I had been wanting one of these for a long time but the price was a bit steep. After reading Clint's post about his, I decided to go ahead and make one. The whole thing cost around $75.00.

After going through a lot of "how to" sites, I settled on this one:

http://forum.grasscity.com/do-...

It was super easy to follow and my helper Meghan and I built the whole thing in less than 3 hours. Since I couldn't find the pump he used - they no longer make it I had to get another one and ended up not having to use some of the parts in the parts list. The pump I got is a Beckett Fountain Pump at 280 gallons per hour (home depot). I also had to settle for a 1.75 inch hole saw with pilot bit as I could not find a 2 inch (home depot). The two most expensive items were the pump at $40.00 and Hole saw $20.00

There was also problem connecting the sprayer to the pump - the half inch PVC pipe inner diameter was just slightly too small to fit over the pump so I took my Dremel Tool and reamed out the pipe very lightly and it fits perfectly now.

Here is an amended parts list if you use what I got::

1 Five gallon bucket and lid (any 2 gallon or more container with lid will work).
3-feet of 1/2" PVC pipe SCH-40.
1 Tee 1/2" PVC SCH-40.
4 Slip 90 Degree 1/2" PVC Elbow SCH-40.
2 Caps, slip 1/2" PVC SCH-40.
1 Can of PVC pipe cement.
18 Ez Clone sprayers (Ebay)
1 Hole Saw with pilot bit
1 Beckett Fountain Pump 280 gph (Home Depot)

After Meghan and I put it all together I gave her the honor of plugging it in and voila! It worked perfectly!

The next step was to find the 2 inch net pots and neoprene inserts .. I recalled reading on one site that those pool noodles you get at the dollar store are made of neoprene so I bought one. I was fiddling around this morning with the neoprene and discovered that I really don't need the net pots at all, I just cut off a section of the noodle then took off about a quarter of that and it fits right nicely and snugly in the 1.75 inch holes!

Now all I need is some Clonex and I'm ready to go!

Wonderful, please let us know how well it works for you.

Yes, please do!

Well the noodles didn't work too well and I was able to find a 2 inch hole saw so I bought another lid and am waiting for the net pot and inserts .. hopefully they will be here this week. I found some Clonex locally and the girl at the store gave me a sample of a liquid called RapidStart which can be used with cloning machines .. I did a search and was hoping to find a comparison between it and Clonex but couldn't .. I was wondering if I could use the RapidStart in the water and the Clonex on the cuttings. Has anyone used RapidStart?

The first things I'll try are tropical hibiscus cuttings .. some root easy and others can take years .. at least in my experience. I'm hoping I can get good primary starts of all my tropical hibiscus and let go of the mature plants. kind of start over again because room in the greenhouses in the winter is getting very hard to come by!

Thanks for getting back, and please keep up you information. Can't wait to see how this works out.

Did you order the net pots and inserts online from a special place or did you find them on ebay?

Got them on Ebay. 50 pots with inserts for $27.00.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-2-S...

Set up my first cuttings Sunday - ran into a few problems a few days later .. some of the inserts were too tight around the cuttings and literally choked them off so I took a drill and drilled holes in them. Much better now. Also, since it's Fall, the air is a lot dryer and I was noticing that some of the cuttings were wilting yesterday evening. I went to the Dollar Tree this morning and got one of those plastic salad bowls and it fits absolutely perfectly on the top!!! I took a lighter to softened the plastic on one edge and used a pencil to create a slight notch so it would fit over the power cord from the pump.

This is looking so good, please keep us posted on how everything turns out. I am so excited about this and wish you all the best on your adventure.

yes sounds and looks very interesting

Are those EZ-Clone sprayers just standard irrigation sprayers? The ones I know can run from as little as 15 PSI, and each would put out 4 to 40 gallons per hour.

I guess 18 sprayers at 15 GPH each would add up to 270 GPH (4.5 gallons per minute).

Do you happen to know what pressure your pump runs at? Is the only flow through the nozzles, or does it circulate water in the bucket also? Your photo looks like a raging torrent or inverted showerhead!

The sprayers I'm used to from Antelco or DIG usually put out a 5-15 foot fine spray or "fingers" of fast droplets that seem like they would knock any rooting powder or gel right off the stems, and I would expect to be a little harsh on root hairs. The sprayers I have, at 20 PSI, can be used to blast caked soil off pots or tools.

The photo near the top of the thread seems to show large droplets being thrown high enough to bounce off the lid.

Is your cloner really that vigorous? I thought that a mist or the tiny droplets thrown up by vigorous bubbling were all that were needed for cloners.

(Disclaimer: I don't know and haven't tried myself. But I've often thought about ways to get a gentle mist or lots of bubbles from a small or intermittent pump.)

I don't know the specifics, but the pump is adjustable and I turned it way down so it was a lot gentler. The picture is of it on full blast. I doesn't circulate the water but the I'm sure the constant "rain" stirs and oxygenates the water .. I had considered putting an airstone in there with an air pump but don't think it's needed. You're right about it washing off the clonex .. but the guy I got the net pots from said that he puts cuttings in the clonex solution immediately after cutting and lets it sit in there for about 15 minutes which make sense and the cutting should take up some of the solution. I started with the hardest plants to root and though no true roots have shown up they all have pre-roots on them and I'm expecting to see them emerging any day now .. it will be 2 weeks this coming Saturday.

Pretty much all the cloning machines I looked at have vigorous water jets .. I don't think I saw one that was an actual mist.

Anne, thanks for the update, have been checking daily for any new up dates.

Thanks, Anne! That's good information to have. I'll adjust my image to something more like "fine rain" than "mist".

The cuttings are starting to push out true roots! It's so exciting!

Whoo Hoo! A few years ago I would have jumped on this but I guess I'm getting too old, I don't want the extra work making one.

Fantastic for sure I have to get going making one of these. I checked out the pumps last week at lowes but they offer different ones than HD. Will need to travel a few more mile to find the HD and the pump you got. Thanks for the up dates and please keep them coming. Congratulation on a job well done.

I potted up a few of the cuttings that had good roots .. my only complain is that they are extremely fragile and break off if you put any kind of pressure on them .. I need to do some thinking about that.

I have heard that "water roots" are exactly like you said.

Maybe there could be some transitional treatment , like coating them with mud or gel for a while, with mist?