Cloning Woes

Okay, I've tried twice already.
first time, I didnt soak rockwool cubes overnight.... I think they dried out clones. no gel no dome.

second try:

rooting gel, 5.5ph water, rockwool soaked overnight (shook so NOT overwet), humidity dome, spray bottle, indirect floro lighting.

what i got:

after 12 days. NOTHING. Root looks kinda wet not soggy. some leaves are mushy...
too much humidity?

I dont wanna go back to hydro store across town. BUBBLE CLONER?
only question I have is: do I need cloning Solution for in the water??
can I dip clones in gel then use regular veg nutes in water?

I am DONE with rockwool cubes, ive seen other mediums... are they equally inexpensive?
id like to do this without another trip to the hydro store and more $$

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/15030-batch-clones-rockwool.html enough said.

i clone in soil, no problem. here is what i do maybe it will help u. fill a party cup, then water until it runs through. make a hold for the clone, then cut ur clones & place in water. Then remove & cut off extra leaves to leave one node (if possible) to be buried under soil. I make the diaganol cut plus one cut in the center of the stem on the bottom about 1/8 inch deep & dip in cloning gel for about 30 seconds. Then place in pre-made hole & pinch, move soil around stem for good contact, also top soil to pack around stem in soil. put in dome withat least a few air hole vents. put approximately 12-16 inches from indirect light. mist 3-4x a day as well as top of dome. make sure it gets at least a 6 hr dark time each day. room temp approx. 78-88, humidity 65-70%.

sparkafire said:

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/15030-batch-clones-rockwool.html enough said.

Click to expand...

Yes, start with this!!!
RW cubes are great, but they are to be no more than 20g wet.

i see everyone post humidy %'s...
this is measured with wat a barometer.thermometer combo people have? I have a temp but dont know how to measure humidity. just have an old cake plastic dome, might need to upgrade.
i have dirt, and no problem trying using it...I was trying to get too fancy for my own good. haha

well i have a combo thermometer, but I also have a hygrometer I use with curing as well. But the rh is not a huge concern. ideally they're suppose to have at least 90% humidity, but again I do well with room rh at about 65%, although I am sure it is higher within the "dome". I keep it real basic. I put the cups in a plastic bin, covered by a damn garbage bag...for real, that I put a couple of breathing slits in. I think the common mistakes that people make is having them in direct light or too close to the indirect light (they require warm, not really light...very minimal) and trying to mist them too often &/or not keeping them in a warm enough environment. Like u said, u don't want to have to spend any more money, nor should u have too, it is unnecessary & especially until u have cloning down, a true waste of money.

I use RW with great success. I dip in clonex only, and then straight into RW cubes that have been soaked in h2o until the pH stops changing. I also use 1/4 strength of FF Big Bloom (guano and castings...very mild organic formula). I cut large fan leaves off and foliar feed with the same Big Bloom and Floranectar by GH. I also don't like to sterilize anything with alcohol, so I use heat. My "humidity dome" is a some tall cups turned upside down and then plastic wrap stretched over the top of my container...the cups hold it off the plants. Using this method, I had some GWS root in a day and a half (tiny, tiny roots, but you could see them nonetheless), and the longest anything has taken are some saliva's, around 5 days.

Oh, and my timer is set to 30 min on, 30 min off.

I think indirect light, and heat were my problem.... they were off to the side of my area... but still getting beams of bright light haha how the heck to i give them indirect light if my I am using a grow BOX? there is no indirect light! The windowsill? use natural light of the day? I could set them on the window sill, that has a baseboard heater under it... maybe that'd work best? i agree until i can clone i am at a stand still. My mother has plenty of branches to make cuttings from, I just didnt wanna FAIL again so I thought I'd come here for help first...! How nessasary is it to use a razor blade instead of regular sterilized scissors? I get a pretty clean cut but feel like maybe thats an issue too? Thanks for your feedback , btw

I only use razor blades, and I use 4 5' CFL's on 18 hours a day...no indirect lighting here. I also don't pay any attention to where I take my clones from. I choose the healthiest plants and then look for the healthiest fullest looking branch. I count from the Tip of the branch backwards 3 nodes and then 1" below that 3rd node. I then tear off the bottom set of leaves (the 3rd nodes) making sure to peel off some of the skin off of the stem. Then, really quickly I scrape it just a little bit more to remove some more skin and dunk it in the clonex. I let it sit in there for about a minute, making sure to get the gel about an inch or more up the stem. Lastly, just push it in the RW and you are finished.

ditch the rockwools (they are a pain to learn with will make you hate cloning) get some rapid rooters soak with a bit of water( i like to put some hormex rooting hormone in with the water when soaking the plugs and no need to ph anything), split the stem dip in rooting gel, plug them in, put a little water in the bottom of the dome tray (dont fill it up a nice layer at the bottom is sufficient) only spray once when fresh cuts after that just remove the dome once a day for 10 to 15 min then put lid back on and leave it alone untill the next day.

i get roots in 7-10 days this way with ease, this is why i wont get a ez cloner because i get about the dame results for 1/10 the price.

hey peacefarmer thanks for the response. I've failed to clone TWICE again now.

I took bigger cuttings.... I used dirt, im begining to thing this PURPLE rooting gel stuff is the problem

I know this is super basic so my frustration is huge beacuse Ive failed so mny times!

how much is clonex?

about $17.95 for the normal size bottle, works for me everytime.