Ask a Grow Question

[nightcelt]

Hey guys, I need advice. I’m not having success with clones. My tent is 75 degrees, 60% humidity, and I use 7″ plastic clone domes. I take each cut, dip it immediately in water, then into the cloning gel then into a pre-soaked rooting cube. I stick them in the dome, spray the inside of it and….all my candidates drooped over and dried up….What am I doing wrong? Besides thinking I’m a gardener?:)

0

Discussion

[Thickems]

Sounds to wet, cubes to saturated, and or the misting in the dome. The purpose of the dome is to hold humidity, adding more by mist is not needed.

0

[Angus420]

Yeah. Probably too wet. You want moist not soaking wet.

0

[Thickems]

After soaking the cubes squeeze the water out. You want a few drops to squeeze out not a flow of water in the end. This is a term called field capacity.

0

[nightcelt]

Thickems, thanks!

0

[jmystro]

We can help. A few things to know first. As other have mentioned, you want a moist but not over-saturated starter plug/cube. After soaking to buffer the plug’s pH, gently squeeze out the excess moisture until the stream turns to a drip. Rooting hormone shuts down leaf and stem growth to focus on root growth so they’ll initially be weak. Tall cuttings will need some type of support for the first few days so they don’t flop over until they ‘harden off’. After 3 days the cuttings will be stiff enough to remove any support. I prefer short and thick as opposed to tall and thin cuttings as they don’t need support. Start with 90-100% RH for the first 3 days and you can then start lowering the humidity a bit over the course of a week until they show roots. Acclimating them to the rooms RH so they can be transplanted out of the dome takes a few days. any quick change in the environment can wilt them immediately. Gradual change is necessary. I don’t spray anything on my clones so their leaves never get used to be saturated. They’ll take forever to acclimate if they stay wet. You can add a little hot water to the tray to create instant steam in the dome to raise humidity before even take a cutting. Never let media sit in water obviously so find an insert to prop the plugs up off the bottom. Around 80F is an ideal temp for clones and vegetative plants. Follow my clone guide and you’ll have 100% success 100% of the time.

https://dudegrows.com/mystro-cloning/

0

[nightcelt]

JMystro, thanks! For the reply AND the tutorial. I know it’s a relatively simple, straightforward process but the parameters for success are narrow. Let me keep plugging away, tweaking, following your advice and see if I can hit that sweet spot.

0

[nightcelt]

Too wet? Yep, I see that too. Guys, thanks!

0

[green-giggles]

I had similar experience when I started to take clones. Huge failure rate. So I watched videos, read tutorials, and keep practicing. My biggest problem was not lowering humidity after a few days. I waited about a week before starting to crack the vents. I now start after 3 days, as Mystro suggests, and I now have almost perfect success.

0

[nightcelt]

Sounds like my arc. I’ve watched videos, read tunes, waded through several entire books on cloning….and still have a massive failure rate. But you guys are encouraging. I’m going to keep at it!

0

[green-giggles]

You’ll one day realize every cut you took has rooted, and you don’t know why. haha

Keep at it. If it wasn’t for this forum, I’d most likely wouldn’t be growing

0