How to clone in rock wool

[mmjCareFL]

Thanks for the info. Just one clarification for my old brain. When you came back "2 weeks later" and said you added no additional h2o, does that mean you put the residual of the 1/2 gallon nut'ed water into the container with the rockwool at the start, or the only water in the container is that which is held in the soaked rockwool?

 

[TheCapn]

Thanks for the info. Just one clarification for my old brain. When you came back "2 weeks later" and said you added no additional h2o, does that mean you put the residual of the 1/2 gallon nut'ed water into the container with the rockwool at the start, or the only water in the container is that which is held in the soaked rockwool?

"And we're back 2 weeks later! Over the last two weeks I didn't add any water to the container."

That means, in the 2 weeks the clones were in the dome, I didn't irrigate them. Once they have roots popping out the bottom, then I'll take them out of the dome and start irrigating daily with about 250ppm water. As soon as I notice a little bit of growth, I'll raise it to 400. I usually don't go over 450ppm in veg, no matter how big.

 

[mmjCareFL]

Thanks Cap, I think I got that part. The question really is after you soaked the cubes in the original solution, did you put the residual nute solution (not retained by the cubes) into the dome with the clones and cubes, or just the soaked cubes and toss the residual nute solution left over after the soaked cubes were removed.
Thanks!

 

[TheCapn]

Thanks Cap, I think I got that part. The question really is after you soaked the cubes in the original solution, did you put the residual nute solution (not retained by the cubes) into the dome with the clones and cubes, or just the soaked cubes and toss the residual nute solution left over after the soaked cubes were removed.
Thanks!

I understand better now. No, you don't want the blocks swimming in water. If you want to save that water you can, and then irrigate your rockwool blocks about one week in, but it's not necessary as long as the humidity stays 60-80% inside the dome.

 

[mmjCareFL]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[shanker65]

Will be applying this method as soon as I can get a chance. I'm also an RC plane lover. Used to be in Aircraft Maintenance by trade and would love to get a cool RC sometime (Need some time and some cash) Thanks for the tutorial Capn.. I'll post some pics of roots when I get it going.

 

[shanker65]

Hey Cap,

Here is some clones taken using your instructions to the best of my ability. Let me know what you think. I may have let the R/H in the humid dome get a little low for to long?

- Did I trim enough off those leaves?
- See how they are very light greenish? It's gotten a little lighter even 24hrs later.

Have some church seeds under the bowl almost ready to pop incase the clones fail. Thanks for your help!

 

[TheCapn]

Hey Cap,

Here is some clones taken using your instructions to the best of my ability. Let me know what you think. I may have let the R/H in the humid dome get a little low for to long?

- Did I trim enough off those leaves?
- See how they are very light greenish? It's gotten a little lighter even 24hrs later.

Have some church seeds under the bowl almost ready to pop incase the clones fail. Thanks for your help!

When did you take these? Here are a couple comments:

1. The edges of the leaves are sort of curled down. I think they were like this when you took the clones. This could be from too high PPM or medium that was too wet for too long. I also see pistils so I think these were taken a few weeks into flower? That means they will be a little more difficult to root. The really tall one... the stem looks kind of "woody", and it will be harder to root too. So, you're not starting with the best candidates, but that doesn't mean these won't root. Just letting you know of the extra challenges you will have.

2. The pre-made hole that is in the rockwool is too big, and you shouldn't use it. I can see, especially on the front left clone, the hole is too big. I use a knife or toothpick to make a very small hole about 2" down into the rockwool, then push the stem down into that tight hole. The goal is for the stem to be tightly surrounded with wet rockwool. "Step 5.
a. Clean a toothpic or similar with alcohol, and use it to make a new hole in the rockwool for the stem. I use my plant markers. The stem of the clone should fit snug into the hole. You don't want any air between the stem and the rock wool."

3. MANY people use the tiny blocks for rooting clones, however I find the 3" to be so much better. They hold more water, but even better, they allow you to put MORE of the stem into the rockwool, allowing more of the stem to root, than just 1/2" of it. Consider picking up a few of these 3" blocks.

4. Let the seeds get a "little" ambient light. Remember in nature it's not dark all day. As soon as you see them sprout, you can give them a little more light too. Keep them at 70% humidity.

5. I don't see any fog on the inside of your clone dome so it might not be humid enough in there.

 

[shanker65]

Hey Capn,

- Clones were taken at 22 days in flower I know it was late, but I was having problems finding time to get it done.

- The edges of the leaves were curled down a bit to start, however have curled a bit more and lightened in colour some.

- Wish I had made some smaller holes, I noticed it once it was too late... I thought you were using the toothpick to expand the current hole ... Hopefully the stems grow thick and eventually fill the holes up.

- I was also wishing I had the 3" blocks, but just couldn't get them for this round; Will definitely place an order for a package of them.

- It definitely was not humid enough when the pics were taken; I was checking to see if it would work to run the little humidifier in half hour increments, but it just can't pull it off. I was iffy of the dew drops that would form on the leaves when it was running on low full time. Is it ok if there are dew drops on the leaves?

Thanks for your posts and time!

 

[Radogast]

With the dome off to the side, you have a very poor seal and nothing to hold the humidity.
I am using the same dome with :
air escape holes open wide enough to hold two pencils,
sitting firm around the edges of the tray,
Misted on the inside,
About a dimes thickness of standing water.

If it has been only 2-3 days, I would pull out the clones, cut a slit in the rock woll as described above, apply fresh cloning gel.

If there is flowing air to the stem, rooting will be difficult. They will not "grow into" the larger holes.

 

[shanker65]

With the dome off to the side, you have a very poor seal and nothing to hold the humidity.
Misted on the inside,
About a dimes thickness of standing water.

If it has been only 2-3 days, I would pull out the clones, cut a slit in the rock woll as described above, apply fresh cloning gel.

If there is flowing air to the stem, rooting will be difficult. They will not "grow into" the larger holes.

>>> Pulling the clones is scary! Can I pull the tall clone out and cut her a little shorter and then I'll stick it in a new starter plug? Might delay things by a day or two but worth it to make sure I get a survivor?

The humidity under the dome is usually 85% and usually there is droplets on the leaves, however I did let it get kinda dry for about 2hrs before I got home to take these pics. I'll make sure to keep some standing water in the tray though, but I dunno if I'll pull the clones up yet.

 

[Radogast]

>>> Pulling the clones is scary! Can I pull the tall clone out and cut her a little shorter and then I'll stick it in a new starter plug? Might delay things by a day or two but worth it to make sure I get a survivor?

The humidity under the dome is usually 85% and usually there is droplets on the leaves, however I did let it get kinda dry for about 2hrs before I got home to take these pics. I'll make sure to keep some standing water in the tray though, but I dunno if I'll pull the clones up yet.

Your humidity is under control, so take back what I said about standing water and misting

I takes awhile for roots to appear. If the new roots find air, those roots don't grow.
If those sticks are loose in the hole, the roots will find air.

If you pull one cutting, and it has no roots yet, you did it no harm. It is a second chance to make a nice new bed in the rock wool that is 9 times better than that one with air in it. Then you might touch up with a little more rooting gel (definitely more if you used rooting powder) and tuck them into the new cut and they have a nice new bed 9 times better than before.

If you have a cutting and it has little roots, it ain't want to come loose, but if it slides loose and you tore off some microscopic roots, then you have a vigorous fighter that will probably grow back those roots in 24 hours. So you make it a nice little bed that is 9 times better and tuck it in the new bed.

The big risk, in my opinion, is to do nothing. If that little girl goes looking for water and nutrients and all she finds is air. She's going to hide until she slowly dies.

Don't worry about drying leaves yet. I have two clones with dry little leaves except for the tiniest little bit of green and they have roots 1/2 inch long and are ready for soil tonight. I also have a tall clone with happy roots.

I can't tell you how to grow, but when they are babies like this, they really like a snug little bed for their branch to grow roots!
Moving them to a new bed is just good parenting. (Unless their roots resist, then you are already just fine.)

/rant off

 

[shanker65]

One of the clones started to wilt and looked soooo dead as the humidifier ran out for a few hours.... She perked right back up once I got the humidity back up to 85%/95%. At least gave me confidence that these clones are gona hopefully stay alive. Thanks for the Help Rado and Cap. I was sad to see one of my cuttings appear to be dying, but then it was all good when she perked back up. Root pics will be here in a couple weeks.

 

[TheCapn]

One of the clones started to wilt and looked soooo dead as the humidifier ran out for a few hours.... She perked right back up once I got the humidity back up to 85%/95%. At least gave me confidence that these clones are gona hopefully stay alive. Thanks for the Help Rado and Cap. I was sad to see one of my cuttings appear to be dying, but then it was all good when she perked back up. Root pics will be here in a couple weeks.

Shanker,

Every time you take clones, take a few extras in case a couple don't make it. Soon, you will have 100% every time. Remember to take them from low parts of the plant, and take ones with stems that are nice and green and supple.

>>>"it ain't want to come loose"

HUH? Did he just say, "It ain't want to come loose" ?

Yes I'm giving Rad a hard time But what Rad says is correct. If that hole is too big you won't have a tight fit around your stem and that's a bad thing If you pull it out and put it in new rockwool, I would cut off the bottom inch (don't just put more gel on the same stem).

Cap

 

[Radogast]

Shanker,

Every time you take clones, take a few extras in case a couple don't make it. Soon, you will have 100% every time. Remember to take them from low parts of the plant, and take ones with stems that are nice and green and supple.

>>>"it ain't want to come loose"

HUH? Did he just say, "It ain't want to come loose" ?

Yes I'm giving Rad a hard time But what Rad says is correct. If that hole is too big you won't have a tight fit around your stem and that's a bad thing If you pull it out and put it in new rockwool, I would cut off the bottom inch (don't just put more gel on the same stem).

Cap

"It ain't" is the same as "It didn't" and "It doesn't" on my cell phone auto-correct.
It takes 15 or so swipes for me to do an edit post on my cell phone.
I saw it, I was riding a moving bus, and said "ducky" they'll understand

P.s. "ducky" is also cell phone autocorrect

 

[KROQ]

If you're on a budget and you don't have $250 bucks for a new aeroponic cloner, you might want to try cloning in rock wool. There are several tutorials on this site about cloning in rockwool, and my method isn't much different than most of them, but I'll show you DETAILED step by step how I do it (and why I do this or that), from start to finish. This method works for me, 100% of the time, and it can work for you too if you follow this recipe.

Thanks for this great info, Capn. I caught your most recent post in How to: Simple Hydroponics, and headed here for the exact information I've been looking for.

I'm almost one month into my first grow in growbox 1.0 up in the attic. The plants are looking so good, and they survived my brutal transplant efforts, that I want to grab some clones in case they're good producers too.

Growbox 2.0 is coming together in the garage, and I'm going to move from soil to Rock Wool Cubes. In the interim, my three hardy plants are about ready to be topped. I'll be trying to get those tops to take root in some three inch rock wool cubes, knowing that tops aren't the ideal candidates.

I'm sub'ed up on both. +Rep

 

[TheCapn]

"It ain't" is the same as "It didn't" and "It doesn't" on my cell phone auto-correct.
It takes 15 or so swipes for me to do an edit post on my cell phone.
I saw it, I was riding a moving bus, and said "ducky" they'll understand

P.s. "ducky" is also cell phone autocorrect

I want the redneck spell checker too! My phone has never corrected me to say "it ain't".
Funny stuff.

Thanks for this great info, Capn. I caught your most recent post in How to: Simple Hydroponics, and headed here for the exact information I've been looking for.

I'm almost one month into my first grow in growbox 1.0 up in the attic. The plants are looking so good, and they survived my brutal transplant efforts, that I want to grab some clones in case they're good producers too.

Growbox 2.0 is coming together in the garage, and I'm going to move from soil to Rock Wool Cubes. In the interim, my three hardy plants are about ready to be topped. I'll be trying to get those tops to take root in some three inch rock wool cubes, knowing that tops aren't the ideal candidates.

I'm sub'ed up on both. +Rep

Sounds like you are about to have a fun time, KROQ. Sub up to my BLOG. I've been writing everything there lately.

 

[Radogast]

Sounds like you are about to have a fun time, KROQ. Sub up to my BLOG. I've been writing everything there lately.

Capn, I subbed up to your blog (control panel only) but it didn't show anything new on subscriptions or settings as when subbed to a thread.

How's does one follow blogs?

Radogast

 

[David Bowman]

Good question, I've done the same with the same result.

 

[TheCapn]

Capn, I subbed up to your blog (control panel only) but it didn't show anything new on subscriptions or settings as when subbed to a thread.

How's does one follow blogs?

Radogast

I think I was giving the incorrect URL.

If that doesn't work, look at my blog and on the right, under my avatar, click, "Subscribe to this blog".