HELP! Clones in rockwool smell moldy and musty.

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candycolas

Member
I a newbie. This is my first grow. I was given some GDP clones from a friend 3 days ago. They were all in Grodan rockwool cubes and they are in a tray with a hood. I'm using Clonex clone solution. When I first received them, the cubes had so much water in them that when I squeezed the cubes, water came out. I wasn't sure if this was how they were supposed to be so I squeezed a little bit of water out of each one but for the most part, left them pretty water logged. I figured that the guy I got them from made them that way and since he's fairly seasoned, he must have done them that way on purpose.

I clipped the tips of each leaf, mixed my Clonex for foliar spay, misted the bottoms of each leaf, misted the inside of the hood and set the tray approximately 5 feet from my 400W MH light (not directly under but off to side). The temp has always been between 75 and 80 and my humidity has actually been off the chart. The digital hygrometer has been reading "--". I'm assuming that it just means that I'm at 100% since when I take the hood off, the reading will drop to the upper 90's and then start climbing when I put the hood back on.

The plants never wilted and they look great but each cube now smells like an old sponge that's been sitting in a sink for too long. Like I said, they still look great but the smell has me worried. I've now turned the halide light off and have put the clones under 2 18" floros. 1 is a 15w cool white and the other is a 15w warm white. I've cracked the hood open a bit to allow more air flow than just the vents on the top. Temp is now maintaining at 76 with humidity at 80%. I've also put a fan on it. I'm going to go buy a heat pad today.

Any suggestions/comments? Will they survive or should I toss them? They still look good but I don't want to have to deal with mold or fungus problems later on. Is there something that I can use to kill any mold or mildew?
 
C

candycolas

Member
communistcannabis said:
they need some air flow, take the hoods of periodically dailly and fan them keep a fan on them too, but watch humidity level
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I've got the hood cracked open a little to allow more airflow already and I have a fan pointed at the box too. Just did that last night after I smelled the funk. The guy at the hydro store told me that I need to keep the vents closed and that opening the hood 3 times a day to mist should be enough air. He also said that I should keep the hood vents on top closed until the cuttings actually have roots showing. Then open the vents to harden off. I keep getting conflicting suggestions here so I'm confused. You say to watch the humidity? What should the RH be then?
 
C

candycolas

Member
RandyRocket said:
did you soak the cubes for 24 hours before use?

My first clone look at post #8 and watch the videos (5 min each). they may or may not help.
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I actually go the cuttings from a friend of mine who got them from a friend of his. LOL... So I don't really know if he soaked them or not. I gave my buddy the rockwool and the prop tray and a few days later, I had clones. I'm going to take photos tonight and post them.

Last night I realized that most of the smell was coming from paper that was still stuck on the plastic covering around each cube. I have since removed the plastic and the cubes are sitting in the tray without the plastic around them anymore. I read somewhere that you must remove all paper from the rockwool plastic first. Apparently this guy didn't know that. Now that I've removed the paper and plastic, the smell isn't half as bad. I've also opened the hood a little by using chopsticks to let air flow thru. There are 2 that don't look so great. I mean they don't look terrible but the leaves are drooping a little. Other than that, the rest look great still. There is still a little musty smell left but not too bad. Oh yeah, I also mixed a teaspoon and half of h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide) to a cup of water and have been misting with that. Hoping that will help out too.

On my way home now and will post some pix when I get there.
 
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eman420

Member
stop the h2o2 dont do that with clones it will hurt them ive only used h2o2 in my res when i was feeding them its supposed to help with lerva in the root system didnt know if it really did help out the leaves drooping isnt bad they are fresh cuttings that happens cause its in shock right now mine do that also when i take clones at first some leaves will slowly brown and die also dont worry it happenes and not all yor clones will make it either that normal also i only have an 80-85% success rate which is good...i have never took off all the paper its glued on pretty good to the plastic but never had a problem with smell before but your cubes shouldnt be soaked crazy gushing water out when you handle them you should be able to squeez them and just a lil water should come out go to youtube and look up i grow chronic video of a green painted guy will show you the clone process..... just make sure the cubes arent soaked to much you dont want to drownd the slowly developing root system on your new cuttings....
 
mj320002

mj320002

Well-Known Member
You should never squeeze rock wool cubes. Sounds to me like you are not giving them enough air and they may not have enough air in the cubes. You should open the vents on the top of the hood and leave them that way at all times. If the plants begin to wilt then close them over a little.

Also don't foliar feed your clones. Maybe once when they are first cut but after that wait until they have roots. Misting shouldn't be necessary. Also don't take the plastic and paper off the outside of the cubes unless you are transplanting them into something else.

Next time you take clones all you have to do is soak the cube for about an hour in some 5.0 phed water. Then make a very weak nutrient mix and water the cubes then shake out the excess water until the cubes don't drip when turned on there corner. Cut the clones with a scalpel to avoid crushing the center, dip in cloning powder/gel and stick into the hole in the cube. Place them under the dome, on a heat mat, with the holes open with just a little light for 18 hours a day. No misting needed. You may need to water them and if you do then just dip the cubes or whatever then shake off the excess again. You should have roots in about a week with a 100% success rate.

Work with what you have and you should be able to keep them alive. Make sure not to squeeze them anymore and shake off any excess water. If they begin to wilt badly and you don;t see any roots you may need to recut the stems and reapply rooting hormone. If you do this I would recomend switching to some fresh cubes and doing what I said above.


eman420 said:
stop the h2o2 dont do that with clones it will hurt them ive only used h2o2 in my res when i was feeding them its supposed to help with lerva in the root system didnt know if it really did help out the leaves drooping isnt bad they are fresh cuttings that happens cause its in shock right now mine do that also when i take clones at first some leaves will slowly brown and die also dont worry it happenes and not all yor clones will make it either that normal also i only have an 80-85% success rate which is good...i have never took off all the paper its glued on pretty good to the plastic but never had a problem with smell before but your cubes shouldnt be soaked crazy gushing water out when you handle them you should be able to squeez them and just a lil water should come out go to youtube and look up i grow chronic video of a green painted guy will show you the clone process..... just make sure the cubes arent soaked to much you dont want to drownd the slowly developing root system on your new cuttings....
Click to expand...
 
StreetRider

StreetRider

Active Member
Great cutting directions. Also, if I may add soem of the beter cloning gels do seem worth the exra money. Useing Good stuff and almost exactly the same method I have had 20 out of 20 make it in my first 2 attempts.
 
superdave5

superdave5

Active Member
I bought some shultz root take (blows clonex out of the water IMO) and mist once daily. Ive also heard that cutting the fan leaves(in half not off) allows them to breathe better let me take a few pics be back shortly!
 
superdave5

superdave5

Active Member
camera battery is dead damnit (excuse the language) but like stated above brotha as long as you follow those guidlines you should be fine. I have a few seedlings and some clones going in a box. I had to throw out the first batch because I didnt follow those steps. The second batch I did and all is healthy and looking GREAT.
 
C

candycolas

Member
mj320002 said:
You should never squeeze rock wool cubes. Sounds to me like you are not giving them enough air and they may not have enough air in the cubes. You should open the vents on the top of the hood and leave them that way at all times. If the plants begin to wilt then close them over a little.

Also don't foliar feed your clones. Maybe once when they are first cut but after that wait until they have roots. Misting shouldn't be necessary. Also don't take the plastic and paper off the outside of the cubes unless you are transplanting them into something else.

Next time you take clones all you have to do is soak the cube for about an hour in some 5.0 phed water. Then make a very weak nutrient mix and water the cubes then shake out the excess water until the cubes don't drip when turned on there corner. Cut the clones with a scalpel to avoid crushing the center, dip in cloning powder/gel and stick into the hole in the cube. Place them under the dome, on a heat mat, with the holes open with just a little light for 18 hours a day. No misting needed. You may need to water them and if you do then just dip the cubes or whatever then shake off the excess again. You should have roots in about a week with a 100% success rate.

Work with what you have and you should be able to keep them alive. Make sure not to squeeze them anymore and shake off any excess water. If they begin to wilt badly and you don;t see any roots you may need to recut the stems and reapply rooting hormone. If you do this I would recomend switching to some fresh cubes and doing what I said above.
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Ahhhh...what's that you say? Don't squeeze my cubes???? Too late. DSC01837.JPGAs you can see from the pictures, they're pretty much squeezed to shit. Shortly after the strangling, I read the same thing you just said. It actually causes the rockwool to lose a lot of it's ability to retain air so that the roots can't breath. I actually read that some people pull the rockwool apart to let more air in. I think at this point the rock has been more man handled than Paris Hilton so I should probably just leave it be. I just hope that I can get at least one of these to make it through so that I can have a momma to take cutting from to practice. Like I said, I got these from a friend's friend so I have no idea how things were handled before I got my greezy hands on em. My buddy says that they look fine so maybe I'm just being paranoid??? Take a look at the pictures and judge for yourselves... I have 1 leaf that is starting to turn yellow. DSC01830.JPGThat's got me worried a little. Ever since I took the plastic off, the smell is gone for the most part. Still there a little but not bad at all. The cuttings actually have a good skunk smell to them up close. They are grand daddy purp's so they're gonna stink once they get to flowering.

Updates since my last post: I've put a 40w standard light bulb inside the cardboard box that I have the tray sitting on to warm the cubes up a bit. I've got a fan trained on the hood to keep air flowing past the opened vents on top but I've taken the chop sticks out and only am using the open holes up top for ventilation. DSC01828.JPGThis is also keeping the ambient temperature in the room and inside the propagation tray at around 75 degrees. Some people say to not foliar spray and some people think you should. I guess that's gonna be one of those ongoing debates so it seems like it up to personal preference. I have been using Clonex root solution (not the gel) with a 5ml per 1 liter mix to foliar mist the leaves and inside of the dome about 3 times per day. Should I stop doing that? The white box you see inside the tray is a wireless thermometer/hygrometer unit. DSC01829.JPGThe main unit I keep in my bedroom or on me when I'm walking around the house so that I can keep an eye on the temp and humidity inside the tray. The main unit tells me the temp and RH of the air around around the unit. It works great and was only $24 at Lowes Hardware. The wired unit I bought at the hydro store for $21 took a shit on me 3 days after I bought it. We'll see how this one stands up.

Thanks for all your help guys! Let me know what you think. I hope they look good to all of you cuz I'm anxious as hell about them. I guess I just need reassurance from a few veterans that it all looks good.

Thanks again!

Oh, and by the way... in case you all were wondering why I used the h2o2 for my cuttings, check this out http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/peroxide-garden.html If anyone else disagrees with this, please let me know. I've stopped using the diluted solution only because the smell is now gone for the most part but from what this says, h2o2 is very beneficial to propagation as well as all gardening in general.
 

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eman420

Member
when i said squeez i didnt mean very hard just enough to get the exess water out you dont want them to start roting the pics of your clones look fine everything you see so far is normal....
 
mj320002

mj320002

Well-Known Member
candycolas said:
Ahhhh...what's that you say? Don't squeeze my cubes???? Too late. View attachment 457163As you can see from the pictures, they're pretty much squeezed to shit. Shortly after the strangling, I read the same thing you just said. It actually causes the rockwool to lose a lot of it's ability to retain air so that the roots can't breath. I actually read that some people pull the rockwool apart to let more air in. I think at this point the rock has been more man handled than Paris Hilton so I should probably just leave it be. I just hope that I can get at least one of these to make it through so that I can have a momma to take cutting from to practice. Like I said, I got these from a friend's friend so I have no idea how things were handled before I got my greezy hands on em. My buddy says that they look fine so maybe I'm just being paranoid??? Take a look at the pictures and judge for yourselves... I have 1 leaf that is starting to turn yellow. View attachment 457156That's got me worried a little. Ever since I took the plastic off, the smell is gone for the most part. Still there a little but not bad at all. The cuttings actually have a good skunk smell to them up close. They are grand daddy purp's so they're gonna stink once they get to flowering.

Updates since my last post: I've put a 40w standard light bulb inside the cardboard box that I have the tray sitting on to warm the cubes up a bit. I've got a fan trained on the hood to keep air flowing past the opened vents on top but I've taken the chop sticks out and only am using the open holes up top for ventilation. View attachment 457154This is also keeping the ambient temperature in the room and inside the propagation tray at around 75 degrees. Some people say to not foliar spray and some people think you should. I guess that's gonna be one of those ongoing debates so it seems like it up to personal preference. I have been using Clonex root solution (not the gel) with a 5ml per 1 liter mix to foliar mist the leaves and inside of the dome about 3 times per day. Should I stop doing that? The white box you see inside the tray is a wireless thermometer/hygrometer unit. View attachment 457155The main unit I keep in my bedroom or on me when I'm walking around the house so that I can keep an eye on the temp and humidity inside the tray. The main unit tells me the temp and RH of the air around around the unit. It works great and was only $24 at Lowes Hardware. The wired unit I bought at the hydro store for $21 took a shit on me 3 days after I bought it. We'll see how this one stands up.

Thanks for all your help guys! Let me know what you think. I hope they look good to all of you cuz I'm anxious as hell about them. I guess I just need reassurance from a few veterans that it all looks good.

Thanks again!

Oh, and by the way... in case you all were wondering why I used the h2o2 for my cuttings, check this out http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/peroxide-garden.html If anyone else disagrees with this, please let me know. I've stopped using the diluted solution only because the smell is now gone for the most part but from what this says, h2o2 is very beneficial to propagation as well as all gardening in general.
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Your clones don't look too bad. Just make sure to let the rock wool dry out a bit so the roots have to grow to look for water. This is the reason why you shouldn't foliar feed a lot as well. If the plant gets everything it needs from the leaves it wont work as hard to grow roots. I'm not sure what clonex has in it exactly but if it's anything like most rooting mixes it's just some hormones and maybe a little b1. Spraying that on the plants probably isn't helping them really since the hormone will only work in the actual root zone. Basically misting the plant isn't going to hurt them but it will slow down root development. The goal is to have them teatering on the edge of drying out. If you go to far they wilt and die. If you have it just right they should have roots in 7 days or less. If you baby them to much then they won't grow roots as quick because they get everything they need through the leaves.
 
C

candycolas

Member
So the yellowing leaves are okay? This morning I noticed that there are more leaves turning yellow. The cuttings didn't look so good this morning at all. I told you all that I had put a 40w bulb inside the cardboard box under the tray to warm up the cubes. Well the cubes were pretty dry so I sprayed my distilled water clonex mix into the bottom of them. Then I shook each one until no more water came out. I then turned off the bulb inside the box, switched on my 400W mh and kept the cuttings under the shelf that I have the fluorescent lights attached to. That way they are getting shaded light from the 400. They have perked back up so we'll see.
 
C

candycolas

Member
mj320002 said:
Your clones don't look too bad. Just make sure to let the rock wool dry out a bit so the roots have to grow to look for water. This is the reason why you shouldn't foliar feed a lot as well. If the plant gets everything it needs from the leaves it wont work as hard to grow roots. I'm not sure what clonex has in it exactly but if it's anything like most rooting mixes it's just some hormones and maybe a little b1. Spraying that on the plants probably isn't helping them really since the hormone will only work in the actual root zone. Basically misting the plant isn't going to hurt them but it will slow down root development. The goal is to have them teatering on the edge of drying out. If you go to far they wilt and die. If you have it just right they should have roots in 7 days or less. If you baby them to much then they won't grow roots as quick because they get everything they need through the leaves.
Click to expand...
Okay so that makes sense. So seeing them wilting this morning was a good thing? Should I not have watered them? The cubes still had a little moisture to them but the plants looked pretty sickly. How do I know when they've gone too far? Should the cubes be completely dry? When I water them, I only do it from the bottom so like you said the roots have to search out the water.

Your thoughts?
 
mj320002

mj320002

Well-Known Member
Yeah try not to let the clones dry out completely. Water them with some actual nutes. They are probably yellowing from nute deficiencies. Keep the cubes moist and water the bottom like you are doing they should be fine. Stop with the clonex misting though. If you're going to mist use plain water.


candycolas said:
Okay so that makes sense. So seeing them wilting this morning was a good thing? Should I not have watered them? The cubes still had a little moisture to them but the plants looked pretty sickly. How do I know when they've gone too far? Should the cubes be completely dry? When I water them, I only do it from the bottom so like you said the roots have to search out the water.

Your thoughts?
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RandyRocket

RandyRocket

Well-Known Member
i looked at the pictures and they smell ok too me.

MrsRocket said that as she recalls our clones had a musty smell.
 
C

candycolas

Member
So I've got more yellow leaves now. I'm using the Clonex Root Solution to water them. Should I be cutting these leaves off or should I "leaf" them alone?
 
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