+rep for help with cloning

id say if you can have your hand comfortably at the top canopy of clones, then the light wont hurt it.. its the heat that fries clones, not lumens,, and now someone will jump down my thought and say well more lumens implies more heat... make sure thats taken into consideration. and personally i like my cfls right on top of the humidity dome.. keeps it warmer and produces more humidity.... a clone will root in water with no hormone, so dont make things too complicated and turn something simple into something else.....humidity dome.. spray bottle, rockwool(or medium) and rooting hormone with some lights for veg and ur solid... triming most of the leaves off the clone will help it survive too.. i leave at least 3 fanleaves on it tho

clones don't need direct light, just so you know. they can't process the light they receive cause there is no root system. i keep my cuttings about 1.5 feet away from floro bulbs, in dixie cups with 1/3 perlite 2/3 dirt. perlite will allow more oxygen to travel through your medium, and oxygen is essential to obtaining roots. i do not mist cuttings, but i do mist the inside of the humidity dome 3 times a day. see roots in 7-12 days.

the actual rooting takes place more so in the dark period, but 24 hrs on is fine too. test have shown that clones are best rooted in a 18/6 light cycles.

and yes, clones are best taken from the bottoms of the plant...

MRsteverson said:

id say if you can have your hand comfortably at the top canopy of clones, then the light wont hurt it.. its the heat that fries clones, not lumens,, and now someone will jump down my thought and say well more lumens implies more heat... make sure thats taken into consideration. and personally i like my cfls right on top of the humidity dome.. keeps it warmer and produces more humidity.... a clone will root in water with no hormone, so dont make things too complicated and turn something simple into something else.....humidity dome.. spray bottle, rockwool(or medium) and rooting hormone with some lights for veg and ur solid... triming most of the leaves off the clone will help it survive too.. i leave at least 3 fanleaves on it tho

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You want the dome to be 72 degrees, and the medium to be 80..

You dont want the Leaves to be absorbing too much light,
There are no roots to take in nutrients to convert the light energy
into carbs and usable energy. So your more light theory is just too much.
And personally (not to discredit you) but i wouldnt accept too much info
with out that person having verifyable success.. Check my plants, all came
from my method of cloning

Shrubs First said:

what do you think peroxide is? O2... Hydrogen Peroxide means H2O2

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My bad, should have remembered that from Jr Hi School science. lol

DannyGreenEyes said:

My bad, should have remembered that from Jr Hi School science. lol

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Sorry I majored in horticulture

GreedAndVanity said:

Did I notice someone say 2/3 perlite? I guess it could work but that would dry so quick you would have an issue keeping it wet in my opinion. Unless you are going to use a drip system or something I would say using a max of 1/3 perlite is enough, some people go as high as 50/50 but I have never heard of anyone using that high of a percent without having it on top of a DWC or something.

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Thanks for the info +rep

I never went above 1/3 perlite either, that's what I used in the pots of the plants I'm growing. It still takes them 3 to 4 days to dry out though, and I'm only using 2 to 3 cups per 5 gallon pot. (plants are still pretty small, so I'm babying them a bit)

I was only thinking of increasing to 50/50 because with this set up I can't cut drainage holes in the bottom of the cups since they'll be constantly sitting in water. Unless maybe I line the bottom half inch or so with perlite so the dirt isn't constantly absorbing water.

MRsteverson said:

id say if you can have your hand comfortably at the top canopy of clones, then the light wont hurt it.. its the heat that fries clones, not lumens,, and now someone will jump down my thought and say well more lumens implies more heat... make sure thats taken into consideration. and personally i like my cfls right on top of the humidity dome.. keeps it warmer and produces more humidity.... a clone will root in water with no hormone, so dont make things too complicated and turn something simple into something else.....humidity dome.. spray bottle, rockwool(or medium) and rooting hormone with some lights for veg and ur solid... triming most of the leaves off the clone will help it survive too.. i leave at least 3 fanleaves on it tho

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info +rep

Well I keep my house at about 70 degrees, so with 4 fluoro tubes right on top of the "pepsi domes" the temp at the top of the cups are in the low 80s. So what you're saying is as long as I maintain that heat level the lights wont be too harsh if they're right on top of the domes? (I can grab the bulbs with no pain, they're only warm not hot)

PainWrek said:

clones don't need direct light, just so you know. they can't process the light they receive cause there is no root system. i keep my cuttings about 1.5 feet away from floro bulbs, in dixie cups with 1/3 perlite 2/3 dirt. perlite will allow more oxygen to travel through your medium, and oxygen is essential to obtaining roots. i do not mist cuttings, but i do mist the inside of the humidity dome 3 times a day. see roots in 7-12 days.

the actual rooting takes place more so in the dark period, but 24 hrs on is fine too. test have shown that clones are best rooted in a 18/6 light cycles.

and yes, clones are best taken from the bottoms of the plant...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I'll have to pick up another timer.

I don't think I'll need to mist daily if the hydrogen peroxide works. There will be water at the bottom of the cups constantly to evaporate & provide moisture.

DannyGreenEyes said:

To make sure there's a good seal at the bottom of the Pepsi 2-litre bottle I'm going to be putting a little water in a 14" saucer & I wont be making any drainage holes in the bottom of the cups. This should make a air tight seal and also help keep the humidity high in the "domes" which is important since the humidity is normally 15 to 20% here.

+rep

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ummm no. Don't make a good seal. Your clones need a little bit of airflow. You're using soil right? If they don't make it this time, try microwaving your soil to kill pathogens.

Shrubs First said:

You want the dome to be 72 degrees, and the medium to be 80..

You dont want the Leaves to be absorbing too much light,
There are no roots to take in nutrients to convert the light energy
into carbs and usable energy. So your more light theory is just too much.
And personally (not to discredit you) but i wouldnt accept too much info
with out that person having verifyable success.. Check my plants, all came
from my method of cloning

Click to expand...

The pepsi bottles are going to make very small domes. I'm not sure I can keep the medium at 80 & the dome at 72 in such a confined area.

But I thought the clippings absorb moisture through their leaves and use light to convert it into the energy needed to grow roots. Am I off base with this theory?

Shrubs First said:

Sorry I majored in horticulture

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Didn't mean for that to sound like a put down or anything, just pointing out how dumb I was. lol I learned how to read the symbols when I learned the periodic table. Now I know how Homer feels when he says "D'OH". lol

skoobie dew said:

ummm no. Don't make a good seal. Your clones need a little bit of airflow. You're using soil right? If they don't make it this time, try microwaving your soil to kill pathogens.

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I haven't taken the clippings yet, but I will be as soon as I go out & buy some hydrogen peroxide.

If I don't make the seal then it will be harder to keep the humidity up. It's normally around 20% humidity here so it's a concern.

I'm using FFOF soil, I would think it would be free of pathogens unless pathogens are good for plants after they root.

Clones do not 'absorb water inorder to make energy inorder to grow roots'. Clones can prespire too much through leaves and become water stressed. Clones can have nutrients absorbed through leaves by osmosis. Too much light on clones encourages meristem growth which is detrimental in that it takes energy from root formation.

GreedAndVanity said:

Clones do not 'absorb water inorder to make energy inorder to grow roots'. Clones can prespire too much through leaves and become water stressed. Clones can have nutrients absorbed through leaves by osmosis. Too much light on clones encourages meristem growth which is detrimental in that it takes energy from root formation.

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I definately misunderstood how clippings get their water, thanks for the info, these things are good to know.
BTW, if they don't take in water through the leaves, how do they take in water since they have no roots yet?

I just got back from the store. Wal-Mart has 10 gallon tanks for around $12. I almost bought one but Wal-Mart had no heating pads for tanks. So I went to Petsmart who had heating pads, but the heating pads had no thermostat on them. They did have a seperate unit that seemed to be a thermostat, it would turn you're heating stuff (for lizards) on & off depending on which of the 3 temp setting you have it on. But I noticed that this thing didn't have a probe to determine temp. I asked the attendant and she said that it also didn't have a temp probe in the unit itself. Don't ask me how it's supposed to regulate temp if it has no way of measuring the temp, sounds like a pretty useless product if you ask me.

Does anyone know of any heating pad, or any thermostat (that can turn stuff on & off to keep a certain temp range) that's on the market?

Just saw a thread where someone has a thermostat to run the heating pad... https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/5515-clone-questions.html

+rep if anyone can tell me where I can buy one, other than at garage sales.

what's the 10 gal tank for. ... look into the upside down tuppoware bins. flip it upside-down on its lid, put your clones on the lid, and place the tuppoware over the clones after slicing a bunch of holes for airflow. just pull up the bin, spray the inside and leave em be. the more you fuck with em it disturbs the rooting process. pretty cheap clone dome

bghydro.com or hightechgardensupply ---- although, a heating pad isn't absolutely necessary...... i root 9/10 clones without a heating pad. hell, i don't even have a thermometer..... they key to cloning is to not really care about em, just let them do their thing ...... i come and mist the walls of the clone dome a few times a day, but other than that i don't pay them any attention ...

personally i would just buy a small plastic bin (mine was clear so i covered it with electrical tape) a 6 dollar air pump from wally world and a 10in air stone. cut holes in the top of the bin (one for each clone) and a hole for the air pump tube. cut your clones at a 45, slice about a quarter in of the skin off (just the top layer) and only as much as you can with one swipe which is very little. put your air stone in fill with water let sit for an hour then turn it on. put your cuttings in and it took my clones 7 or 8 days to get little root nubs, i dont use gel. then you could put in your grow medium. i took one clone just to test my system out 12 days ago. now my little baby has 4 or 5 inch roots now. it was just an experiment and i havent gotten nutes yet. so she'll probably live a short life. anyways thats my little bit of info, you also can check them everyday to see it grow. its really neat how that works ive never seen it done except on the internet. anyways hope you have success with yours.

here's my clone dome. as you can see the clones in root are on the bottom shelf, underneath a couple of new mothers i just come in a few times a day and mist the inside walls. there's air flaps on the bottom of the grotent so it allows great airflow
and some cuts i took a few day's ago.... nothing special, 2/3dirt 1/3perlite (roughly), holes in the cup, 18/6 and leave em. bout 10 days later all good. obviosly your clones won't need watering b/c the soil won't really dry until there's a root mass absorbing it.