This article is all about cloner nutrients and additives that I recommend to yield fast, heavily rooted clones. Maybe you should get a to-do list.
My first to-do list item is to use your Mother plant foliar spray we discussed in the article The Mother of All Clones. Since you will be cloning in the next 24 - 48 hours, we want your mother plants pest free and primed with natural auxins and cytokinins. As a reminder I currently alternate Garden Safe Neem Oil Extract Concentrate at 30 mL/gal OR Take Down at 40 mL/gal AND always include a Kelp extract. Currently I have been using 5 mL/gal Floralicious Plus at 5 mL/gal.
Next I am going to recommend additives you can find before our last discussion Taking Cuttings & The PermaClone Recipe.
NOW, let’s discus about aeroponic cloner treatments and additives that produce amazing clones! ..First stop is plant-safe sterilizers.
Plant Safe Oxidizer/Sterilizers
We use oxidizers at HIGH DOSES to sterilize our cloners, but we can also use some oxidizers in LOW doses to surface sterilize aeroponic cloners AND clones or cuttings. The dosages are low enough to treat your water without hurting unrooted clones - so please pay attention!
The most common oxidizers are sodium hypochlorite (e.g. Bleach) and 30% hydrogen peroxide (e.g. Nutrilife). Hypochlorous acid (e.g. UC Roots, Clear Rez, & Watermax) and Peroxyacetic acid (e.g. Oxidate 2.0 and Zerotol) are becoming increasingly popular sterilizers in the cannabis industry for a number of reasons. AND, guess what? ...ALL these oxidizers have dilute, plant-safe dosage ranges so you can use them at higher dosages on equipment and lower dosages on plants! In this article I’ll walk you through those exact dosages. Today, I need you to decide which oxidizer works for you based on availability and your local laws. I’m most experienced with Bleach, but I’m going to leave the oxidizer choice up to you.
Hormones
Auxins (rooting hormones) improve rooting time and the number of roots per cutting. But gels and powder wash off in your cloner before they can truly promote prolific root growth. Gels and powders are also time consuming to apply. I have found efficiency, improved results and decreased labor in using water soluble hormones. There are three product available that are reasonably priced and safe for water culture: Hormex Liquid Concentrate, KLN Cloning Solution, AND Rhizopon AA Water Soluble Salts. Whichever one you choose will allow you to add water soluble hormones to your cloner and eliminate the workload and dysfunction of gel or powder dips
Cloner Nutrients
Hormones speed up rooting and volume, but we’ve found the best performance from Hormone products when combined with mineral nutrients (mineral nutrients + hormones = best result). A popular mineral-based additive is Clonex Solution - that’s what we recommend. But any clean, hydroponic bloom nutrient will work fine. Cutting Edge Solutions Micro & Bloom and General Hydroponics Flora Series Micro & Bloom are popular options in aeroponic cloning, too. Don’t worry, we’ll discuss doses in Taking Cuttings & The PermaClone Recipe.
Clone Cutting tools:
Fiskars. (period) ...people think using a razorblades is necessary. It’s really not - please trust us. Purchase a nice pair of fiskars and dedicate them to your clone space. Keep them sterile. Doing a razor cut on each clone is tedious. PermaClone is about ease of production and eliminating unnecessary and tedious methods.
Shopping List:
- Oxidizer Options: Bleach, 30% Peroxide, UC Roots, Clear Rez, Watermax, Oxidate 2.0, OR Zerotol (pick ONE).
- Hormone Solution: Hormex Liquid Concentrate, KLN Cloning Solution, OR Rhizopon AA Water Soluble Salts (Again, choose ONE!).
- Mineral Nutrients: Clonex Clone Solution, or Micro AND Bloom by either Cutting Edge Solutions OR General Hydroponics.
- Cloning Tools: fiskars, any brand will do.
In our final article of this series, Taking Cuttings & The PermaClone Recipe, I'll instruct you step-by-step on taking cuttings, adding your sterilizer the RIGHT way, and necessary nutrients. In the meantime, Foliar you mother and stock your sterilizer/oxidizer, hormone, and mineral nutrient in preparation.
Thank you for reading!
Michael Goldsmith
www.PermaClone.com
michael@permaclone.com
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PS: My articles share knowledge I've accumulated over the years while perfecting my use of PermaClone collars and collaborating with 1000's of customers. My hope is by sharing this knowledge, PermaClone's plant collars will be acknowledged as the best cloning pucks on the market for hydroponic, deep-water culture, and aeroponic systems. Please spread the word! PermaClone has collar sizes to fit the top cloning systems: EZ-CLONE, TurboKlone, PowerCloner by Botanicare, Oxyclone, Psychloner and more. We can also recommended sizes for DIY and home-made cloning systems...just reach out for dimension. Thanks for your support! #PermaClone #getsterilegetcloning
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