APORTO,

Glad I could help.  I think I would be a little nervous not gluing the manifold together.  It is probably fine if you check on your cuttings everyday like I seem to.  It would suck to have the manifold blow apart and stop spraying your cuttings though if you are not checking them all the time.  I am not sure how much pressure is built up in the manifold when it is running, but there is going to be some low level vibration from the pump that overtime may cause the fittings to loosen up.

AndyInNYC,

Stop arguing with me!  "Just kidding"  I was basing my argument on seeing 5 gallon cloners on ebay for $55 shipped.  But I guess you are correct on the costs, especially if you are building more than one.  Also looking at the larger cloners on ebay the prices climb sharply while the parts costs only climb a little.  So yes, especially on the larger cloners you can save quite a bit of money.

Yes it has been fun building and tinkering with the cloner.  I can see how it would be a great thing to do with your child.

I just ordered an aquarium air pump for mine.  I thought I would give it a try on the next batch of cuttings to see if having more aeration of the water helps.  Is anyone else using one?

Dan

Dan,

Quit messing with me or I'm gonna insist we 'step outside' - and it's too darn cold outside!

I didn't glue up my manifold - I guess I could, but it's working fine.

The 64 site EZ Clone Classic (which has fewer sites than mine could, but is smaller) is $247 on eBay (free shipping, though!).

The 128 site, which I suppose I could likely squeeze into my lid with smaller holes, is $339.95 (and yes, shipping is once again free).

If space were really at a premium, those buys might make sense (if I still lived in a tiny NYC apartment).  However, with a corner in the basement, I can't imagine spending that to avoid cutting some PVC.  I'm also willing to believe I'm using a better grade of pump than they purchase (since I don't care about operating margins).

I avoided the 5 gallon size based on people's statements about overheating and the fact that 12 cuttings is too few for what I usually do.  I avoided buying the 128 site cloner because I'm way too cheap.l


Andrew

Andrew
Yes it's around that price , but the trouble is I work like 5 nights a week .. Well everybody works no excuse there lol and it's really difficult for me to sit down and gather all the materials needed. But it's doable, I'm just being lazy here. Most of the items mentioned here is easy for you guys to get in the states as the instructions are clear , so you can just go and get them . I will have to find and equivalent British product and after summing up the 40 Hydropod is not that bad. I the heated one is £74 GBP and it's manufactured by a well know trusted company called Greenhouse sensation ( checkout the videos I posted). To summarise I bought the 40 cloner and a 4 ft T5 yeeeehh hoo lol.

Dennis

Thanks mate , cloner comming tomorrow. Thanks for your continuous advise.

Blue

Might aswell catchup for a cup of tea buddy , ofcourse wit some figs lol.

Dan

Your cloner looks great and I was really confused between 40 and 120... Strange that they don't do one in between. Oh well , sometimes good package come in small size and personally I think 40 is a good size more than enough .



Here are some of the pictures of my ongoing project
This heated propagator was bought from the same manufacturer from where I got the cloner , they are amazing . The height can be extended as tall as you need , well you will need to buy the extra extensions panels . I bought the one with 3 extensions. It got very large vents and comes with a thermostat. I keep constant 26 degree celicius . Potting mix is perlite and coco arround 70/30 %.. Also got a 4ft 4 tube T5 and a fan on timer 16 hours on . Please pray for my cuttings. If I'm succeful cuttings for everyone :)..
Sorry about the typos
Thanks

I am setting up a T24 TurboKlone on a cycle timer. Should the fan cycle with the pump or run continuously?

Also, does it matter which side of the stem collars faces up?

Thanks

Hi Jerry,

From looking at the TurboKlone manual it seems that the fan both cools the reservoir by passing air underneath, and blows air into the cloner to get more oxygen to the roots.  I would worry that blowing air into the cloner without the pump running might let the roots dry out quickly.  I guess it depends on how long you are going to keep the pump off.  I would probably have both the pump and fan on the timer, but I am just guessing here.

Is there a reason to put the cloner on a timer?

As far as the collars, if they are neoprene they can go any side up since the top and bottom are essentially the same.

Dan

Hi All just to let you know that i have built a cloner using all the great information on this web site and it works a treat i have just potted up a dozen cuttings the roots were amazing so many of them a little slow on leafing out but the roots make up for the lack of leaves
I'm using the mister method using small cheap misters from china no mucking about with cutting tubing & gluing no pump to worry about no plastic misting nozzles to fit just buy your plastic container mark out you holes cut out that's it job done fill with 3 to 4 inches of water slide in a heater place you misters in 1 at each end put a thermometer in switch on fill with cuttings and away you go holds 28 cuttings more if you get a larger container

kkk2210    This ones for you all  electrical parts available from eBay china cost £27.00
                 for everything new I live in the U.K. Wales

Pieman,

Don't be shy - post some pictures.  I'm not sure from your description how your system works; it sounds like the fogger systems I'm seen/read about.  Let us know.


Andrew

Pieman, does your system run continuously?

Hi  Andrew

Yes you are right its the fogger not the mister system i get the two mixed up here is a few pictures as requested the colour changing lights are optional dont know if it affects the root growth but hey they rather pretty

Hi   Jerry   I leave it running all day and only turn it of when i go to bed about 10pm up about 6am         about 6am

Pieman,

I would be very hesitant to suggest you leave the system off for 8 hours each night.

Once you have roots starting they will surely dry out over an 8 hour period.  When my tote showed signs of leaking I turned everything off an ran to Home Depot for a replacement.  In the 2 hours it took me to get everything running, one of the roots had turned brown - the rest of the roots survived and I now have a nice tangle, but I can't imagine what 8 hours each night must do.

Perhaps your interior will retain enough humidity to keep things going.  Anyone else have any thoughts or experience here?


A washer overflow pan from Home Depot is about $20 (not sure of the UK cost) and will hold 5 gallons; perhaps this will give you peace of mind (unless its the noise causing you to turn it off).

Andrew

Hi Andy
Being totally enclosed it holds the moisture quit well with zero leakage & with the water heater set at 90f [this gets switched of with the rest of the unit ]  it holds the humidity until i switch it back on in the morning this is a Fogger unit & NOT a mister unit so it gets plenty of warm moist fog/water the fog is NOT 90f just the water so far i have had 100% success in rooting nice big roots on my cuttings i have potted up 2 dozen cuttings this week & will have another 2 dozen ready to go by the weekend average time from twig to rooted twig ready to pot up 10 to 15 days 
the manufacturers of the foggers recommend only 8 hours use in every 12 hours use so I'm pushing them to there limits also the ceramic disc have a life of 5000 hr but they are cheap enough to replace

Pieman,

Good to know - I wouldn't have guessed/known any of that.  Glad it's working for you.

I just brought in some Pro-Mix to pot up a few of my faster rooting cuttings.  Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a few days for it to thaw.  It's completely frozen.

If nothing else, rooting in Winter at least lets me pretend it's Spring.


Andrew

   Here's a brief update on the salvage efforts for the cuttings that had rotted in the cloner... probably due to excessive heat. (82*)

  32 cuttings were in the heated cloner.  All but one of the cuttings had bark that had turned to mush as these pictures depict:


      



 
      



    The cuttings were trimmed back an inch or two above the level of the grafting tape, which produced awfully short cuttings, but  this is the third day back in a cloner, and most show that they are well on the road to recovery...   one of the cuttings now has 4" of root off of the fresh cut.     Blue


       

Wow, 4 inches in 3 days.  Congratulations on the save!  Hopefully the rest of them also put out some roots.

Blue,

I'd call BS on the 4" if everything else you've said weren't true <g>.

You're going to have to name that fig Audrey.

That's an amazing amount of growth.

Andrew

Hey Blue...Hopefully, everything will go your way now! Really felt bad for you when it looked like complete disaster! Good luck to you the rest of the way!

Frank from Bama

   Thanks Frank,  I do appreciate the support.  As I've mentioned before, as we share with each other what works and what doesn't, we'll iron this puzzle out.

   Blue

Hi All
Here's a few pictures of cuttings from my home made fogger/cloner these have been in the box for 10 days I'm now going to pot them up and place them under the lights i have another 10 with roots like the ones in the pictures some have even more roots on them this is great i have never had such high rooting success & No Gnat to worry about 
I would highly recommend using this method of propagation it very easy to build No skills needed other than marking out you grid for the holes and cutting them out & its cheap to build
and run
I have also managed to root cuttings of 3 inches in size       next time I'm going to try 2inch might try getting it down to 1 inch [1 noad]

Well done, pieman. Got mine up and running Thursday. Keeping my fingers crossed hoping mine turn out like yours.

Blue, what, if anything are you adding to the water?  How often are you changing it?  I would turn off the lights if you can because they may encourage algae growth.

With me, so far so good! I looked at the cuttings yesterday and they are really bumped up! They have been in my Clone King 36 Cloner only 9 days. I have been putting a Teaspoon of Clonex and a Teaspoon of Peroxide every 3 days! Everything seems to be working thus far. This is my first time to root Figs with a cloner and I have 36 cuttings in there  ...: )

Hey Blue,

5ppm seems really high.  I don't let mine get over 0.5 ppm.  What source recommends 5 ppm?

Also sodium hypochlorite is highly basic and will very quickly shoot the PH in your reservoir through the roof if you do not compensate with an acid.

Personally I test the PH every few days and adjust with

http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-GH1514-Control-Kit/dp/B000BNKWZY

I bought it at a local hydroponics store and it works really well.  Also the acid is a combination of phosphoric and ascorbic and I feel better about adding that over the muriatic acid I use in the pool.

Dan