This is essentially the first step. You will need to make sure you have your materials prepped first but once your rinses and vessels are prepped you’re ready to go. Instructions for any needed prep are below.
Step 1
You’ll need to select your plants and decide how you want to group your cuttings. Whether it’s per strain, per plant, etc you just need to decide who will be in what vessel. You’ll want to do this process per vessel. This is an all or nothing technique so once you clean the cuttings and put them in your vessel, you cannot come back and add more later or take one or two out.
Step 2
Prep your rinses. There are 3 rinses, you’ll need 2 separate bowls and your previously prepared jars of sterile water. Make sure the bowl size is appropriate for the number and size of your cuttings. You’ll need to be able to fully submerge all the cuttings at once for this to work.
Rinse 1, Bowl of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol, Use straight 70% out of the bottle. DO NOT DILUTE IT, DO NOT USE STRONGER THAN 70%
Rinse 2, 10% Bleach Solution, DO NOT USE STRONGER THAN THIS, To create this mixture use normal household bleach at a mixture rate of 1/4 cup Bleach per 2 1/4 cups of water, plus a DROP of dish soap. I prefer Dawn but any standard dish cleaner is fine.
Rinse 3 will be your Sterile Water. See separate sterile water prep guide.
Step 3
Now you need to take your cuttings. For long-term storage, I recommend looking for stems pencil width but we are using smaller for the test and they will work just not as well. The one thing I highly recommend, is setting the length of your cutting just below a node on the branch. This will allow the cutting to start rooting while in the vessel and most plants show some sign of initial rooting out of the vessel. If you don’t do this, you may still obtain good results, but it will take the plants longer to root and you will not have as good a success rate.
Step 4
Now it’s rinse time. I recommend setting your rinse bowls next to each other for an easier process. I keep my sterile water in mason jars simply because you can remove the lid ring and then wait to pop the top before you throw the cuttings in. This allows only a brief air exposure before you can seal them again to rinse. Step by step here we go…
Rinse 1, Cuttings into the 70% Alcohol. They should be in here only a few seconds, fully submerged, and then quickly moved to Rinse 2.
Rinse 2, Your 10% bleach solution. The cuttings with be in the bleach for 10 MINUTES. During this time you need to move them around every once and while to keep them submerged and make sure all areas have been contacted and cleaned. You’ll then move them to the final rinse.
Rinse 3, Your Sterile Water. As mentioned earlier, I prefer to remove the lid ring and have the top ready to pop. I pull the cuttings from the bleach bath, give them a quick shake to knock any excessive bleach water off, pop the top, shove them in the jar, and replace the top. You’ll now keep them in there for 10-15min. Shake the jar as they’re in there, don’t be afraid to shake it like a paint mixer.
Step 5
They need to dry in a clean box for just a bit. Building an actual clean box is a hassle and unnecessary for this. If you have one great but otherwise you can do this. While you’re rinsing them, take two dinner plates of the same size. Spray them with alcohol to clean. Take 2 pieces paper towel and then fold them “hotdog style” to have a long ways folded over paper towel. Spray the inside of the towel lightly with alcohol. Dip your fingers back in your alcohol bath to clean them, then immediately go to your water and pull the cuttings and set them on the paper towel you just misted with alcohol. Put the 2nd plate on top and you’ll have a sanitized protective dome. This is more than adequate protection for these purposes.
Allow to dry for about 30 minutes inside the dome.
Step 6
Now it’s time to jar them on up. Take your prepared vessel, spray some alcohol inside to sanitize, wipe out with a paper towel and then immediately pop the cuttings from your dome into the vessel and seal and that’s it they’re done.
STORAGE
You will want to keep them in a refrigerator. For the purposes of this test, I used a standard home LG refrigerator. The temp is set to 35 F and they are stored in the back of a shelf. Make sure not to keep them in a light proof space. This will increase the odds of mold or bacterial growth.