The environment is where the 8 site clone bucket has a real benefit. You need to keep the plant parts where roots form wet, but not submerged in water (A few plants you can just plop a branch in a glass of water and they will root, but not most) The 8 site clone bucket has a water pump that circulates the water in the bucket. This circulation means that everything inside the bucket is wet, but it is never submerged or sitting in standing water. This circulation also encourages oxygen to enter the water and promotes airflow inside the bucket. This is the perfect environment to promote root growth for cuttings. Many of you are using an ebb and flow type of system with cuttings where you water them, they are very wet then dry out until you water them again. You can get great success with this as long as you are diligent and make sure the plant/cuttings are kept moist and not too wet or dry. With the 8 site clone bucket you put your cuts in and in two weeks you take them out. You need to moniter the water level but unlike with hydroponics with vigorously growing plants, you don’t have a lot of water loss from the 8 site clone bucket. You could also add some nutrients when roots start to form and use the 8 site clone bucket as an aeropoincs system until the roots are very well developed. It makes taking cuttings a lot easier and increases the success rate.
Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers
2 comments:
i love my cloning bucket from htg supply - for the first time in 1.5 years and experimenting with peat pellets, oasis cubes, perlite/vermiculite mixes, nursery flats, heat mats and humidity domes - i get a 100% success rate with plant cuttings of all sorts.
Dr. Meyers - i enlarged the hole in the bottom of the 360 degree sprayer just a LITTLE bit because it clogged a couple of times. it doesn't seem like a filter bag would work on this submerged pump set-up because of the suction cup feet that hold it to the bottom of the bucket. i do know that whatever clogged that orifice was something I dropped in there, but i truly try to practice cleanliness. since making the orifice bigger (i just gently pressed a push pin into the orifice), it seems like the roots on the cuttings get longer that the used to before enough roots develop for transplant. could this be because there is slightly more water getting through the orifice now? please keep in mind this is NOT a complaint about this outstanding product (especially for the money). i am only concerned because i like to use 4 inch square pots to grow the cuttings vegetatively, before transplanting again into 2 gallon phat sacks (htg supply). the longer roots on the cuttings make me worry that when i gently set them into these 4" pots, i have to turn the cutting as i set it in to "guide" the roots into a smooth curve. if i don't do this, the roots tend to do in direction other than down. i like the 4" pots because the root system develops densely after 2-3 weeks of vegetative growth, so i operate on my theory that when transplanted into the 2 gallon phat sacks the roots will fill out better in the entire fresh area. is this "guiding the roots into a curve" detrimental in any to the rapid growth of the cutting - as when i have seen rootbound plants the roots circle the bottom of the container? i get fairly explosive veg. growth from the cuttings, but am ALWAYS trying to make constant improvements in each aspect of my opration - and it seems this is the only way i learn quickly.
I think you are fine. You want the root tips to keep growing, in a mostly downward diretion. Once the roots are forced to grow against gravity, due to space constraints, the roots secrete hormones that will limit plant growth. Keep that in mind.
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