What Is a Clone & Why Is Cloning a Good Skill to Have?

Cutting Clones

Learning the Proper Way to CloneLeaning to Clone

Cloning is a popular method of propagating cannabis; it allows you to ensure a higher degree of quality control and predictability when raising your crop, as well as allowing you to bypass the lengthy process of growing from seed. Although seed is a good way to start a grow initially, the process of germination and growth from seed, including the weeding out of unwanted male plants, hermaphrodites and weak females makes growing a cannabis clone an attractive alternative.

In addition to being able to cultivate a crop of entirely-female plants, cloning will ensure a uniformity of growth among your plants, so you can expect to harvest similar quantities and potency of medicine from each plant grown in the same conditions. After all the other factors in your grow are taken into consideration, the quality and quantity of cannabis that your plants will yield largely comes down to genetics.

With cloning, once you’ve identified a female plant with robust, healthy growth and high resin / THC production, you can keep her alive and propagate genetically-identical clones from her for years to come. Timing the growth cycles and harvesting time of your crop, adjusting your nutrient blend to be perfectly suited to the needs of your specific strain, and maintaining perfect light, heat and humidity levels is all made easier when you grow a uniform crop of clones.

Perhaps most importantly, whether you choose to grow from clones regularly or not, being able to clone your plants is an immensely useful skill to have simply because it allows for asexual reproduction. So long as you know how to clone your plants, you won’t be totally reliant upon seeds or having access to pollen from a male plant in order to continue your crop. In this way, someone with only one or two female plants can still propagate a new crop and continue to grow and harvest their crop successfully, practically indefinitely.

Leaning to Clone

There are very few downsides to cloning, and it is widely practiced by growers.

Downsides of Choosing to Clone

One of the few downsides to cloning is the resultant lack of genetic diversity among your crop. Not only might you get bored of smoking the same strain of bud all the time, but if a disease, mold, infection or pest gets into your grow and afflicts your plants, it can quickly spread to all the plants in your grow. To mitigate this factor, choose a mother plant that has demonstrated hardiness, resiliency and resistance to mold, infection, pests and other growing hazards.

To further avoid the potential of infecting or infesting your grow, be sure to sterilize and clean all the equipment you use (especially if you reuse equipment between grows), and try to wash your hands before entering your grow room or handling your plants.

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