Do you guys PH the water? My tap is 8+. Ph down to 5.8 but doesnt last very long. I never obsessed before the pen but now that I know… well, you know!
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Yezzir. Always. Very good point. I honestly don’t think it’s 100% necessary unless it gets way out of wack. But I’m pretty obsessive with my meters and controllers as well lol. I definitely…… know 
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I don’t, but I make RO H2O. The Total Alkalinity of our well water makes it impossible to get a stable pH.
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I use RO as well, for everything but starts. Makes life so much easier
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I have had 95% success using vermiculite.
I take the cut, make a cut in the stem with 45º and put it directly in the aloe vera and leave it for 5 minutes, after that I send it to vermiculite and put it in a cup with holes and leave the humidifier on 24 hours on top. The fastest strains take root with 8/10 days and the longest 16/18 days.
The last batch of 10 clones I only lost 1, he developed roots but was practically without good leaves.
In a few days I’ll take some clones and I’ll show the process in my diary.
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I’ve setup diy aero cloners like 3 times, but never had much luck with them. My preferred method is rooting cubes and hormex in a humidity dome.
- Cut branch with clean razor or scalpel
- put into shot glass of water for a couple hours
- remove from water and slice at 45 degrees through a branch node
- place in hormex b vitamin solution for 5 minutes
- dip into hormex #8 and tap of excess powder into trash
- push stem in root riot cube with moisture level as supplied by manufacturer
- into humidity dome with heat mat at ~80deg
I’ve tried hormex 16 as well but I think 8 is the best. Also I have a clonex mist knockoff recipe that I’ve been using (here).
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Good option also is styro pipe insulation. Just cut 1" pieces and you’re good to go 
Most willows will work (and most are water lovers). I’ve used big weeping willows as well as dappled willow to make willow water…
I tap into a cold water line in the house with a saddle valve, run 1/4" poly to the cloning tub and use a $7 auto-fill valve to keep mine topped off. I also have an aquarium heater inside, and learned the hard way, if I let it go too long and it dries up, it destroys the heater, and possibly burns a hole in the tub or worse. Auto topoff to the rescue!
The floating styro is quite common in aquaponic lettuce around here…
My go-to cloner has been a bubble cloner, 12g rubbermaid tote, decent airpump and airstones and an auto topoff and an aquarium heater. The collars have varied from pipe insulation, pool noodles, neoprene, or made for the job foam discs, they all work the same. I have recently made a super high dome with a Hefty Hi-Rise 18qt tote, and experimented with rockwool cubes and bottom heat with pretty good success that way as well. In the past I tried that with lower domes, or peat pellets, and they never succeeded… The bubble cloner was the easiest and first one to work almost ll the time for me (if it didn’t its cause I made the cutting too short).
I still have a bottle of Bontone rooting powder that I’ve had for years. Still use it, still having success 
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Man good thread as im just doing clones…i just ordered some colored collars…i have small air pump n airstones at home so im going to give it a shot…only thing i will need to buy is small tote or bucket…looking to make 6 site cloner…
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I see noone mentioned having to change the water in the cup daily or minimum every other day?
Also when your diy cloners start failing (they all do eventually) this got me back in action .
And
Or you can just run pool shock in it for a week rinse , clean it run again with boiling bleach dump and fill.
I never spent the money either but every other year ill just buy a cheap set of collars . Once you catch the bug its hard to shake it .
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Looking for this article about hidden cynobacterial in the pumps.
I actally used my diy cloner with a filter over the pump and a cup of ewc in the water for almost a year without cleaning . I installed a aquarium sponge filter in it. Worked great until hottest part of summer came then it crashed.
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I’ve done this, and I have never had to change the water, however they did take up some water so I had to top them off after the 1st 4 days. I just took another set yesterday and got a little crafty this time.
I have been cloning in cups of water for about a year. I’ve also recently took cuts, placed them in cups as small as a shot glass… just for the purpose of sexing them out under 12/12. I checked every few days. On day 11 I found roots. On day 15 the sex was already pushing through. I left them just to see how far they would go… and they went until pollen sacks started to open, and 1 dropped on a fan leaf.
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These are the ones I just took. This time I set up with foam plates as lids. I carved holes in the foam to insert the cuts so they can be suspended over the water without falling too far in. The post above was my last run in the cups. All plants have been sexed this same way. These new cuts are all female. Just seeing how many I can save. Some cuts in the last pic are yet to be moved into separate cups in groups of 3-4.
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Out of everything I’ve tried an ez cloner or ez cloner like system was always my safest bet. It rarely failed. If it did I chalked it up to being my fault.
And the quickest!
These things work.
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Nice thread.
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The preparation of the mums befor takin cuts is the key : )
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cuts removed in the 1st week of flora, in the full moon, then went to aloe vera for 5 min, after that I send it straight to vermiculite. After 8 days they look like this:
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Love how much information this thread has already absorbed. Thanks everyone for all the info provided. This is sure to help many people as time passes which was my original intention when I created it. Thank you 
and keep them coming.
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Not trying to bust your chops, but saddle valves are possibly the worst plumbing connection ever. Appliance installers love them for ice makers…cheap, quick, easy, and leaky immediately after the warranty (if there even is one) is up. Just say no to saddle valves!
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Its all good. Only used saddle valves for the better part of 20 years with little to no issues. And I say that because I used them also at a Koi shop to provide a constant stream of new / fresh water to the display tanks, and those would need annual replacing (but they are fidgeted with all the time, like every day). The 3 I have installed in the house (icemaker, RO/DI unit, and the grow area) have been in place between 10 and 20 years now, and are original because they are barely touched.
Just say no to crappy plumbing supply joints
(and for the record, if I was completely plumbing from scratch, I wouldnt use em, but for the intended purpose, I’ve had no issues really).
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Think I’m gonna try this one next time actually. I’m sure I’ve got some vermiculite somewhere from my old school soilless mix.
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