Problem with clones

I wasnt 100% sure where to post this but since I was having problems I figured I would post here, the forum title is "Mj Plant Problems" afterall lol.

Ok so awhile back I picked up a Botanicare 25 Site Aero Cloner. I was hoping this thing would speed up my clone process so I could keep up with my need for rooted clones to go into my tray rotation system.

The first run I did with that cloner rooted pretty quickly, I did use the "Power Clone Solution" and "Aqua Shield" that came with the cloner. When I realised how much that Power Clone solution was going to cost to continue using I figured I would try to find something else to use.

After that I used Olivia's Gel to dip my clones and in the cloner res I just used the Aqua Shield and a much cheaper Cloning Solution that Lowes sold branded Green Light. I have had varying levels of success with that. Sometimes I get roots in about 1.5 weeks and sometimes the clones would just refuse to root and would rot. When I say rot, I mean the part of the stem sticking down into the aerocloner through the neoprene collar would just turn to mush and the clones would wilt and die.

TBH I think I had better success rate using my previous method which was dipping in Olivia's Gel and sticking them in rapid rooter plugs and putting them in my mini flood table. Sometimes they would take 2+ weeks to get nice roots but the survival rate was more conistant then the aero cloner.

Ive tried all kind of different things in the past 9 months or so, different strength of the cloneing solution, different way of prepping the clones, IE: cutting at a 45deg angle under water, scrapeing the bottom inch of the stem, cutting the bottom inch of the stem, making small scores in the bottom inch of the stem and a few other things I read about. Ive tried different setting with the cloner itself as far as leaving it on 24/7, putting it on a timer and trying different setting as far as on/off times. Nothing ever really seemed to make a reliable difference in success rates, it has always remained what seems to be a roll of the dice.

Ok so in the last few weeks I started thinking, maybe I need to go back to the power clone solution, maybe that was what was needed. Well I once again looked at the prices and being the cheap bastard that I am, I said screw that.

I ended up getting a bottle of Clone X Solution, Clone X Gel and Hygrozyme. I used that stuff according the label instructions and I'm now a week out from putting the clones in the aero cloner and still they have no signs of roots, I fear they are just gonna rot again.

Anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong? Ive seen people say many different things, including that they put thier clones in these things with straight water and have roots pop out reliably in less then a week.

Hmm, I have the exact machine you have. I noticed the lil' bottles of nutes that came with it.....but paid them no mind. I simply cut at 45 degrees....scrape the bottom inch or so and dip into that funky gel.

after a week I put a drop of veg nutes into the box...and i mean a tiny lil' drop. I mist them w/o a dome and they do look like shit!! They get yellow and brown and not very pretty....but I get roots about 90% of the time. Once I pot them they come around to the beautiful girls we love.

Have you been using the same strain this past 9 months? Could that strain just not like to be cloned? My Cheesewreck by Seedism and CH9's Aroma & Humboldt, all three seem to love being cloned.

What are your temps and humidity levels where you clone? What about water temp in the clone machine? You keep it heated in anyway? I don't cause I find that the actual pump that came with it keeps the water sorta warm.

high temps and high humidity are key for clones. sometimes, you just cant get it right. right now its cold where i am and i get maybe 2-3 of 10 clones to live. in the summer i usually get 9/10 to live.

if your having a hard time, raise the temps, raise the humidity (with or dome or something), and up the phosphorus a bit (helps stimulate root growth).

I too have noticed strain issues with clones, some love being cloned, others refuse to cooperate. just keep trying lol

I dont think you are a moron, so dont take this the wrong way.... but have you CLEANED your cloner lately?? Like broke it down, took it all apart, and scrubbed it inside and out, soaked and cleaned all the little sprayers, the collars etc...?? This needs to be done every other time you take cuts.... The inside of that thing gets nasty, and particles jam up those little sprayers.... The same thing was happening to me with my EZ Cloner, and once I cleaned it good, and put fresh water and solution in it, my clones took right off in like 8 days....

not exactly sure what u did wrong with the aero cloner ive never had to use one, i stick with a old school method and my overall survival rate is about 95%, i have sprouted with jus plain water too but that can take longer, what i do to clone is very simple and not at all expensive, here is what ul need:

clone tray with holes and a tray with no holes to catch excess water and a humidity dome
small nugget perlite
xtreme gardening plugs with mycorrhizae
earthjuice rootstock rooting gel


put ur trays together and lay a layer of perlite at bottom of trays that has the drainage holes
soak plugs in tray with jus plain water, keep excess water in tray until ur done putting clones into plugs
cut ur clones sit them in a cup of water while u trim of the leaves u dont need
use the rootstock rooting gel (its all organic and wont hurt the mycorrhizae in plugs)
once ur done placing clones into plugs lift up first tray and let excess water drain into second tray then dump water outa second tray
give clones alittle bit of fresh water and let a tiny amount sit at bottom of second tray
throw ur humidity dome on and place under light
u shouldnt need to water for 2 to 3 days depending on the temperature in room
after the first watering keep humidity dome on one more day then remove it
if any clones start to wilt after dome is removed mist them a few times a day wit water
keep checkin moisture levels, once clones root the roots will grow into the perlite and develop bigger root mass than they would without the perlite, the perlite blocks the light from the roots allowing them to grow, keep perlite an plugs moist, one thing is u will have to constantly check to make sure a clone's roots dont grow into another clone's plug, check a few times a day cause they will grow super fast

once clones are rooted its okay to leave sum water in bottom of tray, espcially if ur room gets hot, the clones will drink it when they need it and wont dry up

keep in mind this is a organic way of rooting clones and to have the best success i would use distelled or filtered water

hope this helps

840/2 said:

Hmm, I have the exact machine you have. I noticed the lil' bottles of nutes that came with it.....but paid them no mind. I simply cut at 45 degrees....scrape the bottom inch or so and dip into that funky gel.

after a week I put a drop of veg nutes into the box...and i mean a tiny lil' drop. I mist them w/o a dome and they do look like shit!! They get yellow and brown and not very pretty....but I get roots about 90% of the time. Once I pot them they come around to the beautiful girls we love.

Have you been using the same strain this past 9 months? Could that strain just not like to be cloned? My Cheesewreck by Seedism and CH9's Aroma & Humboldt, all three seem to love being cloned.

What are your temps and humidity levels where you clone? What about water temp in the clone machine? You keep it heated in anyway? I don't cause I find that the actual pump that came with it keeps the water sorta warm.

Click to expand...

I do have several different strains that I keep as moms that I clone from. I have noticed some seem to be easier to clone then others as well. You may be on to something with the Temps and Humidity as i dont control it much in the area where the clones are. The cloner sits in the same room with my moms and the temps and humidity fluctuate a lot through out the day. I dont use anything to heat the water in the cloner as the pump itself seems to keep the water slightly warm.

nick17gar said:

high temps and high humidity are key for clones. sometimes, you just cant get it right. right now its cold where i am and i get maybe 2-3 of 10 clones to live. in the summer i usually get 9/10 to live.

if your having a hard time, raise the temps, raise the humidity (with or dome or something), and up the phosphorus a bit (helps stimulate root growth).

I too have noticed strain issues with clones, some love being cloned, others refuse to cooperate. just keep trying lol

Click to expand...

jayfury said:

I dont think you are a moron, so dont take this the wrong way.... but have you CLEANED your cloner lately?? Like broke it down, took it all apart, and scrubbed it inside and out, soaked and cleaned all the little sprayers, the collars etc...?? This needs to be done every other time you take cuts.... The inside of that thing gets nasty, and particles jam up those little sprayers.... The same thing was happening to me with my EZ Cloner, and once I cleaned it good, and put fresh water and solution in it, my clones took right off in like 8 days....

Click to expand...

I did clean it out the last few times with soap and water.

Kb's seeds said:

not exactly sure what u did wrong with the aero cloner ive never had to use one, i stick with a old school method and my overall survival rate is about 95%, i have sprouted with jus plain water too but that can take longer, what i do to clone is very simple and not at all expensive, here is what ul need:

clone tray with holes and a tray with no holes to catch excess water and a humidity dome
small nugget perlite
xtreme gardening plugs with mycorrhizae
earthjuice rootstock rooting gel


put ur trays together and lay a layer of perlite at bottom of trays that has the drainage holes
soak plugs in tray with jus plain water, keep excess water in tray until ur done putting clones into plugs
cut ur clones sit them in a cup of water while u trim of the leaves u dont need
use the rootstock rooting gel (its all organic and wont hurt the mycorrhizae in plugs)
once ur done placing clones into plugs lift up first tray and let excess water drain into second tray then dump water outa second tray
give clones alittle bit of fresh water and let a tiny amount sit at bottom of second tray
throw ur humidity dome on and place under light
u shouldnt need to water for 2 to 3 days depending on the temperature in room
after the first watering keep humidity dome on one more day then remove it
if any clones start to wilt after dome is removed mist them a few times a day wit water
keep checkin moisture levels, once clones root the roots will grow into the perlite and develop bigger root mass than they would without the perlite, the perlite blocks the light from the roots allowing them to grow, keep perlite an plugs moist, one thing is u will have to constantly check to make sure a clone's roots dont grow into another clone's plug, check a few times a day cause they will grow super fast

once clones are rooted its okay to leave sum water in bottom of tray, espcially if ur room gets hot, the clones will drink it when they need it and wont dry up

keep in mind this is a organic way of rooting clones and to have the best success i would use distelled or filtered water

hope this helps

Click to expand...

It seems all of you are pointing out something that I have always had in the back of my mind but never really focused on. Temp and Humidity.

I actually have no way of measuring Humidity in my grow areas, I know that may sound dumd but other then these clone issues I have never had any problems with the Moms or flowering plants.

I have an old mini fridge that no longer works that I had been thinking about turning into a little cloneing chamber, so to speak, for the aero cloner to go into. I was thinking I would cut some intake and exhaust holes into it and put an small compute case fan into the exhaust hole. I was thinking I would hook up the exhuast fan to a thermostat to control it tunring on or off to maintain a set temperature. I figure the CFL's I would put inside the mini fridge would keep it pretty warm and the exhaust fan would keep it from getting to hot inside.

The more I think about it Temps/Humidity are probably the factor that is causing me to have issues and I think I need to focus more on controling thoses factors.

I thank everyone for the quick responses, and I really do think that my issue is the fact that I have never given controlling the Temp and Humidity much priority.

dont let the water in the cloner get too warm and stagnant.... Also, try to keep it like 77-83 Degrees in that room, and around 60-70% humidity

Get an aquarium heater at walmart suctioncup it to bottom of your cloner. Its automatic, if your water gets cold it will come on.
Use r/o water with one drop of superthrive per gallon.
add one drop clorox bleach for every two gals..............I know......trust me it will not hurt your babys but will inhibit bacteria.
peace B

temperature and humidity are two very important factors in cloning, momma plants and flowerin plants can survive with massive drops and rises in temps in humidity (tho in can stress ur plants espcially in flower) but when u clone u need to keep ur temps atleast above 70 degrees, i like to keep my humidity at 50% after i removed humidity dome, the humidity dome will allow the humidity inside of tray to reach up to 95% which is what u want for the first day or two after u cut ur clones, the best way to monitor temps and humidity is to go to walmart and get a digitial meter (i dont like callin it a thermosat cause it wont regulate the temps) they are just alittle white meter that takes triple A batteries, it monitors temps and humidity and the highs and lows for 24hrs (u have to reset the memory after 24hrs) they cost $8, get a couple of them to put in different spots in ur room

as far as adding bleach there is only one safe bleach trick thats been used in horticulture (they teach it to u in college lol) for along time that i know of, its for cleaning infected clones before u bring them into grow room

here it goes: right after u cut ur clone before u dip it into any type of rooting hormone or put it in a cube, add 1tsp of regular (not scented) bleach to a gal of water, fill up a ziploc baggie about 3/4 the way full with the bleach water, add ur clones into baggie and seal baggie, gentley agitate the water (swish water back and forth in bag) for around 20min, take cuttings out and rinse with plain water hella good, make sure to give those babies a good rinse, then dip in rooting hormone the put them in cube, plug or whatever ur rooting medium is, this has been proven to kill off not only bugs and bug eggs but molds and mildews as well, its a good trick to learn if u wanna bring in clones from other growrooms