My New Bubble Cloner

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

shit forgot the photo

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.

northerntights said:

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

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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.

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

northerntights said:

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

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

Oh and I think I may have jammed in the cutting too hard, the ends were dammaged and as a result, necrosis.

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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.

So far over the past few hours my bubbler seems to actually be working! BUT. rockwool is far easyer and more stable so yeh

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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.

Incidentally, you can water the cubes much more precisely than dipping by using a big syringe. Should be 20-25ml of pH 5.5 water per cube, each 24hrs while on a heatmat.

The cubes should presoak in pH 5.0 to counter the initial alkalinity of the cubes, but once you have the cuts in the cubes, aim for 5.5-5.8.

well actually it's not aero, it's DWC, aero has too many variables so I thought what the hell, raise the water level and just have them sit in bubbling water. It's the oldest rooting method known to man with the added benefit of a bubbler. So far so good, the tissue at the cut looks healthy. I did add Fulvic acid, H202 and one drop of superthrive just in case. The nice thing about the fulvic acid is it has a very low PK value with no nitrogen and it's almost imposable to overdose any plant so I thought, what the hell. I also let the clones soak in rooting gel for 20 min (as was suggested to me) before moving them to the bubbler. But seriously, thanks for the help with the rockwool, I could never tell when it was moist enough, you rock

oh and whats your preferred rooting gel/powder?

Well, Clonex is an Aussy product, so I imagine that he is patriotic.

And I use it too.

northerntights said:

oh and whats your preferred rooting gel/powder?

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Well, Clonex is an Aussy product, so I imagine that he is patriotic.

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well... I actually prefer traditional rooting powder- in rockwool, anyway. Powder forms a paste which stays put better in rockwool than gels through several waterings. Any rooting powder with ~8% butyric acid will do. I use the Rootex-P brand.

Soaking stems in plain Clonex gel for a while may or may not be helping. The stem might be picking some up, might not, hard to say. Any gel on the outside of the stem is sure to be rinsed off quickly in a DWC or aerocloner, so soaking for a while is probably the only way to get any butyric acid in the stem for those applications.

Gel has the downside of being able to support pathogen growth between passes of cuttings. Once gel has had stems dipped in it, it should not be used for another pass of cuts. Portion out a small amt of gel into a small separate container or jug cap for dipping and keep the rest of the uncontaminated gel in its container in the fridge. Discard any excess which has been used for dipping or soaking.

northerntights said:

well actually it's not aero, it's DWC, aero has too many variables so I thought what the hell, raise the water level and just have them sit in bubbling water.

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To be deadly honest, cannabis doesn't water clone very well, certainly not as easily as other herbs like basil and peppermint. Cannabis will water clone in a drinking glass on the windowsill if you change out the water with clean, freshly oxygenated water every day- but it is slow if there's light exposure on the rootzone.

I would think that bubbling air through the water and sterilising it with H2O2 would give the same effect as changing the water and cleaning the container.

However, I think that dangling stems a couple of inches above the surface of the water, in a water mist produced by an airstone- not touching the water surface- would perform better. There's more oxygen in a water mist than you can dissolve in the water itself- and it's oxygen that will make those roots pop fast.

northerntights said:

But seriously, thanks for the help with the rockwool, I could never tell when it was moist enough, you rock

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heh, no worries, hope those few little tweaks will get things going better for you in RW cubes if the DWC thing doesn't work well.

yeh but I'm already seeing evidence of primordia forming on the stem! WOOT it may actually work! WOOOT!

hey, does anyone wanna show me around this forum and give me someone to talk too?

i'm an noobie and organic grower

herbalist420 said:

hey, does anyone wanna show me around this forum and give me someone to talk too?

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When joining a community, you're smart to go do some independent reading and get on to the same page as everyone else- certainly before posting a lot.

Welcome aboard, nonetheless!