“Cloning was easy all year… and now everything slowed down. What happened?”

It’s almost always the same culprit—what I call the Fall Stall.

This phenomenon appears when temperatures start dropping and your mother-space is still tuned for the heat of summer. The plants may look fine… but biochemically, they stop producing the fast, flexible, nutrient-balanced growth required for predictable cloning. And that mismatch leads to slower rooting, inconsistent results, and a whole lot of head scratching.

Let’s break down how to identify the Fall Stall—and how to fix it before it wrecks a full cloning cycle.

How to Spot the “Fall Stall”

There are several plant signals that your mothers are no longer in a cloning-friendly biochemical state. You may notice:

• Slower, more rigid (“woody”) growth

• Purple striping on stems

• Purple/red petioles

• Darker-than-normal green leaves

• Leaves that remain narrow, curled, or fail to lay flat

• Reduced leaf count on new growth

• Root zone temps dipping below 65°F (18°C)

• Ambient room temps falling below 72°F (22°C)

All of these are indicators that your metabolism has shifted out of “rapid vegetative production mode” and into “cold weather survival mode.” Under those conditions, cloning becomes unpredictable.

Restoring Optimal Root Zone Temperatures

Fixing the Fall Stall starts at the root zone.

Roots hate the cold—and cold roots sabotage hormone transport, sugar transport, and callus formation.

Here’s how to bring temperatures back where they need to be:

1. Insulate the roots from the floor

• Flip plant saucers upside down

• Use R-max or similar rigid insulation

• Add anything that acts as a thermal barrier between pots and cold concrete

Cold floors are one of the biggest stealth causes of fall-related issues.

2. Raise ambient temperatures

Aim for:

• Upper 70s to mid-80s °F (25–29°C) in mother spaces

• Even a few degrees makes a huge difference

3. Use devices that heat while helping your environment

Instead of wasting money on space heaters, use tools that recycle energy:

• Dehumidifiers — remove moisture and add warm, filtered air

• HPS lighting — higher IR output, excellent for cool-season veg

• CO₂ burners — but be mindful of ethylene production and moisture

Space heaters work—but they’re electricity hogs and don’t solve VPD issues.

Managing Cloners During Fall & Winter

Cloners are especially sensitive to fall temperature swings. To keep aeroponic and DWC systems predictable:

1. Maintain water temps around 77°F (25°C)

Use:

• Water heaters (aquarium-style)

• Pump heat (with cycle timing adjusted to maintain your target temp)

2. Keep ambient temps in the 80s

Warmer air keeps cutting tissues metabolically “awake,” leading to:

• Faster initiation

• Faster callus formation

• Predictable rooting windows

Just be mindful: Warm air = higher humidity.

3. Control humidity

Use dehumidifiers to maintain proper VPD while also adding gentle heat back into the room.

Wrap-Up

The Fall Stall is predictable—and preventable. If your cloning success suddenly dips each autumn, it’s almost always temperature-related biochemistry in your mother plants and cloner environment.

Dial in the root zone, stabilize the ambient conditions, and your clones will snap right back into their normal 7–10 day rooting rhythm.

For questions or assistance troubleshooting a cloning setup, contact PermaClone for guidance based on real-world use across aeroponic, deep-water culture, and hydroponic systems.

I'm Michael, the founder of PermaClone. My goal with this course is to provide reliable techniques for producing healthy cannabis clones.

Today, we'll focus on mother plants. Mother plant management is the foundation of pest-free clones that root in 7-10 days. Meanwhile, mother plant treatment is very different from vegetative and bloom programs. For example, the ideal nutrients and supplements for veg and bloom are NOT ideal for cloning. Also, your foliar and pest management program is different for mother plants intended for hydroponic and aeroponic cloning systems. So let's correct the course with guidelines for keeping healthy moms that will produce fast-rooting cuttings.

(A smarter, easier way to confirm your system is truly clean)

If you’re serious about hydroponic or aeroponic cloning, sterility is everything. Temps matter. Nutrients matter. Lighting matters. But none of that fixes a cloner seeded with biofilm or microbes.

That’s why one of the most powerful diagnostic tools you can use—professionally or at home—is the 24-hour oxidizer baseline test. It’s simple, repeatable, and reveals contamination you can’t see.

And because PermaClone™ collars are truly heat-sterilizable (microwave, oven, autoclave, pressure cooker), this test becomes the final confirmation that the rest of your system is performing at the same standard.

What Is an Oxidizer Baseline?

It’s a small, plant-safe dose of an oxidizer (typically bleach) that stays active for 24 hours.
If that free chlorine falls to zero overnight, something organic in your cloner is still consuming it.

Persisting contamination = collapsing free chlorine.

Sterility = stable free chlorine (1–3 ppm) after 24 hours.

This test exposes:

• hidden biofilm in pump housings

• contaminated airstones or airlines

• collars that aren’t sterilized

• contaminated tools

• bad handling habits

• microbial loads in the water supply

If anything is off, the test will tell you.

Tools You Need

• Unscented bleach (sodium hypochlorite)

• Pool test strips that measure free and total chlorine

• A cloner cleaned and sterilized according to the manual

• Heat-sterilized PermaClone™ collars

Note: bleach works best for baseline testing because pool strips measure it accurately.

How to Establish Your Oxidizer Baseline

(Updated to follow your improved instructions)

1. Start with a fully sterilized system

Sterilize your cloner and your PermaClone collars using the official methods.
Then circulate 3–5 mL/gal bleach overnight to wipe out as much organic material as possible.

This is your “clean slate.”

2. Add a low chlorine dose & record the values

Without dumping, refill the system with your normal cloning water.
Add 0.2–0.3 mL/gal bleach (4–6 drops/gal).
Record the free chlorine reading.

3. Test again in 24 hours

If free chlorine is still 1–3 ppm → PASS.
Your system is sterile.

If free chlorine dropped to zero → FAIL.
Something is still consuming oxidizer.

4. Spike again (do NOT dump)

Add another 0.2–0.3 mL/gal bleach.
Record the values.
Test again tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next day.

Repeat until your system can finally hold chlorine for 24 hours.

This may take:

• just 1 day if contamination was mild

• 2–5 days if the system was heavily colonized

• longer if the user’s workflow is consistently re-introducing contamination

Warn them up front:
A bad system may take several days of low-dose spiking to “burn out” biofilm.

This is normal.

5. Optional: test the water source separately

Only after you PASS the system baseline.

Dump → refill → add same low dose → check it the next day.

If the water alone collapses free chlorine, your water source needs treatment before cloning.

When You Finally Hold Free Chlorine

Reaching a stable 1–3 ppm free chlorine for 24 hours means:

• your cloner is genuinely sterile

• your pump housing is no longer re-seeding microbes

• your workflow is clean

• your tools aren’t contaminating the cloner

• your PermaClone™ collars are properly sterilized

• the system is ready for predictable, high-success cloning cycles

Once you hit that baseline, the entire cloning process becomes dramatically easier.

Final Thoughts

The oxidizer baseline test isn’t flashy. It’s not complicated.
But it is the most reliable way to verify sterility in any hydroponic cloning setup.

Your reward?

Faster rooting. No random failures. No slimy outbreaks. Just clean, uniform, commercial-grade propagation—cycle after cycle.

Pair this method with true heat-sterilizable PermaClone™ plant collars, and your system operates at the same standard as tissue culture labs and commercial nurseries.

If you’d like help interpreting your chlorine strips or fine-tuning your sterilization workflow, reach out anytime.

If you have any questions or want help troubleshooting your setup, feel free to reach out through the contact form—I'm always happy to help.

Warm regards,
Michael Goldsmith
PermaClone.com

PS: Everything I share comes from years of hands-on experience and thousands of successful customers. If this article helped you, spread the word—PermaClone collars are the most reliable, long-lasting cloning pucks on the market for aeroponic, DWC, and hydroponic systems. #PermaClone #getsterilegetcloning

At PermaClone we have developed cloning techniques for consistent, perpetual success with your cloning systems.

The PermaClone Method

1. Fill your cloner with tap water, add 3-5 mL/gal (0.5 - 1 tsp/gal) bleach with PermaClone collars in place and let circulate 8 - 12 hours or overnight. This lower dose of oxidizer, but longer exposure time is more effective than 20 min of high dose sterilizer.
   
   
2. Next, rinse your PermaClone™ collars in tap water. Our collars’ open shape allows exposure of all surfaces with a quick dunk-based rinse in 5 gallon buckets or larger. We offer Dunk-Base™ bags to make this more convenient & efficient. 
   
   
3. Last, choose ONE of the following sterilization techniques:
   
   Microwave: Add 6 – 180 PermaClone collars in a loosely closed microwave-safe container or turkey bag, pour in ½ - 1 cup of water, and microwave at 1000 watts for 15 min. Whatever container is used must be closed enough to circulate steam, but loose enough to allow excess steam to escape. Ensure the bag or container DOES NOT touch the top or sides of the microwave. ALSO, turkey ties may not be microwavable! ...while tying off the bag is not recommended to allow steam to escape. 
   
   Dry heat sterilization: 300 °F (150 °C) for 1 - 2 hours. DO NOT go over 300 °F (150 °C). The collars can handle higher temps, but the food-grade dyes cannot and will slightly darken. The Collar must NOT BE EXPOSED TO DIRECT HEAT  within an oven-safe container 4 - 6 inches (10 - 15 cm) away from the heating element.
   
   Chemical Sterilization: PermaClone chemical resistance and open shape allow ALL surfaces to be exposed during dunk-based chemical sterilization. Many large-scale producers prefer this function because it is easy to scale. We recommend complete submersion in water containing 0.10mL/gal (2 drop/gal) concentrated dish soap and 5 mL/gal bleach. Soak for 8 – 12 hours, or overnight, dunk rinse and store in a turkey bag for future use.
   
   Pressure cook: Ideally done in a loosely closed Chicken or Turkey bag at 15 psi for 30 minutes, following your pressure cooker’s guidelines. Start your 30-minute timer when the pressure cooker reaches full pressure. DO NOT rapidly cool or depressurize the system; this may cause the collars to shrink. 
   
   Autoclave: Dry Mode, 15 psi, 121°C, 30 min following your system’s manual
   
   
4. While your collars are sterilizing, fill your sterilized cloner with water below 200 ppm. It’s important you DO NOT add nutrients or additives to this water until Step 7. Choose one of the oxidizers listed in the table below and treat your water at the exact concentration listed. These oxidizers and dosages are safe for unrooted cuttings and for general water treatment. 
   

   TABLE 1: Cutting Safe Oxidizers & Dosages (Choose 1)
   8.25% Sodium Hypochorite (Bleach)	0.1 mL/gal (2 drops/gal)
   Hypochlorous Acid (e.g. UC Roots™)	5 mL/gal
   29-30% Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)	1.5 mL/gal
   Peroxyacetic acid (Zerotol® 2.0)	1.9 mL/gal

5. Next, Install the collars with gloved hands, remember to circulate the treated water while you add your cuttings.
   
   
6. Once the cloner is filled with your cuttings, boost your oxidizer of choice at the rate outlined in Table 1 and circulate for a few minutes before continuing to step 7. You're performing a second water treatment after all the interaction with the system. 
   
   
7. Pick one Hormone Product from Table 2, and one Mineral Nutrient from Table 3 based on what you have access to. **Dipping cuttings in gels or powders is inefficient. Water-soluble hormones produce the best results with less work!**

TIPS & CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CLONING:

Water Source: Clone with water under 200 ppm (500 scale; or 0.4 mS) TDS. Well water can contain pathogens and excess mineral content. If you use well water, water treatment (discussed below) is required, and if the mineral content is too high, it is crucial that you add a reverse osmosis system based on your water needs. 

Water Treatment: Upon filling your system (but absolutely before ANY additives, nutrients, or clones) add 0.10 – 0.20 mL/gal of 8.25% Bleach® (that equivalent to 2 - 4 drops/gal). This yields 2 - 4 ppm free chlorine, doses used in water treatment or swimming pools. It is very important that oxidizers are added BEFORE pH adjustment or additives because oxidizers react and become ineffective when exposed to additives. The goal is to focus their low doses on surface sterilizing your system and cuts. If you're weary of this, keep in mind most municipal water suppliers treat potable water at 4 ppm free chlorine. 2 – 4 ppm hypochlorite is safe for non-rooted cuttings. NOTE:  Once callous or root tissue forms, use 0.5 – 2 ppm free chlorine (0.5 - 2 drops per gallon 8.25% Bleach®.

Hypochlorous Acid Products: Products like UC Roots™, Clear Rez™, or Watermax™ are effective at 10x – 100x lower chlorine concentrations than hypochlorite salts such as Pool Shock (calcium Hypochlorite) or Bleach® (Sodium Hypochlorite). Hypochlorite cannot be dosed the same as Hypochlorous acid products. Hypochlorite products (such as Bleach® or Pool Shock) require 0.5 – 2 ppm free chlorine in hydroponic water culture, while Hypochlorous acid is effective at 0.05 – 0.5 ppm. Pool test strips are a convenient way to verify free chlorine when using Hypochlorite salts. The most important rule for all oxidizers is that they should be added BEFORE nutrients or additives to focus their oxidation on the system and cut before reacting with mineral nutrients or additives.

Cloner Nutrients: Adding low-strength bloom nutrients (200 – 600 ppm or 0.4 – 1.2 mS) improves rooting in speed and volume. We recommend nutrients intended for water culture. Avoid products that will inoculate or feed bacteria/fungi, such as amino acids/protein hydrolysate, sugars/carbohydrates, or “teas”. Do not add beneficial bacteria/fungi. There may be “safe” strains of beneficials, but we haven’t found anything offering long-term effectiveness.

Hormone products: Auxins improve rooting time and volume, but gels and powders wash off and are time-consuming to apply. Water-soluble hormones such as Hormex Liquid Concentrate, Rhizopon AA Salts, and KLN Cloning Solution each ensure adequate exposure times and eliminate the workload of dips.

Water Temperature. In cloning, warmer temperatures speed cell divisions with diminishing returns at 87 °F (30 °C). However, this also speeds growth of bacteria and fungi. For aeroponics we recommend 75 - 85 °F (24 - 29 °C). Deep Water Culture (DWC) systems use lower temperatures to improve oxygenation. The convention is currently 65 - 68 °F (18 - 20 °C), but for DWC cloners, we recommend 75 – 77 °F (24 - 25 °C). Use an IR Thermometer to quickly measure the temperature from outside your cloners. This is fast and prevents contamination. External IR readings will be 0 – 2 degrees below the actual internal temperature, and this offset depends on the ambient room temperature. If your ambient temperature is 75 °F and your cloner is at 85 °F, IR readings may be 83 °F. Alternatively, at ambient temperature 75 °F with your cloner at 77 °F, your IR readings will be relatively precise.

Pump Cycle Times: Cycle timing of water pumps is primarily used for temperature because pumps put off heat. Through extensive testing we have found faster rooting at warmer temperatures with diminishing return above 87 ° F (31 °C). We suggest 75 – 85 °F (24 – 30 °C). Changing how long your pump is on vs off will help manage your temps. 45 min on/15 min off = 25% reduction in pump on time. 30 on/30 off would be 50% less pump time. Find the ratio that work for your cloner.

More Nodes & Shoot Apices: Every shoot apex produces hormones that signal rooting (auxins). The more nodes left untrimmed from the cutting, the more natural (endogenous) auxins will be produced and sent to the basal (bottom) end of the cuttings. The goal is 3 – 6 nodes left uncut. Another effective trick is to remove the top two leaves attached to the top apex of the cuttings with the remaining leaves intact on each of the lower nodes.

Avoid removing leaves: Cutting fan leaves has traditionally been intended to decrease transpiration, but that’s not a concern in water culture. Only trim leaves to avoid shading neighboring clones. 

Light & Spectrum: The general suggestion is minimal lighting. People often place a couple T5 fluorescent 1 – 2 feet above the cloner canopy. Once roots form, ramp up lighting to 4 bulb T5 fluorescent fixtures at 4” (10 cm) from the cloner canopy. Recently we found a 4000K LED shop light more effective than our 6000K T5. This may be explained by research showing that more red light (650-700 nm) is needed for cutting propagation, as seen in the 4000K spectrum.

Callus Tissue: Non-specific plant tissue that may become different tissue types based on environmental factors or plant growth regulators. If you achieve extensive callusing, but root initiation lags, change the water, add your oxidizer according to Table 1 (let circulate for 1 min), then add your mineral nutrient alone according to Table 2. AND DO NOT add hormone products. Prolific roots should initiate within 24 - 48 hours. AND at the next cycle lower your hormone dosage.

Mother Plants: Maintain mother plants on a constant low strength nutrient (TDS: 300 – 400; EC: 0.6 – 0.8 mS of base nutrients) while maintaining normal doses of Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg). Potassium Silicate (or Silicic acid), amino acid/protein hydrolysates, kelp-based products or etiolated seedling extract products are great additives. Aim for a total TDS of 500 – 600 ppm (EC 1.0 – 1.2 mS) with additives. The goal is to minimizes nitrogen to levels that focus the plant on root generation and carbohydrate (sugar) storage in the stem. Foliar applications of kelp-based products 4 – 12 hours before taking cutting boost natural auxins, improving rooting speed and volume. Foliar auxins travel downwards for shoot apices, towards the root system at rates of cm/hr. This 4 – 12 hour timing ensures they are at their highest levels upon taking cuttings.

Water softeners swap random minerals for sodium ions. This is because sodium salts are highly water soluble and will not leave deposit on home appliances. Calcium and magnesium salts will leave deposits. Meanwhile, sodium (Na) is not needed in hydroponics and will antagonize essential plant nutrients such as potassium (K). If you use a softener, take note of the TDS/EC of Sodium.  Reverse osmosis (RO) filtration is the most cost-effective way to decrease mineral levels. If mineral content is high, your RO system (within a few uses) will only be able to reduce mineral content by 90%, leaving 10% residual minerals. For example, if your water source is at 500 ppm, you may end up with 50 ppm residual mineral content. And if a water softener is employed, that is 50 ppm of sodium ions. In this situation, we recommend switching to potassium salts so this "flow-through" will be potassium (K) instead of sodium (Na). Potassium softeners are often sold where Sodium salts are found.

Regenerating a Failing Cloner

For starters, the following two changes will make sterilization between cloning cycles simple:

1. 1. Eliminate air stones and air-lines: they’re not needed for aeroponic cloning and are challenging to sterilize; while aeroponic nutrients fly through air spaces containing 20% oxygen.
      
      
   2. Remove the back plate of your cloners’ pumps, found where the power cord enters the pump. It may require a flathead screwdriver to pop it off. Once removed, you will discover an orifice where enough liquid enters for pathogens to fester, but minimally accessible to sterilizers; remove permanently!

Next, since your cloner has a biofilm or pathogen problem, you need to break down and thoroughly clean your system. With your parts disassembled, mix up a solution of 5 mL/gal 8.25% Bleach® (or 10 mL/gal 5.25% Bleach® solution) with 0.1 mL/gal (2 drops/gal) concentrated dish soap. Wearing latex or nitrile gloves, gently scrub and expose each part of your systems to bleach, knocking away biofilms. Consider all parts that may harbor pathogens: reservoir caps, bulk heads, grommets, rubber gaskets and seals.

This should include disassembling and cleaning your water pump and pump housing. You may find replacing the pump more convenient, just remember to remove the back plate on the new one!

Once reassembled, fill with PIPING HOT tap water and circulate until cool enough to add 5 mL/gal Bleach and 2 drops/gal soap. Circulate for 24 hours, dump, and do not rinse the system. This should be the last time this much work is spent sterilizing the system if you follow the PermaClone methods.

Also, check out my following articles to expand your knowledge base:

Hydoponics Water Quality and Water Treatment--A MUST READ!

The 3 Reasons Cloners Fail

Advanced Aeroponic Cloning -- THE SECRETS!

Contact US

Please reach out anytime for technical support on all aspects of growing through our contact form. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

PermaClone™ 5-Year Warranty

PermaClone™ (a trademark of PhenoSelex, Inc.) is backed by a five-year warranty covering all non-aesthetic functional performance when the product is used according to official PermaClone instructions and publications.

This warranty does not cover damage caused by misuse, abuse, modification, or failure to follow the documented cleaning and handling guidelines.

If a warranty claim is needed, PhenoSelex, Inc. will—at our discretion—replace any qualifying PermaClone collars after completing the following steps:

1. Initiate a support request through our contact form.

2. Provide either:

   • A digital copy of your original receipt, or

   • The email receipt you received at purchase.

For purchases made through authorized third-party retailers, the warranty must be processed directly through that retailer. The official purchase date is determined by the original sales receipt. In certain cases, PhenoSelex, Inc. may accept the purchase date as verified by a reputable third-party seller in good standing with our company.

Updated: November 29, 2025 -- for better clarity, fixed links, and updated content. 

The last post was all about mother plants. If you followed those recommendations, your mother plant’s biochemistry is now tuned to produce fast-growing, pest-free growth tips—perfect for cuttings that root in 7–10 days.

Today, we shift to the next pillar of consistent success: keeping your cloning system truly sterile. There are common mistakes—and a few hidden failure points—that most growers never even think to check. This article covers the exact techniques that eliminate them for good.

Pump Housing: The Hidden Contamination Trap

Most submersible pumps share a design flaw:
a back plate that hides a small, unvented orifice, often where the power cord enters the pump.

In many cloning brands, this back plate prevents sterilizers from ever reaching that cavity. Contaminated solution slowly circulates in and out of the space, re-introducing pathogens every cycle—even when the rest of the system is spotless.

Solution:
Permanently remove the back plate.

Some are glued at two or three points and require a flat-head screwdriver, but once removed, sterilizers will finally flush that chamber at every cleaning cycle. It’s a permanent fix to a long-standing, rarely-discussed problem in hydroponic cloning systems.

Air-Stones & Air-Lines

Air pumps, air-lines, and air-stones are often overlooked—and often contaminated.

• Boiling air-stones is the only guaranteed sterilization method.
  (Test-boil one if you’re unsure; some brands degrade.)

• Air-lines can be soaked in your sterilizer at the equipment dosage listed later in this article.

• Boiling airlines works, but they eventually harden over time.

If you want an upgrade, check out PermaClone’s silicone-based tubing (PermaFlow)—high-temp sterilizable, flexible, and far more resistant to degradation than vinyl lines.

Cloning Collars

Cloning collars are one of the most common contamination points—and one of the most misunderstood.

Traditional neoprene collars:

• trap debris

• don’t sterilize evenly

• and lose food-grade status after repeated oxidizer exposure

If you’re not using PermaClone collars, the safest protocol is to replace them between cycles to avoid unpredictable results. PermaClone collars were explicitly engineered to eliminate these issues—and maintain food-grade integrity through years of sterilization cycles.

Sterilizing Between Cloning Cycles (Fast, Reliable Method)

Once the improvements above are in place, you can use a simple, low-labor recipe that reliably sterilizes any cloner with minimal effort:

1. With PermaClone collars installed, fill the cloner with fresh tap water.

2. Add:

   • 3–5 mL/gal Bleach (≈60–100 ppm free chlorine)

   • 0.05–0.1 mL/gal concentrated dish soap (1–2 drops/gal)

3. Circulate for 12 hours (overnight).
   Then dump—do not rinse.
   Low-dose oxidizers with long exposure outperform high-dose “shock” treatments.

4. Sterilize your PermaClone collars using one of the four guaranteed methods in the PermaClone manual.

5. Boil air stones (if using DWC).
   Soak air-lines in the same bleach/detergent mix.

6. Refill with fresh water using gloved hands, insert sterilized collars, and begin your next cycle.

This method is scalable, predictable, and eliminates most of the labor growers struggle with.

Next Up: The Kaizen of Cloning

We’ll look at how to improve workflow, reduce labor, speed up cycles, and eliminate human error.

If you ever have questions, comments, or troubleshooting needs, reach out anytime through the contact form.

Warm regards,
Michael Goldsmith
www.PermaClone.com

About the Author

This article reflects practical experience gained through the development and use of PermaClone™ plant collars across a wide range of hydroponic and aeroponic cloning systems. For technical questions or system compatibility guidance, please contact PermaClone directly.

Updated: November 29, 2025 -- improved clarity, refreshed product references, fixed broken links, and verified current information.

In the first article of this series, we dialed in the biochemistry of your mother plants. Next, we tackled cloner sterilization—reliably and predictably. Today, we’re shifting gears into something just as important:
how you (or your employees) interact with the cloner itself.

This is where efficiency is won or lost, and where failures creep in.
In other words… this is the human side of the cloner.

Kaizen is a Japanese term referring to continuous improvement—optimizing processes so that every round gets a little smoother, faster, and more reliable. Let’s apply that philosophy directly to your clone room.

Cloners… Unplugged

One of the most common—and avoidable—causes of clone failure?
Forgetting to plug the cloner back in.

If you’ve been cloning long enough, you know the pain.

The fix is simple and permanent: cycle timers.
A cycle timer lets you turn the pump off without ever unplugging anything. Even better, a single timer can run up to ten cloners at once.

I prefer dial-style cycle timers (they’re intuitive and run ~$50–$100), but the cheap 15-minute interval timers work fine too. Just use:

ON: 15–90 minutes
OFF: 15 minutes

When you want to inspect the cloner, spin the dial into an OFF window and you’ll have 15–30 minutes of quiet to check roots.

Cycle timing also doubles as the simplest, cheapest way to manage excess pump heat. Your target water temps are 75–87°F (24–30°C).
A good starting point is 2 minutes ON, 10 minutes OFF (~20% ON). Increase the ON time if your temps run too low.

IR Thermometer

An IR thermometer gives you instant water-temperature readings without ever touching the system—or contaminating it.

External IR readings usually land 0–2°F (0–1°C) below actual internal temps (depending on room temperature).
Example:

• Room: 75°F

• Cloner: 85°F

• IR reading: ~83°F

At more moderate temps (75°F cloner water), the IR reading is nearly exact.

Fast, clean, and reliable.

Automating Dumping & Filling

Dumping and refilling a cloner by hand is:

• labor-intensive

• messy

• inconsistent

• a contamination risk

Adding an exhaust valve (for draining) and a float valve (for automatic refill) is a major kaizen upgrade. These two small modifications:

• Eliminate overfilling

• Reduce human contact with the system interior

• Speed up cycle turnover

• Improve scalability as your production grows

Less handling = fewer microbes = better results.

Don’t Veg in Your Cloner

It’s tempting to veg in the cloner. It looks cool. It’s fun.
But it will slow you down.

The longer clones sit, the higher the chance of:

• Root masses tangling

• Debris entering the pump intake

• Transplant shock

• Extra labor during transplant

The sweet spot?
Move clones once roots reach 1–3 inches (3–8 cm).

This keeps them vigorous and your system clean.

Dedicated pH Meters

A dedicated, sterilized pH meter for your cloning space dramatically reduces contamination risk.

Beneficials, microbes, and nutrients from other rooms love hitchhiking on shared tools—and your cloner is the worst place to introduce them.

For the record, my entire cloning workflow doesn’t require pH adjustment until roots are formed, which avoids unnecessary dipping and contamination altogether.

The Most Important Changes

If your budget or schedule prevents full kaizen optimization, at least implement these three:

1. Cycle timing

2. IR thermometer

3. Don’t veg in your cloner

These alone eliminate a surprising amount of human error and inefficiency.

Today’s Shopping List

• Cycle Timer

• IR Thermometer

Next Up: Game-Changing Cloner Recipes

Questions or Further Guidance

For questions related to this topic or assistance with your cloning setup, please reach out through the PermaClone contact form.

About PermaClone

The information shared in this article reflects years of hands-on use and continuous refinement of PermaClone™ plant collars, informed by feedback from thousands of growers using hydroponic, deep-water culture, and aeroponic systems.

Updated: November 29, 2025 -- improved content flow with rewritten sections.

This lesson is all about the nutrients and additives that transform an aeroponic cloner from “works okay” into “roots explode in 7–10 days.” If you don’t already keep a cloning to-do list, this is your sign to start one.

1. First To-Do: Prime Your Mothers

Before you even think about filling a cloner, your mother plants need to be biochemically primed. That means pest-free foliage and fresh growth tips loaded with natural auxins and cytokinins—your rooting hormones straight from the plant.

As outlined in The Mother of All Clones, I alternate:

• Garden Safe Neem Oil Extract Concentrate — 30 mL/gal

• Take Down — 40 mL/gal

• Always include a kelp extract, 5 mL/gal Floralicious Plus

Use this foliar 24–48 hours before cloning. It’s one of the most impactful steps in the entire process.

2. Stock Up Before We Hit the Final Lesson

In the next article (Taking Cuttings & The PermaClone Recipe), I’ll give you the exact nutrient formula, oxidizer dose, and step-by-step workflow I personally use. Before we get there, you need to select your oxidizer, your hormone, and your nutrient base.

Let’s go through each category.

Plant-Safe Oxidizers (Sterilizers)

Sterilizers do double duty in aeroponic cloners:

• High doses sterilize equipment

• Low doses treat water and suppress surface-level pathogens on unrooted cuttings

The key is using products that are safe for plants when diluted, and all the prominent oxidizer families fall into this category.

You can choose any one of the following:

• Sodium hypochlorite — Bleach

• Hypochlorous acid — Clear Line 5x, Clear Rez, Watermax

• Peroxyacetic acid — Oxidate 2.0, Zerotol 2.0

Every one of these has a plant-safe dosage window. In this lesson series, I teach exactly how to dose them correctly to get consistent rooting without damaging delicate cuttings.

Hormones (Auxins)

Auxins dramatically accelerate rooting and increase the number of basal roots.

Here’s the problem:
Gels and powders get washed off almost immediately inside aeroponic cloners.

Water-soluble hormones solve that.

Choose ONE:

• Hormex Liquid Concentrate

• KLN Cloning Solution

• Rhizopon AA Water-Soluble Salts

These absorb, circulate, and keep working, rather than washing off the stem. You’ll see a difference in both rooting speed and root mass.

Cloner Nutrients

Hormones alone are great, but hormones + mineral nutrients produce the real “game-changing” results.

The most widely used option:

• Clonex Clone Solution

Or choose any clean hydroponic bloom nutrient, such as:

• Cutting Edge Solutions — Micro + Bloom

• GH Flora Series — Micro + Bloom

These nutrient ratios support rapid cell division during the earliest stages of root initiation.

(Don’t worry—we’ll cover exact doses in the following article.)

Clone Cutting Tools

This part is simple.

Fiskars. Period.

Razor blades are slow and create more work. A dedicated pair of sterile Fiskars is faster and far more scalable in any cloning workflow.

Shopping List (Choose One From Each Category)

Oxidizer:
Bleach, Clear Line 5x, Clear Rez, Watermax, Oxidate 2.0, or Zerotol 2.0

Recommended: Bleach

Hormone:
Hormex Liquid Concentrate, KLN, or Rhizopon AA Water-Soluble Salts

Recommended: Hormex Liquid Concentrate

Mineral Nutrients:
Clonex Solution, or Micro + Bloom (CES or GH)

Recommended: Clonex Solution

Tools:
Fiskars

What’s Next

In the next article, Taking Cuttings & The PermaClone Recipe, I’ll walk you through:

• Exactly how to prepare your system

• When (and how) to add your oxidizer

• The exact nutrient and hormone dosages

• My personal “flow” for fast, predictable success

In the meantime, foliar your mothers and stock up on your oxidizer, hormone, and nutrient of choice.

Questions or Support

If you have questions related to this topic or need guidance with your cloning setup, you’re welcome to reach out through the PermaClone contact form.

The information shared in this article is informed by years of hands-on development and feedback from growers using PermaClone™ plant collars in hydroponic, aeroponic, and deep-water culture systems. PermaClone collars are available in sizes compatible with leading cloning platforms, including EZ-CLONE®, TurboKlone®, PowerCloner®, Oxyclone®, Psychloner®, and custom DIY systems.

Updated: November 29, 2025 -- improved clarity, refreshed product references, fixed broken links, and verified current information.

If you’ve been following this cloning series, your mother plants should now be biochemically primed—auxins flowing, foliage pest-free, and growth tips ready to fire off roots in 7–10 days.

In the previous article, I also had you assemble a simple shopping list:

• A plant-safe oxidizer

• A water-soluble hormone

• A mineral nutrient

• And a dedicated pair of Fiskars

If you’ve completed those steps, then today…it’s finally cloning day.

Step 1 — Fill Your Sanitized Cloner & Add a Plant-Safe Oxidizer

Start by filling your already-sterilized cloner with fresh water.
Immediately add your oxidizer of choice at a plant-safe dose (see table below):

Oxidizer Dosages

This initial dose sanitizes stems as they enter the system and prevents early contamination.

Step 2 — Take Your Cuttings Correctly

Leave More Nodes Than You Think

Nodes are the root factories—each node’s shoot apex produces auxins that flow downward to the basal end of your cutting.

Optimal cutting structure:

• 3–6 untrimmed nodes above the collar

• 2–3 trimmed nodes below the collar

• Total cutting height: 5–9 nodes

Trim lower fan leaves when needed to prevent shading—not to prevent transpiration (that’s outdated advice for water culture).

Want 3–4 clones per collar?

Remove all fan leaves and leave only nodes + shoot tips.
Yes, it works. Yes, it’s efficient. Yes, it multiplies output.

Step 3 — Track Your Strains

As you fill the cloner, track cuts by row on a piece of paper.
I recommend snapping a quick picture of your paper—future you will thank you.  

Step 4 — Re-Boost Your Oxidizer Before Adding Any Nutrients

By the time you finish loading cuttings, your first oxidizer dose has depleted.
Boost it again with the same plant-safe dose before adding nutrients or hormones.

This step is critical—as additives instantly consume oxidizers.

Second Oxidizer Dose (Choose ONE)

Step 5 — Add ONE Hormone Product

Choose one—not multiple.

These stay active in solution, unlike gels or powders.

Step 6 — Add a Clean Mineral Nutrient

Do not pH-adjust yet

Introducing meters into your system invites contamination. We recommend pH adjustment after roots appear.

Step 7 — Dial In Your Cycle Timer

Set your cycle timer somewhere between:

• 5–45 min ON

• 5–30 min OFF

Use your IR thermometer to maintain:

• External IR reading: 75–87°F
  (Internal water temp will be equal or slightly higher.)

Step 8 — Leave It Alone for 3-5 Days

If you've followed our recipe:

• Day 3–5: callus tissue forms

• Day 5–7: roots emerge

When all steps in this series are followed, rooting is predictable and repeatable.

Keep in Touch

If you have questions about taking cuttings, dialing in a cloning recipe, or adapting these methods to your system, you’re welcome to reach out through the PermaClone contact form.

The guidance shared here reflects years of hands-on development and real-world feedback from growers using PermaClone™ plant collars in aeroponic, DWC, and hydroponic environments.

Updated: November 29, 2025 -- improved clarity, refreshed product references, and verified current information.

My personal goal is to make sustainable, long-lasting products available to all growers—not as a luxury, but as the standard.

PermaClone is my first example of how ecological products and design can be priced and produced in order to make a real change in the industry. With PermaClone, I've created a durable, reusable, eco-friendly product with microwave-sensing nanotechnology that maintains food-grade status even after exposure to sterilizers.

But to get you to make the switch, we need to discuss the return on investment (ROI). After all, PermaClone is 3 - 4x more expensive than other collars on the market, but smart growers understand the value!

The Immediate Pay off

At $2.89 each, PermaClone pays for itself in convenience and speed of sterilization within the second use. Your time is money! You run a grow, you may even have employees. With PermaClone, you can microwave-sterilize 120-180 collars in 15 minutes at 1000 watts. How much does that cost in electricity? ...here's the math:

1.0 Kw (1000 watts) x 0.25 hrs (15 min) x $0.12 kWh = $0.03

That's 3¢ to sterilize 128-180 collars, depending on your grow. That is 15 minutes of effortless work by you or your employees...while confidently offering sterile collars at your next cloning cycle. The increased cloning rates alone cover the cost of PermaClone.

STILL, I would be remiss if I didn't address the more conservative cost analysis.

The conservative payoff

Collars sized like PermaClone (tall, easy to grab--ergonomic) go for $0.65 each. There are thinner, cheaper neoprene callers that are closer to $0.30 each; this is not the comparison. Compared to the traditional, non-recyclable collars (at an average of $0.65 each) PermaClone pays for itself after your 3rd cloning cycle (at cycle 4). From that point forward, you have over 5 YEARS of in-house use with a 5-year warranty to back it up!

The payoff depends on how frequently you clone. Let's say five cloning cycles per year as the minimum. With 5 years of guaranteed use, that's a 5.6x return on investment (ROI). I personally clone every 2 weeks, yielding a 29x ROI. Here's how I did this math:

5x / year: (5 annual uses) x (5 years) x $0.65 (ave $/collar) = $16.25/ ($2.89) = >5.6x ROI

biwkly: (26 annual uses) x (5 years) x $0.65 (ave $/collars) = $84.50/ ($2.89 each) = >29x ROI

Remember, this is the conservative savings; all PermaClone customers realize a much greater ROI in time, energy, ecology, AND costs by switching to PermaClone. Also, they last way longer than 5 years. My prototype set from 2012 is still being used to this day. They keep on going! 

The PermaClone Story

To understand who I am and why I created PermaClone, please read my article Improving Hydroponic Cloning Success, Efficiency & Ecology. There you'll learn that creating PermaClone was a tall order on all fronts: chemistry, Food Grade Status, durability, chemical resistance, heat resistance, and microwave sterilizability. All while keeping ecology, sustainable practices, and eco-friendly chemistry in mind.

Thanks for reading, and warmest regards, everyone!

Michael Goldsmith

PS: My articles share knowledge I've accumulated over the years while perfecting my use of PermaClone collars and collaborating with 1000's of customers. I hope that by sharing this knowledge, PermaClone's plant collars will be acknowledged as the best cloning pucks on the market for hydroponic, deep-water culture, and aeroponic systems. Please spread the word! PermaClone has collar sizes to fit the top cloning systems: EZ-CLONE, TurboKlone, PowerCloner (by Botanicare), Oxyclone, Psychloner, and more. We can also recommend sizes for DIY and home-made cloning systems... reach out for dimensions. Thanks for your support! #PermaClone #getsterilegetcloning 

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Meters only provide an approximation of "Total" dissolved solids. To decide on proper water treatment and filtration (if at all), you need some more data. This article will teach you how to identify precisely what's in your water and understand key terminology in water quality management. 

Knowing your water quality is easier for a city or municipal water source. If you're on a well, this may be more difficult, but you can still find out! We'll start with my personal FIRST STOP to know what I will be dealing with on the local water. Even if you're on a well you'll want to know the water quality or surrounding cities. In the second half of the article, I'll talk about how I learn about well water sources.

What's in your City or Municipal Water?

Once you've found a property that meets your requirements, you'll need to know about the water's constituents. Not just Total Dissolved Solids, but how much of each mineral. This will dictate filtration and treatment plans for your grow facility. My first stop is local water quality reports using GOOGLE.

“City’s name” AND “state” AND “Water Quality Report”

Notice I use quotes and upper case AND. These are operators for Google and force the search to include exactly those search items.

Below are the results for a random city in California. Remember, I’m in Colorado, so this is how I would research setting up a random grow. 

The Second choice was a .pdf file for a 2016 Water Quality Report. Once opened, the file includes a lot of info, but I would scroll through until I got to data tables, as shown below:

Here you can see the minerals of concern, units measured (ppm or ppb) and a list of different regional sources for that water supply. It's important you understand the difference between ppb ("parts per BILLION"; ~micrograms/L) and ppm (Parts Per Million; ~mg/L). Hopefully the heavy metals, organohalides, etc are in "ppb".

The values I immediately check out are “total dissolved solids” (TDS), “hardness”, Calcium, magnesium, Sodium, Iron, silicate, iron and water treatment. Here’s the values found from our example city:

If you look around, you’ll see the Total Dissolved Solids is in the 300 - 600 range, depending on the source. Then, if you look under specific components, you’ll see Boron "seems" high, but if the units are ppb (parts per billion, 1000x smaller than ppm...and negligible; and a plant-friendly dose, by the way).

Here’s a table of what I’d document for this source:

Next, I would want a sample tested, but with this info, I can easily decide how to manage my water. San Jose's publication suggests the TDS will be 400 ppm +/- 200 ppm and this could include unwanted amounts of sodium and chloride. For a drain-to-waste grow or soil grow there's a chance you wouldn’t need Cal/mag if at 80 ppm Calcium and >20 ppm Magnesium..and depending on you nutrient line. I would probably still add silica for mothers, veg, and early bloom in soil or drain-to-waste.

This water could do great with Coco coir or peat which would buffer these doses of minerals. If I planned on a recirculating systems, I may fill up my hydroponic systems with this water, but top up with treated reverse osmosis, rain or water collected from a dehumifier or Air-conditioner (whichever was most available). Conservation of water is always key. CAUTION: Some of these collection methods require water treatment for safety.

Assessing Well Water

If you’re moving to a property with well water, you will still want to look up municipal water quality reports from your area because these values often give you an idea of what minerals are lurking in the aquifers, but I would NOT rely on this without doing some more research and actual testing. First, start with a Google search: 

"City" AND state AND "well water" AND testing OR Report

For our sample city, "San Jose," you see our results below: 

The Second and Fourth Article were both valuable: 

The Second link helps you know where you can have your well water tested. I would also send my municipal/city water to one of these labs for testing. Here's what I found: 

The fourth link in the google search was an official Santa Clara Valley Water District publication called "A GUIDE FOR THE PRIVATE WELL OWNER", shown below. Keep reading, it contains information on the recommended tests AND costs :) 

If you check the Table of Contents, you see page 12 "WATER QUALITY SAMPLING AND TREATMENT". If you jump to page 12 you find the following table of valuable information.

Between these two publications, you now know what costs you're looking at and where to send a sample of your well and municipal water. You'll find this information for most geographical regions. If not, email us and we can recommend a great testing lab for agricultural water quality. 

For more information on Water Quality and Treatment, check out my article Hydoponics Water Quality and Treatment--A MUST READ!

Thanks for reading! And reach out anytime with questions or comments using our contact form. 

~Michael Goldsmith

Even after I created PermaClone, I struggled maintaining sterile cloners. After all, sterilized PermaClone collars only solve one part of cloner maintenance. You still must master the maintenance of all the other intricacies. It took years to develop the recipes I share for maintaining sterility and achieving consistent results in water culture. I now confidently get consistent result when I clone! My cloners simply don't fail while producing heavily rooted, amazing clones!

In this article I want to tackle the specifics of water pumps. If you haven't already, be sure to read my articles, "Hydroponics Water Quality and Treatment — A Must Read" and "PermaClone™ Manual for Perfect & Predictable Cloning." If you click the links, they'll open in their own tabs so you can read them next. 

There are two big recommendations I make with regard to hydroponic submersible pumps in cloners and hydroponic systems.

First: Remove the Back Plate

The back plate is often an overlooked part of the pump. The back plate is found on almost ALL submersible water pumps used in small-scale hydroponics. It is found where the pump cord enters the pump. As illustrated above, it’s a plate that, upon removal, has an orifice (illustrated below). With most brands, it is not well-vented for easy access by sterilizers. Meanwhile, the nutrient solution can slowly exchange with the small crevices, providing continuous re-exposure to good OR BAD bacteria. Over time, you invariably get exposed to a bad bacteria; and this orifice becomes infected while sterilizers don’t adequately flush.

Some pumps don’t have this problem. For example, Elemental® (pictured above), ActiveAQUA™, and EcoPlus® submersible pumps all have ‘gills’ on their back plates, allowing sterilizers speedy access. In contrast, EZ-CLONE® and TurboKLONE™ pumps have traditionally not been vented with these gills. I recommend removing the back plate of ALL pumps to avoid unnecessary intricacies in your equipment.

Second: Pump BreakDown

If you have been exposed to a BAD pathogen or notice a decrease in cloning rates, break down your pump and sterilize the individual components by gently scrubbing them in an oxidizer of your choice. It’s ultimately simple, but daunting at first. If your time is worth more than the cost of a new pump, it may be wise to purchase a new pump. JUST REMEMBER!...remove the back plate and from this point forward follow our techniques for sterilizing your cloner between cycles to avoid the cost in time or money of pump break-down or replacement. 

As for the pump, looking at the picture. you'll see the impeller assembly. This is shown broken down on the right, where you'll find two sample shafts, made of either metal or ceramic materials. The impeller assembly also includes two rubber end-caps, two washers, and the large ring-gasket goes to the Housing Cap. The washers prevent friction between the impeller and rubber end-caps. The end caps hold the Impeller on the shaft and guide the impeller assembly into the pump housing. The rubber end-caps fit into the housing end-cap and a small recess at the back of the motor housing, stabilizing the impeller assembly from the plastic of the motor housing inner walls. The pumps is driven by a rotating magnetic field. You'll feel this magnetic field when your removing or inserting the impeller assembly.

STEP 1

Mother plants need to have a lime-green color, not dark blue-green (i.e., over-fed). You want parent plants fed exactly the nutrients required to avoid deficiencies, and no more. In coco- and peat-based mediums, I recommend feeding moms in the 400-600 ppm (EC: 0.8-1.2 mS) range, excluding cal/mag or hard-water readings. This concerns organic media's nutrient-buffering capacity. In Aeroponics or Deep-Water Culture (DWC) you can use half these values (200 - 300 ppm, EC 0.4 - 0.6 mS, again not including cal/mag or your water's base reading). This is because water culture doesn't compete for mineral nutrients like organic-based growing mediums. Water culture doesn't buffer your nutrients. 

STEP 3

Just before placing in the cloner, take a final cut a few millimeters above your initial cut, aiming for an obvious "plug" of xylum and accessible carbohydrates (sugars), as shown above. The one shown, sadly, went dry while I was taking pictures, but a fresh cut should look wet and be immediately placed in your sterilized propagation system. Sometimes this "plug" is more white, others have a fleshier, light-green core. The goal is to avoid an exposed hollow section. For strains with hollow stems, the plug will usually be found just below the nodes.

Check out our publication: PermaClone™ Manual for Perfect & Predictable Hydroponic Cloning for a thorough outline of recommended methods for cloning and sterilizing your system. 

Because of this, we created Dunk-Base™ Bags.  Chemical-resistant, durable, large mesh pores for plant matter or debris to wash through. They improve efficiency by eliminating tedious counting or hand-collecting collars at each step of your sterilization method. The table below outlines the water displacement of typical sets of PermaClone’s collars:

*  The five-gallon bucket is for illustration. In larger production settings:

• (Sterilization vat volume) -  (# of batches) x (vol/batch) = fill volume.
• (55 gallon drum) - (20 x 180 Power Cloner sets) x (1.3 gal/set = 29 gallons fill vol.

Click here to purchase our Dunk-Base Permaclone Bags now!

Don't shelf your cloner! Don't switch to peat plugs or rockwool! ..I'm here to help!

Hydroponic cloning is the most reliable and automated method. And this reliability comes down to attention to detail, not hard work.

What's the good news? If you DO NOT use bacterial/fungal inoculants (or products that feed bacteria--protein hydrolysates, etc) you can sterilize your cloner effectively between each cloning cycle by simply circulating 3-5 mL/gal (0.5-1 tsp/gal, 0.8 - 1.3 mL/L) bleach for 12 hours. This is lower doses of Bleach, but longer exposure time--and this is important.

Then dump and refill with water under 200 ppm (0.4 mS) mineral content. Add plant safe sterilizer like Clear Rez, UC Roots, or 0.2 mL/gal bleach at the beginning of filling the system (before additives, pH adjustment, or Nutrients). This is another important point, you want to treat your water, but I discuss this technique in another article. 

NOW! ..if your cloner has a pathogen problem, the system must go through a thorough regeneration, and below are the steps that have worked for every system I've regenerated for people who had persistent pathogens. 

Here's the steps. Tedious, but worth it!

1. Permanently remove the backplate of your cloners’ pumps. This plate is found where the power cord enters the pump. In some systems, the back plate is glued in place and requires a flat-head screwdriver to remove it. Once removed, you will discover an orifice where bacteria or fungi can fester and are minimally accessed by sterilizers. If you do not remove this plate, sterilizers will NOT effectively flush this area. And your pathogen will come back. Remove the backplate today!
2. Circulate 5 mL/gal (8.25% Bleach) or 8 mL/gal (5.25% bleach) solution with 0.1 mL/gal (2 drops/gal) concentrated dish soap for 24 hours. Dump the system, but don't rinse. 
3. Break down your cloner's individual parts. Consider all parts that may harbor pathogens: airlines/air stones, reservoir caps, bulk heads, grommets, rubber gaskets, and seals.
4. Buy a new pump or Disassemble the water pump AND housing.  Scrub all parts in a solution of 5 ml/gal bleach with 0.1 mL/gal (2 drops/gal) concentrated dish soap with Latex or Nitrile gloves. 
   --> Do Not scratch the plastics, simply knock away residual biofilm.
5. For Calcium deposits on your cloners' lid, rinse any residual chlorine away, and spray windex, let it sit, then 10 minutes later scrub the deposits away. It doesn't have to be perfect. 
   !!CAUTION: DO NOT LET WINDEX MAKE CONTACT WITH CHLORINE BLEACH! 
6. For aeroponic, remove the airstones, buy fresh air lines. You can inject air into the empty space in the cloner, you don't need airstones. 
   -->For DWC or Bubbleponics systems, you can test boil air stones for 10 min, but some air stones can't withstand heat and need to be replaced. 
7. Once reassembled, circulate piping HOT tap water (not boiling water) through your system.
8. Once mostly cooled, add 5 mL/gal Bleach and 2 drops/gal soap and circulate for 24 hours. If you follow our cloning methods, this should be the last time you put this amount of work into sterilizing your system.
9. While cleaning and soaking parts of your cloner, you can rinse and sterilize your PermaClone collars based on the article: How to Sterilize PermaClone Collars with Confidence. If you haven't upgraded to PermaClone, buy fresh cloning collars each round for predictable results.

These next articles will share techniques for cloning with confidence!

• Hydroponic Water Quality AND Water Treatment -- A MUST READ
• The 3 Reasons Cloners Fail
• Advanced Aeroponic Cloning -- THE SECRETS REVEALED!

And if you haven't already, Get Reusable, Sterilizable Cloning Collars - Buy PermaClone Collars Now - Click Here!

We love Instagrammer @komathegrower's feed and were stoked to see that they returned the love with this close-up image of their clone farm, all outfitted with PermaClones. "It all starts right here..." 

Sterilize your PermaClone inserts in your microwave for 15 min, home oven for 2 hours, pressure cooker or autoclave for 30 minutes. Unlike other clone inserts, you KNOW your collars are sterile each round, cutting down on the time and effort of replacing or attempting hit-or-miss sterilization of traditional collars. They also resist root penetration found with many of the neoprene inserts.

Just look at these little guys from Instagram user @high_latitude_farms, who are using PermaClone collars for all their little Sunset Sherbet babies. No risk of getting roots caught up in the unit, no matter how big or small. 

Cleaning is one of the most significant problems we've experienced from conventional neoprene collars, which is why we focused on making a product that resists roots and cleans up faster and more thoroughly than anything prior. With proper cleaning and the fact that our collars resist root growth, you can expect your PermaClone collars to outlast the five-year warranty—up to 10 years, even under harsh aeroponics conditions.

Instagram user @growandflow seemed pleasantly surprised to discover their clones growing right before their eyes. "I don't know where I'm going to put all of these." It's pretty mind-blowing!

And how about these beauties from @420_beastcoast_420 who says "Another rotation in the ez-cloner. All Locktite (Mt. Rainier x Gorilla Glue #4)

No returns (because we don't have to!)

Sure, we have a rock solid return policy, but we've never had to enact it because we've never met a dissatisfied customer. Payments are super simple through Paypal and shipping is fast as well. If your PermaClone collars break down before the five-year mark we will replace each unit totally free. 

Instagrammer @cannabiskinggardens is "so happy to not have to replace 144 collars every round." It's so wasteful to have to replace collars after every harvest. At $3 a pop, you can use our collars over and over again, making them more economical after each new use. They are using the TurboKlone® - Clone King® Retrofit (46mm/1.8") Collars.

Learn more at permaclone.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and join the over 10,000+ followers who are already learning about the best aeroponics and DWC cloning collar.

Here's a quick breakdown of the PermaClone difference. Be sure to read articles Sterilizing PermaClone Collars With Confidence AND How To Sterilize Your Cloner...AND KNOW IT!

Microwave Sterilizable. Batches of 6 – 180 collars can be microwave sterilized within 15 min.

Heat Sterilizable. Heat sterilizable in an oven, pressure cooker, or autoclave. This ends laborious/unreliable hand cleaning or costly replacement.

Dunk-Based Sterilization. PermaClone’s central gap ensures immediate sanitization with dunk-based sanitization. No more tweezing open each collar to ensure exposure.

Chemical Resistance. Unlike competing brands, PermaClone’s polymer blend tolerates long-term exposure to bleach, peroxides, ozone, and UV light!

Food Grade Polymers. SO SAFE, our polymer is approved for use in medical devices. To be sure, PermaClone collars are third-party tested for food-grade status by both U.S. and E.U. standards.

Durability. Made of durable, long-lasting polymers that resist root growth into the collar. With proper care, our collars have been shown to last over 5 years.  

Ecological. Reusable products decrease waste, promoting ecological and sustainable practices in all industries. In this case, ecology saves you time and money.

5 year Warranty. If PermaClone lasts 5 years, we’ll replace the used collar at no expense to you.

Contact us anytime with questions, comments, or technical support through our contact form. 

Get Sterile, Get Cloning!

When evaluating your grow, water quality is an important topic. Is it from a city water supply or a well? How is your water treated? What's the TDS out of the tap? Is the water put through a water softener? Are you utilizing filtration systems? What kind of filtration?

In this article, I talk about Total Dissolved Solids, Reverse Osmosis Filtration, Well Water, Water Softeners, and Water Treatment. The last topic, water treatment, is a must-read for everyone, even if you skim past the first topics.

Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)

TDS refers to the total amount of dissolved substances—mineral or otherwise—present in your water. In gardening, we estimate TDS using conductivity meters. These meters use two metal probes and send a small electrical current between them; a built-in processor measures how well the water conducts electricity and converts that reading into either TDS or Electrical Conductivity (EC). Most meters include calibration controls and let you switch between TDS (ppm) and EC (mS or µS), depending on your preference.

The units of measurement depend on the meter and the user's preference. TDS values are conventionally in "parts per million" (ppm), a value that is roughly equivalent to milligrams per liter (mg/L) of solution. Alternatively, you can track the amount of minerals based on the conductivity in units of Siemens or, commonly, millisiemens. Learn about the different conductivity scales, check out Bluelab's article, "What are the different conductivity scales? What do they mean?". 

I recommend cloning with water below 200 ppm on the 500 scale before adding nutrients. That is 0.4 millisiemens (mS) conductivity or 400 microsiemens (uS). Once you add nutrients to your water, these values will increase depending on the strength of the nutrients. Owning an EC or TDS meter lets you monitor your water quality and nutrient levels. 

I personally log conductivity in microsiemens (uS) which is 1/1000 a millisiemen (mS). For customers, I often speak in terms of the more common hydroponic units: millisiemens (0.002 - 3.0 mS is usual) or ppm (1 - 1500 ppm is a standard range). I have operated grows with water supplies ranging from 60 ppm to 3000 ppm. The two higher values were 500 and 3000 ppm and were on rural wells tapping aquifers linked to limestone. These high TDS values out of the tap required filtration. 

When it comes to cloning, if your water is above 200 - 300 ppm I recommend Reverse Osmosis Filtration (discussed next). If your water is under 200 ppm, jump to Water Softeners and Water Treatment. For cloning and hydroponics it is a must that everyone read about Water Treatment.

Reverse Osmosis Filtration (RO):

Reverse osmosis pushes your water through membranes with pores so small that ions cannot easily pass through, BUT most of the water can. There's a small amount of water that can't make it through referred to as 'brine' and contains the molecules and ions too big to make it through the RO membrane. Usually, the brine tubing from your RO is black or another color to indicate it contains unwanted water. I recommend using that brine to water your grass, top off swamp coolers, or other application as opposed to dumping it down the drain. Installing an RO can seem daunting, but it's easy. If you're overwhelmed, work closely with the tech support of the manufacturer.

With RO filtration, if the source mineral content is high, your RO system (within a few uses) will only reduce mineral content by 90%, leaving 10% residual. For example, if your water source is at 500 ppm, you may end up with 50 ppm residual mineral content. If a water softener is employed, that is about 50 ppm of sodium (Na+) ions. I discuss Water Softeners in the next section, along with an options to eliminate sodium in these systems. 

With your RO system, you can prevent this increase to 10% by changing your ion-exchange column (also referred to as a Mixed Bed Ion Exchange column). Simply change out the last column every time the TDS jumps back up to the 10% value mentioned above. Some mixed-bed ion exchange resins have a color indicator that changes color when saturated.

Water Softeners

Water softeners swap calcium ions for sodium ions. This is to protect your home appliances because sodium salts are very soluble and will not leave mineral deposits. While calcium (and other minerals) can leave deposits and build up in appliances. The problem is that sodium (Na) is not an essential mineral for plant nutrition or hydroponics. In high amounts, sodium will antagonize or compete for uptake certain nutrients, such as potassium (K). If you use a softener, take note of the TDS/EC of Sodium after the filter. If you're above 50 ppm, you may consider regularly exchanging your Ion Exchange Column on your RO OR switching to potassium salts (KCl) in your water softener. Using potassium salts would make your RO flow-through potassium (K) instead of sodium (Na). Bags of Potassium softener salts are generally sold where sodium softener salts are available. 

Water Treatment

By now, you have water with minerals below 200 ppm (or 0.4 mS TDS), AND the mineral content is plant-safe (i.e., Calcium or Potassium). The next topic is water treatment. In cloning, we prefer water treatment, while the results vary from city to city. For example, I found a suburb in Dallas, TX with ~4 ppm free chlorine on pool test strips. This is near levels recommended for swimming pools.

Meanwhile, in Austin, TX, the readings were undetectable. You can use chlorine test strips from a local pool supply store to determine your water's treatment level. I like the pool test strips that tell you pH, alkalinity, total chlorine, and more. They're a great sanity check for all your instruments. 

If you have tap water below 4 ppm Chlorine or undetectable free chlorine, I recommend boosting your initial cloning water to 4 ppm chlorine. This is even more important if you're using well water. Here's the recipe: 

0.10 - 0.20 mL/gal of Bleach® (8.25% sodium hypochlorite) yields approximately 2 - 4 ppm of free chlorine and an ideal dose range for UNROOTED cuttings.

1 mL = 20 drops; so 0.10 - 0.20 mL is 2 - 4 drops of 8.25% Sodium Hydrophlorite (Bleach®)

ALWAYS add oxidizing products BEFORE pH adjustment OR additives. “free chlorine” reacts with most hydroponic additives. Be sure to expose clean pH and TDS meters to this solution before adding your nutrients and additives to surface sterilize. Then, after all your cuttings are in place, I recommend a second boost of chlorine at 4 ppm (4 drops/gal OR 0.2 mL/gal) to surface sterilize your cuttings and sterilize any surfaces you contacted while filling the cloner. 

Hypochlorous Acid products like Watermax™, Clear Line™, and Clear Rez™ are effective at 10x – 100x lower chlorine concentrations than hypochlorite salts such as Pool Shock (calcium Hypochlorite) or Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite). Hypochlorite products are NOT the same as Hypochlorous acid products. Hypochlorite products (such as pool shock or bleach) require 0.5 – 5 ppm free chlorine to effectively sterilize plant root systems or cuttings, while Hypochlorous acid is effective at 0.05–0.5 ppm. 

What I like about working with hypochlorite salts (Pool Shock & Bleach) is I can use inexpensive pool test strips to help verify I am in the 2 - 4 ppm free chlorine range. AND REMEMBER, all low-dose oxidizers (including hydrogen peroxide) should be added before and AFTER ALL cuttings are in place, BUT ALWAYS before nutrients or additives. This ensures their oxidation potential is focused on your system and cuttings. While Nutrients and additives cross-react with oxidizers, lowering their effectiveness. 

If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to reach out to us through our contact form. 

Get Sterile and Start Cloning - Buy PermaClone Collars Now - Click Here!

In addition to the polymer blend, I incorporated nano-particles into the design of PermaClone to enable microwave sterilization, a popular feature among growers. Chemical sterilization was also important to me, which is why I shaped the collar in an ellipse with a gap in the center that can be easily accessed for effective dunk-based sterilization. PermaClone has been 3rd party tested and approved for continuous use by both EU and US food-grade standards, and our collar sizes are compatible with a variety of popular cloning systems.

My goal in sharing this knowledge is to promote PermaClone as the best cloning puck on the market for hydroponic, deep-water culture, and aeroponic systems. Whether you're a professional grower or a DIY enthusiast, PermaClone can improve your efficiency and yields while decreasing long-term costs in time and money, all while being environmentally friendly. Thank you for supporting our mission of sustainable agriculture and ecology. #PermaClone #getsterilegetcloning

Get Sterile and Start Cloning - Buy PermaClone Collars Now - Click Here!

Real quick! ...before I tell you the real issues, let's knock out some variables that make for refinements of cloning but don't make-or-break you. Throw out your concerns about water temps, pH, nutrients, hormones, lighting, humidity, vapor pressure deficit, the list goes on! NONE. OF. THESE. PREDICT. FAILURE. These variables are refinements that produce better-quality results or faster clones, but not the analog result — success or failure.

#1 A STERILE CLONER

Ask anyone with cloner problems how their first run with the cloner was. 99% will say the first round was great! … but as they added cloning cycles, the results diminished. Now this isn’t the case for everyone. When I created PermaClone, I lived in Austin, TX, and a hydro store in Dallas was far less familiar with this issue. You will discover why later in this article (this pertains to one of the three reasons cloners fail). 

So, generally, 99% of failed cloner stories start with a functioning cloner that slowly fails after each cycle. Then that sad decision to shelf their system for good, with an emboldened determination that rockwool or plugs are the way to go. I knew one commercial grower in Colorado who literally threw away cloners and replaced them with new ones when they reached complete failure rates. One of his theories was that the cloners leached plastic as they aged. This wasn't the worst hypothesis, but I graciously proved to this grower that the problem was sterilization by regenerating one of his cloners for him. He immediately upgraded to PermaClone and began using PermaClone techniques.

But if Acom’s Razor is to be followed, then a cloner succeeding round one and slowly failing over time does allow for one primary (at least starting) hypothesis: sterility? For me, that was an obvious and strong hypothesis. But eliminating all the sources was challenging, and sterility involves attention to several variables. I won't go into them here. You’ll have to read my article on How to Sterilize Your Cloner...AND KNOW IT! and How to Sterilize PermaClone Collars with Confidence! For the details.

#2 Water Quality

Once you’ve established solid system sterilization, it is time for proper, regular water treatment. Remember my mention of the Dallas hydro store not being as worried about cloner failure? Well, in 2014, I was visiting a Dallas suburb and had chlorine test strips and a pH/TDS meter. As a grower, I am always interested in a city’s water quality. For this Dallas suburb, GUESS WHAT? Chlorine levels out of the tap were a SOLID 4 ppm free chlorine. That is one ppm ABOVE pool strengths. Immediately, I understood why that Dallas hydrostore was less wary of cloning failure. In retrospect, this was obvious, but I hadn’t teased through all the variables. By that time, I had managed six different grows, four on municipal water (treated) and two rural water wells, and the hindsight was EUREKA! The rural areas were the most problematic! ...lots of cycle timing, concerns about temps, brown stems, tedious/redundant sterilizations with hit-or-miss results.

The Dallas eureka moment was paramount because my 7th grow was (again) on rural well water and I could now deploy this new piece to the puzzle. Collars Sterilized (Check!), Cloner Sterilized (Check!) ...but water treatment? The new frontier! I had two 60-site EZ-Clones by that point, and the experiment was clear as day. Chlorine-spiked vs untreated. Untreated FAILED with this well water, offering the worst results--the horrid slime in the cloner! At that time, Clear Rez was available, but neither UC Roots (now Clear Line 5x) nor Watermax was. So I used 0.2 mL/gal bleach (4 drops/gal; 1 drop/liter) and chlorine test strips from local pool supply stores to ensure free chlorine levels were 3-5 ppm.

Take-home message: for predictable results, treat your water after system fill. Through experimentation, I learned that a second spike AFTER cuttings are in place, but before the additive, is key! This surface sterilizes your cuts and any surfaces you touched during set-up and clone insertion. 

There are several great products for water treatment in Hydroponics, such as Clear Line 5x, Watermax™, Clear Rez™, and 29% Hydrogen Peroxide. I, personally, still use 0.2 mL/gal Bleach® (4 drops/gal; 1 drop per liter) and check the results with chlorine test strips from my local pool supply store. The same can be done with these other products.

For a detailed discussion on water quality and treatment, read Hydoponics Water Quality and Water Treatment--A MUST READ!

#3 PUMP FAILURE

I HAVE SOME GREAT NEWS! I have relied on water pumps for years to automate my grows, and pump malfunctions have been rare! The single time I can think of, I recovered from. The bad news is there’s another form of pump failure, and it’s not due to the pump...it’s called “I didn’t plug in the pump” failure. Luckily, I’m all about counteracting my deficits in attention and found the solution--CYCLE TIMERS!

Here's how it goes. Your pump is ALWAYS plugged in. PERIOD. Your cycle timer is set to long “on times” and  5 - 30 min “off times”. When you want to inspect the cloner? Spin the Cycle Timer “on time” to its minimum time, the pump shuts off, and you IMMEDIATELY dial it back to the desired "on time", while your off time is initiated (5 - 30 min off). You now have 5 - 30 minutes to check on the status of your clones.  This minor adjustment has eliminated the most common form of pump failure — forgetting to plug the pump in —100%. 

For good measure, I must address another cause of pump failure. The clogged pump. It can happen at the intake or misters. Do not let clones grow past your manifold, and certainly avoid vegging clones in a high-throughput cloning situation. When clones achieve prolific roots in the 1 - 4 inches (2.5 - 10 cm) range, moving to your next stage of growing is a good rule of thumb. Vegging them is fun (and makes for great shots on social media), but it is not good practice! 

This article is about those methods that produce clones covered with roots from collars to cut...and with no loss of growth potential or yellowing above the collars. As always, I keep efficiency and scaled production in mind!

Water Temperature.

In cloning, warmer temperatures speed cell divisions with diminishing returns at 87 °F (30 °C). However, this also speeds the growth of bacteria and fungi. Before attempting higher temps, get sterile! Deep Water Culture (DWC) differs from aeroponics. With DWC the goal is the best temps for oxygenation. The convention is currently 65 - 68 °F. We believe this temperature recommendation may increase as water-treatment techniques improve.

Use an IR Thermometer or a permanently placed temperature meter to quickly measure water temperatures. This is fast while preventing contamination of your cloner. We have found external IR readings to be within 2 degrees below the actual internal temperature, and this range depends on the ambient room temperature. For example, if your ambient temperature is 75 °F and your cloner is at 85 °F (29 °C), you IR reading may be 83 °F (28 °C). Alternatively, if your ambient temperature is 75 °F and your cloner is at 77 °F, your IR reading will be relatively precise.

More Nodes & Shoot Apices

Every shoot apex produces auxins (rooting hormones). The more nodes left untrimmed from your cutting, the more endogenous (natural) auxins will be made and sent to the basal (bottom) end of cuttings. The goal is 3 – 6 nodes left uncut. You may remove the fan leaves to avoid shading other clones, but this is not necessary with aeroponics, DWC or bubbleponic cloning.

Removing Leaves

Cutting fan leaves has traditionally been intended to decrease transpiration, but that’s not a concern in aeroponics. We recommend trimming leaves to avoid shading other clones, OR if your source plants are over-fed nutrients with dark green leaves. Below we discuss how to maintain mother plants for effective cloning. Leaves will help generate the carbohydrates needed for prolific rooting.

Lighting

The common suggestion has been minimal lighting. People often place a single T5 1 – 2 feet above the cloner canopy. This was because plugs couldn't hydrate the cuts enough to prevent wilting. This is not the case with hydroponic cloning. Over time, we noticed that shaded clones rooted slowly or failed. We ramped up lighting to 4 bulb T5 flourescent fixtures at 4” from our cloners’ canopies and achieved significant improvements in cloning rates, speed, AND root mass. This is particularly important when taking multiple clones per collar. We currently recommend 4 – 8 bulb T5 fixtures 4” from the canopy with mixed blue and red spectrum bulbs.

Cloner Nutrients

Adding 1/4 -1/2 strength bloom nutrients (200–600 ppm or EC: 0.4–1.2) to the cloner improves rooting both in speed and volume. We recommend nutrients intended for water culture. Avoid products that will inoculate or feed bacteria and fungi, such as amino acids, protein hydrolysates, sugars, carbohydrates, or ‘teas’. Do not add beneficial bacteria or fungi. We suspect there may be bacteria or fungi for aeroponics, but have yet to demonstrate strains of interest for long-term effectiveness.

Hormone products

Auxins improve rooting time and root volume. Gels and powders wash off and are time-consuming to apply. We have found efficiency in water-soluble hormones such as Hormex Liquid Concentrate, Rhizopon AA, or KLN Rooting Concentrate. Each ensures adequate exposure times and eliminates the workload. We have worked mostly with Hormex Liquid Concentrate at 3 – 6 mL/gal. These hormone products do not contain minerals. It is crucial that you include a mineral nutrient in concert with hormone products for maximum performance. Do not use hormones without mineral nutrients; the results are NOT the same. 

Pump Cycle Times

Cycle timing is primarily used for temperature management. Through extensive testing, we have found faster rooting at warmer temperatures with diminishing returns above 87 °F (30 °C). We suggest 75 °F – 85 °F (24 - 29 °C)

Callus tissue

Callus or Callous is a non-specific plant tissue that can become many different cell types depending on environmental factors or plant growth regulators. If you achieve extensive callusing, but roots lag, change out your cloners' water for water containing only nutrients, no hormone product.

Mother Plants

Feed mother plants low-strength bloom nutrients (TDS: 300 – 400 ppm; EC: 0.6 – 0.8 mS of base nutrients) while maintaining normal doses of Calcium, Magnesium, silicate, and kelp extracts. Aim for a total TDS of 500 – 600 ppm on the 500 scale (i.e., EC 1.0 – 1.2 mS) with additives. The goal is to minimize nitrogen to just above deficiency levels while maintaining all other nutrients and endogenous auxins (rooting) hormones. Lower nitrogen induces increased carbohydrate storage in the stem of mother plants. Silicon nutrients (such as silicic acid or potassium silicate) have been correlated with improved root mass in cuttings when applied to mother plants. There are points of antagonism, so use the recommended intermediate silicate dosage. 

Foliar applications of kelp-based products to mother plants the day before taking cutting improves auxin levels within the plant (systemically) and improves rooting speed and volume. Auxins travel quickly within plants but require several hours to be distributed systemically. We recommend applying 24 hours before taking cuttings.

Below are several methods for sterilizing PermaClone collars. They all ensure sterilization or sanitization, but the best method will depend on your grow's current design, size, and equipment.

Microwave Sterilization

Microwave sterilization is one of several improvements made by PermaClone's collar design. The heat sterilizable function is GREAT. It is the most convenient, fastest, and lowest-cost method for working with PermaCLone collars. 15 minutes to (2 x 7.5 minute cycles) in a microwave costs $0.03 (assuming the highest Kw pricing we searched) while eliminating the need for hazardous chemicals. This improves environmental safety and ecology. Here is the recommended protocol:

1. Unload a single cloner’s worth (up to 130 - 180 collars) into a microwave-safe container. We recommend turkey bags.
2. Quickly rinse and pour off excess water to wash away any bulk debris. Aesthetics is not the goal here! ...the focus is process flow and ease of use!
3. Next, add approximately 1 cup of water to the turkey bag (or container) and microwave for 7.5 minutes at 1000 watts, then repeat this step for a total of 15 minutes.
4. Once finished, seal the bag for future use or start your next cloning cycle.

For commercial-scale operations, I recommend this approach. Large microwaves can hold batches of 120 to 180 collars, depending on the size of the collars. With this method, 500 - 600 collars are effectively sterilized in just over one hour, at a total cost of $0.12 in electricity, and the time during sterilization can be used to prep the cloning machine or take cuttings. 

Dunk-Based Sterilization (Scalable)

An often overlooked, but very meaningful design feature is PermaClone's central gap. This is 100% engineered for function. The gap serves two roles, but in this case, its role is effective sanitization.

1. Whatever size cloner(s) you run, fill 5-gallon buckets with a few small holes drilled in the bottom, then place PermaClone collars on them.
2. Place the collars in second 5 bucket containing 1 - 3 gallons of your oxidizer of choice. We recommend 5 mL/gal Bleach or 5 mL/gal 30% Peroxide. Alternatively, you can utilize Oxidate 2.0 or Zerotol at their recommended dosage for sanitizing surfaces. 
3. Exposure times are best overnight 8 - 12 hour soak in 5 - 55 gallon drums. Low doses and prolonged exposure are the secret to success.
4. After 12 - 24 hours, pull the buckets. Do not rinse. Leave residual oxidizer on the collars. Store in sterile bins for future use or immediately install into a sterilized cloner for the next round.

Dry-Heat Sterilization (Moderately Scalable)

1. Unload single cloners worth of collars in turkey bags. 
2. Bake at 300°F (150°C)--no more, no less--for 2 hours. The polymer can handle higher temperatures, but the food-grade dyes cannot. Place the collars central in the oven and avoid direct contact with heat source. 
3. Withdrawal bags and store them in a bin until the next cloning cycle. Or let cool to room temperature and install into a sanitized cloner.

Pressure Cooking (Small Scale)

Pressure cook at 15 psi for 30 minutes following your pressure cooker’s guidelines. IMPORTANT: DO NOT start your timer until the pressure cooker reaches full pressure (about 15 min, generally speaking). DO NOT rapidly cool or depressurize the system; this may cause the collars to shrink.

AutoClave Sterilization

Autoclave at 15 psi, 121°C, 30 min following your system’s manual.

And Always Remember to Get Sterile and Start Cloning - Buy PermaClone Collars Now - Click Here!