cloning gel, powder or liquid?

[Gee]

What would people recommend, gel, powder or liquid? Does one have a better survival rate? I already have some powder my wife uses to strike roses but I was wondering if it's worth forking out for some Clonex.

[Luke Skywalker]

The powder used for roses is probably "hardwood" formula, and will contain a significantly higher proportion of the rooting auxins in it. That's not necessarily a good thing.

 

Powders tend to get stripped from the cuttings when you push them into the cloning media like rockwool, and it also doesn't provide a complete coverage of the cut end of the cutting. Sealing off this point is important for preventing an embolism (air bubble) from forming in the base of the cutting and preventing nutrient/water uptake.

 

The 5-10 bucks spent on clonex or similar based softwood gel is well worth it.

[jimbojones5678]

I use the gel and get a far better success rate than with the powder - probably because of what Luke said...

Just remember to tip the gel into another container and use that to dip your cuts in as you can contaminate the whole bottle if you dip them into it

 

Jimbo

[loylty gets u nothing]

i use the powders

the 1s specificly for softwood

works a treat

this round i had 49 of 51 root

i make sure theres a good coating on the cutting

to prevent lose to the medium

but with jiffys u just make ya whole fit ya cutting and squeeze

lose of no goodness

each to there own

take care

bil

[Luke Skywalker]

Also, what Jimbo said.

 

By all means trial the powder, but you'll thank yourself for getting the Gel. Personally I prefer the DM Replicator, but you can also consider using unprocessed honey, aloe vera gel, or just not use a rooting hormone at all.

[shirty]

yer ,, what he said ^^

 

Ive tried nothing at all, powder & gels.. the 'Clonex' gel having the best strike rate

 

[need4weed3]

dont use any

h2o works fine

[Gee]

Thanks for all the tips. I think i'll go with the gel. Anything that can raise the success rate for my first try will be worth it. Any other cloning tips you think I might need? I've done a bit of reading and it seems a lot less difficult than I first thought (fingers crossed).

[loylty gets u nothing]

just follow sukonmiskunks cloning tute

all the best

bil

[shroomyshroom]

some of you will remember i did a cloning experiment out side last year and i did half powder half gel...

 

all the powder cuts rooted and only half the gel ones rooted