As more people get green fingers for the green herb, home-grown weed has become a growing hobby, even for the average cannabis user. Growing a clone of a cannabis plant has many benefits, from recreating a favourite strain to getting ahead of the germination cycle. Whether you’re an experienced grower or a beginner, it is important to know how to clone cannabis plants.
Cannabis Clones: What Are They?
Cannabis clones are cuttings, such as a branch, of a living cannabis plant that grows into a plant itself. About 15 centimetres of a mother plant are cut off and put into a root cube to encourage growth. After roots develop, the cutting will be planted, and it will grow like any other cannabis plant with the same genetic makeup as the mother plant.
What Is The Purpose Of Cloning Cannabis Plants?
Cloning cannabis plants have many benefits, such as:
- Saving growth time
- Saving growing space
- Cloning your favourite cannabis plant
Growing can have a tedious start from germinating seeds to getting the plant to flower. Clones, however, provide a seedless alternative to this process. Although, you have to wait for the clone to root out, you can speed up a 1-month process into a couple of days.
Allotting a piece of ground or pot plants for growing cannabis plants can quickly and easily create limitations of space. When you germinate seeds, you have to grow many plants and closely monitor the plants to identify female plants from the male plants, and remove the males as the female plants grow the bud. With clones, you can plant them directly into the ground or pot plant once it has grown roots.
If you are growing a cannabis plant and like the genetic properties of that plant, the appearance, smell or effects, you can create a clone of your favourite plant. Be sure that you are creating the clone from the mother plant.Â
Cannabis Mother Plants: What Are They?
Cannabis mother plants are plants which are cut to clone cannabis. Mother plants are cannabis plants that are always in the vegetative stage, as it is when the plant is healthy and sturdy to handle the effects of being cut from. It is also the stage where genetics are passed on. The clone is only as strong and sturdy as the mother plant so, be careful not to cut from a mother plant when it has passed its vegetative stage, this will affect the clone, allowing it to turn into a hermaphrodite, and negatively affect how the plant flowers.
Cannabis mother plants guarantee consistency in the genetics when cloned. You will be ensuring the same growth process with the same great taste, flavour and effects in the cloned plants. Depending on the space available, growers can either dedicate mother plants just for cloning or allow it to complete the germination cycle.
Clones will also guarantee that the weed plants are all females, so you don’t have to worry about growing from seeds, sexing the plants and removing the males.
Mother Plants: What To Look For?
As mentioned above, you want a mother plant that is in the correct stage (vegetative) and is healthy. If the plant is wilting or doesn’t produce good buds, then it won’t make for a good mother plant. Here’s what you should look for in a mother plant:
- Sturdy, strong growth
- Rousing aromas and flavours
- Big yields
- Rich in trichomes
- Resistant to pests and mould
How To Clone A Cannabis Plant
There are some important steps you will need to take when cloning cannabis plants.
What Do You Need To Clone Cannabis?
Here are the key items you will need to clone weed plants:
- Scissors (to cut from the mother plant)
- Razor (to trim the cuttings)
- Rooting setup
- Rooting hormone (to facilitate the growth of roots)
Setting Up The Rooting Medium
Choosing a rooting medium is important for the survival of the cuttings. The clones require a specific care, and investing in the right equipment will be to your benefit if you plan on cloning a lot. Rooting mediums include putting the cutting in a glass of water with rooting hormone in there, rooting cubes and an auto-cloner.
Each medium has its own benefits, the glass of water with rooting hormones is the simplest way of growing roots while root cubes provide a controlled environment that is in a tray that holds water and is covered to create humidity. An auto-cloner is an aeroponic device that sprays the bottoms of the cuttings with nutrient water at set intervals with a controlled temperature controller.
Before committing to a medium, do in-depth research considering your budget, the amount of time you are prepared to devote as well as the amount of space you have available to decide which medium works best for you and set it up before cutting from a mother plant.
Cannabis Cuttings: A 5-Step Guide On How To Take One
Step 1: Identify two nodes of a branch that are healthy, long and sturdy.
Step 2: Cut the branch off the mother plant using scissors, cutting above the node.
Step 3: Using a razor, cut the tips of the fresh cuttings at a 45-degree angle to the branch. This will increase the surface area of the root, facilitating root growth.
Step 4: Dip the tips of the fresh cutting into a rooting hormone and place it in your selected rooting medium. If you are using a glass of water or a rooting cube, place the cutting immediately in there. If you’re using an auto-cloner, place a collar around it and put it into the auto-cloner.
Step 5: Trim the excess leaves toward the bottom of the cuttings, and clip off the tips of the remaining fan leaves. This supports photosynthesis of the clone.
Transplanting Your Weed Clones
Your clones will be ready to be transplanted when they have grown roots of about two and a half centimetres in length, this process usually takes 10-14 days depending on the clone. Be sure the environment is sterile, and you are using gloves when handling the clones and transplanting them. To transplant them, you will need to:
- Put soil in your pots or find a suitable patch of soil in your garden
- Water the soil just before transplanting the clones
- Once watered and drained, dig out a hole of 3 to 5 centimetres deep, just enough to bury all the roots
- Put the clone in and cover with soil firmly
Buying Marijuana Clones: What To Look For?
You can also buy cannabis clones from Cannabis Shops where it is legal. Be sure to do research on the dispensary, where the clones are coming from and inspect the clones by looking out for stem widths, pests and diseases.
How To Examine Cannabis Clones
Not all pests, diseases and genetic markers will be easy to spot on a clone. When purchasing a clone, check out for the clone’s stem. The stem width is a great way to get a sense of its overall health. If a stem is thin and narrow, then the clone was cut from a weak branch. These cuttings are prone to disease or death and can take long for roots to develop.
Pests can be on any surface area of the clone and the soil it is grown in. If the leafs have spider mite spots or webbing or even bite marks, then the plant and/or soil it was in was infected with pests. Diseases are a bit tricky to detect with a naked eye, but check out for limping leaves, irregular growths and discolouration to determine if it has a disease. Powdery mildew is also common in clones, and mould spores can transfer from plant to plant. White powder on stems and leaves can be spotted if that is the case.
Keep Your Cannabis Clones Clean And Quarantined
If you decide to buy a cannabis clone, there are a few precautionary steps you can take to successfully protect the clone and the rest of your garden. Cleaning and quarantining your clones before you introduce them to your garden is important, Here are a few pro-tips to get this done:
- Transplant your newly purchased clones into a permanent container and growth medium. By doing this you are transplanting the clone to a cleaner space which will help fight off potential root damage.
- Clean the clones with any IPM solution by dipping them into the light solution of pesticide.
- Quarantine the clones for about a week before introducing them to the rest of the garden.
