$35 DIY Cloner- Bubbler Style

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massproducer

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I rolled myself a nice fatty:D , and now I am ready to build

I am building a cloning machine for under $35 that works almost every time. I am building this to replace my last one that is getting old and being placed into retirement. I usually can achieve a 99-100% success rate using this method.

Materials Needed:

(1) 3 Gallon rubbermaid container
(3) 6" air Stones
(1) Dual outlet air pump
1/4" air hose
(1) Gang Valve
1/2" Water Hose
Drill with 1/2" Drill Bit

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So the Next Thing we have to do is drill some 1/2" holes in the lid of the rubbermaid container. The spacing of the holes is totally up to you. I like to make about 5 holes x 6 holes making a total of about 30 cloning sites. You could make more holes or less holes, it all depends on your needs.


After All of your holes are drilled, you have to wash the entire tub to get all of the little plastic fragments out of it, and then use the goop to glue down the air stones

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Next we have to cut up the 1/2 inch tubing as this will support the clone and hold it in place, which we will see a little later when I put my clones in there.

So cut up about 1-2" sections of the tubing and place it inside the holes.

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Now connect all of the air lines and put them through one of the holes in the top.

Next we fill up the tub with just pure, plain water. No need for rooting powder or gel, all we need is just plain water. We want to fill the water so that the stem will be sitting just above the water line, so that it gets misted by the fine mist produced by the bubbles breaking at the water level. This will mist the entire top of the tub.

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yes that is the reason for the 1/2" tubing. That gives plenty of room. If you like you can also cut a slit in the tubing so it can be opened.
 
To get a cutting ready I like to cut the lowest nodes down flush with the stem. I find that this is the first place I see roots emerge from. I also like to use a method called sacrifacing. It basically means that I scrape the stem until i see the white inner skin. This gives the cutting more surface area to root.
Then I make a final 45 degree cut and place the cutting in water.

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Now we are totally loaded, I have about 28 cuttings in here right now. It usually takes around 7-10 days for cuttings to root using this method, sometimes faster, sometimes a bit slower, but usually not long past 10 days. For fast rooting times using this method it is good to try to keep the water temp between 75 and 82, which is a little warmer then most peoples room temps. The way to offset this is to buy a $10 aquarium heater and a 5 dollar timer. Set the heater to come on for 15 minutes every hour or so.

Here are some shots of what it looks like underneath the lid with all of the cuttings inside.

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Maintaining this system is very easy as well. All that has to be done is the water has to be replace every 2 days for the first 4 days. This helps keep out diseases.

So hopefully in a week or so i should be ready to start my next grow.

like I said earlier if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

I think I should go to bed now being that it is like 5 am.:eek:

Peace

Massproducer
 
Moved to hydro section and stuck. great thread massproducer. many will find this useful. ;) thanks for the contribution.
 
Thanks Mutt,
I had to build this for myself so I decided why not document the process, so I could share it with everyone else.

I hope that this helps anyone having problems trying to clone. Plus I am only a PM away if anyone has any questions or comments.
 
So here are some pics of those beautiful roots. You have a few options for when to take them out.

1. When you see root bumps they can be transfered into rockwool with no problems, and within 2-3 days the roots will be showing through the cubes.







2. When your clone actually roots


All of the little bumps you see are root bumps that will all turn into roots. That is one reason I love this method so much, because you can see all of the stages of your clone rooting right in front of your eyes.

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Now because I grow DWC, I like to let my roots get big in the cloner so that when I transplant them the roots hit the water. Of course you do not have to let them get this big, it will all depend on how you plan on growing your plants.

once they root then you can start giving them 1/4 strength nutes, because they need and want food once those roots pop out.

Although these roots look big and uncontrollable, the diamater is not more then our 1/2 inch vinyl tube and getting the roots out and through it is no problem what so ever. Just like seedlings, these clones grow a tap root and then the fish bone structure grows off of the main tap root.

Now we they are ready for my system.

Happy Growing

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