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cloning cloning pepper plants

C

c3po

How do you cut the shoots off of your plants and how do you root them? Are the ones up higher in the plant better for cloning?
 
A.J.'s cheap bastard cloning station.  I never seem to use things as intended.

I use a scalpel to cut diagnoly in a down motion.  It takes a bit to learn to pull as you cut else you crush, but not all that hard.  You can buy scalpels for cheap at Tractor Supply or feed store.  Often the curved blades are packaged with the handle as a "Castration Kit".  The curved blades are sharp on the inside, makes slicing much easier if you havent done it before. Replace blades often.

I always go for a length that has at lease two nodes,slicing off each node to make more rooting points.  Imediately after cutting, the cuts go into room temperature water I put out a day before.  I -think- this eliminates chlorine from the water.  I do NOT use pond or other natural water.  Bad results there.  Think bacteria.

Now this part sounds complicated but it is really easy.  I have mortar trays from Lowes, they cost maybe five bucks.  Into them I put a fish tank bubler, maybe 10 bucks from Walmart.  Submersible fish tank heater maybe another 10 bucks.  Solo cups with holes in the bottom and sterile potting soil go into the mortar trays, enough water into the tray so that the cups are submurged enough that the plant stems are under that level.  It is usually 2 gallons after it soaks up into the medium.  This has to sit for a day to soak up and I think to get rid of the chlorine.

I leave them in darkness for first 12 hours, then a single shop light.  Too much light goofs things up.  Oh and mist a couple times a day.

Poke hole into medium to make slot for stem.  Stem comes out of the water, dip or roll in cloning / rooting solution.  Drop into hole and push medium sideways to close hole.  Do not shove stem in cause it pushes off the rooting compound.  I used to be all fancy and use things like clone x, now I just use Miracle Grow or what ever they sell at Lowes at the time.  Have tried it without rooting compound, peppers not so good, other plants no problem.

In two weeks, I drain the water or move them to another place.  Used to be all anal about checking for roots.  Now I just let it ride.  If they did not take, they die.  If they did take, they live.  No reason to bother the roots.

I am 100% sure their are better ways.  Even more sure those cloning machines will work better.  I came up with this in my dirt poor days when just starting out.  Not saying you should break the law, but the tech in the book Pot for Pennies is a great way to get any plants going on the cheap.
 
Sorry, missed one of your questions.  In the past, I used lateral branches for clones.  Now I grow so many frigging plants that I have gone to a sea of green set up (google if if you dont know it) for starts.  To keep things equal distant to the lights and fight back that stretch tendency under lights, I top plants as they get too tall.  Most of my clones come from those tops.  Great way to save money on seeds.

I have much better luck with the tops than lateral branches.  Thing is, I think that is cause when I was doing lateral branches they were outside plants, bigger, things I wanted to preserve the dna over the winter.  Still do it for speical plants, but I do not get good results.  If you do it, looking for cloning / rooting compound intended for more woody plants.  It seems to improve the odds.  Same stuff I use on blackberry and grape but can not remember its brand name.  I remember the term rooting not the term cloning.
 
I take a cutting, put on rooting compound and into a transparent small cup. I then place 2 cuttings in their cups into a transparent lunchbox and into a shaded area. It takes 2 weeks to root
 
Hey AJ - Do you see any decrease in yield if you make a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone, etc... I would love to keep a few plants going forever via cloning, but wonder if there's only so many times I can do this before I see less yields.
 
This year my cloned plants are producing more pods than the ones I grew from seed. Any ideas  here?
 
 
 
AJ Drew said:
I am 100% sure their are better ways.  Even more sure those cloning machines will work better.  I came up with this in my dirt poor days when just starting out.  Not saying you should break the law, but the tech in the book Pot for Pennies is a great way to get any plants going on the cheap.
Click to expand...
 
Have read that you loose vigor after six or seven.  Solution, keep a mama plant.  I mainly clone as a way to keep the cost of seeds down.  When people are demanding ten for ten and half germinate, a grower has to get creative.  Thing is, even if I were doing clone of clone of clone I don't think I would see that fade starting from seed every year.  I thought I saw it for a while, but cant imagine I had that many generations going so figure it was something else.

The cannabis growers have it down to a science.  There are two videos: Sea of Green I and Sea of Green II.  The focus is to move crops from rooted threw flowering in two or three months, so that aspect is kind of useless.  Peppers don't respond to the light cycle the same way.  But the information on sea of green with mama plants and the no mama method is really good.  Watching those videos and looking at the commercial cloning machines is how I came up with my hilly billy method. 

I really think those growers are miles ahead of anything we chili heads are doing.
 
Many years ago i used the rooting hormone, but these days just a clean water bottle and change out the water every 2-3 days.
Use newer growth, no woody stems.
Cut at 45 degree angle.
You can choose to mist the foilage or put cuttings in a humidity dome, but if not, keep the foilage at a minimum.
 
Lovepeppers said:
Many years ago i used the rooting hormone, but these days just a clean water bottle and change out the water every 2-3 days.
Use newer growth, no woody stems.
Cut at 45 degree angle.
You can choose to mist the foilage or put cuttings in a humidity dome, but if not, keep the foilage at a minimum.
Click to expand...
 
I find it easier to cut the 45 degree angle after making the initial cut from the plant - that way you can place the cutting onto a counter or cutting board and cut the 45 degree angle on the board rather than trying to cut while the branch is on the plant and moving easily. ( also be sure to sterilize the cutting blade between plants to avoid the possibility of spreading disease.)
 
JDFan said:
 
I find it easier to cut the 45 degree angle after making the initial cut from the plant
Click to expand...
Ye, it also makes gathering them easier.  I'll bring a cup of water to where I am working, clip clip, soak soak, makes it more of an assembly line sort of thing.  How big is your grow that you think of these things?
 
Years ago I was into taking cuttings on common lawn shrubs, hibiscus, etc., and had a setup with a misting system, using perlite and a root hormone component (Rootone-tm).  On some things, I found that just the frequent misting/watering and heat, plants rooted fine by themselves.  Even with timers, and being in a semi-tropical environment, over the colder months (maybe 1 or 2 max!), things rooted fine, and my yard is literally populated with shrubs I took successfully (not nefariously) from other source plants.  Now if I could get a pepper to do that, would be great.  We are approaching the middle of hurricane season here in north-central Florida, and it is a wet year and rains every day.  My recollection from my former hobby (obsession), was that the hot, wet weather is advantageous to rooting cuttings.  So to apply that to another "hobby"...hmmmmm.  Any input from those in the southern US climates?
 
Thx.
J
 
As long as it is new growth it usually takes off just fine, be warned it took like a month for some of my clones to show roots through the cup. If they don't die within a week I'd say you are good. I have several types of rooting hormone, there exist three grades here, one is for leafy plants, one is for woody and one is for something inbetween, I assume the only difference is the concentration of the rooting hormone, I have all three though. 
 
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