What Is A Clone?
Have you ever heard someone ask, “how to grow marijuana clones”? A clone is a term used to describe a genetically identical copy of an organism. When it comes to cannabis plants, it means essentially the same thing but specifically means that it is a genetically identical copy of the mother plant. When you are able to acquire a clone from a reputable breeder, you are going to get a young female plant that has stable and desirable genes.
Marijuana clones are the perfect examples of what is known as asexual propagation. This is what happens when a lone parent plant is going to reproduce. A clone is a true starter plant and is desired because it is retaining tried and true, tested genetics from the mother plant. A cannabis cloner is going to select the best phenotypes from a crop and want to ensure that the genetics are passed on. There are many mother plants for clones that are hotly sought after so it only makes sense to ensure that the best of the best continue being the cream of the crop.
When it is time to buy marijuana clones, be sure to deal with a reputable breeder that is going to have a solid track record.
How Are Marijuana Clones Made?
Learning how to clone marijuana can be a valuable skill for any grower. Making a clone is easier than you think and far less difficult that it was made out to be in the 1990’s movie, Multiplicity, starring Michael Keaton. The first thing you will need to do is grab the required tools. A pair of scissors will be needed for cutting off the branches from the mother plant. A razor will be used to trim up the cuttings. A simple rooting setup is required. This can be in the form of a dome, tray, root cubes or if you want to get fancier, an auto cloner. Lastly, there is the need for a rooting hormone.
Some common rooting setups will include rockwool, rooting cubes or something more like soil, such as foam or peat. If you decide to go with cubes, then a dome, tray cell insert and a tray are needed. Clones go into the cubes, cubes are then placed into the tray cells and finally into the tray where the water sits. The dome over the tray helps keep the humidity inside. An auto cloner is more expensive but takes much of the labor out of the equation.
If you want to know how to clone weed step by step, follow along. When ready to take a cutting, select the mother plant and ensure that it is a sturdy and healthy plant. It needs to be a minimum of two months into its growing cycle as well. Ensure that the mother plant is not fertilized a few days before the cutting takes place. Using gloves and disinfected equipment are going to ensure that it is a sterile environment. A strong and healthy branch is required, and it should have at least two nodes. A healthy clone is going to lead to a healthy plant. Next, cut the clone off of the mother plant and ensure that the cut happens above the node on the parent plant. Grab your razor next and then cut below the node on your fresh cutting at a 45 degree angle. Immediately place the fresh cutting into the rooting hormone. Lastly, you are going to want to ensure that any unnecessary leaves near the bottom are removed and take the tips off of any remaining fan leaves.
This may seem like a lot of extra work compared to starting your marijuana garden with Autoflower Seeds. The truth of the matter is that it can often be, but it does not always mean that the effort is not worth it. Another option is to grab some marijuana clones for sale from someone else and begin your journey there, and there are advantages and disadvantages for each choice.
What Are The Advantages Of Starting With Cannabis Clones?
We have just covered how do you clone a marijuana plant? Now let’s take a look at some of the advantages of how to grow marijuana from clone babies. While starting with weed seeds is often preferable for many growers, including beginners, there are some advantages of grabbing some cannabis clones for sale and wandering down the path of caring of your cannabis clones.
The first advantage of beginning to care for cannabis clones is going to be that you get to skip the beginning stage that must be undertaken when growing with ganja seeds. The step we are referring to is germination. When you plant a cannabis seed, you are going to have to wait a while for it to germinate. It could take as little as 24 hours but could also take up to 7 days in some cases. From start to finish, the seeding process can take up to 2-3 weeks when growing indoors and up to 6 weeks when cultivating outdoors. Starting with clones is going to allow you to skip this entire process as the clone’s mother plant has already gone through it and the clone represents the genetically remarkable by product of this process. With a clone, all you have to do is let it plant its roots and then you are magically in the vegetative phase immediately.
Another advantage of cutting and transplanting cannabis clones is that it can be cost effective. When you are growing your pot at home, buying seeds can be costly, depending on the strains and source of your cannabis seeds. Some seedbanks are predatory in their pricing unfortunately. Thankfully if you want high quality seeds at great prices, a place like Weed Seeds can get you started for a fraction of the cost. If you are going to be planting many plants over a longer period of time, keeping a healthy and stable mother plant for cuttings can be a major advantage.
While many growers who begin with regular seeds know, a male plant can spread its wings and pollinate many, many female plants and ruin a harvest. Many have chosen to go the route of using Feminized Seeds when beginning their gardens for just this reason. This leads right into an advantage of starting with clones. All cuttings are going to be from female plants and thus female plants themselves. This is a great way to ensure that your hard work and hard-earned dollars are not going to be wasted. This removes the headache of having to sex your plants and worry about overactive male plants being pollinating machines, which often leads to disappointment. One thing to keep in mind though when cloning is that “over-cloning” or other major stressors can increase the chance of a hermaphrodite plant. A hermaphrodite plant is one that contains both male and female genetics. The best way to avoid this is to put a cap on the number of times you will clone the mother plant before moving onto another mother plant. To be on the safe side, cloning a maximum of four times before moving on is the best option.
Another advantage to starting with clones is that they are predictable, and you know exactly what you are going to get. Some say that a package of cannabis seeds is, as Forrest Gump says, like a box of chocolates, you just never know what you are going to get. That is of course, unless you buy your ganja seeds from a reputable seed bank like Weed Seeds and then you are going to get an outstanding germination rate and high-quality plants, but let’s not get off track here. Clones are stable and easy to forecast. They are replicas of the outstanding mother plant so starting a marijuana garden with these little puppies is going to produce phenomenal genetic results.
Lastly, starting with clones can allow more harvests per year or growing cycle. This is the result of being able to skip the germination and seedling process. It saves enough time to squeeze one more harvest when growing outdoors. When growing cannabis clones in soil or another medium indoors, it allows you to have a constant grow all year round and produce more than you may have hoped for.
Grow Flowers from Clone
Growing Cannabis: Clone VS Seed
Grow Cannabis Clones
What Are The Disadvantages Of Starting From Clones?
Like anything out in this world, there are going to be ups and downs. While growing marijuana from clones has some advantages, it is not all rosy taking care of cannabis clones. New growers can benefit from learning if there are differences in lighting for cannabis clones and where to buy marijuana clones, among other things.
Of course, when you are looking for cannabis clones for sale online you are going to be relying on the skill and knowhow of someone else. This can always be a risky proposition and needs to be factored into a decision. Do they follow the best way to clone cannabis plants? Is the cost of cannabis clones fair and reasonable? Are they selecting genetically superior mother plants or are they choosing plants that have flaws and produce poor quality buds. If the mother plant that was selected has inferior qualities or subpar genetics, then these traits are going to be passed on to the cuttings. This will end up producing an entire garden of plants with less than optimal results.
Another disadvantage of starting out with cannabis clones is that not all marijuana plants are viable mother plants. There are simply some marijuana plants that are not suitable for cloning. This is going to limit the type and variety of plants that are able to be grown from clones.
For commercial growers, the end result might be to have a top selling strain be super predictable and produce identically to the mother plant. This might be a disaster for the home grower as it will reduce variation and variety in their stash. As a wise man once said, “variety is the spice of life” and a homegrown stash that is limited to low variance in strains and effects is going to be subpar quality.
Clones are sensitive after being cut as they lack a root system. This makes them susceptible to environmental factors and often should be left to experienced growers who are able to account and handle the extra precautions needed. The lack of root system in the beginning stage of a clone’s existence is another cause for concern. Since they skip the germination, seedling and rooting process they are never going to have as strong a root system as a plant that begins from seed. This is going to inevitably lead to a smaller plant overall and when the plant is smaller, it is going to produce less flower during the harvest. This is not ideal when maximum returns are the end goal.
Important Supplies To Have On Hand When Cloning
Whether you want to learn how to clone a weed plant, how to make weed clones, how to plant weed clones or simply how to clone weed in soil there are going to be some basic and important supplies that you will want to have on hand.
Gathering your materials is going to be vital to the success of your cloning exercise. You are going to need a sterile blade, distilled water a rooting agent, a growing medium (rockwell, starter cubes for clones, peat, etc), a grow tray with a hood that has vents, and of course a healthy and stable mother plant.
With all of these and a little know how you can get started on the task that seems daunting at first, how to clone cannabis in soil.
Does Cloning Involve Genetic Alterations?
The short answer is no but maybe. Cloning creates exact replicas of the mother plant. In fact, a one week old clone that has been taken from a two month old mother plant is in fact going to be two months old as well. The confusion that you may find all over the internet comes from the environment that the clones are subjected to. If a clone is living in a low humidity environment and chronically under fertilized and under watered, then it will not be the strapping specimen that its genetics indicate. If another clone from the same mother plant, which will share the exact same genetics, is receiving perfect fertilization, watering and humidity levels it will come out as a rockstar. This does not mean that the genetics are being altered but rather, the environmental factors are a lot different. A simple analogy should shed some light on this phenomenon. In one scenario, a person blessed with superior genetics works out hard every day but goes home and fills their diet with sugary drinks, fatty foods, excessive calories and poor sleeping patterns, they will not attain a lean and muscular body. If this same person worked out with the same frequency and intensity but went home and fuelled their body with whole grains, lean proteins, a perfect macronutrient profile and adequate sleep they would achieve a far leaner and more muscular body. The genetics of this person did not change when they chose a poor diet, but the environmental factors caused a different outcome.
How Does Cloning Impact Cannabis Genetics?
There is some research that is starting to show that there may be some genetic mutations among clone populations. It is known as Muller’s ratchet, and says that it might be nature’s way of showing they prefer sexual reproduction through seeds.
Telomeres could play a vital role in the decay of clones. They are protective caps at the end portion of a chromosome. They help ensure that the DNA is copied accurately when the cells divide. Unfortunately, when the telomeres are stressed or damaged, they might lose an end strand of DNA which is going to lead to a decay in the genetics. The result of this happening several times is that the plants are going to lose their ability to undergo competent cell division. This leads to less healthy, weaker plants that are lacking in some vital genetic material.
This loss of health is going to affect the plants that are being grown and ultimately could lead to less generous yields and lower potency flowers. This could all be avoided by heading to Weed Seeds and getting your hands on some superior cannabis seeds and beginning the process from the germination phase, the way nature intended it.
What Grows Faster: Seeds Or Clones?
Seeds are going to need to be germinated at the beginning. This is when they are going to spout out from the seed and begin developing their taproot system. These taproots are the lifeblood of the plant and develop strong, sturdy and healthy plants. Unfortunately, this process is going to take time. Germination could happen as quick as 24 hours but may take up to a week. Once the germination process ends, the seed becomes a seedling and may take up to six weeks to enter the vegetative phase. This time is valuable for the strength and viability of the plant but does not produce a harvest quickly.
A clone on the other hand has already undergone this entire process when it was a part of the mother plant. The ability to bypass the germination and seedling process is going to give a cannabis clone a head start on the growing process. This means that they are going to grow faster and produce a harvest quicker.
In life there are always going to be trade-offs. We just learned that clones are going to grow faster than seeds, but the trade-off is that plants grown from seeds are going to grow larger. This is because they have a well-developed tap root system. The tap root acts as a main stem. It is going to grow down and spread out laterally in the soil or another growing medium. This means that it is going to be able to access more water and nutrients deeper in the soil. The larger and strong tap root system is also going to allow it to be stronger and grow larger than a cloned plant. The larger the plant, the more flowering sites it is going to have. The more flowering sites it has, the larger bounty of buzzworthy buds you’ll be able harvest.
At the end of the day, cannabis seeds are going to produce larger and more robust plants than clones. When the name of the game is fat, juicy buds it makes sense to grab some cannabis seeds from Weed Seeds and leave the clones for another time.
Caring For Cannabis Clones
If you ask any experienced cannabis cultivator, they will tell you that cannabis plants can be extremely sensitive in the early stages of life. While clones are going to skip the germination and seedling process, they are going to still need care during the vegetative and flowering stages.
During the vegetative stage, the clones are going to lay down their roots and grow the majority of their foliage. During this time, they will need approximately 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness per day. If they receive too much darkness, they can enter into something known as pre-flowering. When there is too much darkness, it will stress the plant. You will also want to keep an eye out for stress from too much heat, which will look like curling and/or drooping leaves.
When beginning with clones, they should be planted ASAP. If you need to store them for a short period of time before they are planted be sure to store them adequately. Water them with a nutrient diluted solution. Place them under fluorescent lights at low intensity or you could promote them stretching too early. Make sure the rooting cubes are moist but do not allow water to accumulate in the tray. This helps slow their rate of growth and keep them a manageable size before being transplanted. Lastly, make sure that they are re-arranged regularly so that some do not get shaded out and they are all able to thrive.
When they are ready to transplant, prepare the medium you are going to use. Fill your pots with that medium. It is recommended to start out with a 1 gallon pot to ensure that the root balls are going to be developed before transferring them to a larger, and more permanent home. After a few weeks they are going to be ready for the larger containers or directly into the ground. Dig out a small hole that is the size of the 1 gallon pot and place the clone in the hole. Fill the medium around the clone’s cube and make sure they are even with one another. Finally, water your clone thoroughly.
Once they are transplanted, the grower is going to want to introduce them to light gradually. The intense heat from the sun or lights indoors can put them into shock. Give them time in indirect sunlight for the first few days and allow them to acclimate. After about one to two weeks, ensure that you check on the moisture level of the rooting cube and the plant. The medium around the cube can pull moisture away from the plant. If this has happened, give the rooting cube direct water. After a couple of more weeks, the root system will be further developed, and this should not be an issue.
Some of this tender, loving care can seem a bit tedious. This is in large part due to an underdeveloped root system of a clone. When you grow American Seeds from the beginning, the root system is thoroughly developed by the time the vegetation stage begins and these problems are alleviated. Head to Weed Seeds Home and pick up some outstanding cannabis seeds today.
Why Are My Cannabis Clones Not Rooting?
When you are learning to grow marijuana clones there is going to be a learning curve and inevitable mistakes made along the way. One of the most common questions that arise is why are cannabis clones not rooting? This could be for a variety of different reasons.
Some common mistakes occur when taking the cuttings. One of the most obvious mistakes is that the cuttings are too small and do not have enough of a stem to allow them to breath and be sprayed once transplanted. Another common misstep is that the rooting medium is not humid enough. Make sure that the water has a pH of 6.0 to put yourself in the best scenario. If you get the medium too wet, it could cause the trunk to rot which prevents the clone from rooting. If you scrape too much when taking the cutting you can damage the second layer of skin which holds the rooting hormones. Be careful to not scrape away the required hormones. Another common mistake when taking the cutting is that too many leaves are removed. Some need to be taken off but you should leave at least 60% of each leaf on the plant.
Even after taking the cuttings properly, there are some common mistakes when maintaining your cuttings. When transplanting your cuttings, make sure that the rooting medium is wet and moist but then do not add any more water until they root. This will take around 10 days to happen. Do not spray the tops of the leaves. Instead, spray them on the underside of their leaves. If they are in a propagator, simply remove them, hold them upside down and then place them back in. The next step can be difficult when growing clones outdoors. Keep them around 72℉ as they will not root if too cold, and if the heat is too high the roots will die off right away. This is why clones are recommended to be started indoors before heading out to mother nature. Make sure that you are exposing them to new air in the propagator. Lastly, do not let them get too hot or they will die a quick and painless death but will leave you extremely disappointed.
Why Are My Cannabis Clones Wilting?
Cannabis clones can be wilting for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common reasons are going to be discussed here. While cannabis clones need to be firmly seated in your chosen medium, they can in fact be seated too firmly. If the clones are seated too firmly, the stem may have been broken or bent. Either way, when this happens, they are no longer able to uptake water. Without enough water, they are going to begin wilting.
When there is shock to the plant from lights that are too bright or too hot, they can begin to wilt. You can eliminate this issue by using fluorescent lights as that is all they need. Another option is to use an anti-transpirant spray. This is going to reduce the wilting. It will form a waxy barrier on the clones that helps keep moisture inside of the cutting and reduces wilting.
When there is too much leafy mass left on the clone, they become too large. When they are too large their rooting system is not going to be developed enough to provide what is needed to all areas. The end result is going to be wilting clones. Simply trim the leaves to approximately half their size and see the wilting be a thing of the past.
Why Are My Cannabis Clones Turning Yellow?
Unfortunately, when the leaves of your cannabis clone are turning yellow, there is a problem. What is happening is that they are beginning to cannibalize themselves. This happens when they are trying to photosynthesize but are unable to uptake the nutrients that they need for this process. This is common among new clones that are exposed to too much light.
While many think that a yellow clone means that it is not getting enough light, it in fact is getting too much light. This is because the clone does not have a rooting system in place and is not able to access the nutrients it needs to grow. Unfortunately, once the clone turns yellow it is often a lost cause. Simply toss it away and ensure that your other clones and future clones are exposed to ambient light before they develop their roots. Once the roots are developed, they can handle the direct light as they have a source to uptake nutrients.
If you want to avoid these issues with growing clones, be sure to head to Weed Seeds and Contact US for Seeds. Starting to grow with seeds will eliminate these issues as the root systems have adequate time to develop and grow.
How To Find Medical Cannabis Clones Near Me
Whether you are looking for clones or Weed Seeds Online, the process is going to be simple and easy. Look for a distributor or Seed bank that is reputable. If they seem to have appeared in the middle of the night with little or no online presence, then they are likely to flee in the middle of the night as well. Look for positive reviews from a wide variety of users. Take your time and be in no rush. If you are looking for medical cannabis clones, speaking with your doctor could be a logical first step. They could point you in the direction of an entity that they trust, or other patients have vouched for.
When searching for an online seed bank, you want to look for something that has a plethora of 420 Seeds and a clone dispensary should also have a wide selection available.
What Nutrients Are Needed For Cannabis Clones
Selecting the nutrients for your cannabis clones can be an intimidating experience at first. There are many products out there that claim to be the best for growing top notch plants. Like any other product, brand name can be misleading and finding high quality information can seem like wading through a swamp.
The first thing to know is that young cuttings, ones that have just come from the mother plant, are not going to need any nutrients at all. The main reason for this is that they do not have any rooting systems. Giving them nutrients without a way of absorbing the nutrients is futile and potentially damaging to these sensitive specimens. They need to be dipped in rooting hormone first. Giving some B1 vitamins and diluted water is enough for these little babies.
The three main nutrients that you are going to provide your clones when they are ready will be nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Nitrogen will be the most abundant in many of the nutrient formulas you find from manufacturers during the vegetative phase. It is going to be used to help grow the plant as large as possible. With clones though, tread lightly and avoid any of the “grow” formulas as nitrogen is going to divert the growth from the root to the foliage. This will limit your clone’s ability to lay down roots and affect the overall structure. A ratio of 1-3-3 (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) is going to be in your clone’s best interest. You can dilute your nutrients if needed and check them using a pH level. A pH level between 5. and 5.7 is going to be best for young clones.
Once the clones have been transplanted into their large containers and have established their root systems, then they can have a more aggressive nitrogen grow program.
When To Transplant Cannabis Clones
Whether you are cloning plants that came from CBD Seeds or 710 Seeds, the transplanting process is going to be the same. You will not want to transplant your clones until they have established a root system. The rooting process may take two weeks. During this time, give water every few days and resist the urge to mess with the plants. They are undergoing a vital process for success down the road. A grower is able to transplant a clone once the roots are at least a half of an inch, but many like to wait a little bit longer until the roots are one inch in length. The basic rule of thumb is that the longer the roots, the less trauma or shock they can experience when transplanted.
Take them and place them into smaller containers, often 1 gallon pots, and allow them to continue their root development before fully immersing them in their long term homes.
Ideal Ph For Cannabis Clones
Why does the pH level when growing cannabis matter? It boils down to having healthier plants that are going to have better growth and produce substantially better harvests. Regularly checking your pH is going to ensure that nutrients and medium are optimally balanced for the best growth possible. If the pH balance is off, then there will be issues taking up the nutrients that are required and nobody wants to have nutrient deficient cannabis plants.
When it comes to the ideal pH for growing your clones, the answer is going to depend on what medium you are using. When growing clones in soil, a pH between 6.0 and 7.0 is going to be the optimal zone. If you are growing your cannabis plants in hydroponics or other soilless mediums, such as coco, the ideal pH levels are going to be lower than in soil. In this case, the pH for soilless growing will be between 5.5 and 6.5.
Another option is to avoid all of this pH measuring and focus and grow using organic soil. Organic soil is going to have an optimal level of pH and not require any checks at all. This one of the main reasons that many growers are proponents of organic growing these days.
How Often To Water Your Cannabis Clones
Watering your cannabis clones is going to be of the utmost importance if you want to have a healthy, strong and huge yielding plant. When you first place your clone in its medium, you are going to want to water it and then leave it for approximately 10 days. This will allow the root system to develop. After transplanting, you want to water thoroughly. Give it a deep watering as your first order of business. The main reason for this is to help ensure that there are no air pockets in the medium you are using. The deep watering also helps ensure that there is enough moisture for every aspect of the root ball.
For the first week after transplanting, the root system is underdeveloped so frequent watering is essential. Make sure that the growing medium has enough water, and it is not being leached by the surrounding soil. After the first week, water them infrequently but monitor so that you know when watering is necessary. When you do water the plants, make it a thorough watering. You will know when you can stop as you will see the water running off through the drainage at the bottom of the pot. About 20% of the water you give will turn to run off. If you do not allow for this level of runoff, salts will begin to build up in the plant and lead to plant damage.
Lastly, it is important to keep your water cool. If you leave it in the grow room or outside with the plants, it can often raise above 70℉ which is going to be a more suitable environment for pathogens. Water above 70℉ also contains less oxygen which can be detrimental to your plants.
Buying Cannabis Clones: Dos And Donts
When buying cannabis clones there are going to be a few tips to get you started on the right foot. Always buy from a reputable source for the clones, much like you would when buying your cannabis seeds from a place like Weed Seeds. If you live in a state where medical and adult use is permitted, a local dispensary should be a good place to start. Always inquire where the clones originated and if the supplier cannot provide that info, move along.
A few other must Do’s:
- Inspect your clones for any types of disease, pests, residue from pesticides or obvious genetic flaws. If you notice a thin or weak stem, then it likely came from a poorly suited mother plant.
- Make sure to quarantine and clean your clones before introducing them to your garden.
A few things Not to Do when buying clones:
- Don’t always assume that price indicates quality.
- Do not buy from anyone who is not able to verify where their clones came from.
- Do not buy a clone that has obvious signs of pests, diseases, or genetic flaws.
How To Care For Cannabis Clones
There are a few simple steps to take when caring for your clones. Make sure that you have the essential tools for the job. Always have proper lights, grow tents, soil, nutrients, planting pots and high-quality water. Once you obtain your clone, get it home as soon as possible as the extra time away from a stable environment can cause stress and trauma. Make sure to start your clones indoors. The variability outside can be difficult to overcome at times so the stability of a controlled environment is the way to go. Make sure you transplant your clone as soon as possible. You want to get the root systems started ASAP. Lastly, make sure that you research the proper lighting and watering schedules to maintain and achieve optimal success.
Cannabis Clones Rooting
Waiting for your clones to root can be frustrating. Getting them to root faster is going to be a big win at the beginning of the growing journey. In order to have them root faster, the environment needs to be exactly right. Make sure you use warm water to expand the rooting pellets. The best place to cut the clones will be on the lower portion of the mother plant. Just remember, the closer the clone is to the roots, the faster their new roots will grow. Then, place the clone in cold water after cutting. Then, make sure that they receive 18 hours of light and are in a room temperature of 70℉.
Following these simple steps will get the rooting systems started as fast as possible.
Price Of Cannabis Clones
There are many new growers that opt to start their gardens with clones. The price of clones can be a major reason to get started this way. In many places around the country, a clone is going to run you $10-20. Some rare or elite strains might cost a bit more but be sure that you are not just getting gouged. While cannabis seeds can at times be more cost prohibitive than clones, it is wise to remember that they also are going to produce larger plants with bigger harvests.
Choosing between clones and seeds can definitely be a “pick your poison” option, the low price of clones can be a place to start before moving on to buying Wholesale Seeds from Weed Seeds when your skills develop and you are interested in a much wider variety of strains at your disposal.
