DIY Aerocloner First Test Run - Please Help!

[Bandit420]

You can get this right Bro....

My next move with this would be using a dip. I love Vita Grow but there's over a half dozen quality dips you can use. I choose Vita Grow because I can root damn near anything with the stuff. I read a joke once that somebody could use it to root a popsicle stick. That statement is not too far off

Next is use the Dyna Grow rooting solution you have there mixed at the lowest dilution ratios according to the instructions. Whatever the ph sets at after mixing try leaving it be without lowering it. It may be too high from what you have read it should be but try rolling with it unadjusted to see what happens.

I cant tell what the other bottle of Dyna Grow is but for now leave it out and just use the rooting stuff.

If you're using tap water you could also try using distilled water for a better water quality. There could be something in the tap the cuttings just dont agree with.

An example...My buddy several doors down from me cannot use his tap water for cloning but I can use the tap at my house. He has a lot of calcium & rust deposits in his fixtures that screw with the water. He can use it to water established plants but clones hate the stuff. We got him on distilled and his clones took root in ten days.

My first runs with aerocloning were very ugly Bro!
I made clone soup more times than I care to admit. I kept working thru it all looking at evry aspect of the operation. I combined machine instructions with techniques pioneered by Ed Rosenthal until I finally got something.
When I got into the EZ cloner my best point of reference has been Pit Vipers journal + the machine instructions. Somewhere around the 250th page of his journal is some great stuff. That guy is a wizard when it comes to aerocloning!
Once i got it, it's been awesome and I am so glad I stuck with it.
Keep working on it Bro! The rewards will be so worth it!!

 

[THConnoisseur]

thanks for the motivation Bandit! i was pretty discouraged after these last two attempts, but i thats why theyre called "trials" and not "tutorials" lol i will be out of town for the next week which works out because my green crack mom could definitely use the extra time to recover. when i come back im going to clone the entire plant so i can start a new mom and lst her i will put 6 cuttings in the aerocloner for a 3rd trial using your method of tap water with the low-dose dyna grow and not adjusting the pH, plus ill dip the stems in the clonex gel i have, thanks for the idea man the other dozen cuttings are going into the dome in rapid rooters so i know ill get at least half to root, and i am slightly altering my past technique which should improve my success rate. be back next weekend with an update and a whole bunch of pics

peace

 

[THConnoisseur]

AEROCLONER TRIAL 3 - DAY 1

ok, im back in town and back at this! i got my clones all started yesterday, so let me fill you in on where im at... im running the aerocloner this time with tap water and 1/2 strength DynaGrow K-L-N ONLY, no pH adjustments, didnt even check it this time... i also dipped the cut ends into clonex gel which i havent done before, both pumps on 24/7 as usual, and i got 5 very healthy green crack cuttings in there. the rapid rooter/dome setup is to ensure a decent success rate as the aerocloner is still in the testing phase. i have 16 green crack cuttings in there as well as 2 hawaiian og cuts and 2 dj short blueberry cuts i should have a very successful outcome because ive changed a few minor things with my cloning process including adding a thermostat to my heat mat vs. having it on 24/7 which i believe got it too hot for the girls to root.

ok, LETS DO THIS!

AEROCLONER DAY 2 UPDATE

still looking good today, temps are good, pH is irrelevant lol heres a pic...

 

[THConnoisseur]

UPDATE

so, its day 4 in the aerocloner and tho the cuttings look great up top, under the lid looks the same as the past two trials... no callousing or white bumps to be seen, and the ends have a bit more brown to them than before but it has to be from dipping in clonex gel this time. they will stay in there for the full 7 days for the off chance that one starts to root, but i feel another trial is in the future lol depending on my success rate with the plugs/dome this time i may not be doing more aerocloner trials right away. I have no problem using the plugs/dome, ive just been frustrated with my ever decreasing success rate so i figured id try my luck with the aerobucket, but if the changes i made to my environment give me a lot of roots in the dome ill be stickin with that

 

[PeterDaily]

i like your set up. i might have created my cloner outta a 5 gal bucket if i stopped and used my head. NEway i was new to cloning. still am IMO. im trying different things when i clone. like taking cuts from the tops of the mother, then taking from the bottom. 4in, 6in, 8in cuts. So far, i beleive its the strain. I have 3 that im working with a couple of White Russian, a couple of Super Lemon Haze and one Critical Mass. The White Russian never wants to root. The SLH and Critical Mass root even if the cutting is a piece of shit. Check out my post of my experience and tell me what you think. (AERO) Clones- 7 Days. No roots. What is going on?

 

[PeterDaily]

PS. I DONT LIKE ROOTING GELS. I tried plain TAP and i find that i got my best results when i used a ROOTING SOLUTION mix in my water.

 

[RandyL]

I built my own aeroponic cloner a few months ago from an 18 gallon plastic tub and lid from Target. I used 1/2" PVC pipe, a 220 gph pump someone gave me, an airstone, and 14 sprayer heads. There are photos of it in my photo gallery if you want to look for them.

After a few weeks of experimenting, I ended up using RO water, as I do with all my plants, Clonex Clone Solution ( 1-0.4-1 ) in a 1 quart black bottle, and I kept the PH between 5.5 and 6.2 .

Also, I scraped the bottom inch of the stems and sliced into them several times with a razor blade, and dipped them in Clonex gel.

Because it was autumn in California, I had to put 1 gallon jugs of ice into the reservoir (5 gallons of water in the 18 gallon tub) to keep it cooled into the low-mid 70's. I had to rotate the ice jugs several times a day and it was still hard keeping the water temperature down. A real pain in the ass!

But it worked fairly well for getting clones out of it. I think it was around 12-15 days for decent roots to show up.

 

[Sky Rocket]

Th I just found your thread. I notice you have been having problem with unsuccesful cloning. If this attemp doesn't work for you I have a 100 succes rate that your cuttings will root.


1. Change your sprayers of your bucket from 24/7 to 5minutes off 1 minute on. This allows your plant to take up oxygen wich they need to promote roots.

2. Only need to use tap water (clonex optional, do not use clonex gel for aerponics cuttings) and ph your water to 5.8

3. Cuttings don't need much light so make sure your lights aren't close to your cuttings. Put your clones on 24/0 or 18/6 preferably.

I have a similar setup and have a high sucess rate (stinkbud style) even though some plants root faster than others.

Good luck. Ill be watching your journal

 

[regulator]

lol ya couple things you need a humidity dome or 100percent humidity in that room another thing your res temp should be at 82 deg till you get roots then drop down to 70 deg and with an aeroponic cloner the ph is best between 5-5.5 i have a 100+ site aeroponic cloner an i get 100percent success rate

 

[regulator]

an put a small 45 or 50 watt cfl 6 inches away from the top of the clones the dont like lots of light an make sure there on 18/6

 

[THConnoisseur]

my temps are always in the low 70's, light is 24hrs with a 2bulb t5 floro and this is what ive tried in the res so far (with no success):

-dynagrow liquid root hormone (K-L-N) with a dynagrow silicon additive that promises to protect cuttings and speed up rooting (yea right...) and pH was 5.0

-then i tried just tap water at 5.8 pH

-then i tried just K-L-N without adjusting the pH (recommended by Bandit)

all failed miserably, after 7 days the stems were slightly soggy and had no signs of callousing or root formation... depending on how my dome/plug trial goes this time i may put the aerocloner off for a while, or just do it at my leisure for a fun challenge lol my next try ill have to get a hourly timer so i cant do 5min on 1min off like you said SkyRocket, and ill do just cloning hormone but ill adjust pH to 5.8

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

 

[Bandit420]

I'll throw another log on this fire lol!
I think your formula is sound. The plant material that you're selecting for clones should have more to them. Try using cuttings that are larger and more mature with at least one if not two sets of leaves in addition to the top shoot.
Something like this...

I dont cut leaves like you but I dont think that's the issue. Try to visualize a small plant on the mother and cut it, not the very top greenest of shoots.

 

[THConnoisseur]

hmm thats interesting, you think i may be taking too small of cuttings? ive heard a number of different techniques on where/how to take a cutting but i seem to most often come across the method of counting 4 nodes down from the top of a branch, removing the 3rd and 4th nodes, and cutting just under the 4th node at 45deg... thats how ive always done it and then i trim the 2 remaining fan leaves and leave the top untouched. i know you can clone pretty big cuttings tho, ive seen it, just never tried it. do you think the aerocloner needs cuttings with a few more nodes and leaves since theyre not in a dome?

 

[BassPlayer]

Hi THConnoisseur...I made a diy cloner, I tried this time to take larger cuttings than previously and I have had 100% rooting success so far...I be updating my own journal later with clone progress, but i cut em on 28th dec...hope you find some help Bass

 

[regulator]

your tap water cant be 5.8 ot has to be at least 7 your ph meter isnt calibrated properly

 

[THConnoisseur]

regulator, my tap water pH is around 8.0, what i meant by "tap water at 5.8pH" is that i didnt add any root hormone to the res on that trial, it was just tap water adjusted pH to 5.8 ...

BassPlayer, thanks for the advice. i will definitely take 6"-8" cuttings when i get around to another trial. ive always been told that you want the smallest cuttings possible, no more than 4 nodes, tho ive seen 12" cuttings take root lol so apparently its all in the technique. do you run your pump 24/7?

thanks!

 

[BassPlayer]

regulator, my tap water pH is around 8.0, what i meant by "tap water at 5.8pH" is that i didnt add any root hormone to the res on that trial, it was just tap water adjusted pH to 5.8 ...

BassPlayer, thanks for the advice. i will definitely take 6"-8" cuttings when i get around to another trial. ive always been told that you want the smallest cuttings possible, no more than 4 nodes, tho ive seen 12" cuttings take root lol so apparently its all in the technique. do you run your pump 24/7?

thanks!

I run the waterpump with the lights 18/6 but keep the airpump running 24/7
Bass

 

[Bandit420]

High THC!
Here's a pic of where I cut my clones....As you can tell there's probably a 101 ways to get a clone to root from all of these different takes on the subject so there's no way I can tell you this is the absolute fool proof way but it works great for me...

I like big clones because they are usually a better specimen than something small. Once they do take root I only need to veg for maybe a week and they're off to bloom.
With small clones they take longer to root and longer to get established as small plants once they do take root.

The cutting above is huge and has about two more nodes than what I usually take but when I have the opportunity to take a biggin' like this I jump at it.

From the very top shoot I count down at least two nodes. That part of the clone from the second node and up will be above the neoprene sleeve. Below the neoprene is an additional two sets of nodes. The leaves at the two bottom nodes are removed to create additional rooting points.
I dont really go by length of the cutting but number of nodes dictate to me how big the clone will be.

Some growers score or slice an additonal mark on the stem but I dont. I always see roots come out on virtually every part of the stem, the cut node, the bottom cut, and every other place up and down the stem will have roots pop out.

 

[THConnoisseur]

oh man thats huge!! lol i honestly cut mine just below where your pic says "1st node" and wouldve removed that "1st node" and stuck that inch of the stem under the neoprene collar. i was afraid of going too big but damn, i guess thats the way to go with the aerocloner!

BassPlayer, your pump is off for the full 6hrs that your light is off!? never heard of that... id imagine the stems would shrivel up in that long of a dry period, no?

 

[BassPlayer]

oh man thats huge!! lol i honestly cut mine just below where your pic says "1st node" and wouldve removed that "1st node" and stuck that inch of the stem under the neoprene collar. i was afraid of going too big but damn, i guess thats the way to go with the aerocloner!

BassPlayer, your pump is off for the full 6hrs that your light is off!? never heard of that... id imagine the stems would shrivel up in that long of a dry period, no?

They seem to be doing fine...gonna post some pics later of new growth...I guess by leaving on more foliage, it kept the stems from drying out?
Bass