Scratch and paste cloning

Yesdog

Well-Known Member
I've been playing around with a new method of cloning that (at least for me) has had a 100% success rate so far (1 exception, this cut of rosemary i tried to clone from a sick plant, this might also not work with woody plants). I've had a high fail rate with other methods i was trying, so I don't really have much to compare it against, but maybe if somebody feels bold and has had success other ways, would be curious to see a comparison.

I'm writing this now, because I just had a cutting root that was.... totally unexpected. It was from a harvested plant, that was flushed, and has been at a super reduced 50% light cycle the last few days. The cutting sat in my basket with the rest of the plant for maybe... 10 minutes before i even touched it. I cleaned it up, prepared it this way, and it rooted within 24-36 hours. So I would be really interested if somebody (that normally has success cloning) wanted to do a side-by-side.



Anyways, this is basically all I did:

Environment- 5 gal bucket with air stones, 1.5" net pot sites on top for pots, or neoprene collars. Basic low-quality DIY bubble cloner. 24hrs of constant 30w 4R:1B LED light. Tap water (pH'd) and RapidStart.

Cutting- I've done it all sorts of ways and its worked. I got a bud to root that was just a bud and sugar leaves, no fan leaves. I've cut through a node, below a node, or just wherever. I like cutting through the nodes because it holds more of the 'paste' im going to describe, makes like a little shelf. I actually don't think I've particularly seen roots come out of the node more than anywhere else tho. I've left on various amounts of fan leaves, the plant seems to wilt more with more fan leaves, and after it recovers it seems to want to lose some of them anyways. So I'll just also kinda trim leaves as I go depending on how they look.

Now the scratch and paste part.

I'm using an insoluble rooting hormone that I bought on accident. I basically came up with this just experimenting with how to use the rooting hormone. The insoluble powder seems to only be for dirt- I'm guessing so it's more likely to stay stuck to the cutting when you water it in. On it's own I either couldn't get enough to stay on there, or I got enough on there that it didn't really wash off easily, and when it did big chunks just sorta fell off. So it either washed off, or it stayed super stuck to the cutting and the cutting dried out eventually and went all wet noodle. I'm honestly not sure how that powder is really supposed to work with dirt, maybe it normally just packs with the dirt when you plant it.

After a while I decided to try and use Great White. I read some post somewhere where they emailed the Great White people (too lazy to look it up) and they recommended putting it on fresh cuttings before putting it into RW or whatever media so the fungus is with the roots immediately, and the other stuff helps protect from rot. I tried this with rockwool plugs (also in that same bubble cloner) and it worked great. They werent like, exploding, and the roots looked like they were struggling with the RW.

So I tried a few cuttings without the RW, just straight into the collars, and tried mixing the rooting powder and the great white. When the dry mix got wet this time, it was much much more like a gooey paste, actually felt like it had some water content to it. It washed way too quick though, just like the normal GW, but maybe took a day at least this time, the clones also really didn't root that fast.

I started playing with scratching the clones and noticed an absolute speed up in rooting and number of roots. So I decided to basically just... mangle the bottom of the stem, I would do a bunch of horizontal cuts down, like if you were air layering. Tons of cuts, scratches, scrapes, they look demolished after. I would take scissors and jam the stem into the angle of the blade (and cutting down, not up). It should almost look shaggy (this was all under water too, glass of tap). Then i would pack the great white and dry rooting hormone mix (1 part GW, 2 parts insoluble hormone, mixed very well) into the wounds with a gloved hand, so it made this pasty looking scab over ever everywhere that was scratched up. I did all the scratching and cutting in a glass of clean tap water. The juice from the plant, excess water, and rough surface area seems to help hydrate the paste enough to stick *really* well sometimes.

I did this exact method on my last... 8 clones. All of them were taken from a flowering plant, and pulled through and rooted in 1-3 days. The picture I posted above was the day after I prepared the cutting. They all have gone through this same process- day one they look dry and pasty going in, next day the 'scab' is more smooth and moist, and is covered in bumps. Then roots from almost all of the bumps. I had to trim roots off of some of these clones because they were popping out all the way up to the neoprene collar.

And as far as humidity and stuff- I don't use a dome, and I've just been spraying them with water a few times a day, especially if they're wilting. Also some of them were wilting a little longer and i noticed the paste on the stem was still reallly reallly thick. So I'd just also lightly spray the stems to get em soaked, but not enough to really force much of the paste off. I feel like it only needs a few days on there and hinders water uptake a bit, so if stays longer i start to wash it off.

I'm guessing the presence of active Mycorrhizae and rooting hormone LITERALLY PACKED INTO THE OPEN WOUND OF A PLANT seems to work really well to stimulate root growth. Granted Mychs can't really live outside of the root zone, they are however physically kept near the plant via the paste, and the paste is mostly hydrated with 'plant blood' . The endo-mychs also have a VIP pass to the new root tissue. I imagine while the stem is covered with fledgling root tissue, the symbiotic process can probably start happening, especially with the paste keeping the spores physically close for so long. The other stuff in the GW probably helps to ward off pathogenic life in the open wound. I really don't even clean the blades i use for this. I can at least confirm that it hasn't hindered my process lol. I went from damn near 0% success to 100% (close to all the clones were from the same 2 plants also).
 
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Yesdog

Well-Known Member
Holy shit i just noticed how long this is

TL;DR- Scratch and cut up the bottom of the stem so it helps the paste/scab hold, pack the wounds with a mix of insoluble rooting hormone and Great White. Slowly spray paste off of stem if the plant starts going limp. Works good!
 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
I've been playing around with a new method of cloning that (at least for me) has had a 100% success rate so far (1 exception, this cut of rosemary i tried to clone from a sick plant, this might also not work with woody plants). I've had a high fail rate with other methods i was trying, so I don't really have much to compare it against, but maybe if somebody feels bold and has had success other ways, would be curious to see a comparison.

I'm writing this now, because I just had a cutting root that was.... totally unexpected. It was from a harvested plant, that was flushed, and has been at a super reduced 50% light cycle the last few days. The cutting sat in my basket with the rest of the plant for maybe... 10 minutes before i even touched it. I cleaned it up, prepared it this way, and it rooted within 24-36 hours. So I would be really interested if somebody (that normally has success cloning) wanted to do a side-by-side.



Anyways, this is basically all I did:

Environment- 5 gal bucket with air stones, 1.5" net pot sites on top for pots, or neoprene collars. Basic low-quality DIY bubble cloner. 24hrs of constant 30w 4R:1B LED light. Tap water (pH'd) and RapidStart.

Cutting- I've done it all sorts of ways and its worked. I got a bud to root that was just a bud and sugar leaves, no fan leaves. I've cut through a node, below a node, or just wherever. I like cutting through the nodes because it holds more of the 'paste' im going to describe, makes like a little shelf. I actually don't think I've particularly seen roots come out of the node more than anywhere else tho. I've left on various amounts of fan leaves, the plant seems to wilt more with more fan leaves, and after it recovers it seems to want to lose some of them anyways. So I'll just also kinda trim leaves as I go depending on how they look.

Now the scratch and paste part.

I'm using an insoluble rooting hormone that I bought on accident. I basically came up with this just experimenting with how to use the rooting hormone. The insoluble powder seems to only be for dirt- I'm guessing so it's more likely to stay stuck to the cutting when you water it in. On it's own I either couldn't get enough to stay on there, or I got enough on there that it didn't really wash off easily, and when it did big chunks just sorta fell off. So it either washed off, or it stayed super stuck to the cutting and the cutting dried out eventually and went all wet noodle. I'm honestly not sure how that powder is really supposed to work with dirt, maybe it normally just packs with the dirt when you plant it.

After a while I decided to try and use Great White. I read some post somewhere where they emailed the Great White people (too lazy to look it up) and they recommended putting it on fresh cuttings before putting it into RW or whatever media so the fungus is with the roots immediately, and the other stuff helps protect from rot. I tried this with rockwool plugs (also in that same bubble cloner) and it worked great. They werent like, exploding, and the roots looked like they were struggling with the RW.

So I tried a few cuttings without the RW, just straight into the collars, and tried mixing the rooting powder and the great white. When the dry mix got wet this time, it was much much more like a gooey paste, actually felt like it had some water content to it. It washed way too quick though, just like the normal GW, but maybe took a day at least this time, the clones also really didn't root that fast.

I started playing with scratching the clones and noticed an absolute speed up in rooting and number of roots. So I decided to basically just... mangle the bottom of the stem, I would do a bunch of horizontal cuts down, like if you were air layering. Tons of cuts, scratches, scrapes, they look demolished after. I would take scissors and jam the stem into the angle of the blade (and cutting down, not up). It should almost look shaggy (this was all under water too, glass of tap). Then i would pack the great white and dry rooting hormone mix (1 part GW, 2 parts insoluble hormone, mixed very well) into the wounds with a gloved hand, so it made this pasty looking scab over ever everywhere that was scratched up. I did all the scratching and cutting in a glass of clean tap water. The juice from the plant, excess water, and rough surface area seems to help hydrate the paste enough to stick *really* well sometimes.

I did this exact method on my last... 8 clones. All of them were taken from a flowering plant, and pulled through and rooted in 1-3 days. The picture I posted above was the day after I prepared the cutting. They all have gone through this same process- day one they look dry and pasty going in, next day the 'scab' is more smooth and moist, and is covered in bumps. Then roots from almost all of the bumps. I had to trim roots off of some of these clones because they were popping out all the way up to the neoprene collar.

And as far as humidity and stuff- I don't use a dome, and I've just been spraying them with water a few times a day, especially if they're wilting. Also some of them were wilting a little longer and i noticed the paste on the stem was still reallly reallly thick. So I'd just also lightly spray the stems to get em soaked, but not enough to really force much of the paste off. I feel like it only needs a few days on there and hinders water uptake a bit, so if stays longer i start to wash it off.

I'm guessing the presence of active Mycorrhizae and rooting hormone LITERALLY PACKED INTO THE OPEN WOUND OF A PLANT seems to work really well to stimulate root growth. Granted Mychs can't really live outside of the root zone, they are however physically kept near the plant via the paste, and the paste is mostly hydrated with 'plant blood' . The endo-mychs also have a VIP pass to the new root tissue. I imagine while the stem is covered with fledgling root tissue, the symbiotic process can probably start happening, especially with the paste keeping the spores physically close for so long. The other stuff in the GW probably helps to ward off pathogenic life in the open wound. I really don't even clean the blades i use for this. I can at least confirm that it hasn't hindered my process lol. I went from damn near 0% success to 100% (close to all the clones were from the same 2 plants also).
@Yesdog, Excellent write up! I very much enjoy when people experiment rather than just stick to the same script. Ironically sometimes failure is good in this respect because if you had cloning rate of 70-80%, you might have been complacent, and may never have tested out your various ideas, eventually discovering this new method.

I am at the moment getting very unstable results, (not necessarily bad, just not consistent) which is odd because my experimental conditions are the same. I use an aerocloner (Turboklone) with plain RO water pH adjusted to 5.8. Sometimes I get roots in 5 days, sometimes it takes 3 weeks. I have about an 80% success rate. No humidity dome, and same strain consistently.

So, a few questions about your new method because I'm always looking to improve:

1) When you "scratch" the stem of your cutting, are you using any tools other than a semi open scissors? eg. razor blade
I can't quite tell tell from the picture, but it doesn't look like you actually split the stem open in any way, just cracked into the outer layers?
(I once tried slicing the thin layer of the outer cambium off of my clones with a razor blade, and all of them got infected with slime so I've been afraid to touch the stems ever since)

2) All of this roughing up of the stems right up until the application of the paste is performed under water, like in a bowl?

3) I've never used Great White (I'm assuming it's got a paste consistency to it) but what rooting powder are you using?
I bought a $5 bottle of this (Bontone Rooting Powder) from Home Depot. Would that work for this application?

4) Do you imagine this paste would be instantly rinsed off in an aerocloner? Would this method necessitate a bubble cloner which is more gentle? (I have a DIY bubble cloner that I never use)

5) In your bubble cloner, do you suspend the stems just above the water level so that they aren't actually submerged at all, just misted by the bursting of the tiny bubbles of the airstone as they break the water's surface?
(I've seen people use a bubble cloner in different wayswhich is the reason I ask...I built a bubble cloner as an experiment and tried having the stems submerged and had a 0% sucess rate, all got infected)
 
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Yesdog

Well-Known Member
@Yesdog, Excellent write up! I very much enjoy when people experiment rather than just stick to the same script. Ironically sometimes failure is good in this respect because if you had cloning rate of 70-80%, you might have been complacent, and may never have tested out your various ideas, eventually discovering this new method.

I am at the moment getting very unstable results, (not necessarily bad, just not consistent) which is odd because my experimental conditions are the same. I use an aerocloner (Turboklone) with plain RO water pH adjusted to 5.8. Sometimes I get roots in 5 days, sometimes it takes 3 weeks. I have about an 80% success rate. No humidity dome, and same strain consistently.

So, a few questions about your new method because I'm always looking to improve:

1) When you "scratch" the stem of your cutting, are you using any tools other than a semi open scissors? eg. razor blade
I can't quite tell tell from the picture, but it doesn't look like you actually split the stem open in any way, just cracked into the outer layers?
(I once tried slicing the thin layer of the outer cambium off of my clones with a razor blade, and all of them got infected with slime so I've been afraid to touch the stems ever since)

2) All of this roughing up of the stems right up until the application of the paste is performed under water, like in a bowl?

3) I've never used Great White (I'm assuming it's got a paste consistency to it) but what rooting powder are you using?
I bought a $5 bottle of this (Bontone Rooting Powder) from Home Depot. Would that work for this application?

4) Do you imagine this paste would be instantly rinsed off in an aerocloner? Would this method necessitate a bubble cloner which is more gentle? (I have a DIY bubble cloner that I never use)

5) In your bubble cloner, do you suspend the stems just above the water level so that they aren't actually submerged at all, just misted by the bursting of the tiny bubbles of the airstone as they break the water's surface?
(I've seen people use a bubble cloner in different wayswhich is the reason I ask...I built a bubble cloner as an experiment and tried having the stems submerged and had a 0% sucess rate, all got infected)
Thanks! I get nervous posting these things, but I'm definitely one to stray off the beaten path. Big believer in 'fail fast', and cloning especially seemed to be a topic surrounded in lots of myth and magic so I figured I had some good room to play around.

1) I'm just using my normal fine-point fiskars sheers. I try not to split the stem at all, just cut through the outer dermal layers (I guess this would be the 'bark' of sorts). I suppose I would be cutting into the phloem i think, which has the sugary water sap. I'm thinking that might be a part of it, exposing the internal plant sugars to the microbe scab we installed. I also tried slicing thin layers off, and the plant didn't do that well. I think at that point the shape of the injury might be really hard to heal or prone to rot (instead of cutting into the vascular tissue here and there with little cuts, you're actually removing some of it). Just too much tissue openly exposed, I think leaving the flaps on there gives enough protection to the tissue and bennie microbes. I'll post a picture of how I cut it, its mostly little downward cuts that leave a 'flap' of tissue, but sometimes i keep cutting downwards past that and just scratch off the flap of tissue. I'm now noticing that the word 'scratch' probably isn't the best to describe it. It's more like gouges and small scrapes. As far as rot though, I've actually never seen rot doing this so far with the GW. The shit is super expensive, and I swear it probably looks like I work for them at this point, but the shit has been pure magic for me- surviving 80 degree rez temps, changing solution only once a month or so, all the things that should give you rot this seems to let you just side-step. This is probably another reason we can just butcher the stem with 0 rot.

2) I'll use a cup or bowl, and I just try to keep everything underwater so the tissue will scab up a bit slower. Not sure what effect this really has, but ive been trying to just keep consistent as possible while playing around with methods.

3) Yeah, so great white is actually a very fine mostly soluble powder, but whatever binder they put in there seems like a form of powdered clay, and kinda looks like it when rehydrated. I think that's the key to making the paste semi-soluble. So, i think thats the same rooting compound i got lol $5 from home depot. It looks almost like... baking soda, and sorta has a blue shine/glisten to it under light. I guess its some sort of silica based medium. Cheap as dirt, and probably made for it. I'd be afraid to recommend anything other than great white at this point- just because I know it has the full-spectrum microbes (and im not sure which ones are the most effective here), and the binder in the powder works really well at making the pasty scab.

4) Hmm, not sure if the aerocloner would take it off. I still have problems most of the time with it staying on too long/well. It seems like you really want it to stay on there well for about 24 hours, after that the plant tissues kinda starts to scab up with the stuff and holds onto it, and you cant wash the 'brown' off of it as easily. I think at that point the effect is well under way. I also experimented with the 1.5" net pots- some of my sites get far more bubbles than others and washes off really quick, so I'd cut the bottom off of a netpot and cut down/off some of the little plastic prongs left (can sorta see that in the above picture). That seems to be a really good way of controlling the spray that hits it. Then on the opposite side, if it looks to dry I just manually spray stems here and there. Depending on your timer, you should probably be fine with short spray times (few minutes?), spaced out. Might need to play around with it, but I'd definitely like to describe this as an aerocloner method, if possible lol.

5) My stems are maybe... 6" above the water level, which is honestly probably a bit too much space. I seem to have an interesting balance where the higher the water level, the stronger the bubble spray, but its also more centered. Lower the level, I get more bubbles flying evenly around the sites, but less total. I've been pretty lazy about the water level... and I haven't changed it in 2 months lol. I haven't really tried submerging the scab- I'd imagine it'll wash off sorta fast. Even the pure rooting compound just floats away when the stem is in water.

 
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Yesdog

Well-Known Member
Hmmm next clone I think I actually might try splitting the stem. This could give me a big hint as to whether or not physically cutting the vascular tissue matters. If you're splitting from bottom, you're destroying a bunch of connecting and support tissues and giving access to the vascular tissue, but you're not actually cutting through it (think of it like stripping a bundled wire- inner wires are exposed but in tact, vs cutting into the middle of the inner wires somewhere)
 

Yesdog

Well-Known Member
Also, here's a pic of a bud I rooted lol. It's been going strong for more than 2 weeks now, has big-girl roots coming out of the 2.5" net pot now, waiting to get a few more inches, then into the mothers DWC.

 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I've actually just stuck a cutting into the hydroton of another plant, got lazy and didn't feel like tossing it and low and behold, roots a week later lol. But my goto, roots in 6-7 days is root riot cubes, dome, and powder, never fails :). Note I do use a pair of scissors to cut them so not a clean slice more of a crush thing :).
 

Yesdog

Well-Known Member
I've actually just stuck a cutting into the hydroton of another plant, got lazy and didn't feel like tossing it and low and behold, roots a week later lol. But my goto, roots in 6-7 days is root riot cubes, dome, and powder, never fails :). Note I do use a pair of scissors to cut them so not a clean slice more of a crush thing :).
For whatever reason i was just having... shit results. The crushing and powder probably does a lot, I was just very surprised by going from 0 results, to shit results, now to 100% lol so many factors to consider... but i think some type of gashing/crushing/scraping probably does wonders. I know for woody plants its basically necessary (yet to get my freaking bay laurel to root tho... but also haven't killed a cut yet? did like 0 prep for those tho, think i forgot to scrape most of em even)
 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Thanks! I get nervous posting these things, but I'm definitely one to stray off the beaten path. Big believer in 'fail fast', and cloning especially seemed to be a topic surrounded in lots of myth and magic so I figured I had some good room to play around.

1) I'm just using my normal fine-point fiskars sheers. I try not to split the stem at all, just cut through the outer dermal layers (I guess this would be the 'bark' of sorts). I suppose I would be cutting into the phloem i think, which has the sugary water sap. I'm thinking that might be a part of it, exposing the internal plant sugars to the microbe scab we installed. I also tried slicing thin layers off, and the plant didn't do that well. I think at that point the shape of the injury might be really hard to heal or prone to rot (instead of cutting into the vascular tissue here and there with little cuts, you're actually removing some of it). Just too much tissue openly exposed, I think leaving the flaps on there gives enough protection to the tissue and bennie microbes. I'll post a picture of how I cut it, its mostly little downward cuts that leave a 'flap' of tissue, but sometimes i keep cutting downwards past that and just scratch off the flap of tissue. I'm now noticing that the word 'scratch' probably isn't the best to describe it. It's more like gouges and small scrapes. As far as rot though, I've actually never seen rot doing this so far with the GW. The shit is super expensive, and I swear it probably looks like I work for them at this point, but the shit has been pure magic for me- surviving 80 degree rez temps, changing solution only once a month or so, all the things that should give you rot this seems to let you just side-step. This is probably another reason we can just butcher the stem with 0 rot.

2) I'll use a cup or bowl, and I just try to keep everything underwater so the tissue will scab up a bit slower. Not sure what effect this really has, but ive been trying to just keep consistent as possible while playing around with methods.

3) Yeah, so great white is actually a very fine mostly soluble powder, but whatever binder they put in there seems like a form of powdered clay, and kinda looks like it when rehydrated. I think that's the key to making the paste semi-soluble. So, i think thats the same rooting compound i got lol $5 from home depot. It looks almost like... baking soda, and sorta has a blue shine/glisten to it under light. I guess its some sort of silica based medium. Cheap as dirt, and probably made for it. I'd be afraid to recommend anything other than great white at this point- just because I know it has the full-spectrum microbes (and im not sure which ones are the most effective here), and the binder in the powder works really well at making the pasty scab.

4) Hmm, not sure if the aerocloner would take it off. I still have problems most of the time with it staying on too long/well. It seems like you really want it to stay on there well for about 24 hours, after that the plant tissues kinda starts to scab up with the stuff and holds onto it, and you cant wash the 'brown' off of it as easily. I think at that point the effect is well under way. I also experimented with the 1.5" net pots- some of my sites get far more bubbles than others and washes off really quick, so I'd cut the bottom off of a netpot and cut down/off some of the little plastic prongs left (can sorta see that in the above picture). That seems to be a really good way of controlling the spray that hits it. Then on the opposite side, if it looks to dry I just manually spray stems here and there. Depending on your timer, you should probably be fine with short spray times (few minutes?), spaced out. Might need to play around with it, but I'd definitely like to describe this as an aerocloner method, if possible lol.

5) My stems are maybe... 6" above the water level, which is honestly probably a bit too much space. I seem to have an interesting balance where the higher the water level, the stronger the bubble spray, but its also more centered. Lower the level, I get more bubbles flying evenly around the sites, but less total. I've been pretty lazy about the water level... and I haven't changed it in 2 months lol. I haven't really tried submerging the scab- I'd imagine it'll wash off sorta fast. Even the pure rooting compound just floats away when the stem is in water.

Awesome thanks for the responses!! I am going to try this method out tomorrow. I don't have Great White but I do make compost tea pretty regularly using Mycogrow Soluble from Fungi Perfecti. It's truly awesome, cheaper and has more cultures than GW (you might want to check it out if you run out of GW)...but if Great White works for you I'd stick with it. I learned about it in Heisenberg's thread: (https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-root-slime-cure-aka-how-to-breed-beneficial-microbes.361430/)
which if you're looking for a good read about preventing root rot and stuff is a gem.

Anyway, I'll substitute the mycogrow in place of the GW and report back.
I lost the instructions for the rooting powder so I'm not sure how much water to add to make the paste.
Or do you just take some powder out and roll the wet stem in the powder until it's coated, like breading a piece of chicken?


It's amazing that you got a bud to root!
That's literally the first time I've seen anyone do that.
I've put flowering cuts from a week 3 or 4 plant in the cloner but it takes FOR-EV-ER to get em to pop roots.
Psyched to try this new tek!
 
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Yesdog

Well-Known Member
Awesome thanks for the responses!! I am going to try this method out tomorrow. I don't have Great White but I do make compost tea pretty regularly using Mycogrow Soluble from Fungi Perfecti. It's truly awesome, cheaper and has more cultures than GW (you might want to check it out if you run out of GW)...but if Great White works for you I'd stick with it. I learned about it in Heisenberg's thread: (https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-root-slime-cure-aka-how-to-breed-beneficial-microbes.361430/)
which if you're looking for a good read about preventing root rot and stuff is a gem.

Anyway, I'll substitute the mycogrow in place of the GW and report back.
I lost the instructions for the rooting powder so I'm not sure how much water to add to make the paste.
Or do you just take some powder out and roll the wet stem in the powder until it's coated, like breading a piece of chicken?


It's amazing that you got a bud to root!
That's literally the first time I've seen anyone do that.
I've put flowering cuts from a week 3 or 4 plant in the cloner but it takes FOR-EV-ER to get em to pop roots.
Psyched to try this new tek!
Awesome! Excited to see how it works out for you.

So with the GW and rooting powder, I actually mixed it dry and just applied it to the damp stem. Also once cutting up the tissue, the stem seems to 'leak' some juices which join the mix. Using the compost tea, I'd maybe just mix a little bit with the dry powder to get it slightly damp (like a few drops for a teaspoon of rooting powder). Then maybe just soak the cut/scratched/prepared stems in plain compost tea for a minute to make sure its got good exposure. I'm definitely curious how well that works- I've read that the fungus can be picky about propagating in compost tea, but not sure if its the Trychs or Mychs, and also not sure how important they really are for the process lol. Definitely curious to see how it goes.

So, the first picture I posted with the fast rooting cut- I left it in the bubble-cloner for 3 weeks (was out of town for 2 weeks) total. Came back and it was still mostly alive, with massive roots. Ended up killing it off tho because it looked pretty sick.

The rooted bud (last picture I posted) is still going super strong. Has 6 inch roots now, but still no sign of new vegetative growth. Might just take forever.
 

Yesdog

Well-Known Member
Just a small update here. Still cloning this way, and it's still working.... really well lol

I've gotten even lazier with it, the water in this cloner hasn't been changed in.... over 5 months now. These clones have been in there 7 days, 100% and super healthy.

 

chemphlegm

Well-Known Member
the cambium layer is exposed when the bottom of the stem is scraped/opened, thats why we cut at a 45 angle/scrape always.
This layer contains stem cells with all the info to complete another plant as needed.
If you were not scraping your stems in the past this could explain why you had issues possibly.
stick with whatever works for you, looks great!
 

Yesdog

Well-Known Member
the cambium layer is exposed when the bottom of the stem is scraped/opened, thats why we cut at a 45 angle/scrape always.
This layer contains stem cells with all the info to complete another plant as needed.
If you were not scraping your stems in the past this could explain why you had issues possibly.
stick with whatever works for you, looks great!
good call! yea my biggest theory right now is that exposing the inner layers is definitely the biggest factor in getting the root development, the great white I think mostly just acts as protective layer while the tissues begins to grow and heal- plus getting some really early mych inoculation
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I've never scraped, use rusty scissors and use used res water and I get pretty much 100% lol. I do use root riot cubes now which speed things up but I also use stimroot # 3, first roots typically appear in 4 days and ready to transplant in 7 for most strains. There are a few strains that I've had issues with though, White Russian seems to be a tough one :(.
 
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