best humidity for rooting clones?

I think you should give coco a try. You can get small bricks of Burpee coco coir at Home Depot, Walmart, etc... for around $3.

But from your description of your process you're probably keeping them too wet. Unless you're using a water cloner the material you're cloning in should be good and damp but not soaking wet.

Good luck.

raggyb said:

ok thanks I will try...though I thought I was following dome instructions. 12 hrs ago I made a change but it likely be too late to save these. Still I hope to learn how far gone is too far gone. I'm 80% in the air and airstone in water under the styro which I propped up so airstone can fit and water is just below the bottom of the plug so not touching but real close. I'll have to take more cuts to try.

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throw that airstone away

put the clones on dry floor so the plugs can dry a bit and get clearer in color

keep it simple

right - keep it simple

water and dip n grow - that's all i use

and then if they gotta stay in the cloner a little longer then i'd like, and they're all rooted, i'll feed them with some Rx Green Cloning Solution (they love that stuff)

raggyb said:

I've got more control over my humidity to try and solve my cloning issues and want your advice. I've been lucky if half of my cuttings make it. Read a lot of suggestions and often see people saying to take the humidity dome off after only 1-3 days. I took my dome off this time and they're in about 60% humidity but a few of them are showing problems bending over at the top like their heading to death's door, lol, you know what I mean?

Some more info. Cuttings were semi hard woody lowers off reveg's, I know that increases difficulty. I cut em, razor scraped and dipped in clonex and root powder. Put them in seedling tray dome with Riot plugs. Added tap and put dome on for 6 days. Was too hot first 6 day so I switched lights to one 20W led bulb 10" above, and makeshift covered with a white pillow case between light and cuttings to dull the light but allow airflow. Temps 79F, rH 63%. Changed water after 6 days.

My primary question is- has anyone determined the perfect rH for rooting? I haven't seen that % posted anywhere. Should I go higher? In prior attempts I've seen the 100% humidity result in mold/damping and dying, but I've actually had more luck leaving the dome on with vents closed at 98 - 100%, as long as they don't get mold. It never takes mine less than 3 weeks this way. I've also lost some that had good roots after transitioning to soil. So again, isn't there any evidence on the best rH% for rooting?

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You're fighting a fun battle - you get wilt if the humidity is too low and fungus loves high RH. I'll get a few that wilt when I pull the dome, but they usually bounce back in a few days. In my experience, I found fighting wilt is a better choice. If you have to cull a wilting clone, no big deal. If you have cull due to fungus, then you know there are spores in your cloning tray and you can lose them all and have to decide on a course of action.

You might try a bubble/areo cloner - those can often clone faster. In my experience rockwool clones a little faster than Roit plugs. I've also found benes in the root cubes speeds up the process. I use Great White, but any beneficial should work. Not all plants/strains/phenos clone equally, so you might consider a new strain. Many a grower has given up on a strain because it was difficult to clone. I'd say make sure you're cloning the less woody stuff down low - that part of the plant usually roots faster. I leave the dome on a day maybe two, then pull it. Doesn't matter if my room is at 25 or 50% humidity, they do fine. You can try dipping the clone in H202, Physan or some other antifungal/sanitizer to prevent fungus outbreaks. You might consider treating the whole crop/room to cut back on how much fungi (or it's spores) are hanging around - might prevent a future outbreak. Always clone with PH'd water - 5.5-6ph. Heat mat help under the cloning tray helps a bunch.

oh shoot, I forgot to ph down. and maybe I squoze the cubes too much this time. So another bout goes though.

i never ph anything

i also never check what the actual humidity is in my cloner

and i never get wilt in there and i never get fungus either ...and lets say i make about 80 clones - i might have 1 or 2 that don't root - but i make more clones than i really need to begin with...because even some of those that root, turn out to be not ideal plants that i'd want to flower anyway

so for example - lets say i need 50 plants for flower, then ill make 80 clones, and at worst, lets say 5 don't root, but im prepared for more to fail, just in case... so then i plant around 75 of them....then i pick out the 50 best and the other 25 either get turn into clones, or just get culled...and that's enough room for me to change my mind about what strains i wanna run next

but that's just me and how i do things and if maybe you'd wanna do things like that - its up to you

xtsho said:

I think you should give coco a try. You can get small bricks of Burpee coco coir at Home Depot, Walmart, etc... for around $3.

But from your description of your process you're probably keeping them too wet. Unless you're using a water cloner the material you're cloning in should be good and damp but not soaking wet.

Good luck.

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If you don't mind me asking, do you think coco would be the best to transplant to once they get roots? I've lost some at that stage too. What would you mix in or how would you prepare your coco for that stage? I thought there was a bit of a learning curve with coco.

raggyb said:

oh shoot, I forgot to ph down. and maybe I squoze the cubes too much this time. So another bout goes though.

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lol you'll be fine - better to squeeze them too much than not enough

HaroldRocks said:

i never ph anything

i also never check what the actual humidity is in my cloner

and i never get wilt in there and i never get fungus either ...

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sorry I'm not sure if you said...are you using a cloner like with sprayer in it or just a static dome like mine?

raggyb said:

If you don't mind me asking, do you think coco would be the best to transplant to once they get roots? I've lost some at that stage too. What would you mix in or how would you prepare your coco for that stage? I thought there was a bit of a learning curve with coco.

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I clone in small 2.5" x 2.5" x 4" pots. It's not much coco at all. You could put the clones into coco, soil, dwc, etc... The only thing I do to prepare coco is rehydrate with a weak nutrient solution and then fill the pots. Just straight coco. I don't use any perlite, mycorrhizal products, or anything else. It's simple but it works.

raggyb said:

sorry I'm not sure if you said...are you using a cloner like with sprayer in it or just a static dome like mine?

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a dome just like you - that's why im talking to you about it - ive been growing for about 15 years and doing clones just like that

and i love root riot cubes - and i used to use clonex gel too

if you were using an aero-cloner, i wouldn't be telling you anything other than to throw that thing in the garbage

HaroldRocks said:

so for example - lets say i need 50 plants for flower, then ill make 80 clones, and at worst, lets say 5 don't root, but im prepared for more to fail, just in case... so then i plant around 75 of them....then i pick out the 50 best and the other 25 either get turn into clones, or just get culled...and that's enough room for me to change my mind about what strains i wanna run next

but that's just me and how i do things and if maybe you'd wanna do things like that - its up to you

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I think your operation is a little bigger than mine, lol. Since you have so many together at once that alone probably keeps the humidity higher.

raggyb said:

I think your operation is a little bigger than mine, lol. Since you have so many together at once that alone probably keeps the humidity higher.

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yes it totally does...so ok - sometimes ill have 1 tray that only has about 15 clones in it - and that one, yes i have to keep an eye on it more because it'll dry out quicker....that's the one where i have to mist the hood almost daily to keep it more humid in there

but also - when i have a packed tray - i gotta keep an eye on that too because its almost too much moisture, so i take the hood off and wipe it down to dry it up some

see? there's a little visual for you so you know we're on the same page...those 2 that are still in there are already rooted, so i don't care about the humidity anymore




and then that's them when they graduate out of the cloner and make it to a shelf

IME, 29°C /84°F with pucks damp enough to make a some condensation on the dome, and popping the lid a couple times every day to refresh the air and breathe on them works well.

HaroldRocks said:

i never ph anything

i also never check what the actual humidity is in my cloner

and i never get wilt in there and i never get fungus either ...and lets say i make about 80 clones - i might have 1 or 2 that don't root - but i make more clones than i really need to begin with...because even some of those that root, turn out to be not ideal plants that i'd want to flower anyway

so for example - lets say i need 50 plants for flower, then ill make 80 clones, and at worst, lets say 5 don't root, but im prepared for more to fail, just in case... so then i plant around 75 of them....then i pick out the 50 best and the other 25 either get turn into clones, or just get culled...and that's enough room for me to change my mind about what strains i wanna run next

but that's just me and how i do things and if maybe you'd wanna do things like that - its up to you

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If you haven't gotten wilt or fungus in 15 years of growing, then you're one lucky SOB.

SnoopyDoo said:

If you haven't gotten wilt or fungus in 15 years of growing, then you're one lucky SOB.

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ya know, the only thing ive had happen, is if the cutting itself isn't healthy or it was bent when i was poking it through the cube, it would die out and get the white fuzz/fungus that would extend from the cube up to the stem - but it would be isolated to that 1 clone

otherwise, no i don't ever get fungus, and when you guys talk about it like it's super common, im just like hmmm idk that doesn't happen to me


as far as wilt...well, the only way that would happen is if it's too dry from neglect - and i don't ever neglect them

HaroldRocks said:

ya know, the only thing ive had happen, is if the cutting itself isn't healthy or it was bent when i was poking it through the cube, it would die out and get the white fuzz/fungus that would extend from the cube up to the stem - but it would be isolated to that 1 clone

otherwise, no i don't ever get fungus, and when you guys talk about it like it's super common, im just like hmmm idk that doesn't happen to me


as far as wilt...well, the only way that would happen is if it's too dry from neglect - and i don't ever neglect them

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Looks like we use the same system, except I use Clonex or Oliva's. I get "brown spot" occassionally - it's called something else on MMJ, but it's brown spot in grass. Transfers from my landscaper's lawn mower to my lawn to my grow room. Really doesn't affect healthy plants, but it likes to attack my Grape Ape strain in the clone stage. As long as I get the humidity dome off after day one, I'm good. If I forget about the dome for a day or two, then things can go south for me. I'll get the occasional clone that wilts and won't make it. BTW, I use a finishing nail to "repoke" the hole in my root riot cubes so I don't damage the clone while inserting it. I also tend to clone a little higher up on the plant where the clones are a little tougher. Looking at the size of your clones, that's about how big I like mine.

I leave it a lot wetter than what the majority seem to be saying. I leave my cubes soaked and I usually put ~3-4 cups of water in the tray daily, otherwise I seem to get significant wilting. I put 8 cups of ph'd water in there on day one. I'm in a pretty arid climate, so that may have something to with why I seem to need more h2o. I don't use a "cloning station" anymore either. I just find some side lighting in veg and that's what the clones get. Could probably treat my clones a little better, but I still get ~95%+ success rate. I'm always throwing clones away, except for this time of year, when my homies with their backyard grows will hit me up for some clones.

HaroldRocks said:

see? there's a little visual for you so you know we're on the same page...those 2 that are still in there are already rooted, so i don't care about the humidity anymore

and then that's them when they graduate out of the cloner and make it to a shelf

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wow they are so green! Even when I'm sucessful I think they cannabalize their own leaves at least a little. I think you take cuts with more leaves than I have and you have more light than I have too.