Clones are dying from the bottom up, why?

[frankie-smiles]

I'm having a little trouble lately when i'm taking clones. What seems to happen is i take the cut, dip in clonex, put into a root riot cube, pop into the heated propogator and they are ok for a few days. Then i'll come to check on em and i'll find one that has toppled over, on closer inspection it looks like the part of the cutting that is in the root riot cube has withered away to a mushy mess. I've always had no problem with clones before, but now i'm almost losing 50% of em. My question is what is causing the withering cuz i've tried changing almost everything, the gel, the blade, dome on, dome off, I've no idea what this could be. I'm just about to go back to water cloning or build a bubble cloner cuz this is getting on my tits. All clones get taken same way but some live and some die and i can't tell why, can anyone else shed some light on my problem please?:sign0065:

 

[Arti.chokes]

Hello Frankie, are the clones you're now losing strains that you previously had better success rates with? Arti.

 

[frankie-smiles]

Hello Frankie, are the clones you're now losing strains that you previously had better success rates with? Arti.

yes they are strains i've cloned before mate. I can take 6 cuts off one plant and 2 or 3 will get this stem rotting thing and the rest are fine. It seems very random to me.

 

[mace]

maybe some kind of rot issue due to the heat being too high?

 

[Arti.chokes]

I'm inclined to go with mace here Frankie, if nothing else has changed except your success rate i'd check the temps, i had a little heated prop tank that got hotter with age and you could easily rot the stems out in a day or two, if you are stuck with it you could raise the cubes off the bottom slightly by sitting on something?, and don't forget you must clean everything with hydrogen peroxide in between clones bud, Arti.

 

[Donk Frog]

Yeap too much heat combined with humidity, leave you cover open more to allow more air flow. I have got 70% sucsess with no cover or heat pad at all just heavy misting every few hours. but normally i use my cover for 99%sucsess. but if i have too many on the go....well u know

 

[biggs]

Yeap too much heat combined with humidity, leave you cover open more to allow more air flow. I have got 70% sucsess with no cover or heat pad at all just heavy misting every few hours. but normally i use my cover for 99%sucsess. but if i have too many on the go....well u know

what he said^^

too much heat. i don't bother with a heat matt. i take cuts and mist them up and seal them for 5 days, and then start opening the vents a little day by day to let in fresh air. i've found this gets them to root in 7- 10 days. too much heat and they will wither them up.

 

[frankie-smiles]

Thanks for the replys guys, kinda getting the same idea myself, came home early from work- now normally i check my cuts as soon as i get in and the cubes are slightly warm, well i get home an hour or so early and they are cooking, giving off steam for fucks sake. I think my heated prop is frying them during the day. It seems if the base heats up and heats up and when it gets really hot (i.e hot enough to kill my plants) it cuts out and cools down again then repeats the process during the night. I'M SO PISSED!!! I'm going to the shop to get an areo cloner, that heated base is history, grrrr.:fighting0040:

 

[frankie-smiles]

I thought damping off was more when they have roots, this is happening way before roots pop. I'm sure the heated base has been frying em and only the healthy and strongest can cope with it, anything weak or with slight issues just dies. I've had a fresh batch of clones in there for a few days and not one dead yet so fingers crossed it was the heated base. Thanks all, I'll update if i get roots or more dead clones, just incase anyone else has rotting mushy stem disease lol.

 

[frankie-smiles]

Yeah, i put cuts into water, tried new blades, new gel, new plugs etc etc. Who knew them heated props are so variable, just goes to show trust your gut instinct, it all went wrong when this new prop turned up but i just couldn't see how the hell it was effecting my cuts cuz every time i checked em they were barely warm. Then all of a sudden they had steam coming off em - thats when the penny dropped. doh! Live and learn eh.

 

[Zoolander]

I also think they are getting to warm

 

[frankie-smiles]

Yeah, no-one likes steam cooked clones ha ha. The prop has been toe punted down the garden shed, along with all the other gear i never use lol.

 

[Zoolander]

You can put a layer of perilite on the bottom of the try and this will help to keep them from getting to hot .

 

[Arti.chokes]

Yes, I think Zoo's perlite layer would work well till you get your aero-prop, to be honest you are better off with an EZ or other similar cloner anyway, you'll get 95%+ success rate and the time is halved compared to most other clone methods. Glad you sorted it Frankie Arti.

 

[astro]

Try a thermostat for your pad.

 

[tenacious]

i have had my ups & downs w/bottom heating. i have used the most expensive ones both w/ & w/o thermostats.
unfortunatly i've had many more downs than ups. besides being fairly expensive, i've found them to be inconsistant[unreliable] as you have found. i have had good sucess w/ water cloner, but runing a pump 24hrs a day creates heat [problems]as well. i've found that putting the resivor in direct contact w/ the basment floor[concreet] alives this problem.