JACK: I use a home-built aeroponic cloner. The parts and plans are all available online; Google search 'Do-it-yourself aeroponic cloner.' But this is mine and it's made out of an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub.
I used a two-inch hole saw to drill holes in the top of it, and then placed two-inch net pots with the bottoms cut off and glued those on the top. They accept the little two-inch neoprene pucks.
The drive system is an Active Aqua AAPW 400-gallon-per-hour pump. Don't ask me why I have that one. I just use it; it works.I then constructed a misting system that attaches to the pump out of, I think it's half-inch PVC, in a configuration.
I have ten 360-degree fan jet micromisters.I painted the top of the cloner white, just to make it look clean and also for a little bit of reflectivity. The reason it's wrapped up on the outside with -- that's reflective ducting tape and regular duct tape -- is to keep light from going inside the cloner.
You want to have your cloner as light-tight as possible; it will keep any algae from growing in there and it also, the darkness encourages the roots to grow.
So, how this works is you would take a bare cutting, place it in between the little neoprene pucks that open up like a Pac-Man and clamp down on the clone, holding it upright. And then when the pump is on, it pulls water from the inside and sprays continuously, creating a dark, damp environment that is going to encourage root growth.
You want to encourage as cold of water as possible, but when the pump is running continuously it will heat the water up. So, if you can get a timer that turns off every once in a while instead of running it all the time, I find that to be better. But keep an eye on your temperatures; 60 degrees and lower is better.Another good trick to do is keep a couple of frozen plastic water bottles and place them inside the cloner, keep the water cool.
Warmer water, I found it to make the plants take longer to root.
With this cloner I get a hundred percent success rate. It's very, very easy to do, once you have it troubleshooted.
Q: How long has it taken you to troubleshoot it?
JACK: The first time I ran it, I just had a shop light, a fluorescent shop light over it, and I got explosive root growth. That was just with straight chlorinated tap water.
And then I moved it to a different area and it had more light that was penetrating inside the side of the tub. And I think I had clones in for three weeks and didn't see root growth and couldn't figure out why. Then I discovered that it was probably light, and once I wrapped it I noticed better results. But now I actually even place it inside another tub, also because my cloner leaks. And I've just omitted any kind of sealant because it seems to flake off and get in the system. So I just run it without any kind of a sealant on there. But putting it inside another bigger tub helps prevent the light from penetrating and also catches any leaks.
This is what works best for me. So now I can get roots within a couple weeks and by using this new root dip, it's even helping me. I'm just building on it, on a solid cloning schedule.
Q: How long do clone orders take?
JACK: What I like to do is -- it takes about two weeks if everything goes right. But before I hand clones off to somebody, I put them in a media and then I make sure that they survive the transplant and are actively growing before I hand them off to someone.
I wouldn't want to just hand someone something that stalled out, for whatever reason. So, yeah, about two weeks.Q: Cloning procedures you've noticed?
JACK: One way people like to clone is they'll just take a cutting and stick it right in some type of media, like rock wool or a rapid rooter plug or something. And then they put a dome on it and try to keep a really high humid environment.
This usually makes the clone immediately wilt and fall over. Now it's just wet vegetation stuck on other wet vegetation in this damp environment, which isn't good for the plant.
The thing about aeroponic cloners is that the only media -- the only part of the plant that's getting wet is the cut stem, where you're trying to encourage root growth.I don't use a dome at all. So, I think that the traditional method of cloning -- and some people have really good success with it, not me -- but this way of aeroponic growing, I think it eliminates the possibility of any kind of mold or mildew or damping-off problems that would occur with the traditional way of cloning.
Media is dirt or coco fiber or peat moss or vermiculite, perlite; any soil or soilless mix; even water is a media for hydroponic growers. Whatever the roots go into is media.
The thing about this is once the roots grow from the cut stem, they're just dangling in air, and the misters are just spraying really fine water droplets everywhere, which hit the roots and then just drip down them, encouraging the roots to grow long and tall.
So, depending on strain, sometimes I pull these tiny little three-inch topped clones out of the cloner, and there might be 12- to 16-inch roots dangling from the bottom of them. So, it's very effective at making roots.And you can also see the roots as opposed to when you plant them in some type of a media, like rock wool; the only time you know that you have roots is when they're exposing themselves from the media. Which roots don't really like light or air, so when they come out of there they're already starting to damage themselves and potentially stunt their growth.
These roots are different because they're in the dark, so there's no air. By air I mean dry air, like what we like as air. Roots like a very moist, damp, dark environment. The tops of the plants seek out light and oxygen, and the roots part seek darkness and moisture.
Q: So it's almost as if some set-ups you've seen are backwards with the dome on top, because the moisture is going to the plant instead of the roots?
JACK: Yeah. And people would argue that the plant does take in moisture, but it also needs oxygen. So if you create a super-moist area for it, the plant just can't breathe.
With this method, if I pre-soak the cuttings, let them sit overnight, either in just straight water or a rooting compound, and then I remove them and put them in the cloner, they never wilt. They're just immediately upright and starting to put their energy into producing roots; as opposed to putting their energy into trying to upright themselves. Q: How much is the cost to build a cloner?
JACK: The pump I use is 30 bucks. An 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub, storage bin, whatever they're called, that's maybe 13 bucks. And then PVC elbows and a fitting, I don't know, probably five to $10 there.
The spray heads are probably going to be the most expensive thing that you'd buy; they're probably around 40 cents each at a grow store, where they mark everything up. And two-inch net pots, they're maybe a dollar each. And the little pucks will probably set you back 20 bucks. So, however much that is.
Another thing about cloning is that straight tap water works better than 90 percent of the cloning things that I've used; cloning nutrients or root-building products. And if you have chlorine in your tap water it's actually good because it helps kill any bacteria that may have occurred during the cut, and it actually does help encourage root growth. So cold tap water is a good thing to start with. And you don't need to pH your water, like a lot of people think you do.
Q: Does water need to be at a certain pH level?
JACK: From my readings, you don't need to pH anything until it has roots.
Q: Did you ever pH before roots?
JACK: Oh, I did everything wrong. I used to -- it's not that it's wrong, it's just -- there's no need to do it. Because a pH is a measure of how roots can uptake nutrients; they take them better at a certain pH level, being acidic or alkaline.
So, if there are no roots, what's the point of pH-ing. In my opinion, there isn't. If you feel the need to pH, do it after you have the roots.
Oh, another thing, about light sources. You don't need to have a very bright light source on your clones. I use indirect lighting. I don't know if that's right; that's just what I'm doing right now and it's working.Q: What do you mean by Indirect?
JACK: There's not a light directly over the top of it. It's off to the side of my bright lights and probably about two feet away. So that's the only light they get, and they're not coming out fried or damaged leaves.
They're perfect when they come out, I can't believe it. It's really awesome.
Q: Does the temperature in the room affect the clones?
JACK: It affects it because you are using water as your medium and your medium will absorb the heat from the room.
So if your room is really hot and you're trying to keep cold water in your reservoir, in your cloner, you don't want the temperatures to be really high. Otherwise you're going to spend a lot of time keeping the water cool.
But 75's a good temperature to be at when you're vegging, at least in this part of the area. This part of the area meaning Pacific Northwest, South Sound.✚
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