What is a cannabis "clone?" What are the advantages of taking marijuana clones? Well, first of all, cloning is one of the easiest and fastest ways for cannabis growers to make many new (and basically free) weed plants at once!
What Supplies Do I Need for Cloning?
Cloning cannabis is the process of making a smaller copy a specific cannabis plant. Basically a clone is a little piece of plant that has been cut off (a "cutting") from a parent plant and then given the opportunity to make roots of its own.
Cannabis clones are cuttings from a marijuana plant - these cuttings make roots of their own and grow into an identical plant as the "mother!"
Each cannabis clone has the same genes and is a genetic copy of its parent. That means if the parent of the clone is a female, you are guaranteed that all the clones taken from that cannabis plant will be female, too.
Cloning cannabis lets you make dozens of (practically free) identical cannabis plants quickly! Save your favourite plants to grow again!
Growers can take many clones of a single marijuana plant, and this is an easy way to get many plants that will grow the same way as the mother plant and produce buds with similar characteristics (smell, taste, potency, etc).
What's Great About Growing Cannabis Clones?
• a clone is an exact copy of a specific cannabis plant, which means clones share the same genes and will grow very similarly to each other and their mother plant.
• you know a lot about a cannabis clone already, since you know what their parent plant was like. While there's a lot of variation between plants grown from seed, even if they're the same strain, with clones you'll have inside information on how the clone will grow, what yields to expect, and the bud potency (plus other characteristics that can vary in a strain like bud colour, smell, etc.)
• you can easily take many clones at once from a single cannabis plant, for dozens of brand new plants that will be available in about a week.
• low cost - besides cloning supplies (which can be as simple as scissors and a glass of water), making clones is basically free.
• you can take clone at most points of a cannabis plant's life - although clones may root a little faster in the vegetative stage, you can take clones up until 2-3 weeks before harvest in order to save your favourite plant for the next grow (though make sure to pinch off any buds and expect some weird looking growth for the first week or two on cannabis clones taken from flowering plants.)
• clones get a head-start compared to seedlings - Unlike a seedling, each clone is the same "age" as the parent and therefore is completely mature. As a result clones grow much faster for the first few weeks compared to seed-grown plants, especially for a larger clone. A newly rooted clone will grow faster than a similarly sized plant grown from seed!
• clones are a good choice for Sea of Green or 12/12 from seed techniques - Since marijuana clones are already mature, a clone not only grows faster vegetatively but can also be changed to the flowering stage immediately to create a Sea of Green or 12/12 from seed cannabis garden.
• clones are not for everyone - many growers want to grow just a few plants of different strains. For these growers it may be better to start with seeds because seeds give you the ability to easily grow many different strains at once without having to maintain extra plants.
For many cannabis growers, taking cuttings and cloning can be a great way of propagating a cannabis strain or a particularly nice cannabis plant without ever having to ever worry about male plants or making or buying seeds. Each clone is free!
Like just about every important marijuana growing technique, there is controversy about the best way to clone cannabis plants. There are many effective techniques to clone plants and this tutorial will teach you how to clone today, but no matter what, cloning should only be used with the healthiest, most desirable plants you have. Although technically you can take a clone from any plant at almost any point in its life, you want to take clones of your best plants that have proven to be winners!
Today I will walk you through the entire process of cloning marijuana, and clear up some of the myths and misinformation.
How Cloning Marijuana Works
At it's simplest, cloning basically means cutting off a piece of plant and sticking it in the ground! New roots grow out of the stem, and soon you have a new cannabis plant!
If you study cannabis clones, you can see the roots actually grow directly out of the stem
What You Will Need
• A "mother" plant to take your clone from
• Sharp scissors or a razor
• Starter Cubes to place your new clones in (I like Root Riot)
• Cloning gel
• Strong, but Not Too Strong Light - CFLs, T5 grow lights, Metal Halide from far away, etc
• Humidity Dome For Clones
• (Optional) Heating Mat (especially for cool climates)
How To Take a Cannabis Clone
Before anything, clean and disinfect all your tools, and get everything ready, including setting out everything mentioned in the "What You Will Need to Clone Cannabis" section.
Take clones from "mature" cannabis plants - if the leaves are alternating (not connecting at the exact same part of the stem) the plant is ready to clone. Here's an example of a marijuana stem with alternating leaves/nodes, perfect for cloning.
Mature cannabis stem for cloning
Soak your starter cubes for a couple of minutes in the water. You don't need to soak them for days, a few minutes is fine.
Choose a spot where there is new branching and a new top, and cut a little bit below that. Just firmly grab the new growth and cut the branch away at a 45 degree angle. New cuttings should be 5-8 inches (10-20 cm) long.
When possible, take clones from vigorous growth tips from the lower half of your plant, as they have more rooting hormones than branches toward the top and will grow roots faster. However, clones taken from any part of the plant will work as long as they have a nice growth tip at the end.
Basically, you just want to cut away a small part of the plant. The roots will grow out of the "cut" you made, and the rest of the cutting will start growing into an individual plant.
Cut 5-8 inches (10-20 cm) below cannabis growth tip
Some growers gently scrape or even split the bottom of the cutting so more "raw" insides get exposed. As you can see from the picture below, the roots grow most easily from the parts of the stem that are raw, so scraping and splitting exposes more "insides," which gives more surface areas for roots to grow out of and promotes faster rooting.
Immediately put your new marijuana cutting in a glass of water! This will help prevent bubbles from getting in the stem!
Trim off any huge lower leaves or node points from the new cutting and clip the top fan leaves if they're big. Clipping the leaves helps prevent the weed clone from "over-exerting" itself trying to turn light into food, when the plant should be focused on roots.
You can take cannabis clones using just plain water, and your cuttings will make roots just sitting in the water that way. Some growers use rooting hormones and other cloning products to help the plant root faster.
If you do plan to dip your cuttings, take your cuttings from the water and dip your newly scrapped cutting immediately into rooting hormone powder or gel to seal off air bubbles and give your cutting what it needs to start making roots. Some growers will use gel and then powder afterwards to get the best of both.
Make sure you coat the entire bottom of the cutting, so that all the parts of the clone that get put into your starter cube is covered in gel.
Place the new clone into a moistened starter cube, and press around the bottom to make sure everything is sealed and no air can get to the rooting area.
If you have an automatic cloner or humidity dome, this is when you would place the new clone inside. When you recreate the right conditions, you don't need a cloner or humidity dome, yet these types of devices make successful cloning and root growth happen practically by itself.
Yet if you follow the steps in this article, it's not a matter of if your clones will take root, but just a matter of when. Almost 100% of clones will take root if you follow these instructions and just giver her enough time.
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