Plant cloning as it suggests, is copying an original, in this case a selected mother plant that is unique in characteristics that also expresses a specific set of expressions that are ideal for the gardener to continually produce crops from.
Cloning is easy, just like riding a bike is, but we never just picked up a bike and started riding and popping wheelies, we used training wheels, think of this tutorial as your training wheels, the more you practice the better you get.
Let’s get started.
Here is some equipment you will need to acquire if you don’t have;
- Aeroponic System
- Cloning Gel or Rooting solution
- Pipette & Plate
- Scalpel
- Glass or container of water (1L)
- Mother Plant
Fill glass or chosen container half full with water. (Ideally 6.2 pH)
Locate the areas of the plant to remove cuttings from, usually the middle or lower parts of the plant are chosen.
Remove the cutting using a scalpel as scissors will crush the cell wall, and will generally delay the rooting by a week so always use a sterile scalpel.
Place each cutting removed, into the glass of water prepared.
Open the cloning solution and pour enough gel onto the plate.
Grab the glass of water with the cuttings in, get your scalpel and start to make a 45 degree cut close to where the original cut was made.
(The reason we make the 45 degree angle cut under water is to prevent an embolism)
One by one remove the cuttings from the water and dip them into a good amount of cloning gel.
One by one attach the collars and slide collar into mesh pots and sit into aeroponics unit.
Each aeroponics system comes complete with mesh pots and clone collars (which grip the stem)
Once you have completed all cuttings and have the aeroponics system full its time to add water to the main unit (usually 3-6L) if you have a rooting tonic handy I suggest using it, i.e. CYCO Ryzofuel at 1ml per L of water used
Once solution is made, turn on pump, put lid/dome with vent closed on. See temp and humidity setting below for the quickest outcome.
Quick recap:
- pH 6.2
- CYCO Ryzofuel 1ml Per L
- Water Temp range 19-21.5c
- RH (Humidity) 72-100%
That’s it, 5-8 days and you should have roots!
