Jozikins
Well-Known Member
It's happened to me too many times before, lol, now if my RIU goes 30 minutes without an update I get off the comp.Coco pH was neutral prior to starting. I used distilled water when mixing the Olivia's solution so that no other trace elements were in the water. The pH dropped to 6.6-6.7 it was a bouncing read. but still within where I need it. everything is setup on the table that my plants are on prior to making any cuts. I use a clean razor blade for each plant to insure no contamination. I know I have been going about this a little more carefully than I should but I am not "babying" them and causing the damp-off. I take my cut about 4" to 4.5" from the tip of the shoot, at a 45 degree angle. Quick and clean... And, besides last night, I place the cutting into Olivia's solution and move on to the next cut. Once I have my cuts together, one by one I take them out and immediately smother the tip in Clonex rooting gel. Once I know I have covered the entire "root zone" I snip leaves and plant into premade holes, pressing from the corner down to connect coco with the bottom of the stem and then fill in around it. Before last night I was leaving a lot more leaf in the cuts. The new Blue Dream cuts are as you say "Perfect" and less than my normal leaf amount. So I am hoping for a good success rate here.thanks again for the input. more to come from me. and soon the questions of proper cure will come from me. AutoAK is 6 days out. and now it's 5am again and I gotta get to bed before the sun wakes me up. GOTTA LOVE GETTING STONED AND ZONING OUT TO THE RIU COMMUNITY
Try going for 4-5" cuts. bigger cuts are bigger, just not big old tops. That is not to say that you cannot clone tops, I've done it and they make pretty bad ass clones. Tops just take a long time to root, but they are trees from the get go. Last round of clones I did, all 9/13 clones were tops taken from small vegging plants or seedlings themselves, I just cut them in half and rooted them. It is all working out great actually, especially when you want to slow down growth, sometimes I just have too much going on at once.
Anyways, I'm babbling, stoned off my gourd on wax, and need to take off for school in about 15 minutes here. Gotta get your education! So anyways, pH balance your coco, this is very difficult to do with distilled water, although it is nice and gentle to work with! I stopped using Three Stage R/O and started using a more efficient Two-Stage water purifier because it comes out at about 130ppm and it's dechlorinated. What you can do, and I do sometimes when I'm in a bind, is boil up a pot of tap water to dechlorinate (I don't have the patience to let totes of water evap in the sun) and add that to cold distilled. Try to settle your water temp between 64-68 degrees.
water pH 5.7-5.8 better to be lower with clones, since sometimes you'll need to add plain water when they are dry and need moisture immediately. If they go dry, and you don't have water already pH'd handy, it's much better to just throw any sort of water in there to keep em moist. If roots touch a dry surface they loose their hairs and begin getting ropy and stretch out in search of moisture.
Do not buy in so much to all the importance of the different hormones. 1) You do not need any hormones. 2) If you get the hormone above the surface of the cube it can actually cause issues. 3) That being said, if you use hormone properly it's a huge advantage. If you are going to use a heat mat, it's best to just use plain ph'd water and a simple rooting hormone gel or powder on just the rooting zone. I might use a clonex or olivia solution once during the cloning period just to keep them green. I like clonex solution is because it's basically just an extra light fertilizer, no life in it I believe. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's best in moderation. Also, the debate of gel vs powder, whatever, I've had success no matter which one I'm using, they both just have a specific way of being used. Until my friend told me you have to dip your clone in water before putting it in the powder (duh!) I would have never had success with it.
Reduce the size of the holes you are poking. Just like when you are predrilling, you want to use a smaller drill bit than the shank of your screw. Don't push in too hard (that's what she said!), sometimes people mistake the feeling of contact with the stem pinching. That is a guaranteed dampened stem! I did this a few times in the beginning and was like WTF is wrong?? Found out I was mashing them in the cubes with my cave man hands. And if that Coco stuff isn't working out for you, dump it! Grab rockwool starter cubes, tried and proven!
And this is the absolute most important part!!!! Cut the clone a little extra long, and then immediately fold up the larger leaves and cut them in half, or more if they are big. Then get it right next to your water (if using powder) or next to your gel and cut it AGAIN with a BRAND NEW SHARP RAZOR (just as important as clean!) on a flat surface, so it's the cleanest fucking cut you've ever seen. 45 degree angle, only a 1/4 inch above where you cut originally, no need for anymore. Then dip that shit at the speed of light and make sure it's covered good, BUT NOT SO MUCH THAT IT GLOBS UP ABOVE THE SURFACE, because that can rot your shit! Pop it in your cube quickly and you are done. It should be like a 3 second deal, you don't want any oxygen getting up in that stem, whever o2 hits the xylem, you're fudged. Fucking A, I don't have time to check my vocab on that one, but I'm pretty sure I got that shit right.
I'll have to read over this and edit later, probably doesn't flow. good luck!!
Fucking A I got to get to school!!
