Rooting hormone question

I've read on this site and in a few other places about people using nothing but natural honey for rooting their clones. Is there any truth to this? I can't afford a decent rooting gel (the three hydro shops around here sell gel for upwards of $40.00 US per container). I'm using a powdered rooting hormone, and while it has worked wonders with my vegetable garden, it doesn't seem to work all that well with ganja. In fact, out of ten clones only two have rooted. Can anyone see any reason, assuming the honey thing works, why mixing the powder with honey to make my own cloning gel wouldn't work?

No offence, but maybe you just suck at cloning? I have yet to do a clone with powderized rooting hormone, so I don't know.

solid shadow said:

I've read on this site and in a few other places about people using nothing but natural honey for rooting their clones. Is there any truth to this? I can't afford a decent rooting gel (the three hydro shops around here sell gel for upwards of $40.00 US per container). I'm using a powdered rooting hormone, and while it has worked wonders with my vegetable garden, it doesn't seem to work all that well with ganja. In fact, out of ten clones only two have rooted. Can anyone see any reason, assuming the honey thing works, why mixing the powder with honey to make my own cloning gel wouldn't work?

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check again the cloning FAQs and cloning threads in general and get some fresh powder. i use it all the time never lead me down so you doing something wrong there with your clones

You could also have the wrong kind of rooting hormone, theres ones for hard-wood and soft-wood I think? And I think marijuana is a soft-wood? So maybe you got the hard-wood stuff.

W33D said:

No offence, but maybe you just suck at cloning? I have yet to do a clone with powderized rooting hormone, so I don't know.

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No offence but if you haven't cloned with powder then why reply to my post, especially with a remark like 'maybe you suck at cloning'? As I mentioned, I've had great success cloning other plants and vegetables; I'm having trouble with this strain of cannabis. If you can't add something helpful to the discussion, move on.

i use the powder and a method i saw on youyube, check it out YouTube - Stoned Free 'Cloning'

Awsome! Thank you for that. The method of scarification used in that video is one I hadn't seen before... gonna give it a try tonight. Oddly enough, that's one of the only Stoned Free vids I hadn't seen up until now.

i use rootone, and a very complex and difficult cutting technique...

clip, snip, dip, and place in medium; no soaking, no underwater cuts, just cut, snip the nodes, dip, put in dirt or rw or a bubbler or or or....

cloning is simple. over complication results in failure, imo.

kp

$5 for WILSON ROOT'S Liquid Root Stimulater From Walmart.{Green Goo}
It is all I use....

Just got back from Wally... they don't carry Wilson's here, nor do they carry any sort of liquid or gel cloning solution. Just Shultz's powder. So I've decided to try an EXPERIMENT (No! the crowd shouts, Surely Not An Experiment!)

I've just taken four slips from my mother plant, trimmed and scarified them properly. I've taken about a tablespoon of honey and an equal amount of rooting hormone powder. Why these particular measurements? Not a fucking clue. Like I said, it's an experiment. Anyway, I wiped out the inside of a disposeable plastic drinking cup with some rubbing alcohol and a paper towel, put the honey and powder inside, and mixed it with a plastic coffee stirrer which was also sterilized. I want as little chance as possible of any bacteria getting into the mix, as this will be a great medium for it to grow in.

I coated my stems in the goo and placed them into small rockwool cubes which I soaked in PH'd water. They're now sitting in a humidity dome... waiting. I'll post updates every so often.

when you close the dome take like 10 deep breaths into it... it fills the dome with carbon dioxide...and thats what plants breathe

Okay, so I've discovered something important: Rooting powder + honey + rockwool + cannabis + humidity dome = sagging plants, stem rot, and a big fucking ball of white moldy shit.

The cubes themselves seemed okay, until I tore one open and found that the entire portion of stem within the cube had already rotted away. The liquid runoff from the cubes had collected in the bottom of the tray, congealed, and started growing lots of white, fluffy mold. Fortunately this was just an experiment and I didn't lose much in the way of plants, cubes, etc. Good learning experience overall.

Plants can't eat sugars and the antimicrobial benefits of honey are blown way out of proportion by National Enquirer/wives' tale quality research. Bacteria and fungi (the white fuzzy stuff) rather like honey, molasses, etc. but your plants aren't likely to think much of them.

Rooting powders work better than gels in many applications, particularly in rockwool cubes.

I recently posted a photoessay on cloning in rockwool. Mimic my conditions and you will have clones with roots in 7 days, too. The most critical factor in cloning is getting the watering right.

primeralives said:

when you close the dome take like 10 deep breaths into it... it fills the dome with carbon dioxide...and thats what plants breathe

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Well, nice thought, but CO2 is only a small part of the air you exhale. Humans also exhale virii & bacteria. You'd not want your waiter coughing on your dinner, would you?

I'd try and follow Al. b fucts method,

If using rockwool the problem could stem from the rockwool cubes being to wet, this is likely to be happening because i noticed you said you made 10 cuttings, the guy who taught me to clone said that it is important to fill the propagator as this reduces the airflow and the rockwool cubes stay moist for longer.

Presoak the rockwool in 5.5ph'd water and then before you put the cutting in squeeze most of the water out so it feels quite light and fill the propagator the cubes should stay moist for 3 days, if the cube is too wet you will suffocated the potential roots and stop it from taking.

ngt, I'm with you til you get here:

nongreenthumb said:

before you put the cutting in squeeze most of the water out

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Squeezing rockwool crushes the material and collapses the airspaces. A squeezed cube will almost always remain too wet.

Drain your cubes with a cheapo salad spinner from the dollar shop or vigorously shake the cube with a snap of the wrist over a bucket, while gently holding the cube to avoid squishing it.

Al B. Fuct said:

ngt, I'm with you til you get here:



Squeezing rockwool crushes the material and collapses the airspaces. A squeezed cube will almost always remain too wet.

Drain your cubes with a cheapo salad spinner from the dollar shop or vigorously shake the cube with a snap of the wrist over a bucket, while gently holding the cube to avoid squishing it.

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that was just the way i was shown, and its the way i have had success with so far, but next time around i will try different methods to reduce the moisture in the cubes and see how i get on

also when i feed them i dont want to damage the roots that are forming so i just normally dip the bottom 3rd in ph'd water and then let the rest act as a wick

nongreenthumb said:

i just normally dip the bottom 3rd in ph'd water and then let the rest act as a wick

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Yep, same here. That's a good way to water cubes- that I omitted from my recent photoessay, but have mentioned it before:



This photo, depicting only dipping a corner of the cube, was taken before I put the thermostat in my clonebox. It now runs consistently a little bit warmer, so evaporation is faster. I now water by doing what you do, just dipping the lower 1/3 of the cube for a couple of seconds.

Getting watering right by the feel of weight of the cube takes a lot of practise. If in doubt, one can weigh the cubes. A 40mm cube weighs 5g dry, 25-30g when damp. Heavier is too wet.

I do have to mention that if you use a salad spinner, keep in mind that they are VERY effective at draining cubes. They can drain a cube until it's too dry!

I use the spinner to remove pre-soak water before giving the cubes each about 25ml of a clone watering solution.

One quick question! Alright, call me paranoid, but I have to ask.... Rooting powders come with a strong warning about not letting it touch the skin.....after putting the powders in the rockwool and then touching the water and crazy things I've done like fixing my water pump when it was full of run off of freshly powdered clones, this kind of thing worries me about possible health risk. Anyone else worry about that kind of stuff? I also have a weird taste in my mouth, I keep thinking it is from the rooting hormone. I bleach my rockwool if I reuse it, does bleach kill hormones?