Organic Cloning W/Aloe

ive heard people getting great results with clonex, but something about it being a carcinogenic mutagen just makes my skin crawl.im trying to go completely organic including my cloning process, so ive decided to do a little experiment with aloe. took two clones from the girl scouts and two fire og.i soaked a few filets in a glass of water and put the clones in to soak for 24 hours. Used pipe cleaners to prop them up in the glass and set them on the floor in the veg room.

Hi Kushdaddy,
I lived and grew in Iowa for three years. Had a large weeping willow in the front yard that I used to make cloning juice. It worked great for me. But sorry no experience with aloe.

Another option is to make or buy an aero cloner. Never used them but lots of guys do. And cloning/rooting chemicals aren't really needed.

I hope what your're doing works. I've managed to keep three cuttings alive in rockwool. They were from a flowering plant so they have to reveg and make roots. I just keep the rockwool damp and mist them occasionally. Been a couple weeks and no roots out the bottom yet.
JD

i have an aero cloner, but ive never tried it without chemicals.i have some rockwool cubes soaking in 5.5 ph water. Ill be transplanting into the cubes tommorrow.

Be sure to let us know some results! I have a ton of aloe and would love to use it for this!

Aero cloner and tap water(decent tap mine is <210ppm)for the win.No stuff needed in an aerocloner.
Interested to see the results of your aloe experiment.

The aero cloner works with without any additives, but the cuttings don't really grow well once they've started rooting. I've found that using the clonex bottle solution that contains the broad spectrum of nutrients in a weak amount actually allowed my cuttings to grow once they started rooting in the cloner. But did I have 100% success without the clonex? Yes, however, the clones always showed deficiencies and took longer to start growing when transplanted to soil because the water was deficient in nutrients and they were trying to synthesize new growth with no raw materials (I was using RO, not direct tap). Once I started using the clonex, they actually grew in the cloner while rooting, and I observed faster recovery when transplanted into soil. Now I know that the cloner will produce water roots, which aren't soil roots, but having the nutrition in the cutting, when moving to soil, makes a big difference compared to planting a cutting that is deficient already. For me, it's worth the few bucks for the bottle of synthetic junk. I'm okay with using it for cuttings, because the results are better than not using it.

FWIW, I've used aloe with success just out of curiosity. It seemed to take a few days longer than the clonex gel. But I still have this bottle of clonex gel, and I'm gonna friggin use it haha. I'm just careful not to get it on me, and if I do I rinse my hands thoroughly immediately. Usually I just dilute 5-6 drops of the gel into 3/4c of water and soak the cuttings in that for 12-24 hours. It really makes the gel last a looooooooong time.

Yea,once mine root in the cloner,if I'm not ready to transplant,I toss megacrop in from my res.
You've got what works for ya.That's what matters.
On the aloe,I know it's used and aids in rooting.I've just never seen it done this way.
I was actually curious because I wondered how much aloe it takes to make a aloe cloning slurry,that and I like to tinker and experiment.I have a small aloe plant that I usually toss hard to pop seeds in.I've had a few germinate in the aloe pot.

so far it seems to be working the clones drooped for a couple hours but perked right back up. I did notice a slight problem with this method.i noticed a puddle under the glass. I found that the pipe cleaners are wicking the water out and over the edge of cup.i dont recommend using the pipe cleaners like this. Im thinking of going towards more of a dwc setup or maybe floating styrofoam, something to prop the stems up in the water better.

I started cloning about 12 years ago with some cheap powder from Wally World. I used it this year too but it was getting old so I gave it to my grandson to use. He got roots in a couple of weeks with that old crap. I'm interested in trying the aloe though. Good post!

i really need to get my clone game on point... I have a DIY aero cloner but I am NOT consistent ion my cloning... I have only run it 4 times or so but the last time 76% of my stems just turned to mush... I am following many things and hopefully once I am ready to clone the moms I currently have growing, I will be ready to NOT fuck up cloning this time lol

I have been using aloe to clone for years now. I cut off an aloe "frond" or whatever they are called with aloe lol, and then stick my cut clones into the gel inside it. I usually wiggle them around to make sure the aloe gets in all the nooks and crannies on the clone and then I to my rapid rooters. It works great! Typically I have roots in 5-7 days.

cut a piece off the aloe and stuck the stems in there and got them all coated nice with gel and dripped a big glob of it in the holes as i pushed them into the rockwool cubes.

kushdaddy1980 said:

cut a piece off the aloe and stuck the stems in there and got them all coated nice with gel and dripped a big glob of it in the holes as i pushed them into the rockwool cubes.View attachment 4273155 View attachment 4273156

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when you soak the rockwool cubes, make an aloe solution to soak them with. I've heard of this being done with the rapid rooters.

got them all in the cubes and put their cube covers on. Misted them and put the dome on.Set a heating pad underneath to keep em warm for a while.

Raw aloe works for me, it does take a little longer but will for sure root your cuttings and is simple.

Im not sure why i don't hear this more often but, i also water with a raw aloe mix every other week in veg and my root go fucking nuts over it, open a 2" x 6" piece, squeeze all that jizz out of it into a gallon of lukewarm water & let it return to room temp before feeding.

ShLUbY said:

when you soak the rockwool cubes, make an aloe solution to soak them with. I've heard of this being done with the rapid rooters.

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i actually did that lol i soaked them with the aloe water.ill make some more to keep them moist with every couple days or so.

SPLFreak808 said:

Raw aloe works for me, it does take a little longer but will for sure root your cuttings and is simple.

Im not sure why i don't hear this more often but, i also water with a raw aloe mix every other week in veg and my root go fucking nuts over it, open a 2" x 6" piece, squeeze all that jizz out of it into a gallon of lukewarm water & let it return to room temp before feeding.

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i did warm my water up to about room temperature, i usually try to do this when i water my plants too. ill put my water jug in the sink with some warm water around it til its up to temp.I feel like the cold water will kill microbes or make them go dormant.i try make it about 65-70°F.

kushdaddy1980 said:

i did warm my water up to about room temperature, i usually try to do this when i water my plants too. ill put my water jug in the sink with some warm water around it til its up to temp.I feel like the cold water will kill microbes or make them go dormant.i try make it about 65-70°F.

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it just slows them down, won't kill them because its such a short period of time. i bet my microbes are freezing their flagella off right now it's so cold here in MI!!!

kushdaddy1980 said:

i did warm my water up to about room temperature, i usually try to do this when i water my plants too. ill put my water jug in the sink with some warm water around it til its up to temp.I feel like the cold water will kill microbes or make them go dormant.i try make it about 65-70°F.

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I say lukewarm because it helps dissolve the aloe for better coverage and can effectively reduce/eradicate dry spots from hydrophobic soil, something i had to deal with during my busy months in organic soil.

I try not to worry too much about the microbes, you can slow them down a little but its going to take alot more than cold water, by that time your root zone will have a hard time with uptake.

Aloe works wonders, if used properly. The thing about aloe is once you've squeezed the gel out of it you only have a 15-20 minute period of time to use it before it becomes useless and loses all of it's properties.

You can in fact clone using nothing but aloe and you get some pretty vicious roots from it, but it takes quite a bit of work to accomplish. Personally, what I like to do is just get a bit of gel from an aloe leaf and mix it in with some water. I use that water to keep the root plugs moist, but still use cloning gel simply because I'd rather spend the ~$10 on rooting gel than spend the time getting the gel from the aloe, it's a total pain in the ass.

I recommend soaking the rooting plugs/rockwool in aloe infused water, but using cloning gel on the actual clones themselves. Then keep the plugs soaked with aloe water constantly. You'll have roots in 7-10 days, guaranteed.