So every year or two, my strike rate on clones goes down. I use strong bleach in between rounds and UC roots while clones are in the aerocloners. I use new collars. They are dipped in Dip n Gro and Clonex solution is used. The mothers are clean when tested for hlvd. We clean our scissors and utility blades with alcohol to minimize cross-contamination.
EDIT: Also, we don’t run CO2 in the clone rooms, which would dissolve in the cloning solution.
I keep my cloner under 76 degrees. Could pythium/fusarium take a hold in the reservoir over time? Buying a new unit fixes my problems.
Do you have any idea what other vectors this might be caused by? Do you have any tips to keep healthy clones cranking out?
I think you should give some good old trays and domes a try with eazy plugs, way less cross contamination vs aero cloner. Also sanitize your tools with bleach, alcohol does not kill hlvd.
I would definitely test for fusarium. It’s a wicked bitch and hard to notice other than things just getting progressively worse and worse over time.
Once it’s in your grow it is really really difficult to go away.
I’ve seen a license operation plagued by fusarium literally clean all their equipment and move 100 miles away and the very first crop all tested positive for fusarium and it followed them just on their lights and other equipment even though they bleached it all.
All right - I don’t do the kind of cloning you are doing, cause I clone in soil or rockwool. However, I have spent years of my life creating sterile environments and I know that you have to change up your kill step because you get like 95% kill and that means 5% lived because it wasn’t going to be killed by your chemical.
So I would do bleach then do a quaternary ammonia every other time. That will help eliminate microorganisms that might be hanging around because they were not killed during your kill step.
I cannot emphasis enough that you also need SOAP and WATER with mechanical action first, if there’s any debris or nooks/crannies that are not fully clean, then microorganisms won’t care about your bleach/ammonia because it won’t reach them under the dirt. Such is life.
A smidgeon of systemic anti-microbial might help…but I’ve never tried. So I would first focus on switching up cleaning style. Also - what @Dukejohnson says is true - contamination can come from everywhere, so clean the room you are in the day before you want to open the cloner. That way you have as clean of a space as you can and you don’t have particulate in the air that can settle on your surfaces. Usually takes about 12 hours for particulate to settle. -shrug-
I had the same problem with aero cloners, and replacement of the internal pump was always the fix. If you disassemble that pump you will find nasties growing inside. Standard cleaning did not get to these areas.
Ultimately, went to wool plugs and would not ever consider aero again.
Get a rebuild for the pump. Over time the impeller wares out. Throw away the bacteria sponge. (I never use them.
Make sure the sprayers are free of build up so the spray patern is not disrupted.
Went thru the same thing, no mater what kind of “cleaner” you run thru the system over time buildup in the pump will cause this without actually disassembling the pump and physically cleaning all part that come in contact with your solution. I swap pumps every 6 cycles now and haven’t had a problem since……
guess I should have read thru the whole thread before basically re-posting what you just said LOL…… also kinda nice to have my theory confirmed by another’s experience
I switched methods to using mammoth cloning cubes, I have 95%+ success and I throw the stuff away and buy another one the next round.
Easiest way to avoid contamination is not reusing the cloning stuff. Between collars and cloning solution it adds up, including cleaning time.
Use a new scalpel.
pre soak with 3 ec flower nutes (athena) then take clones, using the little hormex bottle (which i buy new every other time) then dome vents 1/4 open, open them slowly over 7 days by day 10 you can take it off.
I have several people using this method with mimicking success.
I’ve noticed the same thing everyone has said in this thread
Would it be possible to manufacture a stainless steel cloner that could go in the oven for an hour or 2 after every use at a high temp the shell definitely doable as well as the manifold and sprayers but the pump probably not
An autoclavable cloner?
They have those pucks that can be microwaved I think permaclone is the brand, or the infinity clone collars by ez clone would probably eliminate one issue…
I have seen people rebuild the sprayer Manifold using pvc, and not gluing it together so they can open it and run a brush through.
The pump can be cleaned I think the Manifold is where the nasties hide.
the cloner can be cleaned using germicidal bleach, but its so much easier to get the cloning trays from mammoth and not need to clean, scrub, bleach, rinse etc…
I’ve had bad luck with other brands, as they retain too much moisture
Perhaps your slime isn’t originated in the cloner but transmissed, I never had an issue cleaning once I started using more bleach during cleaning, cloner like 6 years old… I bought a new one then found out it was the damn collars the whole time, those filthy things need replaced every round for high success rates.
Plumb that bitch with helium or whatever inert gas bugs can’t breathe and a lel monitor for said gas and 1500 Ppm co2 and you also have a pesticide free ipm solution for every bug that breathes.
