OK thats what Im talking about! That is good thinking. Now what else do people got. I wanna hear other great jiffy ideas.
I wanna' hear all the nifty stuff too! BRAVO !!!! This is how we collectively grow, we learn from each other, our trials and tribulations. Yea man! This IS what I'm talkin' about talkin' about it too!!! I also use Rapid Rooters. They do a great job for me and also contain very mild nutrients for when the time comes. As long as I keep the "plug" MOIST and not wet, I get about 90% success. A dome kept visibly moist, 60% to 75% of the time, is also very important.
One thing I do is the treatment of the bottom 1" to 1-1/2" of the stem I just cut. After making my final 45* cut, I immediately dip 1" of the end into some form of a cloning gel; I found them all about the same, and therefore I believe the moisture/wetness issue is very important (after first picking a gel to use). Anyway, I gently scrape the side of the stem, that bottom 1-1/2", in several places. Just try scraping the outer, more tough layer of cell structure. Kinda' like Celery. This works equally well for more difficult conditions, IE: bark instead of nice soft tissue; dark-stemmed strains with difficulty similar to bark and so on. I also take and slice very gently sort of shallow (one gets the feel) into the stem's side; the goal is to make an easier path into the phlem(sp.?), the layer that is just inside the top "skin" about 1/32" and all the way to just before the center. If you research, you will find pictures showing where the root originates and the goal is to get there. One slice works, but two doubles the odds. I found that more than 2 goes negative. A flat football will develop around the slice if it roots and there will be a literal explosion of them coming out. I also found that a short slice 1/2" is just as good (stronger) as a long 1" slice. It only takes a small area to get the roots to follow this path. I like to experiment with the slice locations, sometimes starting up 1/2" high on one side then the other lower on the other side so it is like one long slice broken (with a twist)! It all works,
different from cut to cut, not just strain specific. One thing also
the blade MUST be sterile, I mean erroxide or even Alcohol dip of your blade between every slice/cut/etc. If you don't sterilize, you risk the introduction of Pathogens into the cell membrane and most probably will see it very fast if any problems are coming. They'll wilt, turn grey and get a mold growing in only a few days.
*SORRY POWER CLONE MACHINE*
I used to be a big fan of my Power Cloner (home made copy) and the 90% success I got there, but this method is equal and costs nothing (other than my light). I transplant these directly into my Ebb/Flo Hydro system which is using Hydroton They never decompose and everything grows right through them. Hey people, all this electricity adds up and I'm sick of it. Air pump, water pump, here a watt, there a watt, everywhere a OMG!
I dunna' know, this is just a way I kinda' evolved to. I was trying to propagate a kick-ass plant, of unknown genetics. It developed an almost instantaneous bark to its' stem, even the newest branching got bark before the second node appeared. I had tried everything to no avail. One day, out of boredom and dismay, I slit the stem like I described above (I was already scraping the bark sides away). For an unknown reason, I hung in there with these few cuttings. As long as the leaves were that healthy green and standing, no molds or any thing else, I hung in there (was real hard) and
after 13.25 weeks, I got roots in 3 of 4 cuttings! I couldn't believe it. I had a way to keep her alive and let the original mother I had, go to flower. She was nearly 3 years old and deserved to be able to do her thing. She was tired. After all that, she was harvested at 24" diameter and 19" tall! I got just a tiny bit over 6 ozs. from her, a tribute to her strong genetics. She was a real Bonzi tree naturally, at least tha's what she looked like.
A Sativa 97.5% / Indica 2.5% freaking Bonzi Tree {R.I.P.}
