Cannabis Cloning Expert Advice

[JenM]

Hello friends.Newbie here and we love to share info and techniques about Cloning.

And we also love to learn from your techniques.

Its nice sharing info to everyone.

 

Cheers.

[Naycha]

Welcome to Oz Stoners JenM

 

I've tried a few different techniques/mediums for cloning and once I got the hang of them I found them to be as successful as each other. Sometimes one method is just more appropriate or convenient for one reason or another.

 

I hope you enjoy yourself here.

 

Naycha

[mastertig]

gday and welcome

personally wen cloning

i prefer to flush prior to cloning

then take my cuts

6-14 days roots busting out of jiffys

cut underwater and use a powder

all the best

[merl1n]

Hey Jen,
Welcome to OS. Lots of great people and info round these parts
Cloning is an interesting subject, like many aspects of cultivating, everybody has their own way and some will swear that their way is best. Personally I found what worked for me and stuck to it. If it works why mess with it .
I use rockwool cubes as my clone medium. Rockwool is made just like fairy floss, but instead of melting sugar, by heating rock till it melts, at those temperatures nothing can survive and therefore the rockwool is sterile. I use 4inch square blocks of rock wool and I can place up to 4 cuttings into each cube, but usually only do 2 per cube. The cubes need to be soaked before use. I make a 1/2 strength mix of grow nutes, pH adjusted and sit the cubes in the mix, but not covering the cubes. The nute fluid is drawn up thru the cube from the base and as the top is visible, when I see the top completely wet, I know the whole cube is wet. I remove the cube and gently squeeze it, removing the excess. Using a clean plastic rod a make the desired number of holes in the cube, in opposite sides, about an inch from the corners.
The cloning gel I use is Clonex Purple. Clonex comes in 3 types. Soft woods (Green), Medium hard woods (purple) and hard woods (Red) I use purple, for me, it works. Never dip your cutting in the pot of Clonex. Get an old plastic Coke bottle lid and pour your clonex into the lid, and dip into the lid. This way you don't contaminate your Clonex. And never return the unused portion back into the Clonex bottle. Wrap it up and place it in your bin. DO NOT POUR IT DOWN THE DRAIN. Bacteria love it and can multiply to dangerous levels in your drains.
Now, the cuttings. I use a sterile scalpel to take them from the plant. I take the stem from just above a node, where a branch forks out from the stem. And cut it level with the node. If you cut it an inch above the node the stem above the node will die and can allow pathogens a place to hide. I have seen people place a dab of clonex over the stem where the cutting has been taken to seal it from such pathogens. But this is not a practise that I do, but some do.
Now to prepare the clone, Again with the scalpel I scrap the stem about  1/2 an inch from the end, leaving the fibres connected to the stem. In very basic terms, the stem has 2 types of cells living and dead xylem cells. The outer layer of the stem, the green part, is the living cells. This is the primary feeding route for the plant. When a plant is ringbarked this breaks the path for feeding and this is why ringbarked trees/plants die. The woody inner stem is made up of primarily dead xylem cells, and although they are dead these are the cells which give the plant its vertical strength. By scrapping the stem and leaving the fibres I'm allowing those living fibres to transform and develop as the roots. I then dip the whole area I've scrapped into the Clonex. This seals the area and stops any infections entering the base and encourages root production. I then insert the cutting into my pre soaked cube.
I then place the fresh clones in a white esky and place a Compact Fluro Light over the top. I have heard of people putting fresh clones under HID lighting but in my view babies need nurturing, gentle light CFL and not beaten into submission under HID. CFL's emit very little heat, I was using an incandescent light but it got a bit warm and fried my babies. DOH. The white esky reflects all of the light all the way around the clone, this is also why my room is white, white reflects the whole spectrum of light.
The clones stay under the CFL until I get a full coverage of roots over the bottom of the cube. I have in the past used a heated clone pad to encourage the roots quicker, but no longer have the pad and don't really see the need. The roots will come.
From here I plant the clones in my pots.
 
 As I say others will have their views and opinions and I admit I don't have 100% strike rate, probably more like 85-90%, so I always take more clones than I actually need just to be sure I'm covered for those loses. A big part of cloning is a sterile environment. Fresh nutes, clean scalpel, sterile medium etc. You don't want any pathogens to fry the babies before you even start.

So, that's what I do. Hope it helps
Merl1n

Edited October 30, 2014 by merl1n

[herby]

Dont stress to much about cloning, so far ive had 100% success rate with the little jiffy foam cubes, just cut on an angle, plop it into some gel, snip of the excess fan leaves / nodes from the bottom area and put it into a tray, 10-14 days later it will root, ive taken clones from a seeded mom 1 week before flower and also taken clones from other clones that are only 3 - 4 weeks old and its always worked

[Sixty-Eight]

im with these guys above once u find a way that works for u run with it

 

i use rockwool cubes but these days i find u dont need to soak them in the old days they use to lock out the water so you'd have to pre soak them

 

i always take a cutting than use a 10L bucket filled with water and make a second cut under water at a 45 degree angle this stops a embolisim from killing the clone

 

i always take big clones where possible they almost touch the dome, the bigger the clone the quicker they root

 

using a 150w MH and a 35L plastic storage container from bunnings with a lid, i fill the bunnings tub with water to the very top u dont want much of an air pocket, than place the smallest fish tank heater in the water and set it to i think 18c from memory than sit your clones and dome ontop of the bunnings storage container

 

mist the clones every second day and blow out the old air inside of the dome

 

the temps inside of the dome will vary around 24-26c even tho the fish tank heater is set to 18c, as the heater turns on and off the dome changes temprature by its self i find this up and down temprature rise and decrease triggers rooting early ive had clones root in 6 days from cutting to rooting with around 20 roots shooting out of the rockwool on more than 10 clones in one go

[sols]

water plant half hour before taking cutting then you don't need to try contort plant to cut it under water. then dip end in rooting powder or gel and plant directly into whatever grow medium you using and feed as normal for veg. always worked for me.