Cloning Problems

So far my cloning efforts have failed. I am using a humidity dome and have tried potting soil and rapid-rooter plugs. The cuttings seem to survive about a week and then the stems fold over where they exit the potting media. I am not sure what I am doing wrong?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

How big are your cuttings? At lot of failures can be attributed to the cuttings being too large. The size that I cut at, is about 4" tall. I trim all the lower leaves off, leaving the last 2 sets of leaves and stick the cutting as deep as possible into your medium, right up to the remaining leaves. You should use Clonex or some similar type of rooting aid. You also could try rockwool cubes, which are good for cloning as they provide a good deal of moisture all along the stem, which is critical. I hope I have helped. Peace

Yes I think that they are way too big...I am trying one in water now as well......maybe I should trim away all the big leaves on that one

I tried to follow this as much as possible

http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/how-make-clones

I got the ph's right and did what he said but still 8 failures out of 8 so far....maybe I have too much humidity?

oh something that I notice is that the part of the stem in the potting soil is all soggy like wet paper...no wonder the cutting falls over..what causes this I wonder?

If your clones are keeling over right at the soil line that is a good indication of damping off, a fungal infection.

I used Rapid Rooters all the time, those are my preferred medium for clones. So long as the cuttings you took are good and healthy, and you have cleaned your utensils; the high humidity should not pose a problem and that is what you need. Also, the plugs should be moist but not saturated at all times.

Cloning in soil takes forever. Try an aerocloner. You can make one for about $20. And you get roots in as little as 4days.

I say keep it simple man. Go onto YouTube; watch 3-4 popular cloning videos; and take the best info from each. All I do is pop a nice healthy donor branch into a jiffy pellet (after applying cuts and root gel) and throw it under my hum dome and 4 cfl's - I've got a really high success rate. Your plants will turn yellow and look like they're dying during the first 1-2 weeks but they're just taking root. After which, you treat them just like seedlings. I've got some 2" clones a few weeks into flower right now; so I know simple works Go YouTube! Smoke Fat blunts

Thank you for the good advice. I think my environment is too damp/wet. I am going to try using an sgfc (shot gun fruiting chamber) which is a high humidity good airflow environment used to grow mushrooms in.

I think I will look into the aerocloner as well. Are there any good aerocloner articles out there?

You shouldn't try to root directly in soil, no. Rapid Rooters should work just fine though. Are they keeling over after you're transplanting them? Either way there is an issue with your method. This is why cleanliness is important in the initial stages, and a good rooting gel helps seals the cut.

There is nothing wrong with putting the cutting in soil. I put clonex and takeroot on mine no dome roots in about 2 weeks no prob. I also use jiffy pucks if im takimg a lot of cuttings and us3 dome for 5 to7 days misting daily.

quick question how big does the shoot have to be so you can clone it? can it be 2inches-4 inches what is the best hight? not trying to stea your thread just reading and thought i would ask

It should be a couple inches or so at least; the more important thing is that it has a few sets of healthy leaves.

Are they keeling over after you're transplanting them?

Click to expand...

They just keel over after about a week..they are rotted it seems.

I am looking at building some sort of EZ-Clone and I was reading their instructions. They say to not use distilled water. I have well water and I thought that distilled water would be a better choice. What is wrong with ph adjusted distilled water?. My raw well water starts out with a ph of 6.4 or so when drawn and after sitting around for the two days in a plastic bucket the ph shifts to 7.4 or so. I am not sure what is happening there, which is why I figured distilled water would be a more stable choice. What is wrong with using distilled water?