Bubble Cloner Issues

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Track

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Okay, so I had my DIY Bubble Cloner on for 6 days and 8/12 of the clones rooted.

Since this was just a test run and I took some of them off the middle of the stem, I decided to repeat the procedure.

Except this time, some issues have risen..

First off, it's been 4 days and there aren't even budding roots. I saw budding roots after 2.5 days before.

Second, the pH of my water is 6.5.. but after sitting in the cloner and after adding some liquid nutrients, it went up to 8.0.

So, I added some pH down and got it to 5.8 (which I read was adequate for hydro).

However, and I'm not sure if it's related to the liquid pH down I used, I noticed that the air stones had come to have a sort of white residue on them.

I cleaned the container and the air stones as best I could, filled the container up again and repeated the procedure with the nutrients and pH down and so far the water is okay but one of the air stones stopped producing as much air (it only does so from one hole).

I don't have a way to check water temperature but from touching it I figure it's about room temperature.

So.. am I doing anything wrong?

Thanks!
 
First of all, do not add nutrients to your cloning solution. Second, if you saw roots in 2.5 days, that was amazing and don't expect to repeat it every time. Third, get an inexpensive thermometer from the dollar store or someplace lie that. Fourth, be patient. Not seeing roots in 4 days is not an issue.
 
First of all, do not add nutrients to your cloning solution. Second, if you saw roots in 2.5 days, that was amazing and don't expect to repeat it every time. Third, get an inexpensive thermometer from the dollar store or someplace lie that. Fourth, be patient. Not seeing roots in 4 days is not an issue.

Can't I just use a regular oral human thermometer.. you know, like one you'd use to detect a cold?

Also, the clones that did root before aren't doing too well. Their leaves are yellow and they're not growing. What's wrong with them?
 
You do not need to pH the water either, unless it is way out of whack. We need to maintain proper pH for plants to uptake nutrients--pretty much no other reason. Since they need no nutrients now, pHing the water is not necessary.

I doubt that an oral thermometer for a person is going to have readings as low as 70-80 degrees, but, yes, any thermometer that will register the temps the water are likely to be will do.

Leaves will often yellow, but maybe you should go over your entire "clone routine" with us and we will see if we can think of anything to help. However, like Rosebud said, cloning takes time and patience. It generally takes me 2 weeks for good root growth.
 
What would be considered "out of whack" in terms of pH? It got up to 8.0 after a few days.

I tried an oral thermometer.. it wouldn't go below 90F.

I don't have a problem with leaves yellowing while they're in the cloner. But when the new growth becomes yellow while planted in soil.. that seems bad to me.

Perhaps it's the amount of nutrients I put into the soil? I put quite a bit..

Might that also be the reason why none of my seeds have germinated? I planted passion fruit, some cactus, etc. and none of them have germinated even though they're in a humidity dome and the bottom is quite warm.
 
IMO, 8.0 is not too high for clones. However, how are you testing the pH? Is that with or without nutes?

I anticipated that an oral thermometer would not go low enough to check water temps--they need to be quite accurate and the gradations start quite high as no human could have temps too much below 98 and still be alive.

I never put seeds in a humidity dome and this time of year, I wouldn't use any kind of heater. Being too warm is actually worse than being too cold. Being to cold will delay germination/rooting. Being too hot can kill the seed or clone.

If the leaves are turning yellow after they are taken from the cloner, this is a different issue than things not rooting. I wouldn't be giving any clones large doses of nutrients right off the bat--the roots are still delicate. What exactly are you putting in the soil? And how much?
 

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