Cloning is a great way to preserve a marijuana strain that has fared well throughout the growing season and has brought a successful harvest. No new seeds will be exactly the same, so cloning is the only way to ensure you get the exact same type of plant to grow for you again. This is an important process that all marijuana growers should know, so continue reading to learn this cultivation skill.
This article covers:
Why clone?
How to start cloning
Four simple steps to cloning
Cloning for the fairer sex
Why clone?
Cloning is a good idea for a few reasons, including:
- It takes advantage of a highly successful strain of marijuana that you would like to duplicate.
- It allows you to obtain a higher quantity of seeds. When you have a good season, you don’t have to wistfully wish you could magically have that strain again -- you can simply clone!
- Many growers choose to clone for sex, therefore ensuring a higher number of female marijuana plants to achieve the best harvest possible.
How to start cloning
While for newbies it may sound like a complicated process, cloning is actually quite simple and has its roots deep in gardening history.
- Get a cutting from the plant you desire to
- Get that cutting to root by planting it into the ground.
- Get a plant that is between two and three months old, though any mature plant should be fine for cloning.
- Choose carefully which plant you would like to clone, then continue on with the cloning process.
Four simple steps to cloning: cut, root, water, ventilate
You simply need to clip a branch from the chosen plant. Go for a branch that is near the bottom of the plant with big, developed leaves. The branch should be cut at an angle as if you were chopping the ends of flower stems off in order to leave them in water.
Right after making the cut, put this cutting in prepared, room temperature water. Keep it in the water to move it to the place you plan on rooting it. Rooting cubes or small sizes peat pots, available at your local garden center, will make for good rooting mediums. Other mixtures, such as liquids or gels, are also a possibility. Some growers experienced in cloning prefer to roll the fresh cutting in rooting powder or gel, which may also do the trick.
After that, you need to pay extremely close attention to the condition of the cutting. Instead of watering the soil or other medium they are in (as they have no roots to absorb water yet), spray the plants with water to keep them moist.
Ventilation should not be neglected, either, but drying out the cuttings could be extremely damaging. Using freezer bags to retain moisture while also encouraging proper ventilation could help. Roots should grow after a few weeks. At this point, move them into the ground to grow properly. More about cloning in my free grow bible.
Cloning for the fairer sex
Lots of growers decide to clone their plants to get as many guaranteed female plants as possible. You will first need to identify which of your cuttings are female -- and that is only done through the deprivation of light, and the early onset of the flowering phase. Three or four weeks of vegetative growth are necessary before this process begins. Otherwise, the flowering phase won’t start.
To induce an early flowering phase, give your cuttings (now having had several weeks of vegetative growth) 12 full hours of darkness for 14 days straight. If even a small amount of light interrupts the 12 hours, then it, unfortunately, will not succeed, and you will have to go for another two full weeks.
Once the flowering phase begins, blossoms will start to appear on the cuttings. Within a relatively short amount of time, you should be able to identify the sex of your plants. Unless you want to get seeds, dispose of the male plants and move the female ones to a place where they can go through some more vegetative growth. Do this by giving them 13 or more hours of sunlight every day.
Thanks for reading. Please leave comments or questions below and don’t forget to download my free grow bible.