Rooted Clones - In a bad way!

Hey all,

Hoping for some help figuring where i went wrong cloning.

Took 7 cuts on a 45 close to the base of the plant straight into roomtemp tap water. Used a sterile new razor for each cut. Also sterilized the cutting board w alcohol prior to starting. Then took the lower fan leaves off and trimmed the top fan leaves in half and recut the 45 at the internode i wanted.

Dipped in rootex covering the lowest fan leaf removal points and planted into 1inch rockwool cubes that were soaked overnight in ph 5.5 then "flung" dry. Placed these into a closed humidity dome w a 1inch layer perlight at the bottom under 2x18w cfls.

2 weeks later misting twice daily, then once daily and slowly opeing up the humidity dome they were all looking pretty poor.

Plucked 2, both no roots, gave them another few days then transplanted them into the grow system as a last ditch effort.

Any suggestions what to try next time for better results would be great. Pics are them in the grow system yesterday

My computer is acting up, so I'm going off only your written description right now, and about 15% of the top of one of your pictures..

I think I had a similar issue when I first tried cloning, a couple pointers you can try...
- The first clone in the top pic, it looks like it has a little bit of foliage, try taking a clone with maybe a little bit more leaf
- When you cut the tips off, don't cut the entire 50%, that's a little overkill imo.
- They need those leafs for nutrients, so they can grow roots (so cut off less)

- Personally, I don't soak my RW cubes that long at all. The PH of the pre-soak water is good. (5.5PH)
- The top pic, that seedlings leaves went yellow and she's not looking good, poor girl looks hungry! If you can get a mild nutrient formula, or something like Rapid Start (or something equivalent) it may help your success rate ....(reason, see third point)
- You don't need a new razor blade for each cut (if I read that correctly), one new razor blade for the entire session should be fine

Do you know the humidity level inside the humidity dome?
I have never heard of putting perlite under the RW cubes.
A heat mat may help success rate, as well as increase humidity a little more in there (if it's needed?)

18/6 and weak bloom nute mist is your friend. Running 10/10 100% rates atm.

Don't mist daily either, got a dome for that.

Edited
Heat mat and dome are preferred methods. That pix of your setup looks wrong for cloning.

Stop mutilating the leaf as well. What's the point?( I know what you read)

Any cutting implement will work as long as it's sterilize ie h202, iso or flame etc.

Thanks for the pointers guys. Will get another hygrometer for my humidity dome so i can monitor more accurately. Ive always misted the dome itself not the plants and was told the perlite under would help ensure the rw doesnt over saturate from any condensation running to the base of the dome. Also will make sure to have some more leaf area on the next batch.

Id read that the yellowing leaves was a sign of them starting to take root so when it started i let them go a few days and they just went to shit. Thats when i plucked 2 and saw nothing.

The pics are of them in my hydro vege system which was just a last ditch effort to see some improvement.

Is there a benefit to running 18/6 as opposed to 24/0 other than the energy saving?

JohnnyCypher said:

Thanks for the pointers guys. Will get another hygrometer for my humidity dome so i can monitor more accurately. Ive always misted the dome itself not the plants and was told the perlite under would help ensure the rw doesnt over saturate from any condensation running to the base of the dome. Also will make sure to have some more leaf area on the next batch.

Id read that the yellowing leaves was a sign of them starting to take root so when it started i let them go a few days and they just went to shit. Thats when i plucked 2 and saw nothing.

The pics are of them in my hydro vege system which was just a last ditch effort to see some improvement.

Is there a benefit to running 18/6 as opposed to 24/0 other than the energy saving?

Click to expand...

Roots grow in the dark period bro. When I first tried 24/0 rates were 0/10 ~0%

JohnnyCypher said:

Also will make sure to have some more leaf area on the next batch.

Click to expand...

I have cloned sticks with 1 leaf on it.

So its seems after giving up on the little bastards and leaving them to die in the vege system 4/5 transplanted came good. Had to dig about 4 inches into the perlite to pull the root ball from the one that i moved pots. Going slow but alive. Will be doing the next batch in about a week and will take larger, more foliated cuttings. I think i will also add some weak nutes after the first week and a half as that seemed to get them going this time. Hopefully have more luck with the next lot!

JohnnyCypher said:

So its seems after giving up on the little bastards and leaving them to die in the vege system 4/5 transplanted came good. Had to dig about 4 inches into the perlite to pull the root ball from the one that i moved pots. Going slow but alive. Will be doing the next batch in about a week and will take larger, more foliated cuttings. I think i will also add some weak nutes after the first week and a half as that seemed to get them going this time. Hopefully have more luck with the next lot!
View attachment 4100108 View attachment 4100109 View attachment 4100111 View attachment 4100113

Click to expand...

See, told ya they just needed a little juice to help root development. Same as turf or any other plant. Good work.

JohnnyCypher said:

Hey all,

Hoping for some help figuring where i went wrong cloning.

Took 7 cuts on a 45 close to the base of the plant straight into roomtemp tap water. Used a sterile new razor for each cut. Also sterilized the cutting board w alcohol prior to starting. Then took the lower fan leaves off and trimmed the top fan leaves in half and recut the 45 at the internode i wanted.

Dipped in rootex covering the lowest fan leaf removal points and planted into 1inch rockwool cubes that were soaked overnight in ph 5.5 then "flung" dry. Placed these into a closed humidity dome w a 1inch layer perlight at the bottom under 2x18w cfls.

2 weeks later misting twice daily, then once daily and slowly opeing up the humidity dome they were all looking pretty poor.

Plucked 2, both no roots, gave them another few days then transplanted them into the grow system as a last ditch effort.

Any suggestions what to try next time for better results would be great. Pics are them in the grow system yesterdayView attachment 4096321View attachment 4096322

Click to expand...

Weak mother plant. Cubes too wet ,too dry. Soak cubes in nuted water to 5.5ph and 300ppm {clonex}. Too hot or too cold cubes. Just mist the plants and dome the first two days then just the dome, crack vents on day four and keep cracking till fully open by day seven remove dome if looking good on day ten. Break off a little piece of cube and stuff in the hole around the stem to get a good contact of the cube to the stem.


Watch this video. Just dont expect yourself to get roots in five days. And that vita grow is hot shit dont use that unless you have some serious skills https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=momma+j+clones+

I must be the laziest cloner in the world! I take a fresh blade and cut my clones off and drop them into a glass of water. Look up DIY 5 gallon bucket cloner. I fill my bucket with 3 gallons of water and 30 ml of clonex (which you don't need). A small aquarium heater keeps the temp at 78 degrees. I put each clone in it's neoprene sleeve and turn the cloner on. You don't even have to check them for a week. 100 % success rate in two weeks.

Coloradoclear said:

I must be the laziest cloner in the world! I take a fresh blade and cut my clones off and drop them into a glass of water. Look up DIY 5 gallon bucket cloner. I fill my bucket with 3 gallons of water and 30 ml of clonex (which you don't need). A small aquarium heater keeps the temp at 78 degrees. I put each clone in it's neoprene sleeve and turn the cloner on. You don't even have to check them for a week. 100 % success rate in two weeks.

Click to expand...

I got two cloners and hate Both of them at this point. I get better rates with simple clone method. 2 weeks and I can make 3 passes on the mother and be rooted on all of them.

Glad you are having success with that.

Cx2H said:

I got two cloners and hate Both of them at this point. I get better rates with simple clone method. 2 weeks and I can make 3 passes on the mother and be rooted on all of them.

Glad you are having success with that.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you have an awesome method in place. Send me PM on which cloners you had been using, just curious so I don't steer anyone toward them.