You called it, Dan...  it's kept at point-five ppm.  Correction made.

Going to throw my hat back into the cloner ring.  Didn't want to start rooting this early but all the cloner talk has got the fig juices flowing.

My cloner foray started with this thread last year (Thanks Dennis!).  4 trials later and the results are very pleasing with a 75% overall success rate from cutting to pot.  I built my cloner using a 35 site black and yellow tote from Lowes and 3/4" PVC tubing for the spray manifold.  Used:

• 2" Net pots with nets cut off for collars
• Spoke design neoprene inserts
• 40 min repeat cycle timer
• Hydrofarm Active Aqua 400 GPH pump
• 2 Deep Blue 5" (round) air stones
• Hydrofarm 2 outlet air pump
• 2', 4 lamp T-5 lighting
• Canna Aqua Vega
• Rapid Start
• PH up & down solutions

• 6 gallons of NYC tap water
• 3 capfuls of Hydrogen Peroxide
• 5 ml of Rapid Start
• Canna Aqua Vega as per directions on container

• Cuttings with waxed ends - might help the health of the cutting in the cloner.  May just be luck, and I don't know the exact number, but after running 130+ cuttings through the cloner, almost all of the ones with waxed ends saw potting soil.  May just be a fluke.
• Terminal bud or cut end - didn't make a difference.  Both had the same rate of success/failure.
• Cutting thickness - A=Chopstick, B=Pencil, C=AA Battery, D=Penny, E=Hot Dog.  Didn't have too many cuttings in the D/E range and the cuttings that were in the D/E range failed.  Would probably need more even distribution of thicknesses but can say that almost all that made it to soil were in the B/C range with a few A's sprinkled in.
• Cutting length did not make a difference as long as a node or two were exposed below the insert.  Actually started to cut some of the cuttings in half as I felt so much material above the insert was not necessary.
• Number of nodes per cutting - Less than three nodes and cutting was a goner.
• Number of nodes per cm - .15 or less and cutting was a goner.
• Average time to initials - 8 days.
• Average time to 1/4" roots - 23 days
• Average time to leaves - 26 days
• Average time to pot - 42 days

Thanks Danny, like you I am also throwing my hat in. Pretty much built the same cloner and your summery saved me from going back threw the thread. One question you mentioned waxed ends seemed to rooted best, I noticed some members wrapped with parafilm, thoughts?

Dave - Only added that because it was one of the parameters where data was recorded for the 4 trials.  The cuttings with waxed ends were not waxed by me.  Rather, they were collected from trades and purchases.  Since a fair amount of the various cuttings I was putting in the cloner had waxed ends I decided to record the data from trialling them.  By luck or not, almost all of the cuttings with waxed ends rooted and went on to see soil.  Like I said, it could be pure luck.

I do see some members that use parafilm.  Maybe we should start a discussion on the benefits of parafilm and/or wax use on cuttings in the cloner?  Might be worth exploring.

In the end, I'm happy with 75% success overall.  :)

Awesome data Danny! Keep up the good work.

I also scrap my cuttings with a knife before placing them in my cloner. And I use a cheap small water color paint brush to apply the clonex get on the cutting. I don't dip the cutting in the clonex bottle. To me, that extra gel can cause the cutting to cook and develop snot. I need to pot up my cuttings but not today. I just spent 6 hours prepping and potting up 6 large trees inside my garage. Maybe tomorrow, I will pot them up.

OK this is off topic, but I posted a link to the PH test kit on Amazon and it is showing up as a link to a different product on Walmart.  WTH is going on?  If I reload the page, it very briefly shows up as the amazon link end then changes.  It does it on two different computers at my house.  Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Edit:  Ah Figs, now it does not seem to be doing it.

Yes! It's time to start! 

Ok guys, I finally completed building my cloner. Testing it for a few days before the real fun begins. Initially had a few leaks, but the weather strip SCfigFanatic suggested did the trick, thanks for that. Also thanks for everyone in this link for thier suggestions, comments and guidance. Let the fun begin! Anyone have any updates.

Impressive Dave!

if you want a cheap pump, checkout Harbor Freight.  Mine is a Lexus but those at HF will do the job!

Thanks Dennis, I'll check them out. I'm also looking at some on Amazon. Thanks for starting this thread, Dennis. It really inspired me to do this.

Just potted my first Fig cutting I rooted this way, (Clone King 36) ....the cutting had massive Roots, the cutting was Dr. Gowaty, it beat the other 35 cuttings, with a mass of healthy white roots! So far, so good! : )

It is a great method, so long as it doesn't get too hot. :) For me it is either this method or Coco + Clonex.  No paper towels, no soil, none of that. Keep it simple and clean and it works well.

Finally got my cloner , thanks to Dennis and team. Now I have to sort out cuttings . How deep should I insert (2-3 cm)??. Thanks

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I read in this thread that if the water gets too hot it is usually fatel. I was wondering if there is a low temp that would give the same result. So far my cloner's water is at 67* and is not get any warmer. Is that temp too low?

Hello everyone, I have a question .My setup is on the first floor and with the grow lights for other plants and etc etc room is in like 22-26 degree celcious. So would it be ok to set the timer 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off. It got a humidity dome. Picutures posted above.
Cheers

On the home made cloners are you putting the weather strip on the lid or on the tote?

Jerry, I put my weather strip on the lid and it also solved the leak. So I think either way will work. Thanks for the response, Mario.

A warning about Clorox!!!

I have been using chlorine to sanitize my cloner during rooting and have been having really good luck.  Well the other day I noticed some slime starting to form.  I had not been very vigilant about keeping the correct chlorine levels and I added an aquarium heater to keep the cloner at a more constant temperature.  Anyway, I was out of my usual liquid pool chlorine, so I decide to use Clorox bleach since the active ingredient is the same, Sodium Hypochlorite, and I have read online (so it must be true) you can use bleach in place of the pool chlorine.  I added the bleach and tested it with my pool test kit to get 0.5 ppm chlorine levels.  Then I adjusted the PH to around 6.0 just like I normally do.

The next day I went out to check on my cuttings and the roots had all turned brown and most of the very small white roots were gone completely.  I went online and searched for what is in the Clorox and discovered the other ingredients include some harmless things for adjusting the alkalinity, some salt .. but among the list of ingredients is Lye.  Lye apparently breaks down grease and does all sorts of good things for cleaning, but I am guessing it is responsible for the bad response of my cuttings.  The next day I flushed out / cleaned the cloner and refilled with fresh water.  I ran to town and grabbed some HTH Shock and Swim pool shock.  It is mainly Calcium hypochlorite.  Again it has a host of other ingredients but I read online "I am such a sucker for the internet" that it is the same stuff in Clear Res and works wonders.

I made up a solution from a tea spoon of the stuff and a gallon of water.  Then I added a teaspoon or two of that solution to my cloner until again I had the chlorine back at 0.5 ppm.  PH adjustment yada yada.

It has been 4 days now and several of the cuttings have nice large white initials again.  It is still a little early to tell, but it seems like the pool shock is going to work great, where the Clorox was destroying the cuttings.  It could be coincidence, but my current thinking is that Clorox in the cloner = dead cuttings.

I have long "one batch of cuttings" been a proponent of chlorine for controlling nasties in the cloner.  I was always under the assumption that Clorox could be used interchangeably with pool chlorine.  I don't believe that to be true any longer.  I don't know for a fact that pool chlorine has no lye in it but it was working for me in the past, where one application of Clorox turned the roots brown.

I just wanted to give a heads up if anyone else is going the chlorine route.  My current action plan is to adjust the chlorine and PH every two to three days.

Dan

What are folks using to measure ppm for the HTH Shock and Swim pool shock?

I think you guys might be taking this cloner thing way too far.  (smile) I don't add any clorox and any other chemical to my cloner other that hydrogen peroxide and more water weeks later depending on the room temperature your cloner is in.  If your cutting is rottening or the bark is peeling off, it just means that's not a good cutting or your water is way too hot.  The fresher the cutting the better.  If the cutting has been sitting in the fridge for 8+ months then it might not root in any method you use.

Just keep it simple.  Follow the directions with your cloner (unless you build your own), add rapid start to give the cuttings a boost of energy and fire that baby up!  In not time you will have rooted plants.