Most plants can be cloned, although it takes different methods to do so. Some plants will reproduce readily while others take a considerable amount of time and care.The methods currently used to day include taking cuttings, layering, division, grafting, budding and tissue culture. The kind of cloning used by growers of pepper plants and tomato plants is to take cuttings.

The biggest requirement for taking clones is a healthy parent, or stock plant. A parent plant should be in excellent health and should posess the characteristics wished for in the new plants. It should be at least two months old and it should still be in the stages of vegetative growth. Besides that you need

• Extremely sharp, sterile razor blade for cutting off leaves and foliage
• Rooting hormone or solution
• A cup of lukewarm water
• A tray with a clear plastic dome
• some form of growing media, such as a sheet of oasis cubes
• Spray bottle

Propagation -Stem Cuttings use 6" humidity dome
18 hours light/day
rooting hormones-Wilson roots, Stim Roots, Willow water
remove largest leaves to avoid wilting
remove tent permanently after 10 days
damping off fungi-better air circulation, and/or treat with damp off
browning leaf tips-to much nutrient.

At least one node (the point on a stem where leaves are attached and buds form) should be below the media surface.

Rockwool is the most popular medium for hydroponic germination of seeds. Loose, or granulated rockwool can be placed in a standard plastic starting tray. Seeds are spread evenly spaced on top of the medium. The seeds are covered with a thin layer of rockwool or perlite and the tray is covered to prevent moisture loss.

The loose rockwool makes it easy for thinning and separating seedlings to transplant. An alternative is one inch rockwool starting cubes. A flat block containing 98 detachable cubes fits into a standard propagation tray. The rockwool is soaked and pH balanced and one seed is placed into a 1/4 " deep hole provided in the centre of each cube. The seeds are then covered with a thin layer of perlite or vermiculite and the lid is placed on the tray. Once the seeds have sprouted, the cubes are easily broken off and placed into larger growing cubes or other aggregate.

Sow very small seeds by sprinkling on top of the medium and pressing in. Use a fine mist of water to gently wash seed into the growing medium. Sow medium-size and larger seed in rows 1 to 2 inches apart, and 1/8 to 1/4 inches deep. If no depth is specified on the seed packet, use the general rule of planting the seed at a depth twice the diameter of the seed.

When sowing in a tray or flat, sowing in rows is preferred over scattering seed. This method provides better air circulation than scattering of seed. When seedlings are crowded, they may become tall and spindly. To avoid the need to transplant seedlings from a seed flat to pots, you may sow seeds directly into small rockwool cubes. . Plant two or three seeds per cell or pot. When they germinate, remove the two less vigorous seedlings.

You may use a variety of growing mediums to start seeds, but whatever you use, you'll want to keep it moist, not wet. You can do this by keeping the container inside of a plastic bag, or use a clear plastic dome over your tray. The idea is to keep the moisture in, but allow air exchange, so be sure to leave a little air opening. If you do this correctly, your seeds should not require any further watering until germination. Provide proper light and temperature conditions.

Once seedlings germinate, remove the container from the plastic bag. Place the container in a location that has high light intensity and cooler temperatures.

Seedlings and clones require bright light for healthy growth. Most growers use special spectrum fluorescent lights for these early stages of plant growth. These can burn in the same kind of fixture you find at the hardware store, but they provide more lumens of the correct growing spectrum than do ordinary hardware store bulbs. They are slightly more expensive, but they will result in a much helathier start for your plants. Click here to see the ones we carry.

Most clones and seedlings benefit from 16 to 18 hours of light.

use only diluted nutrient on seedlings. If the leaves

Keep seedlings in a well-ventilated, cool location. The temperatures should be 55 to 60 degrees F at night and 65 to 70 degrees F during the day. These temperatures encourage compact, bushy, vigorous growth while minimizing disease.