# Foliar application of rooting hormone



## ShirkGoldbrick (Apr 22, 2015)

I'm putting this here because it seems to be an uncommon method. 

Has anyone tried a foliar rooting hormone? I see there's a couple of approved brands for this particular use. 

I ask because the last clones of gg #4 I had took three weeks to get like half inch roots and yellowed up on me. Also, about a third to half didn't root. Luckily I got enough. 

I was using a bubbler cloner fed by a 100 and a 300 gallon air pump for 20 gallons of water. Used an aquarium heater (added a week in). Light proof with 10w/sqft of fluorescents. 

I did cut them under water and lightly scraped the bottom layer of green off the stem. I think that was a mistake, no roots came from that area. 

Jorge cervantes mentions a 50ppm solution but the one I got says that the ideal solution varies. I doubt he has tested half of what he's wrote so any experiences?


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## chernobe (Apr 23, 2015)

Well everybody has their own tricks but it's all the same concept which is stimulate the cutting to grow roots. I'm not to say my method is the best but I will say it's the best for me. Here is what I do: cut branch off and place in cup of ro water. I take a tray and put a large glass of water in it. I add a couple cap fulls of Olivias cloning solution, humic acid and a handfuk of mykos wp and stir it all around and let the coco squares soak it in for a while. Then ring em out and pour the water back into a large glass. I then dip the beach tip into clonex gel and let it sit for at least 30 seconds. Then stick in the plug and put the dome on and under a light. I mist em 2-3 times daily the first couple days. After that just occasional misting once every day or two depending on conditions. I take the big glass of water that they soaked in and pour that over the cubes to keep em moist. It's cheap, easy and very effective. But like I said everybody has their own method and this is the one that works best for me


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## chernobe (Apr 23, 2015)

Also never tried to foliar feed a clone, I'm sure it works fine but if it ain't broke I won't fix it


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## majins (Apr 25, 2015)

Iv always believed that you dont want to feed them anything but water while trying to root them.
If your foliar feeding them they will be happy enough that they arnt forced to grow roots or die.

Iv got about 90% success rate and I dont do anything flash.

I just use rock wool cubes, Soak them for 10mins in plain tap water.
Then squeeze out gently which crushes them up a bit.
Poke a tooth pick all the way though from top to bottom.
Let them sit while I take cuttings which lets them have enough time to expand back to normal size and loosen up.

While taking cuttings I just use scissors, First I clean them with iso.
Then take some of the rooting gel and spread it along the blades.
Then on the branch im going to be cutting I scrape the area where im cutting with the blade of the scissors to remove some of the skin.
Then coat that exposed area with rooting gel and just cut a straight across cut.
Dip in gel and press 1/2 way into the cube.

Spray 3 times a day with plain tap water.
And put dome over them and light on 24 hours.
3-4 days time there will be 1 root out the bottom where the hole goes right though.
Ones they have that 1 root I start only spraying once a day.
In another 6-7 days they will have 4-5 roots out the bottom so I transplant them into a party cup.

Switch light to normal veg 18/6. Water twice a week, First week being just plain water.
Then switch to 1/4 feeding.
I use clear cups and put tin foil around them to block the light out. But its easy enough to peel foil back to see how root growth is going. 
Takes about 4 weeks from being cut until cup is starting to show root bound ness and ready for transplant to your main pots.


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## Cannasutraorganics (Apr 27, 2015)

To answer your question. Don't mist plants that are making clones. The water spraying the cutting bottom to make roots does not use a heater in water. You want water under 70 degrees. And ph 6.0 or close to it. I cut 1000 clones a week. All in turbo clones then to soil pots to sell. We grow under 1000 watt my light. Where growing small plants. Branches all up and down the stems.


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## ukdave (Mar 3, 2018)

chernobe said:


> Also never tried to foliar feed a clone, I'm sure it works fine but if it ain't broke I won't fix it


For every daft quote there is a daft opposite, 'preventative medicine' for example.


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## SchmoeJoe (Mar 5, 2018)

Cannasutraorganics said:


> To answer your question. Don't mist plants that are making clones. The water spraying the cutting bottom to make roots does not use a heater in water. You want water under 70 degrees. And ph 6.0 or close to it. I cut 1000 clones a week. All in turbo clones then to soil pots to sell. We grow under 1000 watt my light. Where growing small plants. Branches all up and down the stems.


With aerocloners I always figured the best way to regulate the water is by regulating the air temp. The water will always be a few degrees cooler than the air being pumped through it. It works out perfectly. A room kept in the middle 70's, about ideal "canopy" temp for rooting, will keep the res in the mid to high 60's (about ideal rooting zone temp for aero).


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## chiqifella (Mar 5, 2018)

ShirkGoldbrick said:


> I'm putting this here because it seems to be an uncommon method.
> 
> 1-Has anyone tried a foliar rooting hormone? I see there's a couple of approved brands for this particular use.
> 
> ...


1- yes and found the practice to be unnecessary
2- Had nothing to do with The lack of foliar rooting sprays
3-I use a cup of dirt, water for a 99% successfull rooting within a week
4-I never cut under water, but I do use a new scalpel blade, clean surface to cut on, and I always scrape to the cambium layer, this is where the stem cells reside. No roots for you there? nothing to do with that layer
5-But you are the one with failing clones right? No sense on blaming Jorge, casting shame on him because your clones wont root right?

solution-
ditch the cloner.
select a healthy mature donor.
take cutting, slice next to the main stem.
cut at nodule on a 45 angle, scrape, dip, and into a moist cup of promix in a domed ventilated cup. dont water until 
roots show, and remove dome, transplant.


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## SchmoeJoe (Mar 5, 2018)

chiqifella said:


> 1- yes and found the practice to be unnecessary
> 2- Had nothing to do with The lack of foliar rooting sprays
> 3-I use a cup of dirt, water for a 99% successfull rooting within a week
> 4-I never cut under water, but I do use a new scalpel blade, clean surface to cut on, and I always scrape to the cambium layer, this is where the stem cells reside. No roots for you there? nothing to do with that layer
> ...



Cloners work fine. Not my preferred method but they give good consistent results without the need for hormones, foliar or otherwise. I'd bet that the issue was the health of the mother plant.


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## chiqifella (Mar 5, 2018)

SchmoeJoe said:


> Cloners work fine. Not my preferred method but they give good consistent results without the need for hormones, foliar or otherwise. I'd bet that the issue was the health of the mother plant.


yep they do. I have one and loved it. While our results may have been consistent a google shows the majority of results is not in riu. But now I have no fuss at all, no maintenance, no power, no additional heat, no issues. I save money, time, space, power, and never have to clean out the unit, change or add water either. just saying, thats why I do what I do now.
We dont often hear of a cloning issue with my preferred method while cloners are notoriously problematic for many here using them comparatively.


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## SchmoeJoe (Mar 5, 2018)

chiqifella said:


> yep they do. I have one and loved it. While our results may have been consistent a google shows the majority of results is not in riu. But now I have no fuss at all, no maintenance, no power, no additional heat, no issues. I save money, time, space, power, and never have to clean out the unit, change or add water either. just saying, thats why I do what I do now.
> We dont often hear of a cloning issue with my preferred method while cloners are notoriously problematic for many here using them comparatively.


I definitely get better results without cloners. The deal breaker for me was what PowerCloner calls sick manifold syndrome or SMS. Once you get it nothing will kill it.


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## xtsho (Mar 5, 2018)

I've never foliar fed clones rooting solution. I just dip them in some rooting solution or powder then into small pots of lightly charged coco. Then they go out of direct light until they start to root. I don't mist or use a dome or heat mat. I also don't do anything special when cutting them. I use the same Fiskars I use to trim with. Just cut and put in a cup of plain tap water. 

This is my method. I rarely lose a clone.
Cut clones and place in cup of water, get small nursery pots of coco, use a chopstick to make a hole, dip clone in rooting hormone, into coco, pack coco around stem, set out of direct light, wait.
I get roots within a week to ten days.

I like to keep things as simple as possible. The less moving parts the better. I have a DIY aero cloner I made years ago. Worked great and I still have it. But I can't justify using it when I get the same results by just sticking the clones in some coco. And leaving them alone for a week or so.


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## Cold$moke (Mar 5, 2018)

If you want to foliar clones for root development
I would use a light kelp and b vitamin mix 

10 plus years aero cloning wont go back 

Though i get clones just by plucking them off the plant and throwing them in a rockwool cube too .

Thousands of ways to.....


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