Hey StinkBud, I have followed your plans exactly for the cloner. Built it and everything and it looks great, problem is I put 10 Ak clones in for 3 weeks but no roots whatsoever. I put 150ml of Clonex solution in what appeared to be about the right amount of water (compared to your pics), a green sludge did build up on the sides and pvc's. Ph was about 6 and ppm was 400. So my question is how much water did you put in with the 150ml of solution? What is your ppm at, and also any idea what the sludge could be? Oh and one last thing I did see one root develop for about two days then it disappeared.
Your the man, keep up the good work buddy!
I am not Stink! ...but I have been doing much work with the Stinkbud AeroCloner. Below are my observations. They are not Stink certified - but I have 100% success with the following settings:
Sludge is never good! Sounds like you got something funky! You will need to clean that and start again. Cleanliness is really important when cloning!
Take it all apart, clean it well with soap and water, and some sort of disinfectant. Run it for 30 minutes with hot water and a mild bleach/water solution. Dump it, spray it down, run it for 30 minutes with straight, cold water. Dump it, spray it down, run it again for 10 minutes with cold water. Be sure there is no bleach odor. Wipe it down with a clean, lint-free cloth. Keep it clean! The unit is now ready to rock. Don't infect it with anything... only touch it with rubber gloves!
Water - if your water is over 200 PPM - you can not use it... Straight RO water is also not good - but you can bring it up to 135PPM with your tap water - or - the sure solution for us folks with bunk water - buy Arrowhead Mountain Spring Drinking Water! 5 gallons fills the 18 gallon Rubbermaid container to a nice level - they sell it in 2.5 gallon containers. This water is already at a good PH and PPM as is - about 6.0 and 100 - 140 PPM - you can lower it to 5.8 if you like... lower PH below 5.5 inhibits the growth of many types of fungus and bacteria... though the optimum rooting PH is more in the range of 6.0 to 6.3. Rather than adding Clonex to the res - just dip the cutting in it just before you place it in the neoprene collar.
From here it is hard to go wrong if you follow Stink's guide. Room temps are pretty broad, though the process certainly slows below 69 degrees. Don't add any humidity on purpose through the use of a dome or misting, etc. Be sure you are cycling your pump to keep your res temps down, and change the whole thing out at least every 10 days. Leave the lights on 24/7 - though they, theoretically should root faster in 18/6 light.
Not sure if you have experience with cuttings - and there are many schools of thoughts - and I have changed y method and thinking many times! Here is my current cutting technique in the Stink AeroCloner. Using this method I have been able to root all strains in about 7 days - 100%.
Lower cuts - as with all methods - root faster than cuts from the top of the plant - usually - but with the Stink system - I have found you can get excellent results from upper plant branches too! I like three nodes on my cuts... I trim the last node and make a 45 degree cut about 3/8 inch below that last node. For woodier cuts, I scrape away a bit of the skin, just below the finial node to the tip in three sections. Dip this in Clonex to the top of the trimmed node - pause for a few seconds and let the excess Clonex drip off. Place the cut in the Neoprene collar so the second node is just above the collar - with the cut node and tip, at least, an inch below the collar... longer is better but you don't want to make your 45 cut too far below the third node as the nodes are where the rooting hormones (auxins) are at. Do all this with rubber gloves, sterile scissors, razor, or scalpel. User your trusty 99 (rubbing alcohol of at least 91%) before taking all cuts.
OK - I hope I didn't come off as some sort of "know-it-all" - this is all just my personal experience. Stink is the man and his advice is word!
. Thank you.
