Why can't I clone plants in water?

J

jokerlola

Well-Known Member
This is more for experimental purposes than being critical to my growing but I have never been very successful in rooting cuttings by just placing them in a glass of water. I have placed cuttings in water and had them live for a long time (even several months months) but have rarely gotten roots. I've tried tap water, bottled spring water, distilled water and rain water and it doesn't make a difference. I've tried in a sunny windowsill, a shady window, and under a grow light and still not much. I've even tried bubbling the water with an airstone. The only time I've been totally successful is last fall when a large budded branch broke off a plant in a windstorm. I threw it into a small empty nutrient bottle filled with tap water to keep it alive so I could try to harvest the buds on them when they were ready. When I went to harvest the buds, I was surprised that the stem was full of roots! I am now growing that branch outside and it is a nice plant just starting to flower.

I normally tend to dangle the stems in a glass of water but with this broken branch, it was in the nute bottle with the stem touching the bottom. Was that the difference? That the stem needs to be touching the bottom of the vessel to start rooting?

BTW, I have never had a problem propagating other plants with just our tap water like basil, mint, oregano, pothos, snake plants and many, many others.
 
I know your frustration.

jokerlola said:
BTW, I have never had a problem propagating other plants with just our tap water like basil, mint, oregano, pothos, snake plants and many, many others.
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I have done Rosemary, some Oregano, Pothos and several other varieties of Philodendron, Privet shrubs, several varieties of Euonymus, Forsythia and a few others, all in water or in soil. But that pesky Marijuana is often nothing but a problem child. Does not matter if it is outside or inside, the Marijuana cuttings are the hardest to do.

Best thing I can suggest is to keep trying. For me, sometimes they die and sometimes they start to root. Just a crap shoot. Which reminds me that it is getting close to time to start taking some cuttings and trying again.
 
When i use a glass of just tap water its always took a few weeks to see movment and i always kept them in the bathroom/shower room window due to r/h levels in there.tried it many times and always get something to root.
Mainly due to my clone tent being used to dry or it has a mother in it.But it works 100% just takes much lonnger than
propagating box.Lights and r/h i would say is the main problem. tbh every time i have done it the cuttings look green and healthly much better than most of MY clones i force to root in 10 days. But 2to4 weeks when you can get the kinda
same results in 10 days is why i guess most dont.If i dig out the pics i will post.
 
found one after 17 days this was

IMG_0330.JPG
 
Get some root powder and add to water i use great white like alot of people on here do
I also scrape the stem and split it at the bottom
Don't submerge the stem just close enough so the bubbles hit it (no more than a inch)
Had good results from that but then I got behind waiting on some to finish ran low on air pumps so did a batch the old fashioned way and every dam one of them rooted I was giving everybody clones haha

Its just like everything else we do you get going good then doing the exact same thing nothing works
 
SmokingWings said:
I know your frustration.


I have done Rosemary, some Oregano, Pothos and several other varieties of Philodendron, Privet shrubs, several varieties of Euonymus, Forsythia and a few others, all in water or in soil. But that pesky Marijuana is often nothing but a problem child. Does not matter if it is outside or inside, the Marijuana cuttings are the hardest to do.

Best thing I can suggest is to keep trying. For me, sometimes they die and sometimes they start to root. Just a crap shoot. Which reminds me that it is getting close to time to start taking some cuttings and trying again.
Click to expand...
I have no problem cloning cannabis in soil (Jiffy pellets, Root Riot, potting soil etc.) under a humidity dome, even with no rooting hormone. I usually get roots in 10 to 14 days. I'm just fooling around with trying to root in a glass of water. I see all these videos on youtube of people easily rooting cannabis in tap water. So just for fun, I keep trying to root cannabis in water and the plants stay alive and look good for weeks and months but almost never root. And when I have gotten a few roots, they are usually so weak, they break off the minute you take them out of the water. The one time I got good, strong roots from water is the plant I have growing right now which was a broken branch from last fall. I stuck it into a small empty nutrient bottle just to keep it alive to harvest the buds that were on it. I was shocked to find strong roots up and down the stem that was in the water. I stuck it into soil and kept it in veg until I put it outside in May.

4820698A-0412-45B4-B2A4-EA7DEAE8B11E.jpeg
 
I clone in water all the time been doing it for years. I never get 100% but I always have extra plants so it works.

I use Dip N GRow DG00201 - its what the pros use. Dip cutting in the dip n grow put in water. Usually takes 2-3 weeks. Patience is key.

​

 
bobrown14 said:
I clone in water all the time been doing it for years. I never get 100% but I always have extra plants so it works.

I use Dip N GRow DG00201 - its what the pros use. Dip cutting in the dip n grow put in water. Usually takes 2-3 weeks. Patience is key.

​

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I had family in the nursery business and they used to say that you could get roots out of a popsicle stick with Dip N Grow! I've always stayed away from it because I was told that Napthaleneacetic acid was toxic and a poison. I have used Clonex which doesn't have that in it but currently I use Aloe Vera or raw honey as a rooting hormone. My water cloning efforts are mainly just for fun and not serious. I'm just wondering why some people seem to be able to do it and I have rarely been able to, and what the reasons are for that?
 
Probably your water source. Aloe gel works about as good as dip n grow.

My soil mix mentor (Coots) suggested the Dip N Grow. He was a professional horticulturalist. He is big on not using products that are harmful so I just went with his suggestion and didn't read the MSD on that one (like I do for everything).

I'm that guy in the food store reading all the labels... mainly cause I'm allergic to wheat.

Thanks for the tip - I'll look it up. That stuff really works great tho. I'll use up what I got and switch back to Aloe gel.

Could be your water source. I use RO water. If Im cloning in a glass of water I change the water every few days. The honey is a good one too.
 
bobrown14 said:
Probably your water source. Aloe gel works about as good as dip n grow.

My soil mix mentor (Coots) suggested the Dip N Grow. He was a professional horticulturalist. He is big on not using products that are harmful so I just went with his suggestion and didn't read the MSD on that one (like I do for everything).

I'm that guy in the food store reading all the labels... mainly cause I'm allergic to wheat.

Thanks for the tip - I'll look it up. That stuff really works great tho. I'll use up what I got and switch back to Aloe gel.

Could be your water source. I use RO water. If Im cloning in a glass of water I change the water every few days. The honey is a good one too.
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Yes! I love listening to Coot (Jim Bennet). He's my soil mentor too! He's big on Aloe as a rooting hormone and I've heard him talk favorably about Dip N Grow but on a recent Fumidor show he said to stay away from any rooting hormone with NAA (Napthaleneacetic acid) in it because it's actually a toxic herbicide. He said IBA (which is also in Dip N Grow and is the active ingredient in Clonex is safer but he prefers Aloe gel.

It probably is my water and maybe the relative humidity. I'm in Denver where it's pretty dry.
 
Yeah been listening and reading Coots for many many years. Saw him first in ICMag long time ago.

That turned into a shit show.

Same everywhere tho. Bros talking bro-science they get confused when presented with facts. Its too bad in the cannabis industry there's more fiction that science. Gonna change tho - lotsa kids learning in college how to be pro horticulturalists now that there's money in it.

My farmer neighbor been farming for 70 years. He's got a wealth of experience and knowledge. Watching and learning.
 
bobrown14 said:
Yeah been listening and reading Coots for many many years. Saw him first in ICMag long time ago.

That turned into a shit show.

Same everywhere tho. Bros talking bro-science they get confused when presented with facts. Its too bad in the cannabis industry there's more fiction that science. Gonna change tho - lotsa kids learning in college how to be pro horticulturalists now that there's money in it.

My farmer neighbor been farming for 70 years. He's got a wealth of experience and knowledge. Watching and learning.
Click to expand...

I first found Coot last year on a Fumidor Zoomcast on Youtube (Or whatever you call it.) I scan youtube everyday to see if he's on somewhere. I can listen to him for hours!

It's too bad I didn't have any interest in growing when I was younger because my family were all farmers and both of my grandfathers were self taught botanists and master gardeners. My paternal grandfather was really into exotic, rare plants and vegetables and was constantly growing and experimenting. He had a huge backyard green house and his whole yard was garden beds. My maternal grandfather became a main gardener for the city and county of Denver after he sold his farm and designed and took care of all the flower displays in Denver parks and the zoo and my uncle worked at the Denver Botanic Gardens. And my cousins' owned one of the biggest garden centers in the Denver area. But I had no interest in it when they were alive and my cousins' sold their garden center to land developers and couple of years ago.
 
bobrown14 said:
wow... paths are intermingled. Tough to find THE path for ourselves.

I'm glad you made it into a garden. Its a lifelong pursuit.

Love love love gotta find it.
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I shouldn't say I had no interest. I had interest as a kid but then I got sidetracked by cars, motorcycles and girls (not necessarily in that order). I still like girls, cars and motorcycles but now I like gardening too! I started growing cannabis by chance. I stumbled into a indoor cannabis growing expo that was text to a fly fishing expo and a LED light company was giving out cuttings. So I decided to grow them and now this is my 4th year of growing! I find it endlessly fascinating and fun (except for trimming).
 
CelestialNurseries said:
Holy cow!! You turned two plants into one....and you made it longer...and only took ten days..:high-five:
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maybe I'm a little slow today but what do you mean two in to one? If the others root I'm turning one into five.
 

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