GH’s Rapid Rooter medium plugs are “a unique matrix of composted organic materials bonded together with plant-derived polymers.” They’re infused with GH’s magic micro nutrient recipe. The plugs come in trays of 50 or 98 plugs or a bag of 50 plugs.
As a cloning medium…
Cloning allows us to take the advanced age of a mother plant (ideally, just prior to flowering) and generate several, ready-to-go copies. You can then take those copies, vegetate them for a much shorter period of time, and push them right into flowering. Meanwhile, you’re growing more clone-able branches on your mother plant for another round of cuttings.
Sounds simple, no?
Well, it’s not. We all have our preferred methods for cloning. I’ve tried cloning in plastic cups with plain ol’ high-PPM, high-PH tap water. I’ve tried cloning in soil, in coco plugs, and even medium-less with an 8-cell Daisy Cloner. None of these cloning attempts came even close to the success of the Rapid Rooters in a seedling tray.
My new recipe? Dip my cuttings in Clonex, shove into Rapid Rooters, insert into seedling tray with a heating mat beneath and a humidity dome on top. Fin.
I’ve gone from a 50% rooting success rate of my cuttings to a 90% rooting success rate. Not only that, I’ve hastened the time for rooting. Previously, my cuttings in straight coco-fiber would take three weeks or longer to root—if at all. With the Rapid Rooters, I had root sprouts from 50% of my cuttings in 5 days. In 2 weeks, 90% of my cuttings had advanced, ready-to-plant root systems.
As a seed medium…
Rapid Rooters provide a great seed medium. Insert a seed or three into the pre-cut seed hole, insert into seedling tray, and wait. The RR’s nutrients will not burn your seeds and will accelerate their fledgling root systems beautifully.
As an added bonus, AeroGardeners can use Rapid Rooter plugs. You simply cut down the size of the RR plug, insert it into the AeroGarden plastic seed pod, and insert your seeds. Not only are they much cheaper than AeroGarden’s replacement grow sponges, but Rapid Rooters will rapidly root (pun intended) your seeds.
A good root system is the basis of a healthy plant. With GH’s Rapid Rooters, I saw not only success, but FAST success. My seed starts and cuttings have never been happier or more successful than in RR plugs.
Thank you General Hydroponics!
Has Curtis convinced you? Have you had your own love affair with a particular propagation method? Share!
i’m actually glad you let us know what brand you were using…
i recently switched from my long-time favorite ‘Olivia’s cloning gel’ (http://www.oliviassolutions.com/) to clonex. i was in a bind and couldn’t find a (cost effective) jar of Olivia’s, so i went with a sample packet of Clonex. while the consistency is the same, the formula seems much stronger on softwood cuttings. within 2 days of dipping in Clonex, the coated stems were dried up and dead. i got about 50% from 30 cuttings that were taken.
prior to Olivia’s, i used good ol’ rootone and had acceptable results… about 75%. when i switched to Olivia’s, i had nearly 100%. i took 85 cuttings and wound up with 83 healthy plants.
what have you had success with while using Clonex?
and on the RapidRooters… i have had the chance to use them on a batch about 4 months ago. i had 15 in my defacto grodan 1×1 A-OKs and another 11 in the RR’s. i used Clonex with both and got similar results with both. what i did notice was that the roots on the RRs didn’t penetrate thru the sides of the plugs, whereas the rockwool cuttings had roots coming out all directions… all said, plants lived regardless of their media. to me it just comes down to price… while others might find the addition of a food a plus.
you notice anything like that?
JJ
no plants were harmed in the making of this post.
Hi JJ,
In the seedling tray, I have RR roots coming out of the sides of the plugs and straight through the bottom.
With regards to Olivia’s gel….I’m glad that you had positive results from that. I have had no rooting, at all, with Olivia’s gel. According to my grow shop, Olivia’s, as an organic solution, contains no rooting hormones. It’s simply a ‘fostering’ solution. I can’t find my old bottle around (I probably chucked it) to verify.
I have had good results with Clonex, but I have not measured it. When I was cloning with the RR’s, I dipped in Clonex.
Another good solution is Dip ‘n’ Grow. I understand that it is the solution of choice for commercial growers.
i used olivias and had poor results. i switched to roottech gel and had instant improvement: i’m at 75% now, was 30-50% with olivias. i hope it will get even better with a heat mat. my friend uses dip n grow and swears by it, i think i will try it soon.
I have found that dip n grow works best for me.
The alcohol base ensures penetration into the tissues, while sterilizing the dipped end- helping to minimize fungal infections/loss. It says to dilute, 10:1, but it works fine full strength…and the higher alcohol content guarantees sterility.
Gels tend to contaminate easily: once you have dipped one contaminated cutting into your gel, every cutting dipped after that one has a higher chance of being contaminated.
Could this thread give links to sources and perhaps your websites where you have pics of process? I too am having propagation stagnation, have used rooting hormone. My lavender cuttings are doing fine with grow lights and fertilization, but I don’t see any rooting happening. I’d like to start the transplantation already but 3 mos. after, they seem to be in a holding pattern. Not dead, green coming along, but unless the roots form, they’ll never be ready at this rate to go into their own environment w/o shock.
i was turned on to a free sample of rr’s at my local garden center a little over a year ago and using them along with clonex gel has been nothing but a success i’m getting 90%+ w/roots exploding out of everywhere in anywhere between 5to 7 days and in the past with rockwool and rootone it would take 7-14 days with a much lower success rate
I have used Clonex and Olivia’s both with great success on rock wool or RR plugs. I was averaging 90% for a long time. The issue I find more often than not is air embolism or a poor cutting to start with. Water saturation is a problem with rock wool. RR’s seems to drain better. Add a little Jump Start to your solution and you will be on your way with proper cutting techniques!