Clones Not Rooting

Hi

I’ve had one heck of time trying to get clones to root. Seed to harvest no problem but clones just don’t root for me. I’m getting close to having to shutdown and I can’t afford to.

Our water is very hard and our water softener system died, as a result my ro system needed replacing. I didn’t catch it for about a week and some very hard water sprayed the pots. I’m using patio misters in a crawl space as it helps with bugs and humidity.

I tested the ph of the run off and it was very high so after a flush of 30 gallons for a 1 gallon pot I finally got the ph down to 6. (I know 30 is a lot but color doesn’t lie)

Once I got the ph down I took cuts in root riot cubes with gel and I spray the dome with ph balanced, 3 ppm water.

I saw new growth on the plant I didn’t take cuts off of only after 36hrs but it’s possible I took them too early? It’s day 9 for the clones and the stems look like I just took cuts.

Why aren’t they showing any progress?

Do you have a heat mat under the clone tray. They need consistent heat and light to root properly.

I personally wouldn’t get to worried if I didn’t see roots in 2 weeks

BobBitchen said:

View attachment 4427792

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i have two of these now, they're legit the best thing ive bought in the last 2 months, on a 30min on, 30min off timer

arcalion said:

i have two of these now, they're legit the best thing ive bought in the last 2 months, on a 30min on, 30min off timer

Click to expand...

I've been almost 100% with mine. Easiest part of my grow. More than happy.
I go 24/7 with my pump, but whatever works.

BobBitchen said:

I've been almost 100% with mine. Easiest part of my grow. More than happy.
I go 24/7 with my pump, but whatever works.

Click to expand...

yeah only reason i did the timer is because i found my water to be going up to 80F so figured it could get bad, but also i stopped putting the cuttings under a LED, i just let them sit on the floor with ambient light and they seem to stay green and not focus on growing anything but the roots

thekevin07 said:

Hi

I’ve had one heck of time trying to get clones to root. Seed to harvest no problem but clones just don’t root for me. I’m getting close to having to shutdown and I can’t afford to.

Our water is very hard and our water softener system died, as a result my ro system needed replacing. I didn’t catch it for about a week and some very hard water sprayed the pots. I’m using patio misters in a crawl space as it helps with bugs and humidity.

I tested the ph of the run off and it was very high so after a flush of 30 gallons for a 1 gallon pot I finally got the ph down to 6. (I know 30 is a lot but color doesn’t lie)

Once I got the ph down I took cuts in root riot cubes with gel and I spray the dome with ph balanced, 3 ppm water.

I saw new growth on the plant I didn’t take cuts off of only after 36hrs but it’s possible I took them too early? It’s day 9 for the clones and the stems look like I just took cuts.

Why aren’t they showing any progress?

Click to expand...

First off dont use softened water on your grow, ever!!
patio misters in a crawl space==no clue is that the mother plant?
Getting the ph down in your pot then taking cuts means nothing it doesnt work like that or that fast. If anything you washed out all the nutrients in your soil then waited 36 hours to take cuts now you cuts are starving cuz you starved the mother by flushing the soil. Healthy mother healthy clones. Your mother plant is low on mag and probably nutes in general


Checking ph run off is stupid microbes regulate the ph at the root surface, You water in at a ph of 6.5 for soil.

Read this thread and go watch a bunch of videos about taking cuts.

Never open up a cube to check for roots if they aint sticking out you dont have any.

@nurrgle
I do have a heat mat.

@BobBitchen
I have an ezcloner and kept getting slime, ph fluctuations... nothing but problems but I will try the 30/30 timing. I haven’t tried that on off schedule yet. When pumps run 24/7 I get soft stems even with Heisenbergs tea recipe.

@Bernie420
i don’t used softened water in my patio misters. I have a res with ro water but the hard water ruined my ro system. Patio misters are great!!! Unless the ro system fails. I did put a low ppm advanced nute veg solution mixed with a little of Heisenbergs tea. 9 days since taking cuts the plants have gone crazy with new growth. AN nutes are ph balanced to 6. I only opened to check progress of one and take a pics. When can I take cuts again?

If you have the right pH and healthy cuts going in the thing that screws people up the most is too much love in my opinion. You should only have to spray them once, cover and don't even look at them for at least a week. Then maybe give them another spray. If they are drying out before that than your mat is too hot and you might not need it.

thekevin07 said:

@nurrgle
I do have a heat mat.

@BobBitchen
I have an ezcloner and kept getting slime, ph fluctuations... nothing but problems but I will try the 30/30 timing. I haven’t tried that on off schedule yet. When pumps run 24/7 I get soft stems even with Heisenbergs tea recipe.

@Bernie420
i don’t used softened water in my patio misters. I have a res with ro water but the hard water ruined my ro system. Patio misters are great!!! Unless the ro system fails. I did put a low ppm advanced nute veg solution mixed with a little of Heisenbergs tea. 9 days since taking cuts the plants have gone crazy with new growth. AN nutes are ph balanced to 6. I only opened to check progress of one and take a pics. When can I take cuts again?

Click to expand...

I guess when you get enough plant to take the cuts.

I think the mother plant is low on mag.

Man, for the amount of problems I heard ezcloner having I'm so glad I never went with then. First of all they're ridiculously expensive. Clone king was like 180$cdn for 36site, I saw ezcloner being 360$+.
All I would do would be put water in my cloneking with a ph of 5.6-5.9, when I take cuttings I would trim them like normally with all the leaves making them smaller, dip them in some clonex gel and put them in the puck, once it was full I would turn on the system and have a timer. Dont need to check it for 10+ days usually get roots around 14-17days, the temperature usually keeping it around 72-75F
The clones at the bottom I took on the 17th
One thing I noticed, not stripping off the bottom of the stem causes the roots to not create a rootball and mostly have wispy roots from the looks of it. But anyways just saying it's super simple and easy and I'm extremely happy with my purchase

[USER=492905 said:

@BobBitchen[/USER]
I have an ezcloner and kept getting slime, ph fluctuations... nothing but problems but I will try the 30/30 timing. I haven’t tried that on off schedule yet. When pumps run 24/7 I get soft stems even with Heisenbergs tea recipe.

Click to expand...

I would suggest that you're getting slime from adding a tea to your cloner. Organic material is causing/feeding your slime & the damping off.
IMHO, you should only use non PH'd tap water. The small amount of chlorine or chloramine helps fight against pathogens .
PH is not important when cloning , no roots no feeding.
A healthy mother plant & patience is what is most important.
I've used the same Clone King for about 8yrs now with almost 100% success, 10 - 14 days, & they're ready to transplant.
good luck.

i had same issue used rooting cubes and gell normally mine take 8 to 12 days to root but i had 10 or so that just did not root at all
if the mother is in survival mode like mine was the growth hormones are very slow in which case clones will die before they root 1 or soldiers may make it but in gen they all die . i learned this recently just a thought .
eg mother plant is just chilling under a low wt light i feed her as and when she needs it but slow growth if i wanted to take cuts i would ramp her up by feeding checking pot size training etc when growth speeds up then i take cuts . fixed my dying babys was trouble shooting for days .so ope it helps

Firstly, pH doesn't matter until you have roots to uptake nutrients.

Second, your rapid rooters are too dry, keep them wet, with a little water in the bottom of the tray such that the little channels are filled, and a dome with vents closed they should have condensation on the inside of the dome. Change the water out daily.

Third, use a heat mat and an inkbird temperature controller to keep the bottom of the tray at 80F. This will greatly speed root growth.

With those things I get 99.99% success with rapid rooters.

As soon as you see roots on a cut, put it in a different tray with no heat mat and start with a light feed. Then pH matters. You can open the vents on the dome now to start hardening the cuts as they root more.

Also, with scissors I gently scrape the first layer of tissue off the bottom half inch of one side on the stem and dip in clonex gel (optional but speeds things up).

Never try to root cuttings that have hollow stems, just won't work.

Take cuts above where the stem starts to become woody.

If the stem is soft I use a nail to pre-poke the hole in the rapid rooter, I stick the cuts in almost but not all the way to the bottom.

My cloning method is crude but works. I just use Wal-Mart cloning powder that I bought in 2006. I use a heat mat if it's a chilly part of the year. My only secret is to ignore the clones for at least 2 weeks and never peek at the root zones, just know they're there. I do some of Renfro's things like scrape the bottom inch off the surface of the stem and I split the stem too. Also use an object to enlarge the root riot hole so not to wipe off the cheap cloning powder. I use 1/2 tap water and 1/2 RO water and make sure things are sanitary before I start. Good success rate.

When I used to need 200 clones every 20 days for a flood and drain SoG perpetual flowering room here is what I setup.

I took a 2x4 flood and drain tray that I could set 4 of the rapid rooter tray inserts that hold the rapid rooters and had a dome for the 2x4 tray. Gotta have the right tray.

Seedling heat mat for 4 10-20 flats in the bottom of the tray with a temperature controller set to 80F.

Cut the bottom off the rapid rooter trays to keep the little channels preserved, no more. Just want them to hold a tiny bit of water so the roots will grow into the channels and get long.

I had to put some heavy pieces of 1/2 inch brass square bar stock on the rapid rooter inserts and the heat mat so they wouldn't float like little 50 passenger barges lol.

So in the tray you have heat mat, temp sensor, rapid rooter tray bottoms, rapid rooter tray inserts with the plugs and cuttings, something to hold the whole mess from floating.

Set the tray up to flood once a day deep enough to go half way up the rapid rooters.

I had a 250 watt metal halide above the tray back in the day. Some t5's would be great.

Set it and forget it basically.

Root zone temp is key, too hot is probably worse than too cold though.

Everyone's made some good points in this thread so take them on board and your success rate will increase.

Heat mat, Schultz rooting hormone, a good dome and tray and a spray bottle, success every time. You don't need fancy machines, just a good environment. BTW people were using Schultz long before any of the popular gels were around, and it is dirt cheap.