Going off a genius suggestion by GrowersGoneWild, we’re pondering experiments with a couple different additives using honey as a base. We’re working on having the parameters drawn up this week and we’ll update ya.
2 Likes
this is what I’ve been doing for many years. Sometimes simple is best!
2 Likes
I’m on the fence about this, I dont think a gel is actually needed, aerocloners, for example dont really use the gel.
I’ve done some work with NAA and IBA in tissue culture, and either are soluble in water, so you need ethyl or sodium hydroxide to dissolve it if you were to use it in a solution. Off the top of my head IBA needs Ethyl alcohol to dissolve, NAA is sodium or potassium hydroxide.
Either way a very small ammount of either hormone is used to formulate the gel.
The gel base could be something as common as Xanthan Gum. However I have to try this myself but I have worked with Xanthan Gum before. It might work well because you are using serial dilution to get to the proper hormone level.
The other non gel alternative that I discussed with a professional in the pharmaceutical industry is using IBA/NAA and to use an aliquot to dilute the hormones to the correct level. Perhaps dextrose or something similar.
I’ve found that most commercial formulas are very cost effective, and I clone alot,
~600 to 800- clones a year so unless you are experimenting with concentrations even I’m not going to make a gel.
HOWEVER…
For the thread IF I was to DIY a Rooting Gel.
Aloe Gel + Honey
Or
Dip N Grow + Xanthan Gum, Dip N Grow is usually used in a 1:10 concentration with water for cannabis It already has IBA and NAA in it. Soo… you could make something “stronger” by increasing the ammount of Dip N Grow to the solution.
.
4 Likes
the theory with the honey is that the natural anti-bacterial properties prevent the stem from rotting, and the sugars give the plant a bit of fuel. When I used Clonex they didn’t root any faster.
1 Like
I like fresh Aloe. 
3 Likes
I recently pulled some cuts and went direct-to-soil, using raw honey as the “rooting gel”, purely as an experiment (always looking for KISS methods that are easy and organic). Will let you know how it goes.
I have honey,clonex, Shultz I.B.A. brown sugar, superthrive, aloe, rooting cubes, rockwool cubes and the cloning left hand of death, if I learn to clone this year I’m pretty sure that you will hear trumpets and choir singing my name yes my actual name and it will have been Gabriel’s trumpet and I will rust in peace.
2 Likes
I’ve always had 100% strike rate when using fresh aloe, usually within 8-10 days too. I soak oasis cubes in a mixture of fresh squeezed aloe and water until they are nice and saturated. As I take cuttings, I lightly scrape the outer skin from the bottom inch and a half or so of the stem and place them in a cup with the same aloe/mixture to soak for a few hours. In the meantime, I line my cloning tray with about 2" of perlite spread evenly across the whole tray, then set my soaked oasis cubes on top of the perlite in the tray. The perlite acts as a secondary growing medium so that your roots won’t suddenly hit a hard plastic floor when they start coming out of the cube. Anyway, when I’m ready to actually stick my cuttings in the cubes, I take a cutting out of the cup and literally stick it in a fresh cut blade of aloe, much like you would with a small bottle of clonex, and stick it in the oasis cube and repeat. When the tray is full I mist all the cuttings and the underside of the dome and put the dome on snug. I usually leave the dome on (100% humidity) until I start seeing root tips in between the rows, then I’ll start venting the tray.
Obviously there is more than one way to skin a cat but I’ve never had trouble with propagation this way. (Thanks Kevin Jodrey) 
5 Likes
Fresh aloe, Humic acid(a couple drops per gal) willow tea… Soak cubes 24 hours. Dip cuts into a mixture of fresh aloe, willow tea and raw yucca then rub the stem of each cut inside the filet from an organic aloe Vera plant and then plant. Mist ONLY the dome with coconut water, use coconut water within 20-30 mins of mixing. Roots in 3-7 days. 98 percent success rate so far.
3 Likes
Nice, I am going to have to try this soon ;]
I have heard from many old growers that aloe alone will root a clone just fine, no need for anything more. I haven’t yet tried it, but curious to see if anyone else has as well.
1 Like
I’ve used just fresh aloe filets and pulp to clone with great success. But I must say, I think the willow water works wonders also… When using fresh aloe, use aloe VERA, and make sure to use it quickly after harvesting the filet and mixing it in water. I’ve also realized at some point that I was keeping the clones far too wet, in accordance with most available info on the subject. I now pre-soak the cubes(give them a small squeeze just before planting, consistency of a slightly damp sponge), mist the dome only to keep humidity high, I only mist the plants once when first planted and definitely never water/mist the tops of the rooting cubes/media. After the cubes dry up, begin adding a coconut water/aloe mixture to the trays. Just enough to fill the trenches in the trays. This will allow and encourage the roots to stretch in search of water. The aloe and coconut water give the clones everything they need until rooted. After roots appear I begin allowing more air flow(crack vents slightly), and continue to mist the dome only and water the trays when the cubes are almost completely dried up. This has worked so much better than any other method for me. Misting the plants every day has caused my clones to wilt, have pm issues, botrytis, anything related to too much having to much h2o… Thanks for letting me rant…
2 Likes
I would like to know more about planting clones directly into their final home. Has anyone done this with more than a 50% success rate? If so what was your method?
Yes, I have done this, the trick is giving it high humidity. I used to clone directly into coco and place a bag over it for a few days, it will root right into the pot, no clone dome (besides the bag). Once you see roots coming from bottom of pot, remove bag and its good.
I like using rockwool for cloning as I can let them sit in the dome an extra week or two without much issue, this allows me to stagger my runs just right.
Nice. I think it is definitely advantageous to introduce the clone to its permanent home asap. Begin mychorizael synchronicity early on, exposure to lactos bacillus and nitrogen fixing bacteria also at this stage could really improve growth rates I believe. Of course if you have clones already rooted before planting into their permanent media, the veg time would seem to be shorter… My question is with the increased growth rate, even with the wait time for the clones to take root, would my typical 30 day veg be shorter than if I were to plant rooted clones…? If there were any problems with the clones rooting at all it would not be worth it, especially if some do not take root at all… So using only the finest cuttings would be of the utmost importance. Any thoughts?