In my experience dont sweat it about beeing sterile, is not essential…
Slime and fungi are a consequence of dead tissue, that died for some environmental reasons…IMO not the cause of the failure
I add a 10% of fresh Areated compost tea to the volume of the water of the res…Bottled water ph 8.0 …i wash the cloner with water and soap
100% success always,
i just finished to transplant a batch that came from a reused water from another precedent batch…water full of slime-gunk-whatever…super healthy explosive roots…
My take is…the key point are
-Cool temps
-Lenght of the cut and lenghts of the part under the neoprene (bigger out- and couple inches under)
-Peel the whole part that goes under the disc
-cycle of 15 on 30 or 45 off
-Airstones…i use also a bubbler in the res to keep the oxygen level high
-T5 lights dimmed
good luck!!
Yep! I scrub it all out with bleach before i cut any clones. Every time. Or it will eventually bite you on the ass
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do you mean the part that goes below the disc or the part that is clamped by the disc?
I have sandwich bag with small hole to slip the stem through before they go into the neoprenes collars in my aero cloner I use as humidity domes.
Ithink temperature is key . If the waters to warm the stems get that white gel thats plant cell decay and die . To cold and they take forever to root.
People dont talk much bout this but your not supposed to emerge the complete stem in bubble cloners only 1/8 to a 1/4 inch . The mist from your air stone should be spray the stems aiding in root development.
lol thats great !
hahahah, a true artist @JoeCrowe. I swear that is exactly how my clones look.
Just to add to the conversation, not suggesting it is better or worse but if you keep the water level accurate every day then you dont even need to have the tip of the stem in the water. If the air bubbles from the stone are passing underneath the stem then you get enough water splashing up when the bubbles break the surface. But you do need to keep an eye on the water level. Again this may just work for me with my environment as it is pretty consistent temp and humidity. I ended up going back to adding a pump with sprayers so i didnt have to watch my water level so much. I get paranoid about leaving the stem in water when there are no roots risky for rot. Just a concern. I have not had issues in the past.
I agree that’s what led me to aerocloning. You can root a tire with one of those. I spent about 50$ on mine . 68 sites once I got the temps right I get consistent clones now. Not as fast as some guys in 5 days but 2 2.5 weeks the most some times 10 day.
I did use to use a 9 watt led roots barely grew with it , I would get the white little bumps that’s it. . I moved to a 35w led and full roots grow like they should . I think there is a point where you need some light .
Yeah, i think it depends on the light as well as heat. So heat is not good for disease with the roots but it helps the roots to grow. I think at low light it helps a lot. But with LEDs you can get a light with decent watts that gives close to zero heat. so you can give them some good light without heating them up. With hotter lights you require more humidity which then invites disease as well. LEDs make it a lot easier as you can have lower temp roots and not have to humidify them too much and they still survive and root well.
I got a crazed hypothesis that they root best if the end of the cutting contains a node, instead of being just a cut off stem. I got the idea from a book with a chapter on cloning. I don’t “cut” the plant, I rip the clone off with my fingers.
Sorry, the part that goes below the disc, leaving the peel in the part that is clamped.
It seems that the roots are growing like mushrooms where the stem is peeled, if i dont peel it , they just pop from the bottom, in the section of the stem that has been cutted…so less roots and more weak…
Hey that’s an interesting idea, scarifying the stem. You put hormone on those or nothing?
Yeah I also have that suspicion. I try to take my cuttings just above a node so that I can then re cut it diagonally through the node just before putting it in the Clonex. I have tried several small experiments by leaving a node in the root zone, sometimes scratching near it and sometimes scratching the node itself. I found that in all experiments I always had the most amount of roots coming out from the scratches and especially the scratches on the node itself.
How @Grapefruitroop 's roots look is how my roots look when cloning. There will be a straight line of root shoots coming out the stem because the roots all shoot out of the scratches that i put down the stem. Similar effect to stripping it. Exposing the layers underneath where the root forms from. Works really well. Since I started scratching my clones I have not lost one.
I dip em in Clonex, but honestly im not sure if really makes sense given the fact that after few min they get showered by the nozzles nebulizing water…
I had it around, but prolly when ill b out ill use the Clonex solution instead of the gel…???
What im sure is givin them a nice effect is the fact that im dippin the whole cut in compost tea before stick em in the cloner…they look so perky and healty just few hours later!!
how do I know when to readd chlorine? I want to run it at 4 ppm chlorine. But how can I make sure not to overdose when to readd?
With my light leaking raft cloner, had not a single root yet. But many dead clones…
I am thinking about getting an aeroponic cloner. If I dont need a humidity dome then I could build one myself…
@SamandMax, In most cases I think people re add around every 4 days.
@Grapefruitroop, I think most of the benefit of clonex happens before it goes into the cloner. I think you cut and drop it into clonex straight away and a little bit soaks into the cut end. So even if the gel washes away straight after putting it in the cloner it still has benefits. Well that is the theory. So I guess if you use the aero cloner then you should soak the ends of the cutting in the gel for a little while before putting them in the cloner. I have always done this and so far it has been very successful.
do you know what is symptoms of overchlorinated plants?
I bought an aerocloner. Unfortunately nothing happens with the stems, no roots (even when adding chlorine). I give them low light. Somehow the clones are growing bigger and bigger.
With the normal cloner (with starterplugs and clonex and chlorine) I have a good success now. The chlorine seems to kill the patogens which prevented them from rooting.
Do the stems get mushy or something? I don’t use rooting hormone or bleach or anything, Just water and oxygen with cuttings in there. If the stems are firm they should root.
@SamandMax, I am not sure what chlorine toxicity symptoms are like in clones. Whatever symptoms you do see will be in the root area. Because they can not yet pull nutrients up to the leaves having no roots you will not see symptoms in the leaves. Except for when it has been ages and the cutting starts to deteriorate.
What temperature was the root chamber on the aero cloner?