesome thanks so much brother! Huge help! I'm going to try that Exactly. What are your temps like? How should I lower pH ACV?

cannakis said:

So you run your cloner in close to 100 degree and they clone good?! I still can't get these bastards, though my HVAC is fixed my portable AC is Not it broke Right when my HVAC got fixed of course! So the temps got above 90-100 and they wilted after two days... What Exactly do you do?!

Click to expand...

yes, see post 12. that's my technique.
If you can call it that, it's simple, and yes it's been over 100 on numerous occasions

cannakis said:

Awesome thanks so much brother! Huge help! I'm going to try that Exactly. What are your temps like? How should I lower pH ACV?

Click to expand...

I don't monitor temperature of the water with anything. If it feels too warm i toss a few ice cubes into it to cool it down. I also point a small fan at the bucket on the floor to help keep the unit cooler.

I use RO for my cloner, so adding something to the water feeds them a little something and helps prevent shock to the girls from going deficient in major nutrients while in the cloner. I use earth juice ph down/up when i have to use ph adjuster. but honestly if you just use tap water in the cloner it will be fine and you will get 100% every time as long as you soak them in the gel/h2o solution for 24 hrs. Keep the cloner off to the side of the light to slow transpiration as well.

Do you get the brown slime? I got a water chiller and still didnt fix it. I am using rooting cubes now.
If you cant clone right now, you might want to try it until your cloner works for you. It really, really sucks when you cant clone!

The only way I've prevented fresh cuttings from wilting is with very high RH either by misting often with a spray bottle or a dome.

In my world doesn't matter if its an aero cloner or 16 oz cups of vermiculite.

A~~~

MustangStudFarm said:

Do you get the brown slime? I got a water chiller and still didnt fix it. I am using rooting cubes now.
If you cant clone right now, you might want to try it until your cloner works for you. It really, really sucks when you cant clone!

Click to expand...

this is why the use of city tap water is a good choice because the chlorine/chloramine keeps stuff like that from happening.

ShLUbY said:

this is why the use of city tap water is a good choice because the chlorine/chloramine keeps stuff like that from happening.

Click to expand...

I used tap water, then 3 days later I would get the slime. I started mixing pool shock and using it and would have to add at day 3 or 4. I got a water chiller and I think it gets the water too cold?? A pack of root cubes and I am cloning again.
Technology and gardening just has not worked for me.? I wish it had because I spent a lot of money on it. I almost want to dig up my old cloning threads, bad times lol. I spent over $500 in a cloner and chiller and I feel very stupid about it. After 6 months of fooling with the clone machine, I got rockwool. I was getting better results from my rockwool.
I am not knocking aero cloning because I want to pull mine out again one day. I could have been making a minor mistake? Having the ability to clone is more important than how you do it!

MustangStudFarm said:

I used tap water, then 3 days later I would get the slime. I started mixing pool shock and using it and would have to add at day 3 or 4. I got a water chiller and I think it gets the water too cold?? A pack of root cubes and I am cloning again.
Technology and gardening just has not worked for me.? I wish it had because I spent a lot of money on it. I almost want to dig up my old cloning threads, bad times lol. I spent over $500 in a cloner and chiller and I feel very stupid about it. After 6 months of fooling with the clone machine, I got rockwool. I was getting better results from my rockwool.
I am not knocking aero cloning because I want to pull mine out again one day. I could have been making a minor mistake? Having the ability to clone is more important than how you do it!

Click to expand...

You are right about that, the ability to clone is far more important! I went the cheap route and it worked for me, DIY 5gal bucket 6site (could have been more sites easily). my chiller is a fan and some ice cubes when necessary lol. I may end up going back to the peat pods and cloning with aloe instead of a cloning solution. for now, i spent the 20$ on the gel; i might as well use it (lol for the next year at 5 drops per strain cloned this shit is quite economical this way instead of the straight dip the stalk in it method). i have been lucky in my adventure with aero cloning. It has been working great for me (pods worked too but the aero is so much less maintenance). I'm going to try and use aloe to clone with it as well with the same method, 24 hour soak and then just stick em in the aero cloner and let it do the work. I'll probably do a side by side and see which clones seem to have the least stress in the end. I also like how the aero cloner give you more of a stalk to get roots on, which makes you plant them deeper and I find they are very sturdy in the pots once established. remember to take the wrapper off of the peat pod if it has one on there; very restrictive to root growth, especially later in the grow.