DWC Raft Cloner G.A.P.E. (steps/notes for results)

This is a culmination of my previous Deep Water Culture experiences,what works for me,research,and a gentlemenly Quaker.There are great cloner DIY's out there from the complex Aeroponic (EZ Cloner style),to simple scaled down DWC tubs with DIY neoprene inserts in all do it yourself savy.The Raft Cloner tutorials were lacking but reading up on the other style DIY's,understanding DWC hydroponics in general,and knowing how to take cuttings eased things along for me.For new growers Google:diy dwc cloner,diy aerocloner,how to clone cannabis,how to take cuttings cannabis,etc.This is scalable for production needs.Use sterile procedures!

Genisis Ark Progenitor Eternal G.A.P.E. (steps/notes for results)

I take an empty 1 gal jug.Fill half with ph'ed tap (50%).Fill other half with my nute mix I use for plants under more intense light (50%).This 50/50 blend I feed my mothers.For clone production/health/upkeep the mothers receive 55 Watts of direct floro light.For stasis/photoperiod maintenance the mothers receive 19 Watts indirect light for a couple of hours a day(both floros 6500K).A healthy not overfed (N) mom roots better for me.

I take a (3"-5") cutting and cut stem up to 1.25" below bottom node.I trim leafsets up to the top two canopy leafsets.If top most leafset is smaller than a silver dollar I leave the second leafset on.I was taught (research) to trim back the leafset to reduce transpiration.In DWC this is not needed,and the extra solar collecting speeds up rooting for me.I know I have seen some profesional growers using rockwool cloning with no leafsets trimmed back.

The angle cut I do not do underwater,but I make sure the stem and razor are dripping wet.Instead of a 45* angle I use a steaper 60*-70* angle,and scissor trim any stringers or extra skin..The steap cut along the 1.25" length below the bottom node and a tiny barely white exposing slice just above,opposite side of node.I do not know if this modified method roots better for me.

I keep clone stems soaking in a bowl of ph'ed tap with .5ml of Dyna-Gro KLN while prepping.

Pic#2 Inside sealed chamber (when closed).19 Watt cfl vertical 18" above canopy for first 3 days.Top left outlet for light,air pump,and aquarium heater.Timer 18/6 photoperiod (entire run).Heater set 75*F(24/7).Air pump can be raised or lowered for warmer or cooler air if heater fails.The column of light socket extenders is for the dual 23 Watt cfl's (all 6500K) for day 4 (rest of run).

Pic#1 The Progenitor.I start out with 2 gallons of Brita filtered only tap water.I let the heater and airstone acclimate in the cooler water before turning on heater.I add 1/8th tsp Schultz Take root and 1ml of Dyna-Gro KLN.This will start to foam up a little but will recede.I think the rooting hormones give an advantage and the Brita does not hurt anything.

Pic#3 The Raft/Ark.Cuttings are held in place with yellow cushion foam cut in lengths.Foam tray held chicken nuggets of questionable quality,but now hold clones.Give enough space so each clone is not light blocked by each other.I allways used a yellow tray,I do not think this makes a difference(?).

Pic#4 Genesis roots.When I see white bumps on most of the clones I add 1 gall of ph'ed tap water and a half gallon of my nute water.24 hrs later I check on the clones and for the 1st time I check PH.I know the Ph for me will be higher than 6 and I adjust it with GH Maxibloom directly into res.I use about 3/4-1tsp of the Maxi to get a Ph of 6,and top off the res to the 4 gallon mark.Wether I use ph'ed or nute water to top off depends on how much Maxi I used and the vigor of the roots.For the rest of the run I top off with either ph'ed or nute water,and PH adjusting with PH down for the rest of the Genesis,maintaining 25-50% res nute strength.

Pic#5 Res Eternal.I do not change out res during a run.With res temps between 75-80*F nasties are kept at bay
with the Sunleaves Oxystone,powered by a Tetra Whisper(24/7),and bleach.I do not excede no more than 2 Drops(I have a special little amber glass dropper bottle for this) per gal with regular Clorox bleach.Let 2-3 days go by between treatments,and keep an eye on clear slime on stems or roots.3% Hydrogen Peroxide can be used inbetween if needed,and can be used by the several capfulls or more.Aqueon pro 150 Watt works like an adjustable charm.

Just a couple of runs of different strains/moms on this 8 site cloner with 100% success rate.When run with chamber closed off (with ambient room temps) the warm (80*F throughout inside chamber) micro enviroment produces long thin roots.If left ajar thick roots form at a little slower pace.So far it takes two weeks or less to have a fully rooted transplantable clone.

I think the main reason for success rate is the intact canopy letting the plant know what happened,and help it send energy where needed sooner.New clone must be weaned into stronger light(distance),and nutes.

Any questions comments?

This thread is dedicated to Dalek Eternal....true to the name.

Dalek Supreme said:

Foam tray held chicken nuggets of questionable quality,but now hold clones.

Click to expand...

Best part of thread.

Malevolence said:

Best part of thread.

Click to expand...

bahahahaha I totally agree...cracked me up

What do you peeps use as a cloning techique for MJ?

I use soil and so far 100% success with most ready for repot in ~1 week. I found that instead of those small starter tray things, I used these trays with 6 spots about the diameter of a solo cup but maybe 1/2 the height work great. I see A LOT more roots quicker with these.

I started a clone for shits and giggles that was 1 1/2 inches tall at most. I soaked it in 100% superthrive, then cloning powder and it filled the cup in a week with roots! I shit you not, it may be a coincidence but I thought it was pretty cool

Rockwool and clonex purple gel. I pack em close together in a black container so they are wall to wall, spray with rhizo and a drop of superthrive and cover. I spray again every couple of days and open cover for few minutes to change air. I transplant to my bubbler DWC usually or use organic soil. Have 99%ish success and less than 2 weeks from cut to trans. That system looks very cool i would love to try one

Dalek Supreme said:

What do you peeps use as a cloning techique for MJ?

Click to expand...

you ask this after spouting every little thing ,measurement, and angle of cut? that would be a technique. i slice from the plant and stick into cloner, thats all. thats also a technique.

jonesbag said:

I use soil and so far 100% success with most ready for repot in ~1 week. I found that instead of those small starter tray things, I used these trays with 6 spots about the diameter of a solo cup but maybe 1/2 the height work great. I see A LOT more roots quicker with these.

I started a clone for shits and giggles that was 1 1/2 inches tall at most. I soaked it in 100% superthrive, then cloning powder and it filled the cup in a week with roots! I shit you not, it may be a coincidence but I thought it was pretty cool

Click to expand...

That is awesome Jonesbag!

gaztron3030 said:

Rockwool and clonex purple gel. I pack em close together in a black container so they are wall to wall, spray with rhizo and a drop of superthrive and cover. I spray again every couple of days and open cover for few minutes to change air. I transplant to my bubbler DWC usually or use organic soil. Have 99%ish success and less than 2 weeks from cut to trans. That system looks very cool i would love to try one

Click to expand...

That's great Gaz...I started out with R/W,and even tried Jiffy Pellets.I sucked honking clown balls at it.I looked into hyrdo and saw this method hidden away kinda looked like.Looks like you have things handled.If you do try this even in simpler forms
(i.e. budget) please post a pic.

superstoner1 said:

you ask this after spouting every little thing ,measurement, and angle of cut? that would be a technique. i slice from the plant and stick into cloner, thats all. thats also a technique.

Click to expand...

I ask for those still learning,or wanting to share there success,and what have helped.
I only offer beyond the "Lick & Stick It" technique that saved a difficult (for me) to clone strain.I do 12/12 rooted clone,and this technique gives me a stronger clone at reasonable time.

my apologies, i misread.

I really like the floating base idea. +rep

After running a batch of clones I did another run on Jillybeans that have been waiting to be cloned/sexed.
For the first time I did not change out the res,and only refreshed with 1 ml of Dyna-Gro KLN.I updated my light with a clampless clamp light with reflector.

I also blasted the clones from the start with about 50 watts of cfl 8" above canopy instead of a 15 watt cfl 18" above for the first 3-4 days.I did not see faster show of roots,but I see a more abundance of roots at day 6 than my standard method.The clones did suffer with droopyness,some necrosis of the leaf,and some nute burn at the tips from the prenuted res.My standard method gives me much healthier clones but I am not complaining as I find a happy medium.

I used cuttings with a robust canopy so there was crowding.As you can see from the root pic that the clones closest to the middle has the most root length from being directly under light.This and watching many runs further confirms to me that a healthy full leaf canopy increases your chances for success.

For my needs I want about 4" of roots,and thin is perfectly fine.I have been trying to see what makes my target roots,and what produces short stubby roots.Short stubby roots are worthless for me but they would be fine in soil.In DWC when you put your seedling/clone in the Hydroton filled netpot you want the roots grow out and into res.I find that a rich nute solution will to put it simply let the roots fatten up and feel comfy where it's at.A lighter nute solution will make the roots grow faster and thinner searching for nute source.I should have known this from my DWC days when I had stubborn roots,but forgot about it.So to sum it up when roots show I put 1 gal of my 100% strength solution to 3 gal of plain tapwater res.Then I just use ph adjusters for my target ph,and this gives me my desired roots.Fat stubby roots is what I get when I use my base nute as a ph adjuster.

I mused the thought that when I closed off the chamber that it had there own micro enviroment of O2,and CO2.
I now realise this just gave them a steady enviroment but temperature wise.A steady temp between between 70-80*F makes clones happy for root development.I like 75-80*F steady temps for root growth,and I fight back Pythium with 1-2 drops of bleach per gal of res.

I urge anyone that does not clone to read up,and give it a try.Not only do I get a perpetual harvest from one seed,but I also get more yield,taste,potency from a now mature plant than one would get from lets say a 12/12 from seed or minimal veg before flip grow.

Happy growing bitches.

Well I broke my personal record of 2 wks fully rooted clones.The from the get go 50 watt cfl blast gave me fully rooted clones (my target is 3-4" roots) in 9 days.The cost is necrotic leaf edges on all clones.The pictured raft of new run of differen strain clones are being eased into things with the 15 watt cfl for the first 48 hrs,then the 50 watt blast.If I can can get my normaly healthy rooted clones in 11 days instead of 14 then that's good enough for me.The clones pictured is on the 3rd run for the non dumped out res with no KLN refresh this round.I maintain res is 1-2 drops of bleach per res gal when it needs it.

I am now 100% certain that using a cutting with as much of a full lush canopy as possible,will improve your chances greatly.Of course you can clone with a cup of water on a sun facing window sill with a daily water change,but expect a wide leaf Indica to root quicker than a narrow leaf Sativa.This has been my experience as of late.

I think a good upgrade would be dual floro tubes,to spread out the lumens more equally elliminating the middle sweet spot..ie middle clones 4" roots,while end clones 3" roots.

Well this pretty much wraps it up.Being able to clone your favorite reg/femmed girl ,or pollen donor will perpetuate your harvest indefinately.

Happy cloning everyone.

My buddy can't seem to make my cloning method work, and this looks like something we could get behind, I may not be a DWC grower, but I can appreciate the power of those little roots. Great job!
ILovePlants

IlovePlants said:

My buddy can't seem to make my cloning method work, and this looks like something we could get behind, I may not be a DWC grower, but I can appreciate the power of those little roots. Great job!
ILovePlants

Click to expand...

I wish you luck.I suggest you read up on the basics of a DWC grow(if unfamiliar),even though you are dealing with just the early veg stage of a plant using DWC as a cloner.I love raft cloning,and the cut foam strip holders are cheaper than starter cubes.

The main point of this thread is to have a 100% successful Asexual reproduction program in one's garden.
The building blocks to clone propagation with any popular method is in my opinion are:
1)H2O,and rich O (or DO "dissolved oxygen") to the cut stem for health.(water filled cup method requires a daily water change,or changes)
2)Lush top canopy leaf,or leafsets (not trimmed back) for health.If healthy cutting has 1,3,and 4 available?The clone will perk up.
3)Gentle.Then gentle increase of light in spectrums plants use mainly for healthy vegetative growth.
4)Temperatures in a steady 70*-80*F (21*-26*C),with higher range for faster growth along with a noted chance for more malevolent unwanted biological growth to threaten health.

These principals turned my results around to 100% runs,while using an 18/6 photoperiod.

Happy cloning and thks for the nod IlovePlants.

3 runs without a res change falls in line with my monthly res change when I did DWC with Lucas GH Flora Series.
I will limit the cloner to 3 runs before change.More runs will give way to some nute imbalance,but most of all the build up of precipitate,and algea above the water line makes for extra cleaning efforts for a catch 22.

When I do the next fresh res run,I will do just 3 gals of tap,and 1 gal of nute solution from the start.No Schultz take root,or Dyna Gro KLN.If I get the same results?I will chuck the Schultz,and keep KLN to try on seedlings.I will PH with PH buffer only,and add additional nutes lightly towards the end of the 2nd run.

This Northern Berry (Big Blue) clone was done (for my needs) at day 9 but left to day 10.

Seeker Roots:When the res is lightly nuted the roots grow long and skinny into the res looking for nutes.

Comfy Roots:A stronger nuted res will produce stubby fat roots barely going beyond the Taproot.

Staying on the light side of res nute strength will produce longer roots sooner.These are considered soft roots because of method used,but can be easily transplanted to any convetional medium with a gentle touch.The roots will adapt to the medium,ie soil worked no problem,and in a week the clone held up to a wind/hail storm with a little help from Pro Tekt.

Thks Somebeech.

I noticed that in my current run that I am behind schedule.I asked myself what was different.I decided to use the KLN because I was behind.I realised that due to cooler weather that the room ambient temp is lower than average.The res dropped in temperature inwich slows rooting.I cranked up the aquarium heater till upper rooting temps where reached,and now back on track.

One grow I set up,the clone chamber was on the floor of a closet.The floor was a cement slab that worked perfectly with the latent heat from the summer.In the winter I insulated the res,and added an incandescant bulb off to the side for heat production only.This step brought the grow back in pace.