+rep for help with cloning

PainWrek said:

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

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Thanks for the info dude, I never thought about using tupperware. I'll get one tommorow & give it a try, I'll probably freak out some clerks who might catch me measuring the tupperware with a tapemeasure. lol

What are the holes for though, mold & mildew prevention? I got a tip earlier that if I mix in some Hydrogen Peroxide with the water being evaporated (I'll explain in a sec) that it will control the mold & mildew. Have you ever tried it?

I currently have them in 16oz plastic cups which sit in a 14" saucer with water in the saucer (no drainage holes in the cups - clones watered with 1/8 cup of water). I'm using the top halves of pepsi bottles for little individual domes. Temp is 77 at the top of the cup & humidity is 89% & climbing, which is pretty impressive considering the humidity in the house is 10%.

I was thinking of trying the tank with sarran wrap over the top so I can take more clones. The tank's pretty big and pretty cheap, but if I can save money on tupperware then I'll try that first. I was also thinking of using the tamk because someone said I should try to keep the medium at 80 and the plant top at mid 70s and a heating pad would help to do that. I can't use a heating pad under a plastic saucer or tupperware. But if these clones come in OK then I wont need the tank. (so many thoughts flying around inside my head lol)

I could have taken a few more clones but I guess I'm not drinking pepsi fast enough. lol But tommorow I'll get some tupperware & give it a try. I have plenty of room under the light, I could only take 7 clones today. (enough to fill 1 saucer)

PainWrek said:

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 ...

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PainWrek said:

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.

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Nice set up, mine is jerry rigged right now, and I'm just starting to test different things. I can tell you right now I'm not happy with the Rooting Hormone Powder, what a pain in the ass to use. I'll get some Seran Wrap tommorow so I can put it in a cup cut in half, maybe it will be easier to work with that way.

I've been getting a lot of different advice so I have to test different things. As an example, my clones have anywhere from 1 to 6 nodes under the dirt, and I scraped some of the stem cover off of a couple to help rooting. Lengths vary from very short to about 1.75" or 2" for the one with 6 nodes. And I saw something very strange when I had to clean out my grand ma's house when she passed. A small indoor tree (paper tree maybe) hadn't been watered in over 3 months. The middle of the short tree was dead but the top was still alive. Some branches had drooped to the dirt & become roots, it was pretty freaky, but with one of these clones I'm gonna have to try leaving on the stem & leaf on the nodes in the dirt just to see what happens.

Also when I was cutting clones a few of them from the Opiums which were FIMed when I got them I actually had to dig up because they originated from under the dirt level. I don't know how or why it did that, but I'm concerned that FIMed plants may be harder to clone, especially if the roots come out as branches. lol

It will be interesting to see if the branches grow back in as branches or as roots. (I re-burried them after taking the cutting)

JanesGreenFinger said:

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.

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Hydro? Me? No, never. lol, jk. I may try hydro cloning if I don't have a good success rate with dirt, but I really don't like cubes. Thanks for the info though. +rep

Wholly shit, the humidity in the "domes" is now 99%. Is there such a thing as too much humidity for clippings as long as mold & mildew doesn't start?

Ok, maybe some pics will help. The one over on the left all by itself is just the control dome with a thermometer/hygrometer in it. Sorry for the fuzzy pics, my cam stinks.

I have four 32w fluoro tubes 11.5" above the tops of the cups (three 6500k & one 3000k). The saucers have some water in them. The water creates an air tight seal and also constantly feeds the humidity inside & outside the domes. I treated the water with a cap full of Hydrogen Peroxide to help prevent mold/mildew from forming.

Inside the "control dome" it's 80 degrees at the top of the cup & the humidity is 99%. As long as I don't have to introduce fresh air into the domes to prevent mold/mildew, I wont have to touch them till they're rooted.

The cups don't have any drainage holes for obvious reasons, but when I take the next batch of clones I'm going to try to put drainage holes in 1 and line the bottom with perlite so the dirt doesn't absorb the water just to see if that might be better for some reason.

Does anyone see any problems with this set up so far? (only for rooting clones, as soon as they have roots they're going under a 400w MH)

no.. that looks pretty solid....you're probably going to have to spray after a couple days though...

ReAVeR said:

no.. that looks pretty solid....you're probably going to have to spray after a couple days though...

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Actually I'm not sure if I will need to spray. When I first tested it (the "test dome") it went over 80% humidity before I sprayed just from the water in the saucer evaporating. I'll keep my eye on it though and make sure the humidity doesn't drop below 80%.

btw, the only reason I sprayed the "control dome" is to recreate the exact conditions as the other domes, and the humidity climbed to 99% almost immediately.

Thanks for the validation though, this is my first rooting station and validation helps releive worries. +rep if it will let me.

I was thinking of trying the tank with sarran wrap over the top so I can take more clones. The tank's pretty big and pretty cheap, but if I can save money on tupperware then I'll try that first. I was also thinking of using the tamk because someone said I should try to keep the medium at 80 and the plant top at mid 70s and a heating pad would help to do that. I can't use a heating pad under a plastic saucer or tupperware. But if these clones come in OK then I wont need the tank. (so many thoughts flying around inside my head

Dude I was using the domes with heating matts and it was too fucking moist while I am at work. I use the cups now with the saran wrap on top and I find it holds the moisture very well at just the right mix. I spray the inside of the cups after cutting, dipping in root powder and inserting directly into the medium which I have filled halfway up the cup to allow room to cover with saran wrap. At first I have no holes in the bottom of my cups, also after preparing this cup I have them all in the tray but instead of dome covering I take the tray and sit it in my veg room indirectly under my hid so its kind of shaded and light does not actually hit any foliage. Once rooted I can easily fill the cups and transplant the clone so its as high in the cup as it can be with the cup filled all the way ( i cut some nice holes in the bottom and stab the sides a few times for drainage) I have gotten so good with this method that I have too many fucking clones now going too fast for my cycle. No biggie having to scale down instead of being upset because I dont have enough for to keep 12 plants going in cycle. I tried the domes and had a hard time keeping the humidity just right and ended up with lots of rotten clones in rockwool. I also found that the clones were catching root WAY faster in the soil i use than rockwool. My first waterings after the transplant I use Clonex mildly. Good luck I see the pics and think thats going to work out great. Make sure you dont have too much foliage on the clones your cutting as well, having too many leaves on your clone will cause it not to be able to sustain all leaves while catching root so they start to wilt faster. If i notice I tried to go with 4 leaves but the two on bottom are dying fast I clip them gently to keep the top nice and firm while catching root.

super2200 said:

I was thinking of trying the tank with sarran wrap over the top so I can take more clones. The tank's pretty big and pretty cheap, but if I can save money on tupperware then I'll try that first. I was also thinking of using the tamk because someone said I should try to keep the medium at 80 and the plant top at mid 70s and a heating pad would help to do that. I can't use a heating pad under a plastic saucer or tupperware. But if these clones come in OK then I wont need the tank. (so many thoughts flying around inside my head

Dude I was using the domes with heating matts and it was too fucking moist while I am at work. I use the cups now with the saran wrap on top and I find it holds the moisture very well at just the right mix. I spray the inside of the cups after cutting, dipping in root powder and inserting directly into the medium which I have filled halfway up the cup to allow room to cover with saran wrap. At first I have no holes in the bottom of my cups, also after preparing this cup I have them all in the tray but instead of dome covering I take the tray and sit it in my veg room indirectly under my hid so its kind of shaded and light does not actually hit any foliage. Once rooted I can easily fill the cups and transplant the clone so its as high in the cup as it can be with the cup filled all the way ( i cut some nice holes in the bottom and stab the sides a few times for drainage) I have gotten so good with this method that I have too many fucking clones now going too fast for my cycle. No biggie having to scale down instead of being upset because I dont have enough for to keep 12 plants going in cycle. I tried the domes and had a hard time keeping the humidity just right and ended up with lots of rotten clones in rockwool. I also found that the clones were catching root WAY faster in the soil i use than rockwool. My first waterings after the transplant I use Clonex mildly. Good luck I see the pics and think thats going to work out great. Make sure you dont have too much foliage on the clones your cutting as well, having too many leaves on your clone will cause it not to be able to sustain all leaves while catching root so they start to wilt faster. If i notice I tried to go with 4 leaves but the two on bottom are dying fast I clip them gently to keep the top nice and firm while catching root.

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Thanks for the info +rep

I think this set up might work, but early on you said you had a problem with too much moisture when using the heating pad. Was it only a mold/mildew concern, or can there be any other problems at 99% humidity?

Also I treated the water in the saucer with a cap full of hydrogen peroxide per some advice I received earlier in this thread. Have you ever used it? If yes, how did it work out for you in preventing mold/mildew?

oh okay, I didn't see the part about the water dish... best of luck....

DannyGreenEyes said:

Hydro? Me? No, never. lol, jk. I may try hydro cloning if I don't have a good success rate with dirt, but I really don't like cubes. Thanks for the info though. +rep

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no tubes man fuck all that. just water pump and stone. the only tube is from pump to stone. you just put the cut part of the stem under the water. its really amazing i didnt ph the water or anything set up cost me 12 or 13 bucks all at walmart and will take less room then 10 dixie cups. dont have to worry bout knocking them over. i always was bad about that.

-+

JanesGreenFinger said:

no tubes man fuck all that. just water pump and stone. the only tube is from pump to stone. you just put the cut part of the stem under the water. its really amazing i didnt ph the water or anything set up cost me 12 or 13 bucks all at walmart and will take less room then 10 dixie cups. dont have to worry bout knocking them over. i always was bad about that.

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Not tubes, cubes. Those pete moss cubes that a lot of people like using, I hate em.

I saw a tutorial on cloning where the guy did it in cups of water. I thought it was pretty neat, but you can't use direct light since the roots are all exposed under the water. The guy used indirect light, but I have no way of making a setup that uses indirect light.

When I move to a bigger place I may revisit it, I like the idea of diluting the rooting hormones into the water, then removing the plant from the water (& hormones) to plant it in dirt. I also like the idea of being able to see the roots so I know for sure when they're ready to transplant.

That reminds me of a question I thought of last night. How do I know when these clippings are nice & rooted? Are there any signs to look for, like new growth maybe?

They will droop for a couple days, and then come back to life, leaf burn on
the tips means they have began using leaf energy to create roots.

Do you have a Way to Grow near you? They sell heatmats with built
in thermostats. You could always order one from Hydrofarm, or
Sunlight Supply, those are the two main dealers which basically
all hydro stores order from.

99% humidity is where you want it to be, as long as you are
using your H2O2, everything will stay sterile

Shrubs First said:

They will droop for a couple days, and then come back to life, leaf burn on
the tips means they have began using leaf energy to create roots.

Do you have a Way to Grow near you? They sell heatmats with built
in thermostats. You could always order one from Hydrofarm, or
Sunlight Supply, those are the two main dealers which basically
all hydro stores order from.

99% humidity is where you want it to be, as long as you are
using your H2O2, everything will stay sterile

Click to expand...

Actually, after about 16 hrs I'm happy to say that none have drooped yet. I hope my luck holds out.

I don't think I'm gonna get a heating mat unless something changes and this set up doesn't give me good results. When I get this first harvest in I'll look into upgrading all 3 of my stations (rooting, veg, & flower). But till then, why spend money when money's tight if it aint broke.

I had no way to measure ML, so I used a cap full of Hydrogen Peroxide in each tray that was filled about half way with water. I think a cap full would be more than 2ML slightly, but not 100% sure.

Thanks again for all your help. I'll keep everyone posted to the results, but so far it looks like I'm gonna get 100% success with the current set up.

Today I went out looking for tupperware & I couldn't find anything deep enough for my cups. Then I found this tub for only $4.

It barely fits under the lights & in the rooting station, but it fits. If I did my math right, then I should be able to get 16 of the 3.5" cups in there which is the equivelant of 2 of those saucers.

But the temp in it is higher & the humidity is lower. In the "pepsi domes" is't 75 degrees with a humidity of 99%. In the tub it's 80 degrees and 80% humidity after 2 hours, and I still have to spray.

I like the results of the pepsi domes so far, even after messing up with the timer they were in 68 degree temp for 4 or 5 hours and they're still not drooping (almost 24 hrs).

I'm worried that I may not get the same results in the tub. How do seedlings usually do in 80 degree & 80% humidity conditions?

Also, I kinda wanted to try the rooting in water technique and I have a lid for the tub so the roots don't get direct light. The tutorial I saw said to keep them out of direct light, but will they root in the dark?

I can give +rep again, so +rep for any & all usefull info till I run out again.

Almost forgot, that little white thermometer & hygrometer that you see in the tub is only $3 at Home Depot, but they're not going to be carrying them anymore. I bought the last 3 that the one by my house had, if you want any you gotta act fast.

Well in the denver area, Paulinos Gardens has the humidity domes, heat mats, heat mat temp controllers and cloning gel propagators, they are open every day, (even sunday) year round. have nutes, soil and hydro supplies
couple of blocks north of 58th on broadway
If you have not been you should check it out

riddleme said:

Well in the denver area, Paulinos Gardens has the humidity domes, heat mats, heat mat temp controllers and cloning gel propagators, they are open every day, (even sunday) year round. have nutes, soil and hydro supplies
couple of blocks north of 58th on broadway
If you have not been you should check it out

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I'll check them out when I get this first harvest in, till then I have to stop spending & start earning money. Either that or I have to put my plants into flower yesterday, and they've only been in veg for 3 weeks (tommorow).

Thanks for the info though, I also wanted to check out the grow store on colfax, but I know if I go in there I'll spend money that I don't have. lol

I start out baby clones with only 1 100 watt equivalent CFL. When they are babies they dont need much light at all. I tried stronger lights once and it made them wilt. I have a fairly fully array of CFL's and just turn on an additional light each few days till they are maxed out. Good point on the dome and misting. Make sure your misting water is below 75 degrees F. or the leaves can't absorb it.

bigwheel said:

I start out baby clones with only 1 100 watt equivalent CFL. When they are babies they dont need much light at all. I tried stronger lights once and it made them wilt. I have a fairly fully array of CFL's and just turn on an additional light each few days till they are maxed out. Good point on the dome and misting. Make sure your misting water is below 75 degrees F. or the leaves can't absorb it.

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Have you ever tried to root one in the dark?

The lights I'm using seem to be doing a good job, 24 hrs after taking the clones they're all still perky. No real drooping at all. And I got rooting hormone on some of the leaves by accident.

I haven't misted the plants since someone told me that it stresses them out, and that leaves don't absorb moisture. I only misted the pepsi domes that one time to get the humidity up to 99% faster. And 24 hrs later they still don't need another misting.

The domes are working good so far. If I had more of them I wouldn't have bought the tub. Now I have to figure out how to use the tub so I can take more clippings until I have more time to drink more pepsi. lol

lower branches is the way to go