Ziplock and rapidrooter easy cloning method.

[jb247]

Nice post pflover, we do something very similiar here. I love rapid rooters, they are the greatest thing since sliced cheeze, we call em 'rubber dirt'.

Instead of thge ziplock we use clear plastic cups, the short bathroom/snack holder for kids type, fat and short. Three rr plugs will fit in one, and then another cup is inverted on the top and a couple of 1/2" black tape strips r used to hold it on. We load the plugs, 2 squirts w the mister, the lid goes on and under the flouros til I see roots.

pflover have yopu experimented with using something clean to make the hole in the rr plug deeper and putting the cutting stem in almost to the bottom of the plug? I use this method and like it emmensely, as it allows more of the stem to be in the optimal conditions for root growth.

RR plugs are my preferred method and the one I suggest to all who have questions about cloning.

best regards,

mendel

Gotta love the Rapid Rooters, as they have greatly improved my cloning success rate, for the first few years, I could not get more than a 10% rate and used alot of different methods, till I found the RR cubes. Now I am at 95% and going strong.
My variation is that I use styrofoam coffee cups to hold my rooting clones, then I cover them with a clear plastic drinking cup, by doing a bit of shopping around I've found that larger clear cups will fit right over the styrofoam cups, effectively sealing in the moisture. Let the plants have a bit of fresh air after three days or so, keep an eye on the moisture levels. Don't let the cubes sit in standing water, just make sure the cube stays damp. Most of my clones show roots after a week, some are more stubborn and take 10-15 days...strain dependent...

Peace...j.b.

[ROLNIK]

things you need:
good cloning gel (Doc's, Clonex, olivia's)
sharp scissors or razor
rapid rooters
new unused ziplocks (knock offs work ok too).
healthy plant

1) dip scissors into cloning gel.

2) take cutting. the gel should cover the end of the cutting so air does not get into the stem.

3) dip cutting between 1/4 and 1/2 inch into the gel.

4) carefully place cutting into existing hole on top of rapid rooter.

5) tear off small piece of edge of rapid rooter and use to securely "plug" the rest of the hole so that the cutting is held firmly inplace and air cannot get in easily.

6) place rapid rooter and cutting into new unused ziplock. (i prefer 1-2 cuttings per sandwich baggy. 3-5 cuttings can be done in a 1 gal bag. the more cuttings per bag the higher chance of any infection spreading and killing more cuttings so limit the number of cuttings per bag as much as possible.) (EDIT: At this point i never place more than one clone into a baggy at a time and only use sandwich ziplocks.)

7) LEAVE the bags ALONE for the first week! Then start to check for roots every 3 days and to remove any rooted cuttings. DO NOT breath into back or aerate them.

8) rooted cuttings can go dirrectly into moist soil or be mailed as is.

(before discovering this method i had a reliable 20-30% success rate with clones because of infections spreading. after i started using clean new ziplocks everytime my success rate rose to a reliable 90-98%!!!!, no bullshit.)

hugz and good luck!

Ally

Pf. thanks, it works great. glad this post is still up for the nubies like me!!!
ROLNÍK

[og gary]

thanks pflover. i have bad luck trying to root clones. so any info on this subject is good news to me. ill try it next time i root clones.
thanks
og gary

[Jred]

Seems like a nice sterile method. Only had two cuts in my 20" x 10" tray with the dome on and when not somewhat full they take longer imo.. Chunked the two cuts I had into a gal ziplock and to raise the humidity a bit. Great thread. Done the plastic cup thing way back in the day then used and 120 site ezcloner and put 3 in each site at one point. Have the botinicare aero cloner and I hate it compared to the ezcloner. Design is bad as it the top rest and has a small over hang over the res which means dripping water..Weak. and only got the mid sized one so had to throw an ice probe (cheap way to cool under 20gal a few degrees) to get the temps right as the pump it comes with runs hot so I bought a pump that uses less wattage with a higher flow but really the pump should be external imo unless you have the biggest one as the extra water compensates for the temp change

[Bushboy]

So I usually use a clear plastic container (or 2) approx 8 inches deep, but now I only need 2-4 cuts at a time. When I read this I thought 'self that isn't gonna work'. I thought the leaves would rot off before rooting. Well trying it out is easy enough so...I threw 4 cuts into 4 1" rockwool cubes (i know, but the mailorder hasn't come through with my rooting plugs grrr) using a powder rooting compound and dropped 2 each into Ziploc freezer bags. Presto 8 days later and I get roots.

This is gonna make it way easier for me now. I was taking extra cuts just to fill the containers before...lol

Thanks for the tech.