Coma's last attempt at clones...(maybe)

So I'm 3 weeks into flowering, and at the moment my grow IS NOT perpetual. I also lost 2 plants to maledom.

1. I want an all female, or at least SHOULD be all female grow, males are a lot of hassle, and should be avoided wherever possible.
2. I want a perpetual grow, because I won't be pulling enough for 3-4 months, that's for sure.

I needed to fix both those problems, quickly.

So I took clones about 3 weeks ago, right before flower.
Dipped in honey, popped em in rockwool, and gave them a humidity dome...
With no success after 2 weeks, not even a root ball.

Needless to say I was not happy, I've tried cloning many times and with my budget, this seemed like the most SUCCESSFUL way I could get it done.

Even though I've tried similar methods with no avail. This is my 5-7th time attempting clones over my growing tenure. Without 1 successful plant to show for it.

So I decided tonight to try a much easier method of cloning, and if this doesn't work, I wont be able to bring myself to chopping another decent sized branch just to see a failed attempt.

It's Do or Die!

1. I ph'd some water, that was de-chlorinated, and got it to room temp.
2. I took 3 smallish branches that looked very healthy, off 2 of my females.
3. I grabbed 3 black coffee mugs, and filled them with the water.
4. I dipped my stems into their respective cups, first jostling any air bubbles that may be in the base.
5. I placed them off the cold ground a little, and put them in my grow room, with cardboard blocking DIRECT light from them.

Here are the pics of them all finished:


The lightweight book is placed on top for light reasons AND because the stem of my last pics is curved, if it wasn't there she would be too topheavy and fall out

I'm hoping for SOME amount of success because if this will decide how many plants I have for my next Scrog.

I've already started building a grow box (will post pics later) for veg, until they can get into my DWC.

So my questions/concerns are:

Has anyone tried this method, with success?

Has anyone done this without rooting hormone, with success?

Any ideas you can give me to increase my chances?

Any other comments or anything is welcome!

Wish me TONS of luck.

Thanks if you do!

Coma

Why did you dip in honey?

Okay, Well I don't know about the honey thing, but this is what I do and have had success. First, here are the materials I use:

cloning Gel
brand new razor blade
rubber maid or rectangular flower pot
potting soil
rockwool cubes
plastic or glass jars
spray bottle

1) Fill rubbermaid or flower pot with about a good 8" of soil, wet it and press to get the air out, but not too compact that it is hard for the roots to spread out, just like you would when planting any type of flower or plant.
2) take the razor and cut lower branched sproutings (usually at about 3-4"+ long sproutings aroung the base of the plant that will not produce due to lack of light). Slice up the base of your cutting about 8th/inch, dip in root gel generously.
4) place them in the soil in hole you have made with a pencil, chopstick,ect, just enough to cover the stem/rooting gel, press lightly the soil around it to make sure they stand up straight and the leaves on them are not touch the soil. Make sure they are spread out enough so you can place the clear plastic jars over them.
5)spray the inside of the jars and put one over each plant. I do this because I don't like to spray directly on the cutting leaving standing water on them, just want them humid.

Now you have the right idea about no direct light. Just place the container in your grow room where they will get some light, and they will be warm. Just continue to lift the jars and spray inside lightly(I do this every day when my lights start coming on. Leave them like this for about two weeks, have patience, you will know when they are growing roots without fiddling with them. Now there are two ways I transplant, if they are going in soil, I simply transplant like you would any other plant. But some of my clones go into my hydro/drip system, so this is how I do that:

1) I gently scoop out the clump of soil about couple inches or so around the cutting, to make sure I am getting all of the roots system without letting my fingers touch them.
and I dip them in rooms temprature water to wash moist of the soil away.
2)I take flat slices of a rockwool cube, wetted with room temprature water, and wrap it around the root system.(the same idea as rockwool plugs)
3)I then use that as a rockwool plug and gently plant it in my presoaked hydroton the depth I wish the plant to be, and then gently sprinkle my hydroton the rest of the way around it so that it is sturdy.
4) place it in my system and it is off to the races.

I know people will ask why I start them in soil instead of rockwool cubes. This is what I have had success with, I find that the clones get way more established, way faster. Also, i can take one 2"x2" rockwool cube and use it for like four or five clones since I slice it into small sheets basicly. The roots do not have to be completely washed, the little soil that doesn't come off will wash away in the drip system eventually anyway. I have never had any problems using this method, I hope it helps. any other questions, just hit me with an IM, am glad to help.
K

I did a lot of experimenting before I got my clone success rate high enough to support my perpetual grow. I use a cloning gel, not the powder. Had too many examples with the powder where the cloning powder turned into a hard cap that prevented rooting. So I switched to thin gel. I leave the cuttings in a glass of warm water until I have trimmed the cutting. Then I dip the 45-degree bevel cut stem into the gel for 10-15 seconds. Make sure the entire cut part gets covered with the gel. Jiffy pellets are easier to use than rockwool, imo. BigSteve.

first jostling any air bubbles that may be in the base.

Click to expand...

What does this mean above? /\ /\ /\

You have tried all the clone methods, I wont tell you my way... ha....
However, I will tell you,

Clean your hands before you start with rubbing alcohol...
The oils on your finger tips/hands may be transfered to plants and that could kill them, especially if you smoke...
Failure is not an option...
Good Luck...

thanks guys huge help

to answer a few previous questions, I used honey because from multiple sources on the net and a few friends told me it was a good idea. not that it means it was a good idea, just using some advice I got from a few sources.

and

it means I squoze...squeezed...however you say it...I think squeezed... the air out of the base of the stem, because I've definitely read on this website and many others that you should do that under water to get the air out...(I dont know why, i just did it)

In any case thank you guys very much for the comments, you helped a lot, I'll update In a few days to tell you if THIS attempt worked or not.

If not, I'm not sure if I should try again and waste more good budsites, or wait til next grow.

Either way
Wish me luck, and thanks again
Coma

IMO the "secret" to cloning is to not make it complicated. Tap water, no pHing, no "dechlorination", no domes or misting. I have used Olivias and superthrive but have the same success rates without anything but water. I just cut an auxillary branch, cut the lower nodes/stems off, make another cut at a 45 and put it in the cloner. I leave 1 set of leaves and the top, sometimes I cut a leaf off or in half but dont really notice a difference.

I keep them under a couple flour tubes but have used a single spiral CFL per bucket. Also just left them in corner of veg room with no direct light.

It wasnt this easy for me until I made a bubble cloner out of a 3.5 gal bucket. It is simple and inexpensive and really takes a lot of the work out of cloning.

I dont even lift the lid to check for roots for a week. 90% of the time they are there in a week and in another week or so I put them in soil.

I would really look into a bubble cloner.

IF you cut a growth tip at a 45 degreen angle so the wound is about close as possible to an inch or less in size, dip it in rooting powder which is so cheap there is no point in not getting a small bottle that will last for years, and then stick it in wet but not muddy dirt, bag it for a week and then over the course of a week, acclimate it you will have success. You can even slkip the bagging process if you want but the clone will look like crap until new leaves come in so If nits not big enough nd healthy enough to start then i would bag it. But its not necessary.

Also, for the guy who asked, honey is similar to rooting powder it helps the cutting grow roots.

I could tell you all about my 100% success rate in cloning using simple techniques, but...

Oh, hey, why don't I just do that?

Oh yeah, I'm lazy.

Well forget it, here goes...

Rockwool cubes, DISTILLED water, cloning gel, HEATING MAT, cloning nutrient.

Soak rockwool cubes, clip branch with extremely sanitized razor, scrape the outer layer of skin off the bottom half inch or however much will be submerged in the rockwool cube all while holding the clipping upside down to avoid air bubble entering, quickly dip in cloning gel, then stick into rockwool cube. Put extra rockwool cube in with the others, and put the thermometer for the heating mat in the empty rockwool cube. Maintain temperatures around 80ºF, mist and dome only for the first two days.

I know it's simple, and drastically different then your current method, but both form plants in veg and flowering I have a 100% success rate, they take root EVERY, SINGLE, TIME, so I must be doing something right.

Build a stinkbud aerocloner and you won't have any cloning problems..


http://www.stinkbuddies.com/pdfs/aerocloner.pdf

You need to throw some rooting compound of some sort into the mix...you seem like you don't want to have to pay the money and that is something I can respect, but sometimes the right tools can substitute for a lack of experience. It seems like honey would do a well enough job preventing embolism, but the gel gives you specific rooting hormones that will increase your rate of success. I think you can get a tray of Root Riot cubes and it comes with a little package of Clonex. Also, what are the temps of the room? Are you using a humidity dome? Heating pad?

I have found the most sucess when keeping inside the humidity dome at around 81 degrees. For me, this requires a heating pad as my basement is very cool year round. My cut point for a clone is always right below a place where 2 nodes are coming off and at a 45 degree angle. I then cut the nodes off as well as using my razor to take a thin coating of the "skin" layer of the bottom. The spot where the nodes used to be will be underground now. I dip em in Clonex(I think Olivia's might be cheaper but my store doesn't carry them) and stick them in a cube with a little piece torn off the corner to keep the cut propped up. Keep the cubes moist but not soaking and spray with a mist of ph'd water with Roots Excelurator(this is not an essential product whatsoever) until the roots pop out of the sides of the cubes. Then transplant into 4" pots of FFLW and youre good to go!. I always have way more clones than I need and this lets me be able to cull the weaker ones.