who's got the best cloning method?

[Opie Yutts]

I'm with BigWeed on this. You can't beat a bubble cloner for the ease of assembly and opperation. It produces fantastic results with minimal effort. I've been using one for years as well and I don't think I could be convinced to change.

[Opie Yutts]

im planning on having 3 mothers from each strain out of my 5 strains. then im going to top them all to create more nodes. once they have like 20 branches on each mother... how many mothers can i keep under the 400 watt hps throughout my grow cycle let me kinow what you guys think about it.

Hmm, seems like 300 branches is a bit much under 400 watts. I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but I don't think that I would try that much, or I would at least double that light. Unless of course you don't want them to grow very fast, which has been a goal of mine in the past. I'm thinking 400 watts for mothers would be good for about a 5'x5' space. So would I want 15 plants with 300 branches in that space? I guess, possibly, if I kept them kinda small. Hmm, and could I use 400 watts for more like a 7'x7' space? Maybe, if I'm not taking vast quantities of cuttings. And also, why are those sheep up in the trees? These, and many other questions have been much on my mind of recent.

Anyway the stony ramblings of a slightly dizzy individual may not make much sense right now. Hope I could help a little.

[stinkyattic]

I'm bumping this and adding that I've recently been going with the mist only on the inside of the dome, nit directly on the cuttings technique- if you have mold problems often, consider trying that to reduce risk.

[freewheelinfrank]

I gotta go with the bubble cloner - my success rate for cloning was real close to zero% :wtf: - then, I built a bubble cloner, and I have, so far, 100% success, they don't even try to droop :thumbsup: - I also don't mist the cuttings, but I do give a little spray into the humidity dome - :jointsmile:

[unlockit]

how do you keep air from going up the stem and stopping water intake?

[stinkyattic]

Unlokcit-
Couple things.
Cloning gels and powders do form a physical barrier.
The plant's stem heals itself.
And by watering the mother well before taking cuttings, you are basically saturating her.
Other than that, dip the cutting in your hormone IMMEDIATELY after making the final cut, and you should have no problems.

Another thing to add! I have recently fallen in love with dip-n-grow. It's got 2 different hormones, plus a fungicide, and costs like NOTHING compared to clonex, which has no fungicide, is expensive, and as far as I can tell goes bad in less than a year... and OMG is it easy to contaminate your gel...

Another GREAT trick for sanitizing your prop dome:
Scrubbing Bubbles! Yeah, the foaming bathroom cleaner! You can see if you have missed a spot because of the white foam. Spray on, leave for 5 minutes, rinse off.

With rapidrooters, if your clones have thin stems, make a slit with the blade of an exacto knife to stick it in so there is good contact between the cutting and the moist medium.

Hope these little hints help... I have been killing my own clones for years so y'all don't have to!