Hey rockhopper, thanks for the advice well to be honest i am facing those issues , add to that the time that i am wasting with some dyeing and the rest taking forever to root. Now for the important stuff Aerocloner do you mean this in the link below?Glad they are taking off for you now. I used to do all my clones in rockwool cubes, then moved over to rapid rooter plugs for the very same reason you were having moisture issues. I have now built a Aerocloner and have never looked back! You turn it on - load it with cuttings and walk away for 7 - 10 days Bam! you got roots.... Nice Big healthy roots. The best thing about it is not having to water them or mist them or check on them in any way. They also seem to take off faster when transplanted to soil compared to other methods. I got the info to build mine off of YouTube. Good luck with your grow. -RockHopper
Speero78- Link to cheapo aerocloner would not work for me.... Go to youtube and search for "Stinkbud aerocloner" ( sorry.. do not know how to post a direct link to that) Mine was built with a Rubbermaid 31 gal. storage tub/fountain water pump/air pump & airstone/360 deg. spray noozles/2" hydro baskets & 2' foam pucks to hold each cutting. I also found a clear storage tub that I flip upside down and use as a humidity dome. Works great and is pretty much "Set it and forget it" .... There are lots of videos on you tube about makings these, you should check them out. Some people run timers on the water pump but I do not. I run my water spray constantly (24/7) and after I start seeing root growth I begin to remove the dome a few times a day to harden up the babies a little. 1" or so of new growth and I add a very light Nute mix to the cloner water. When I have good 3-4" roots then they go to keg cups in soil. Answering your question - no rapid rooter plugs. some guys do it that way but then I would think you would have to use a timer or the things would get waterlogged ... The net pots hang in holes in the lid and the foam pucks sit in the baskets. Since they are getting sprayed constantly the air pump is very important. The super oxygenated water is the key to a constant spray otherwise the little clones would be drowned. Check them out and let us know what you think! Rock
Speero78- Awesome build !! Are you saying your water temps are at 25.6c (79.7f) ? How warm is your room? My water temps run right at around 74 - 75f and air temps at about 68f I'm in a basement so the room temps are a bit cooler than the main floor of the house. I'm not sure if 80f (25-26c) temps are bad..... never ran that high, but maybe someone else here has an answer on that for you. for the most part warm roots mean faster rooting but hopefully someone else here has some realtime exp. with an aerocloner and water temps in that range. Do you have a humidity dome? One other thing I have found is I don't glue my PVC piping together, I just push it together and that way I can pull it apart to clean it. I run a couple of 30 minute rinses thru it with 50/50 water and H2O2 to sterilize it and then a clean water flush before each use. you will probably find that after 1 or 2 runs with clones your piping will build up a bit of a scum layer and by not glueing my piping i'm able to pull it all apart and clean it real well. Clean - clean - clean between each run to avoid any disease infecting your clones. Keep us posted on your first run with your new cloner.. Rock
Speero78- 75-78f is probably fine. My research on general hydroponic growing showed 75f to be the top of the acceptable temp range. Remember that warm roots and cool leaves within reason is the place to shoot for quick root development. Who knows, you may find that water temps in the 75-78f range work well. If thats the case I may need to elevate my temps a bit for faster rooting. With my setup in the location it's in, I tend to run cooler than the temps your hitting but until you fire your unit up and see what happens you won't know for sure. Some of my friends who run hydro have used this trick to lower the water temps in their resevoirs during warm periods of the year. They place a 1-litre plastic pop bottle full of water in the freezer... then they float it in their resevoir to drop the water temp. Rock