Use it!
When I started cloning, I tried using jiffy pellets, rapid rooters, etc, and failed miserably every time.
I came across plans for an aeroponic cloner. And WOW, that thing was literally auto-cloner, except it didn’t cut the clones itself.
My cloner was a DIY version of this basically. “Under the bed” rubbermaid box, 36 holes cut in the lid w/ 36 little pieces of pipe insulation to hold the cuttings. Inside the rubbermaid I had an airstone with a GOOD supply of air, and… an aquarium heater! I believe the heater is a crucial piece here. Eventually (after ruining 2 cloners) I put in a float valve / top off. If ya let it go till the water evaporates, the heater burns the rubbermaid, makes a leak, and then cracks, learned the hard way (not once, but TWICE).
So, get that setup, get the water temp up to 70-72F, make sure there’s TONS of bubbles, and drop your cuttings in so their bottoms are 1/2" above the top of the water (getting sprayed by the bubble spray from popping bubbles), and walk away for 10-14 days. NO nutes, NO additives at all, just plain well water. The cuttings should have 3-4 closer nodes at the top, and on the 4th of 5th node from the top, you cut just below the node on a 45 degree angle, and strip the leaves on that node. On all the other fan leaves, I cut them in half to minimize transpiration. Typically, there’s about 2" of stem below my foam pipe collar, and 2" of plant above.
Once I made that cloner, my success rate skyrocketted… almost 100% overnight. Never looked at rapid rooters again unless I am planting seeds.
Do note, this relies heavily on a good airpump (Alita AL6a or AL15A here with a 12" airstone - dual use for my koi pond in winter). The popping action of the air bubbles is what keeps the stem moist, but not rotting. So make sure the stems are just above the water and not IN it…
Another method of cloning that I will be testing for my ladies this summer is something called an “Intermittent Mist Sand Bed”. I made two beds several years ago that are 4’x10’ and use them to clone / root all sorts of ornamentals for the yard (Coleus, russian sage, purple smoke bush, montauk daisies, purple sandcherry, etc, there’s literally hundreds of landscape plants that are easily multiplied this way). In essence, this is a 4’x10’ x 6"deep sandbed with coarse sand (fine sand doesnt drain well). I have 4 misters connected to an irrigation valve to cover the entire bed. I have a Galcon timer for the valves (24 volt lawn sprinkler ones), and the TIMER is key! You want to be able to set it to open / close cyclically, and with a start / stop time or operating window. Simply put, my timer starts misting the plants for 10 seconds, every 10 minutes, from 7am to 7 / 8pm. So to root stuff, I just take a bunch of cuttings (new growth tips are awesome), strip the bottom 1 or 2 sets of leaves from them, cut a line in the sand (2-3" deep) with a spackle knife, drop the cuttings in and firm the sand around them. Forget about them for two weeks, then come back to fully rooted cuttings ready to be transplanted into soil.
I actually am testing this method now, I have a few plants outside that were sold to me as Photo seeds, and turned out to be autos… Didn’t learn this until after I topped them all. So when I topped them there were no flowers and I said “fuck it, instead of just composting the tops, why not toss em in the mist bed and see what happens? Worst case is I give the neighbor a few small clones” Well, that was a couple weeks ago, and the cuttings are not only hanging on, but three are showing flowers now (right in time with the parents). I am gonna try to dig / replant them in some soil and finish budding them, but they may take the record for smallest plant with a bud because they are literally 3" tall, and maybe a nug on each, but that nug WASNT there when I topped em! (if it was, I wouldnt have topped em, and I would have found out earlier that they were autos).
Of course, when my photos that turned out to be photos get big enough, I plan to try cloning them in the mist bed as well, but thats a few weeks away yet…
Hope this helps a little with making lots of happy little plants!
lol
