Is Your CloneX Going Bad Faster?

Chris Edward said:

Hello all,
I have noticed that the last two bottles of Clonex I have purchased have gone off quickly...
I have had this last bottle for less than 3 months and it's already junk...
I went to buy more and the price has gone up considerably since the last time I bought it.

I store the Clonex in the fridge like always.
I use a syringe to remove the Clonex from the bottle and I put it into the Rockwool cubes before I insert the cuttings, this way there is no contamination.
This is how I have always done it and up until the last few bottles everything has been fine.
Previous bottles would last until they were gone, but now it's like I get about half way through a bottle and the "gel" is no longer a gel and it seeps through the Rockwool cubes and just turns the clone water purple, sometimes blue, which makes me wonder if they are using gentian violet as the dye.
I hope not...
There is a breakdown of the Clonex going on and it's affecting the rooting hormone.
When the Clonex is fresh it works like it's supposed to and the clones throw out roots in no more than two weeks, but I am currently sitting on clones that are a month old and there isn't a root among the bunch.
My process is the same, the lighting is the same, everything is the same, except I am getting the sort of results I would expect had I not used any root hormone.

I am not sure what they are doing to it. The old formula which worked perfectly and had a decent shelf life was:
0.33% Indole-3-butyric acid (root hormone)
1.85% 2-hydroxyethyl cellulose (gelling agent)
5.0% "Mono" Propylene Glycol (emulsifier)
92%+ Water (dihydrogen monoxide)
0.??% Purple coloring, I am not sure what they are using. There are a few things it could be.

The cellulose and the propylene glycol are what make the liquid appear to be a gel, which in the newer formula is not very stable.

Anyway, the newer formula omits showing any of the other ingredients and now contains 0.02% less Indole-3-butyric acid, which is the reason I am buying the product, it sure as hell isn't for the purple color!!!
Unless it is actually gentian violet, which has mild antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Like I said the price has jumped considerably as well, which is now putting me off from buying more.
I am seriously thinking of buying some Indole-3-Butyric Acid and just making up my own rooting hormone as I need it.
This way it's always "fresh" and I don't have to mess with these greedy companies anymore.
A 10 gram bottle costs about $23 on Amazon and I can make about twelve (12) 250ml bottles worth with this 10 grams.
500grams of hydroxymethyl cellulose costs $49 including shipping and I can get about 108 bottles out of this amount.
So, a single batch will cost less than $2.50...
Compare this to the same 250ml bottle of Clonex costing $32-$45 (not including the cost of shipping).

Anyway...
I am just curious if anyone else is having similar issues with Clonex.

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T macc said:

I knew when I saw your picture, there was an essay written. Lol sorry no experience

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vostok said:

Use your household Honey its got he same even better grow stuff inside and its antiseptic

cheers/

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Dr. Who said:

Make willow tea and use it with a rooting powder....

Skip the high priced jell shit....

Soak cut's in the tea for 5 min and then dip them in the powder.
Place them in your starting media of choice and water it with the tea.

Boom done!

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xtsho said:

Make your own. All you need is the IBA. You don't need the gelling agent. Clonex works but is extremely overpriced. I bought some once years ago and it didn't work any better than Miracle Gro FastRoot rooting powder.

$7 and lasts for years. Active ingredient: Indole-3-butyric acid. Same stuff that's in clonex. Clonex is another example of an overpriced product targeted to cannabis growers.

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xtsho said:

Make your own. All you need is the IBA. You don't need the gelling agent. Clonex works but is extremely overpriced. I bought some once years ago and it didn't work any better than Miracle Gro FastRoot rooting powder.

$7 and lasts for years. Active ingredient: Indole-3-butyric acid. Same stuff that's in clonex. Clonex is another example of an overpriced product targeted to cannabis growers.

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Chris Edward said:

The thing about the Miracle-Gro stuff is that it's 99.9% talc (SDS).
The other 0.1% is the Indole-3-butyric acid.

So if you do the math, the Clonex which contains 0.33% Indole-3-butyric acid charges $50.60 per gram of Indole-3-butyric acid

The Miracle-Gro stuff which has 0.1% Indole-3-butyric acid is charging $157.46 per gram of Indole-3-butyric acid. This is based on the local hardware store price of $5.58 for a 1.25 ounce container.

I am not trying to be a dick or start an argument, I am just saying it's cheaper to buy the Indole-3-butyric acid and DIY at $2.30 a gram.

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Chris Edward said:

Hello all,
I have noticed that the last two bottles of Clonex I have purchased have gone off quickly...
I have had this last bottle for less than 3 months and it's already junk...
I went to buy more and the price has gone up considerably since the last time I bought it.

I store the Clonex in the fridge like always.
I use a syringe to remove the Clonex from the bottle and I put it into the Rockwool cubes before I insert the cuttings, this way there is no contamination.
This is how I have always done it and up until the last few bottles everything has been fine.
Previous bottles would last until they were gone, but now it's like I get about half way through a bottle and the "gel" is no longer a gel and it seeps through the Rockwool cubes and just turns the clone water purple, sometimes blue, which makes me wonder if they are using gentian violet as the dye.
I hope not...
There is a breakdown of the Clonex going on and it's affecting the rooting hormone.
When the Clonex is fresh it works like it's supposed to and the clones throw out roots in no more than two weeks, but I am currently sitting on clones that are a month old and there isn't a root among the bunch.
My process is the same, the lighting is the same, everything is the same, except I am getting the sort of results I would expect had I not used any root hormone.

I am not sure what they are doing to it. The old formula which worked perfectly and had a decent shelf life was:
0.33% Indole-3-butyric acid (root hormone)
1.85% 2-hydroxyethyl cellulose (gelling agent)
5.0% "Mono" Propylene Glycol (emulsifier)
92%+ Water (dihydrogen monoxide)
0.??% Purple coloring, I am not sure what they are using. There are a few things it could be.

The cellulose and the propylene glycol are what make the liquid appear to be a gel, which in the newer formula is not very stable.

Anyway, the newer formula omits showing any of the other ingredients and now contains 0.02% less Indole-3-butyric acid, which is the reason I am buying the product, it sure as hell isn't for the purple color!!!
Unless it is actually gentian violet, which has mild antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Like I said the price has jumped considerably as well, which is now putting me off from buying more.
I am seriously thinking of buying some Indole-3-Butyric Acid and just making up my own rooting hormone as I need it.
This way it's always "fresh" and I don't have to mess with these greedy companies anymore.
A 10 gram bottle costs about $23 on Amazon and I can make about twelve (12) 250ml bottles worth with this 10 grams.
500grams of hydroxymethyl cellulose costs $49 including shipping and I can get about 108 bottles out of this amount.
So, a single batch will cost less than $2.50...
Compare this to the same 250ml bottle of Clonex costing $32-$45 (not including the cost of shipping).

Anyway...
I am just curious if anyone else is having similar issues with Clonex.

Click to expand...

NrthrnMichigan said:

This is a funny subject, Iv' done side by side by side testing both in hydro ez cloners and rock wool. I never found any difference in rooting times or health of newly rooted clones using a cloning gel or nothing at all. Scraping the ends and cutting at 45` or not...clipping half of the fan leafs or not. Taking the cuttings above and below the nodes, It just didn't matter in all of my test subjects. They all rooted within 24 hours of each other and go on to become great donors themselves. Just my 2 pennies worth, and by the way, I'v been cloning for many years with at least a thousand cuttings of experience. It has been a couple of years since I have not had a cutting take root. I'm I lucky? Maybe.

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xtsho said:

Provide the right environment and they clone easily.

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DaFreak said:

Who cares if the active ingredient per gram is cheaper? How many bottles you been through? How much did they cost? How long the last? Miracle grow lasts a year.

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xtsho said:

I didn't look into the actual breakdown of the product. My experience has been that the Miracle-Gro is just as effective as the Clonex and the smaller container lasts as long as a 3.4 oz container of the Clonex rooting gel. But the cheapest thing is to just make your own solution of Indole-3-butyric acid. I've also had good success cloning by just putting cuttings in straight coco without any rooting compound. Some people just use a cup of water like you would when making a cutting from a houseplant. But Indole-3-butyric acid does help speed up the process.

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nxsov180db said:

Get Elite 91 clones. It will last most growers forever. It's alcohol based, you can pour it into a cup and dip your cuts in it for 30 seconds to a couple minutes and when you're done dump your cup back into the product container, the alcohol keeps everything sterile. I've used every cloning gel there is and the newer ones do go bad very fast now. The elite 91 clones has had far Superior results I've been using it for over a year now, I take 100's of clones a month and I still have about 20% of the Elite left.

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