10 Minute DIY Tupperware Bubble Cloner

I have made several of these over the years, and I am pretty sure I remember giving my last one away. Today I had a need to reliably produce a large number of clones, and the easiest and most reliable method I have found is the bubble cloner.

After finding the suitable plastic tub to destroy, I pulled out my 1 7/8 hole bit and went to work. All the tubing and rubber plant stoppers and air pump/stones all were on hand, so this project went together in about 10 minutes. Armed with all the failures in the past, this went together fast and I knew exactly what I needed to do to make it work right.

making_the_holes.JPG

Please note the 4 little holes in the center of the lid. These are there for a good reason. Enough moisture will pop out of those holes to keep the humidity high and the plants happy up on top, so this unit does not have to be covered. The advantage here of course, is there is no hardening off needed.

The air stones were firmly attached to the bottom of the tub. This has been a problem in the past, and many methods were tried and failed. The hot glue gun was the perfect solution to this problem. These air stones are not going to float away.

air_stones_attached.JPG

A splitter was used to supply air to both stones, taking care to have an equal length tube to each stone from the splitter. A hole was created in the top of the lid to let the air tube out, and the 9 stations were labeled with an ABC-123 grid so that records can easily be kept on individual plants.

The cuttings were taken, top big leaves split, and they were dunked in rooting compound. Care was taken to keep the end of the cutting out of the water, and they were set in the rubber plant holder/stoppers. The water is RO, with 5ml of dandelion root extract in the mix.

These plants were just set in here a couple of hours ago and misted with my spray bottle. Let's see how long it takes to get some roots.

clones_set.JPG
 
You mentioned making sure the end of the cuttings are not in the water. Are they being splashed by the bubbles from the airstones or do they just need to be in the humid environment?

Hi Morglie,

When you lift up any of the plants you can see that it is wet down there. The bubbles popping makes quite a mess, and nothing is left unscathed. That is actually what is happening with those 4 holes in the top too... every once in a while a bubble is so violently popped in just the right direction, that it sprays water up and out of those holes.

Bubbles are awesome...

And I am pretty sure I am now seeing the start of actual roots beginning to form... another day or so I think. Everyone is still standing upright, looking busy.

Have a great day!
Emmlet
 
Nice tub Emilya. Love the flat, wide airstones. Bubbles are the magic. I've been itching to try one of those misters.
Have you ever considered painting the bottom black to keep the light out?

considered it, or a black container to start with... and it probably would help in keeping algae and stuff down. Not sure it is necessary however, considering how fast this process is... I even plan on reusing this same water for the next run, next week. The air bubbling in there keeps most of the bad stuff from forming anyway... most of the bad stuff does not like oxygenated water.

(8th day update)

Today we are seeing some good progress... and I will bet that most of our plants will be showing roots by day 10. Over half of the plants are showing pre-root nubs on them now, like these:

bubble_root_nubs.JPG




And then, the one showing those nubs yesterday... look what happened overnight:
bubble_roots.JPG
 
(day 9)

Warning!
Do not let your rez go dry! I took a look this afternoon just in the nick of time... things were starting to dry out as the water had evaporated down below the air stones! I quickly added water and sprayed everyone down, and it looks like all are going to survive the mistake. The two plants most heavily impacted were of course those with the most developed new root systems... and rest assured, about an hour after taking these shots, both plants are starting to perk up and stand upright again. Another hour or two, the worst one would have been a victim, for sure.

dont_let_the_rez_go_dry.JPG


rez_dry.JPG






All of the plants are now showing root formations, some more than others, but they are all going to survive this process and develop into healthy clones. Not bad for a 10 minute hack job of a cloner. :)

roots_roots.JPG


more_roots1.JPG
 
(day 10, planting day)

Every one of the cuttings now has roots. The project was a total success, 9 out of 9, from tall to short, split at the bottom or not, dunked in rooting compound from 30 seconds to 10 seconds... all will now continue the line.

This concludes the tutorial part of this thread... let us know how your's works!

Here are the pictures: (the one that was so badly wilted last time is in the back, center)

DSCF60532.JPG


DSCF60512.JPG




DSCF60491.JPG


DSCF60501.JPG


DSCF60521.JPG
 
I know this is an old thread, but if you are still around, what are the dimensions of the Tupperware you used?

Thanks a ton. Great info and hope I can do the same!!!

I haven't seen Emilya around these parts in many moons... so I'll jump on it.

She was using the standard shoe box sized tupperware. Maybe a touch larger... but yea.... shoebox sized. The little black plugs are about 2 inches in diameter.
 
I haven't seen Emilya around these parts in many moons... so I'll jump on it.

She was using the standard shoe box sized tupperware. Maybe a touch larger... but yea.... shoebox sized. The little black plugs are about 2 inches in diameter.

I must be doing the stealth mode thing even better than I imagined. I even answered this one a week ago. Thanks for the assist though Tead... glad others are filling in for me when I get busy!
Emilya
 
Afternoon Ms. Emilya, aah I'm with you at the moment, I was going to ask about cloning into soil, but this convinced me to try your method. I have a 10ltr black bucket I can use but no plugs..Foam board for kneeling on in the garden or pool noodle maby for the plugs maby...?? I have an OG Kush I want to clone off but not sure about the length of the cuttings needed...

May I post a pic of the girl..?? :goodjob:
:bravo:
 
Back
Top Bottom