Tonys Cutting Guide

[Laphroaig]

@H4rdc0r3 I'm "The Kiss of Death"  when it comes to clones, if anyone's ever had a black finger it's me.  I just have to practice until I get it right.  All the clones were taken from new Psycho Crack (Sickmeds) plants I've just grown from seed so I've no idea what to expect from them.  

[stu914]

@Laphroaig

 

Hi bud, I would set your temps at 20c for cuttings, hang a bog standard 20w cfl from b&q, almost touching the top of the prop cover, vents closed.

 

If you have everything else right they should root within a week or two, depending on strain.....no fiddling about with them!

 

I use moist root riot cubes, scrape the stem lightly, snip at 45% and into the cube......no sprays or root gels........

 

You'll get there

 

atb

stu

 

[Laphroaig]

Two weeks, and they’ve gone mushy at the tips, I just can’t get it right  

[ineedofusername]

Best thing I ever got was an x-stream propagator 99.9% success I don't ph or change the water just stick in cuts and wait 10-20 days 

[Laphroaig]

Have tried different substrates, propagators, bags, aeroponics, pH’d non-pH’d water, cool, warm, light, no light, just a little bit of light.  It doesn’t matter I kill ‘em all.  It’s my f’kin superpower!

[Guest Gojitangie]

@Laphroaig

 

Blast from t’past but still no joy on the cut front? Still got your superpower?;)

 

What’s an ideal temp range?

 

Seems to be the most important factor in many things can’t help but think it’s a big part of this too.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Gojitangie

[Laphroaig]

No it took a while but now I’m confident of a 90-100% success rate.  It was the usual, too much fiddling, wrong ideas, panic.  I just had to leave ‘em be and it just clicked.  No doubt I’ll go wrong at some point but I’ve had three sets, each of around 30 clones all crammed into one tiny unheated propagator and all have done well.

[MicroDoser]

On 12/11/2017 at 6:53 AM, ineedofusername said:

Best thing I ever got was an x-stream propagator 99.9% success I don't ph or change the water just stick in cuts and wait 10-20 days 

 

I would second this. Getting an aeroponic propagator was one of the best things I ever did for cuttings. I have noticed that the ones in the middle do better than the ones at the edge so I put the ones which need the most help in the middle so they all come out fairly homogeneous (root wise anyway, the tops are different sizes but that evens out in veg if the roots are the same IME)

 

I have found that changing the water after 7 days (or when you see roots) improves rooting though. Even tiny roots need oxygen too!

 

Once you see roots, adding something like orca or rhizotonic (or your favourite rhizo root booster) helps things along too. If you need to leave them in there for a while (more than 2 weeks or more than a week after you get proper roots, not just nodules) for any reason, a very low feed keeps them from yellowing too much.

 

I let them sit at room temperature but that is about 24-25 degrees C in the room they are in. They seem to like that.

 

Two things I saw someone do recently where they got good results (which may or may not work, it will be my next experiment) is a vertical cut in the 45 degree stem cut to split it, the other is to intentionally let them get a bit dry in the first 48 hours after being cut to encourage root growth by making the cut think it really needs to in order to get rehydrated.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by MicroDoser

[Guest Gojitangie]

@Laphroaig Nice one bud, good to hear you’ve sorted it.

 

@MicroDoser

Thanks for that mate, good info:) Thought about x stream but mate said he’d heard mixed reviews - to be fair could say that of most things! Will look again, is it quite loud when switched on? Do you run it constantly or on a cycle? 

 

Thanks all:)

[MicroDoser]

24 minutes ago, Gojitangie said:

@Laphroaig Nice one bud, good to hear you’ve sorted it.

 

@MicroDoser

Thanks for that mate, good info:) Thought about x stream but mate said he’d heard mixed reviews - to be fair could say that of most things! Will look again, is it quite loud when switched on? Do you run it constantly or on a cycle? 

 

Thanks all:)

 

Talk to anyone you know who has actually used one. I suspect they will tell you otherwise

 

You run it constantly and it is as noisy as the pump that powers the spray in the tank that sits under the clones. It comes with one of those aquarium pumps that come in 500lph and 1000lph varieties (I think it comes with a 1000lph one). There is a 'H' part that fits to the pump and sprays water around under the clones. These come with one of two types of mister, black or brown. Both work well, the black ones spray up a bit more and need angling to make them not spray out of the sides, the brown ones spray lower down but do not get the roots quite as wet. TBH I have not noticed much difference in rooting between the two types although once roots form there may be a slight advantage to the black ones but it is hard to tell. I put one with the lower spraying brown misters in my main tank to humidify my flower room when I have just put new clones in and they can't keep the room humidified enough.

 

 

If you get one throw away (or re-use, or recycle) the little mesh pots that come with it and just use the neoprene discs, they fit into the holes just as well and the pots damage the roots when you want to take the clones out.

[Guest Gojitangie]

@MicroDoser

 

Great!

 

Many thanks for the comprehensive post, much appreciated;)

 

Unfortunately I’ve never heard an aquarium pump running..  

 

[badbillybob]

they are not loud. And if you want to keep the net pots, which is handy for keeping the neoprene discs in place, simply cut  the bottom of the net pot off, which will leave the roots to dangle , suspended in the air. 

 

These are great, I ended up making my own version. All you need is a box, a 5-600l/hr pump, a hole saw, the H frame from x stream a small pipe from pump to frame and some of the mini net pots/neoprene discs.

 

I used to get rooted cuttings within 7-10 days, every time.

I used a razorblade to cut the 45 on the bottom of the node, , so as not to crush it, which can happen with scissors, and I used to lightly scrape the bottom couple of cms of the stem with the razorblade, just to scrape off some of the very outer covering of the stem (don't go mental) . the tote had water, and a little splash of ionic formulex.

 

When the roots come out, they come out from the scraped areas as well as the bottom of the stem.

and more roots the better as far as im concerned

Edited July 11, 2018 by badbillybob

[Guest Gojitangie]

@badbillybob

 

Thanks for that mate, like the scraping idea, makes sense to me. 

 

Sadly mate isn’t up to DIY but reckon I’m sold on the x-stream.

 

Cheers all:))

[MicroDoser]

2 hours ago, badbillybob said:

if you want to keep the net pots, which is handy for keeping the neoprene discs in place, simply cut  the bottom of the net pot off, which will leave the roots to dangle , suspended in the air. 

 

@badbillybob did you know the neoprene discs will fit straight into the holes in the plastic cover?

 

I also thought the net pots were needed to keep them in place until I visited my local shop to enquire about slightly larger ones which would go straight into the holes and they told me they had been designed to fit in as standard without the pots.

 

Give it a try, it works great and is much less fiddly.

[badbillybob]

mine is a home made job, using a holesaw, so its probably a little bit bigger than the factory lid holes mate.

It still works tho and that's all that matters isn't it?