Cuttings will not grow roots

I'm having a problem getting cuttings to root lately. I use an aeroponic cloner exactly like the one in the attachment, I've been using it for over a year with no problems, I previously had almost a 100% success rate. However these past few months I'm hard pressed to get anything to root. At first I thought the problem might be the water because I had moved to a different area so I started using distilled water in the cloner, no results. Then I thought it might be contamination with the EZ Clone sprayers or the water pump or the net pots and neoprene collars I put the cuttings in so I replaced those, no results. Then I talked to the guys at the local hydro store and they suggested it might be my clonex has gone past it's shelf life, I';ve had the same bottle for about 3 years. So I bought a small pouch of clonex gel they recommended and just filled my clean cloner with plain distilled water and I'm still showing no results.

In previous times I was able to get clones rooting within a week or two with no problem, sometimes I'd go several cycles without even cleaning the cloner and had no problems still. It's driving me nuts and I'm starting to feel like an idiot for not being able to get this to work. I went from a 99% success rate to a 0% success rate in the span of a month. I've made sure the temp in the tent is in the right range, I've made sure the water pH is in the right range, I have a t5 light about 1.5ft away running 24/7, the same way I've always done it. At this point the only thing I haven't tried is buying a new rubbermaid container and building a new pvc cloner. I'm at wits end and am asking for any and all advice I can get.

A little bit more info. The pump is set on a specialty timer so that it runs for 1 minute every 5 minutes. What I'm seeing with the cuttings is that they perk up toward the light like they've always done but over time they just wither and die. The bottom part which gets sprayed starts to turn brown, followed by the leaves. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

Mr.Flint said:

A little bit more info. The pump is set on a specialty timer so that it runs for 1 minute every 5 minutes. What I'm seeing with the cuttings is that they perk up toward the light like they've always done but over time they just wither and die. The bottom part which gets sprayed starts to turn brown, followed by the leaves. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

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ok, so it's a good idea to not use 100% distilled, i use half distilled and half well water, and in my experience the temps are CRUCIAL
you want cooler water, and i like to have it running ALL the time, not on a timer.
if you aren't in a hot area that's totally fine to do, but you must make sure the water is riiiight at the manifold, at the bottom, that way the more water you have, the better it's gonna be at regulating the temps.
if its hot, get the frozen blue freezer things for underneath the cloner
i also do not use anything on the cuts, just water.
use a sharp sterile scalpel to make the cuts
and it's CRUCIAL the donor plant is healthy!
i clone like a mofo, and sometime i have problems too, and most often it's temperature related.
or clogged squirters, you want those things to be spraying directly on the stems, and you want it to be fairly strong too.
I have certain spots on my cloner that clone cuts twice as fast, and the reason is the squirters.. you want them to be able to breakdown the stem and stimulate the root growth
colder water is better than warm in my experience, i have better results when i clone in the cooler months, in the summer it takes longer and i have a less successful %

Mr.Flint said:

A little bit more info. The pump is set on a specialty timer so that it runs for 1 minute every 5 minutes. What I'm seeing with the cuttings is that they perk up toward the light like they've always done but over time they just wither and die. The bottom part which gets sprayed starts to turn brown, followed by the leaves. I'll see if I can find some pictures.

Click to expand...

is there a problem with your tap water?
chlorine?
a speck of chlorine in there actually may help..
brown stems usually mean too warm of water..
in the summer i clone under my house where it's cool, tends to make it more successful, cooler water is always better than warm.
and like i said, you don't want 100% distilled.

I don't know if there's necessarily anything wrong with my water, but it's the only thing that changed between when I was having 100% success to 0% success. I have a bottle of h2o2 meant for growing, yesterday I added a little to the reservoir because I've read it adds oxygen to the water. I always had great success cloning in warmer temps, if anything I found I had more trouble when it was cold. The cloning guide I've used calls for the pump to run for one minute then off for 5 minutes and I've always had no trouble getting cuttings to root.

In between clonings I always clean the cloner with bleach-free clorox wipes, I clean the surface I'm working on with the same wipes and use a clean razor blade every time.

I'm thinking about adding an airstone and an air pump to the reservoir to make sure the water stays oxygenated.

Are you using the same mother? Maybe it's getting old.

In my previous runs I never had a dedicated mother plant, I run a perpetual harvest setup. I always just took cuttings from the plants in veg. I ran it like this for over a year with no problems. I started a new plant from seeds and I've been trying to clone from that with no results so I know it's not an issue with the plant I'm taking cuttings from.

Mr.Flint said:

I'm thinking about adding an airstone and an air pump to the reservoir to make sure the water stays oxygenated.

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that's not gonna change anything man, the squirters are mixing the water with the air, an airstone isn't going to do a single thing at all
I guarantee the water is saturated with oxygen, it won't hold more at atmospheric pressures

I have been down this same exact rabbit hole

when I used a water chiller it worked amazing

after my water chiller croaked I had nothing but problems (to warm of water)

I also noticed ...the older the donor the more difficult it is to get it to clone

I have better clone success when I trade out the mother plant with a replicated clone frequently (as in every 2 months)

if the donor has powdery mildew or whatever it ruins your clones

I suspect PM will exist on a plant in a mild way without showing signs and cause havoc with cloning

Mr.Flint said:

In between clonings I always clean the cloner with bleach-free clorox wipes, I clean the surface I'm working on with the same wipes and use a clean razor blade every time.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't do that personally, with the wipes that is...

greasemonkeymann said:

that's not gonna change anything man, the squirters are mixing the water with the air, an airstone isn't going to do a single thing at all
I guarantee the water is saturated with oxygen, it won't hold more at atmospheric pressures

Click to expand...

well
it does push fresh air into the chamber

when air is forced in, it must also be forced out

so it does create an air exchange inside the chamber that could help with keeping the chamber cool

but its not going to be effective as far as adding o2
the waters already being sprayed about

im4satori said:

well
it does push fresh air into the chamber

when air is forced in, it must also be forced out

so it does create an air exchange inside the chamber that could help with keeping the chamber cool

but its not going to be effective as far as adding o2
the waters already being sprayed about

Click to expand...

well...
think about it, is something USING the o2?
nope.
ambient o2 is how water gets oxygenated, adding an airstone will NOT add even a speck of more oxygen to it
trust me, chemisty and physics I'm a bit nerdy on...
if the sprayer is spraying, the water is saturated with o2, water cannot ADD oxygen to it under atmospheric pressures
the o2 levels outside at the inlet of the pump won't be any different than the air that's being mixed with the spraying
it's not the air that gets hot, it's the PUMP... and in turn the water gets hotter.
running anther pump will just introduce more warm air to the cloner
i do see what you are saying, i'm just saying it won't improve the OPs problem.
which is most likely too warm of water

peroxide might be a safer choice
especially in the neoprene

I ended up going old school cloning and haven't looked back

greasemonkeymann said:

well...
think about it, is something USING the o2?
nope.
ambient o2 is how water gets oxygenated, adding an airstone will NOT add even a speck of more oxygen to it
trust me, chemisty and physics I'm a bit nerdy on...
if the sprayer is spraying, the water is saturated with o2, water cannot ADD oxygen to it under atmospheric pressures
the o2 levels outside at the inlet of the pump won't be any different than the air that's being mixed with the spraying

Click to expand...

that's what I said lol... it wont add o2

I just also mentioned
think of the air pump as an intake fan forcing fresh air into the chamber

not for the purpose of adding o2 to the water but for the purpose of putting fresh clean cool air into the chamber (not the water)

theres another brand of areo cloner (turbo cloner) that actuall installs a fan in the box to exchange the air
this could help with keeping the chamber temps cooler

http://www.altgarden.com/plant-propagation-supplies/cloning-machines/turbo-klone-4431/turbo-klone-3221.html

one thing ive done that has helped improve cloning

I now keep my mother/donor plants in soil
and they stay healthy longer/long term

Here are photos taken today. You can see the browning where I made the cut and the leaves browning as well. One of the cutting has the beginnings of roots but it's been like that for about two weeks now with no further growth.

you might raise your light or redice the light

the fading into yellow might be from too much light

if they don't root with in 2.5 weeks throw the out... even if they do eventually root they'll be unhealthy too long by the time you nurse them to health you could start agian

do oyu have a bare cement floor somewhere in your home

setting the cloner on bare cement will help keep the water cool