Cloning problems. Any advice?

hi all. I know I should probably be asking this question in the newbie forum or the how to but I've hung with you guys in here before and was grateful for the help.

OK, I've only ever grown from seeds before but I thought I'd try cloning cause it seems a little more practical and less time consuming. For some reason, every cutting I've taken wilts and dies within a couple days. I've tried about 4 different ways of doing it now and none of them have worked. Ive followed the advice of a few guys on here and the tutorials and still no luck.

Ive cut below the 3rd node, the 4th node, Ive used 2 different kinds of rooting gel, Ive tried rooting them in water and rock wool cause i grow aeroponically and dont need the soil and crap gunking up my system.

Maybe I'm missing something so if anyone has a surefire method I'd appreciate a little instruction/help.

Thx all.

I had a hard time cloning for a while too but I found that it has A LOT to do with the light you give it.

Just like in the Tutorial here on RIU, I put my plants near a window (NO DIRECT SUNLIGHT) and let them get 12 hours of diffused light and 12 hours of dark or around there, not really specific.

i give them 24hours of straight floros, make sure your rockwool isnt that wet, also dont let it get too dry, you can tell it will need water by lifting the cube, too lite needs water, have you tried to clone aeroponically? i get roots in 4 days and it doesnt even get a chance to die, also are your cuts at angles?

i am a diy aero grower too. I tried bubbler cloners, dwc cloners, cloning into rockwool, hydroton, medialess.... etc. I had many many clones fail. Even successful ones didn't seem to root fast enough, i was struggling with 30 day rooting times. Then i tired of this, and tried soil for some outdoor plants im growing. To my surprise, the clones rooted within 6 days. All of them. So i told hydro cloning to sit and spin and now i use jiffy pellets for all my clones. It works just fine in a hydro system. Perfectly. No problems at all. I have net pots, i put a layer of hydroton to cover the bottom, perhaps a centimeter or two, then jiffy pellet on top with rooted clone and more hydroton to cover pellet, which should fit to be covered by just one layer of stones at the top. My plants start in DWC and move to aero, and i have never had a problem with "gunk" because none gets out at all from the pellet. So if you're set on hydro cloning, or you grow medialess aero then good luck with that cloning, try and be sterile and controlled. But jiffy pellets work fine in aero, even organic aero. I sterilize my pellets at the beginning by using boiling water to hydrate them and then letting them cool down, apart from that no special treatment at all.

Good luck! cloning is shitty till you crack your method.

looks like you got it down, but like the others said, different things work for different people. Like you, i have tried rockwool, DWC, and areo, and none seemed to work for me. In fact, i couldnt grow a healthly seedling from rockwool at all, probally because it needs the perfect amount of water. I would recommend using Rapid rooters to start. I went with them and have had no problems- roots in 10 days. I use clonex rooting gel, but really i dont think it matters. I also have the seed starter dome with the tray and a heatmat underneath. water pH ~ 6.4..... not all will be successful, but its way better then starting everything from seed. Good luck man

yeah of all possible factors, i have only been able to identify humidity and temperature as being constant, ie high humidity and temps in the high 20's C. Mist dont water clones. RR are probably excellent as most people who make the switch say, how much are they, i have no idea lol.

i see many people actually let rockwool sit in water, i dont do this, i spray the cubes pretty good, use shultz powder and dont, take the humidty dome off atleast once a day and perhaps a light mist daily or every other day and thats it, i dont even PH my tap water its already at 7 and no other vitamins, the aero is even easier i just get lazy and dont want to change out the tub and takes up too much space, i can get trays on shelves as opposed to 20 clones in a rubbermade

ok, i think i definitely overlooked something. LIGHTING!!

I took one more cutting 2 days ago and immediately put it in the dark for 6hrs, then light 12/12. ill be damned if the thing is still standing straight up, looking strong, no wilting.

Being the idiot i am, ive read about lighting for clones several times in the past and forgot about that. ill try a couple more cuttings in a few days if this one is still doing good a see if this works for me, lmao

Thanks everybody, thunder

all u need is:
-coco
-plastic cups
-pet box with dome
-rooting solution

this is how i have done it:
¤fixed the pet box on top of a warm lights reflector (in my case MH) - this step could be skipped but IMO a good substitution of a heating pad
¤hung a 250W energy saving grow light above the whole stuff
¤filled the cups with coco and got it saturated with RO water
¤took the cuttings, dipped in rooting powder than into the cups of coco
¤misted the cuttings daily and only removed the dome for the time of misting to keep humidity high

i never had to worry about the lighting cycle... normal veg period is fine IMO

it took about 5 days to show first signs of root development and had a 100% success ratio 18/18.

its pretty easy

I have tried cloning with little to no success. I went into the local hydro shop and asked the guy behind the counter for some rules of thumb and some take home info. 2 days into my cloning and I am seeing healthy cuttings... Im not going to jinx myself and say anything I shouldnt Yet, but this is looking good. HPS pic is of the mothers

kwaka u got the right idea. Mist them and add a heat mat to keep the box fully humidified. They also like to breath at times...other than that just dont burn them with light. Use a 24w 2 bulb flouro fixture

IF you all were smart you would aeroclone, but works best when transfering into aeroponics IMO. Aerocloning is cheaper, easier, quicker = efficiency.

look up the thread....LETS TALK AEROCLONERS

hmmm, ive got my own aerocloner almost built but theres one thing im not quite sure of. do i need a timer for the cloner? if so, what kind of watering cycle would you recommend?

yes timer is important. People seem to find these cheap 15 min on 15 min off timers. I hear those work somehow, but if you can afford it I would recommend a timer that is capable of 1 minute on and 4 minutes off.

I personally believe 15 minutes dry is to long for aeroponics, but others have good results.

i can run my aero for 15/45 and 30/30 works great, the humid air under the lid of the cloner is great for rooting, also what water hits the neoprene collar runs down the stem, this alone is good enough to clone with. trust me you will find out real fast if you left the timer off too long, good luck bro