Bubble Cloner: Everyone says something different

I've built myself a Bubble cloner from a 4gal Rubbermaid tote with an Elite 802 20gal air pump with 4x 1" air stones.

Now I've read just about everything I can find on how to use a bubble cloner properly, but it seems as if everyone has a different opinion on how to do it.

A few examples;

Temps
Some say around 80 range temps are better in the same manner you would put a heat mat under rockwool or peat clones, and colder may cause them to go into stasis.

Some say 70 range so you don't cause bacteria/fungus growth and cook the clones.

Height
Some say to submerge the clones giving them a good supply of oxygenated water.

Some say to raise them above the water so they don't water log, and have to grow roots to search for water.

Mine actually seem to be water logging while being raised. I think this may be due to the mist not being powerful enough to exchange the water. So basically a drop of water sits on the tip of the clone and won't get dry or exchange for hours because of the massive humidity inside. But maybe I'm mistaken.

Any pros getting roots consistently in a week and able to clear some of this up for me?

Probably should have put this in the right sub-forum

Darkuser said:

I've built myself a Bubble cloner from a 4gal Rubbermaid tote with an Elite 802 20gal air pump with 4x 1" air stones.

Now I've read just about everything I can find on how to use a bubble cloner properly, but it seems as if everyone has a different opinion on how to do it.

A few examples;

Temps
Some say around 80 range temps are better in the same manner you would put a heat mat under rockwool or peat clones, and colder may cause them to go into stasis.

Some say 70 range so you don't cause bacteria/fungus growth and cook the clones.

Height
Some say to submerge the clones giving them a good supply of oxygenated water.

Some say to raise them above the water so they don't water log, and have to grow roots to search for water.

Mine actually seem to be water logging while being raised. I think this may be due to the mist not being powerful enough to exchange the water. So basically a drop of water sits on the tip of the clone and won't get dry or exchange for hours because of the massive humidity inside. But maybe I'm mistaken.

Any pros getting roots consistently in a week and able to clear some of this up for me?

Probably should have put this in the right sub-forum

Click to expand...

This is the right forum.

I can't say what is optimal, but I can say this:
If you take your cuttings from vigorously growing donors, put them above the water line (not submerged) in your bubble closer, and keep the temps at 80-82 f you will get roots in 7 - 10 days. Yes there is always drips hanging from the stem tip.

QuentinQuark said:

This is the right forum.

I can't say what is optimal, but I can say this:
If you take your cuttings from vigorously growing donors, put them above the water line (not submerged) in your bubble closer, and keep the temps at 80-82 f you will get roots in 7 - 10 days. Yes there is always drips hanging from the stem tip.

Click to expand...

After posting I figured the DWC sub-forum might get me more responses, but anyway...

Thanks for the reply. That's pretty much the conditions I have right now so I guess I'll wait it out for now.

The stems on a few are starting to get a bit of red and looking like they are too wet. So I was thinking the light mist is getting a little water on them, sitting there until there is no more oxygen, and starting to cause fungus or rot.

If they don't root in a couple days or if no one with experience with this problem can suggest something, I'll try raising the water level to see if more water exchange will help.

So it's been a week since I built the bubble cloner. I had several cuttings in peat for a week when I built it, broke those out and put them in the cloner. They got roots in about 5 days, but none of the new cuts have yet.

I was thinking after watching with the lid off, the spray from the bubbles jumping about 6 inches high. Wouldn't it be a good idea to put the air pump on a timer so the cuttings dry a bit and need to look for water?

Tomorrow I was thinking about picking up some Superthrive or some sort of hydroponic rooting hormone to speed things up. Anyone have something special they use in their hydro cloner that works real well?

A bubble cloner appears to have the same effect as a aeroponic cloner while being simpler and cheaper, yet I've read some people having them in for weeks without roots. There has to be method to getting roots in a week like many aeroponic users are able to achieve.

I read some people like Al B. Fuct and Gypsy Bush getting roots in a week in rockwool, which seems great and all, but doesn't allow you to throw them in and just let them do their thing. Hydro is all about simplicity and having things automated for you.

I haven't been able to find a really good thread on hydro cloning where someone says, "THIS IS A REALLY GREAT WAY TO DO THIS I ALWAYS GET ROOTS IN A WEEK", and I think it would be helpful to get some discussion going by people getting good results with these systems.