Aero cloners tips,tricks,do’s and don'ts
i run my pumps 30 seconds on, 10 minutes off. 15/15 or 30/30 is probably fine too, just dont run your pump 24/7. shorter on time, longer off time=faster roots ime
tap water works. i nute them right off the rip at 1.5ish ec, but plenty of people go by "no root, no nute" and do fine. the clonex bottled stuff works, whatever you would normally feed them will work too
most need to either run bennies or manually chlorinate to avoid root rot/pathogen infection/etc. either works. if youre going with chlorine, stick to 2 ppm or less. bleach, pool shock, hypochlorous acid, all will work. if you do bennies, hydroguard works fine and is readily available. southern ag garden friendly fungicide is a more concentrated and cheaper option, not sure if its available up there though. whichever you choose, youll want to redose every 3 days. both methods have worked for me, but these days, i prefer chlorine. why? because there are some things that bennies either cant handle, or can only hold out against for so long. they are rare, but theyre out there. ask me how i know lol
i dont worry too much about water temp. since the cuts arent submerged in the water, short pump cycle + bennies/chlorine= nothing to worry about imo. ive had cloners get pretty warm and still turn out satisfactory results
keep them away from strong air current. a little wind is fine but too much will delay rooting
you want a good bit of stem under the puck. i use the length of my middle finger as a reference point. as for the tops, leave 3 nodes and 2-3 fan leaves (depending on size). cut anything else off. clipping off even a small piece of the remaining fan leaves will encourage faster rooting
probably goes without saying, but remember to clean it between runs. i run mine overnight with a ton of bleach in it and soak the pucks in there for a while afterwards
and heres the greatest dont of all: do not leave your pump unplugged when youre swapping out water or whatever and then forget to plug it back in. similarly, do not leave any of the holes uncovered. you will end up with either a wet floor, wilted cuts that take forever to root, or dead cuts. maybe all of the above. ive killed a lot of clones over the years, and these two methods are the culprits for 95% of them