Growing cannabis from seed or clone?
Seed v clone is not really a question of which is the better option for growing cannabis. It is more to do with your growing style, what you are after from your growing journey. Both have places in any growers grooms at different times. I'll sum up some of the pros and cons of each that I've experienced and which I prefer and for what reasons at the end of this topic.
Growing from seed
Growing cannabis from seed offers many benefits over growing from clones, my favorite being variety. You can grow 10 seeds from the same plant that produced them and get 10 different results, we call these different expressions genotypes and phenotypes. Every strain of cannabis had to evolve or be bred into the seeds we can buy from the many breeders around the world. These strains will have varied genetics makeup and these different genetics can be expressed in many different ways to varying amounts, meaning you never know exactly what you are going to see expressed in a seed and this certainly means you may see a number of different genetic traits expressed from seeds from the same plant.
The above variations can be narrowed down with good selective breeding but you can still get a real oddball plant or 2 that's completely different from the rest of the plants of the same strain that you are growing. This is no bad thing, many growers will actively hunt for a specific genotype or just some crazy rare genetic trait from the same strain. Many modern strains are a product of this and you will often see names like gelato 41, gelato 33. These are different genetic versions of a strain that growers and breeders have targeted and bred into what is now a strain of its own.
The downside to having many variations present while growing the same strain of cannabis is that these different genetic expressions of the same strain may grow differently, require different levels of feed, stretch more in flower. All of this adds up to what can be tricky grow especially if you are growing with height restrictions or in a system/medium where it is difficult to adjust feed for individual plants.
Another reason seeds are great is to keep and preserve genetics. Seeds can be kept for years in the right conditions.
Growing cannabis from clones
Growing from a clone is often thought of as a more technical or experienced way of growing. It's the opposite once you have your established clones in my experience. Taking clones and keeping mother plants ill cover is a separate topic but once you have viable clones you tend to have an easier grow than growing from seed. The reason for this is in the name, when you take a clone it is an exact copy of the plant you have taken it from, if you are growing multiple clones you will have multiple identical plants. The main benefit of this is that they will react the same to training, flower, and feed unless you have an issue affecting a specific plant.
1 of the downsides to growing with clones is you will need a separate area to keep a mother plant/plants to get your clones from. This isn't a problem if you have a dedicated veg area but not all of us have the room for this. You can monster crop but this has its own pros and cons which I go into here - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14555
Another benefit to clones is not buying seeds. You will of course need to find a keeper in the first place and unless you are lucky enough to have a friend with a clone you can start with you will need to buy seeds to find your own. Seeds can be expensive especially if you are growing more than a couple of plants. Some seeds have a very high price tag. By finding a plant you really like and making a mother plant from it you will never have to buy the seeds again, you can just take clones as and when you need them.
Growing the same clone in a groom back to back is also a great way to really dial your growing style and environment in. It allows you to push the boundaries with feed, light, etc. It's a great learning tool for both new and experienced growers.
Another great benefit of growing from clone is cost. Seeds can be expensive, most growers will start more seeds than they need to guarantee they end up with the desired amount. With a mother plant and clones, there is no need to buy seeds.
The downside is that you will not get variety if only growing from clones. This s not an issue if you have found a plant that covers everything you need.
Which do I prefer?
Tough question... I love growing from clones for the predictability of the plants, they will normally be identical and react the same to lighting, training, feeds etc. Growing the same strain back to back also lets me get to know a strain inside out. But this can also get a bit boring after a few grows and I want to be able to find new keepers and I can't do that without seeds. Seeds also give me the chance to win the lottery by finding something very rare and special from a strain.
Both have places in my groom, 90% of my growing is from clones but I do like to hunt for that special plant on occasion and add it to my mother plants for future cloning.
I've done some write-ups on things related to the above post:
Keeping mother plants - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14533
How to take cuttings/clones from a cannabis plant - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14550
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