Rockwool cloning problems

NeoScott

Active Member
Hello everyone. 72 hours ago I took some clones and placed them into a tray and dome with rock wool starter plug. some of the clones don't look so hot right now :(. some of the stems seem to be to weak and have fallen over. Problably going to kill them unless someone can save em. These clones are form the seedling plants in my grow, they are a mix strain from a grow my buddy did that had a male in it. I don't believe them to be a great strain. I keep forgetting to write down the genetics from him.

My method

Using a clean blade I made cuts just above a node on the plant making sure the mother plant could still grow I placed them into a cup of water with 2 ML of Root 66 and sugar daddy until It was ready to move into the Rockwool. where I cut the stem down again so a node would be in the Rockwool soaked the end of the stem in the Rootech Cloning Gel for a few seconds. I checked the ph with my meter every time i made and used water.

My rockwool cubes were pre-soaked with 2.5ML of root 66 and 3ML Thrive alive red b1 in 1.5 liters of water for 30 minutes. I made 20 cubes.

the day after I made the 20 cuttings and planted them I ended up making more cubes beacuse of extra cuttings.
The clones have had 48 hours of light only when I would breath them. Last night I put them into my box and turned the light on.

I'm not sure what to do next to help these guys, the water that I sprayed onto the dome just fell on the black tray. I drained the extra water out of the bottom again today. My guess is over watering problems. You can feel the water in the air when you pull the dome off it, it's like a wave of humidity.

This is my second time doing clones, the first time I fallowed the same nuits, but I fed my mother plant water for 6 days before hand and had awesome success. Also, I placed them under a 200 watt MH lights right away. only one clone isn't growing, just kinda stuck.

The bin I'm using is for lighting cycles, when the plants root a little I will switch it right to a 12/12 cycle. the lights are 23W(Actual draw) 6400k I also have 2700k for the flowering cycle. I'm going to order some Mylar or poly next week and line the bin and cover the roots. I think black and white poly would be better for the roots over the Mylar? I was thinking about putting 2 air stone under the inline tray of my dome set up, using something to support the tray a little above the stone with maybe 15% of the cube being in the water. I want to flower these clones right to bud and get a little smoke off them, a gram each would be awesome. If I didn't need to sex these I would veg them for a while first and let them build up. Any suggestions would be of great help.

Pictures like always.

Clones:





Here you can see the two clones that cannot support them selfs, I fear it's from over watering or to hot. maybe both?

close up of bent stem


These 3 were tops of 3 of my plants. the top from my big mother plant came out great. do they look brown to you?








The guy on the far left who looks like an S fell over complete the first night and then started to grow back up



Cloning unit:










 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

Id use rapid rooters. They hold alot less water and increased my clone success %. Also, a heat mat would help. For clones and seedlings they like the medium to be slightly warmer than the temp the leaves are. Spraying once a day would help as well.

Besides that you can get some perlite and a flat tray. Thats the way i do it and i used to just do rockwool in a tray with a little water to make it humid. That way barely got me 50% success. Now, i cant remember the last time a clone didnt root.

Last but not least try taking smaller clones. Ive taken some pretty big clones but i strip all but the top 2 leaves off and then trim the leaves short.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

Id use rapid rooters. They hold alot less water and increased my clone success %. Also, a heat mat would help. For clones and seedlings they like the medium to be slightly warmer than the temp the leaves are. Spraying once a day would help as well.

Besides that you can get some perlite and a flat tray. Thats the way i do it and i used to just do rockwool in a tray with a little water to make it humid. That way barely got me 50% success. Now, i cant remember the last time a clone didnt root.

Last but not least try taking smaller clones. Ive taken some pretty big clones but i strip all but the top 2 leaves off and then trim the leaves short.

Thanks for the fast reply.

I have a sealed bag of perlite from other things I grow, I could take the insert out and burrow the cubes. I'm reading good things about perlite as I write this. It comes across to me that it looks like it needs a lot of watering daily. I will think about it, I want to give them another day or two if I need to kill them I don't want to contaminate the perlite.

I can trim them down a bit more, some I know I haven't even touched yet due to time constraint and I only remembered now.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

yikes, it looks like you're cooking them....

being in that double enclosed environment can't be very healthy I expect way to hot and no way to keep it at a controlled environment.

Heat mat under seed tray with 1/2" of water in the tray...elevate cubes above water.

ad dome and place light 2 to 3" from dome....you should have enough humidity in the dome that you cannot see your babies...a thermometer in the dome is a good add as well.

I bet the interior temp is well above 80 in their environment....I have best results in cubes 76-80 inside the clone dome.

I also add 5.5 ph'd water to the cubes every 3 days or so and let it drain through the plug...I use the square cubes almost the same size as yours, and it takes 14days usually before they go into soil.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

Temperature: 19C(about 66F)
RH: %100 (Needle is maxed out.)

The units been opened a fair bit today so I'll post results that come up tomorrow. Keep in mind it's cold here. High of -2C today.

I already have a plan for the extra heat built up. I'm going to install two case fans onto the larger tube bottom right/top left. for now I'm just propping the unit open 3 inches to allow air exchange which is doing a pretty good job.
 
Temperature: 19C(about 66F)
RH: %100 (Needle is maxed out.)

The units been opened a fair bit today so I'll post results that come up tomorrow. Keep in mind it's cold here. High of -2C today.

I already have a plan for the extra heat built up. I'm going to install two case fans onto the larger tube bottom right/top left. for now I'm just propping the unit open 3 inches to allow air exchange which is doing a pretty good job.

Yeah a heat mat would help alot.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

So I checked the temperature and humidity when I woke up. the temperature went up to 29C (84F) and the humidity dropped to 90-95%. Colones are pretty picky, 2 degrees C is the range. 24.5 to 27

It was very hot in the room, apparently I set my 600w ballast to super luminous(It seems like it just makes it hotter, not really brighter). I could feel the heat leaving the room. for now I'm going to try leaving the outside box complete open, I also removed one light, and spraying when it drops below 75.

Also today I will be installing the fans on the side of the box, I hope this help me control the temperature more. I left the door to the grow room open since none of my plants smell yet. I just checked right now and i'm sitting around 26 with lid open and one light. I will take you guys up on your idea of the heat pad, I'm going to pick it up Tuesday.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

Glad to help. With the heat mat if you can get the temps to 75f youd have them rooted in less than a week. Quickest i ever saw roots with my new set up was 5 days. It wasnt ready to transplant, but had 2 roots poking out haha.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

After reading and looking further this is a tutorial I will give a go next clone cycle, and may help with your next cuttings.

Some really great info and pics here posted up by TheCapn:

How to clone in rock wool

awesome tut. It's kind of the same thing I did. I'm starting to agree it's a heat issue with these clones. down to 25c right now.
 
Re: Rockwool cloning problems.

looks like they got cooked.too hot!!rockwool cloning is easy but the wrong step can leave your clones burnt and lifeless.get a low watt cfl and put it in cabinet in your house in a propagation tray with the dome.the smallest cfl at the store will work just fine ive cloned 30 clones with a 13w!!spray clones 1 time cut leaves and add water to cube every three days or so.spraying the clones will make them take longer to root.also smaller clones from the bottom of the plant seem to respond the best. i have 100 success every time!!Also use a gel on the clones
 
So I made some changes and my clones are doing great, One died that I expected to die (It was just a snipping that I had made while cloning, you can see it very far to the left on some pictures) and one clone but it didn't look very nice from the get go. 6 of 8 still going strong. Lets start with the changes. These are old pictures (26/12/2013) of the clones and some of the clones have been trimmed. I changed it to a complete DWC with bubbles.

First The light was changed to 3 watt actual draw and I installed a DIY light reflector to keep light away. Giving it more of a filling light vs direct lighting
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Air pump and heating pad electrical lay out. I found this small extension cord that has two sets of plugs with 2 foot between.
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Just a small Hole I had made from the handles there was
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Lights on!
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Layout
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Light with reflector.
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the little ones.
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Todays pictures. I moved my mother plant from her home to my larger grow and opened the cabinet allowing me to move the clones to their new home, sadly I'm short a 1" net pot so only 5 made it over to the new cabinet.


The only guy who hasn't moved over. When I find a single 1" pot he will join the others.
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the 5 little ones in the new cabinet.
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One clone, With one leaf has had some root growth, I have no idea why this single one has roots and not the others.
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