We know there are various ways to grow marijuana. You can grow using soil or no soil, you can grow hydroponically or aeroponically. All these ways to grow marijuana started with a seed. Another method that serious growers will often use is growing marijuana from clones.
What Is Cloning
Cloning a plant is basically taking a cutting from a plant and growing a plant from that cutting. If you are successful the cloned plant will have the same genetic makeup as the one you took the cutting from. This plant is often called the mother plant.
A plant that we are all familiar with and one that clones on its own is the strawberry plant. The strawberry sends out what we refer to as a runner but it is actually a stem from the plant. When this modified stem takes root, you end up with a plant that has the same genetic makeup as the original strawberry plant or a clone.
There are other plants that clone themselves also but what about those that do not clone themselves? That’s when we step in and take over the cloning.
How To Clone Your Marijuana Plant
There are a couple of methods that people use when they are trying to clone a plant. The easiest way to clone a plant is to take a cutting from the mother plant. Make sure to cut off excessive leaves or flowers from the base of the cutting. By doing this you prevent the excessive foliage from using up all the water which may slow down the plant from rooting or prevent the plant from rooting at all. Once your cutting is ready you can just stick it in some water. I usually use a clear glass so I can see when the roots start to appear without disturbing the plant.
Keep the cutting in a warm area that does get some sunlight but make sure it does not get too much sunlight as that just might kill your cutting.
Another way to clone your plant is to put your cutting right in the soil. Well we all know it really is not that simple. Using these methods does require you to have a few materials. You will need a container to hold your clone, soil or rock wool, root hormone(optional), water and a plastic or glass cover.
When growing marijuana from seeds it is best to use potting soil or composted soil. Your choice for a container will depend on a couple of things. Are you going to grow the plant in this container or will you be transplanting to a larger container? If you are going to grow the plant in this container than make sure your container is large enough. If you will be transplanting later than a simple plastic clear cup will do just fine. By using a clear cup you can see when the roots start to appear.
Root hormone use is optional. Root hormone contains synthetic auxin. Auxin is a hormone found in plants that actually signals to the plant whether it should grow more roots or leaves. By using the root hormone the plant gets the signal to grow more roots.
Root hormone may contain fungicides and chemicals which is not considered environmentally friendly, so because of that many organic farmers will not use root hormone.
For those of you that do use root hormone make sure you do not just dip your cutting into your jar of hormone. By just taking what you need out of the jar and applying it to the cutting could help save you from contaminating the whole jar of root hormone.
So now that we have all our materials ready to go the first thing we are going to do is fill our container with soil and then in the center we are going to poke a hole right to the bottom of the container. Then water the soil but don’t drown it. Next you need to prepare your cutting from the mother plant. Prepare it the same way as explained above.
The next step would be to apply the root hormone if you are going to use it, then put about one third of the cutting into the hole in the soil.
Finally, cover with plastic. Keeping the plant covered will help to retain moisture which the cutting is going to need in order to establish roots. You still need to water every day just make sure you do not drown your cutting. Also make sure your cutting gets some sun every day but not direct sun all day long.
Your cutting should establish roots within a week or two.
So you have to wonder what, if any, advantage is there to cloning?
Advantages Of Cloning
There are some advantages of growing marijuana from clones versus seeds. First off if your cutting takes and all goes well you know what you are getting. There is no need to worry whether this is going to be a male or a female plant. Whatever the mother plant was is now what your new plant is.
Some plants may be difficult to grow from seeds. You can actually mass produce using cloning.
You can save plants that may be endangered through cloning.
All the plants are genetically the same.
Plants can be grown any time of the year.
The most desired characteristics of the plant are reproduced.
Disadvantages Of Cloning
It can be expensive and it does require a more hands on approach compared to planting a seed. Since the clones have the same genetic makeup they are susceptible to the same diseases and environmental factors.
There is no genetic variation at all. Although this may be what we want it can be a disadvantage if the cloned plant is affected by some sort of disease. Since all the plants share the identical genetic makeup, all the plants would be affected.
When genetic diversity is lost so is the plants genetic flexibility meaning the plant will not be able to adapt to changes that may be happening in the environment.
Cloning can actually cause sterility and if for some unforeseen changes, diseases or pests, a sterile cloned plant gets wiped out there is no way to get that plant back.
Final Thoughts
Although growing marijuana from seeds has always been my preferred method there is definitely some great advantages to cloning. It may be a method worth exploring again.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I would love to hear about your growing experiences.
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Wow! That cloning business is quite a way to grow plants. I was wondering, is there a difference in time for cloning vs. a seed? Just curious.
Hi Beverly Thanks for dropping by my site. If you produce marijuana through cloning you will get a crop quicker than if you planted seeds. As usually there is good and bad to both. With seeds although it will take longer generally you will get a bigger crop but you may also end up with male plants. Cloning will give you the same exact plant you are cloning from but that plant could be susceptible to disease and pests.
Thanks for this article I enjoyed it and I must say that, I found your post highly uplifting and educational.
I often came across posts on the medical benefits of Marijuana and how it changed many lives or saved many lives. One of my friend’s life is saved because of it. And one of my friend is a blogger and she grow Marijuana and blog about it.
I am going to share your post with her and I strongly believe she gonna love it and will find great value from your post. She is growing Marijuana so cloning is going to be an eye opener for her and a thing to consider.
Thanks again for the informative post and wishing you great success!
Paul
Thanks Paul for your comments. There are many medical benefits from marijuana and I am lucky enough to have benefited from using marijuana. I have always grown from seed but am seriously thinking of trying to clone. I like a very high CBD plant and if I find the right one I will definitely try cloning.
Just wondering how much benefit the growth hormone really makes? Obviously if it can be kept as environmentally friendly as possible that’s to be preferred but are we slowing down the process by not using a hormone?
I think the risk of reducing the genetic variation by cloning, particularly over time, could be a considerable worry. Not all will clone only the best so perhaps inferior plants will become the norm. Do you think this could occur?
Very interesting read, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Hi Heidi thanks for your comments. Some of the growth hormones that are made from chemicals can be dangerous. These growth hormones can cause cancer, infertility, and liver damage and are known as environmental pollutants. Of course there are other growth hormones that a person can use and actually make themselves. So the option of using a growth hormone is there you just need to know what you are actually using. Read the label.
As for your second question I do think that over time if cloning is the only method of producing cannabis that inferior plants could become a norm. The chances of that happening though I think are very slim.
Hi and thanks for this interesting post about cloning marijuana plants.
I have done my share of planting this fantastic plant for years, from seeds and some cloning as well. I remember the cloning of very strong and expensive mother female plants was quite interesting and had good results.
We used to use a hormone called cloneX, I don’t know if it is still available but it helped the plant to grow roots much faster.
After some sequences of cloning though the quality of the clones went down. Maybe three generations were able to do.
Hi Stefan thanks for reading my post and thanks for the great information. I wonder why your cloned plants would start to lose their quality? You have given me something else to look into to. Thanks!
Growing marijuana in the past I have usually done from the seeds and had a very decent crop, but like you said there is no way to know what you are going to get male or female and the chances of getting a male is greater with seeds. Clones had just started to become a big thing when I had stopped being a cultivator of marijuana so I do not have the experience or the pleasure of working with them. From what you have written they do seem to need more care than growing from seed but knowing what your getting does make the clones the smarter choice. I appreciate the time and research you have put into this article and looking forward to more tips that I can pass along to my growing friends.
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Susan when you are growing from seeds you are definitely taking some chances. We had what we thought was a beautiful plant this past summer and it turned out to be a male. Very disappointing! There are problems with cloning also but over time I am sure someone will come up with some solutions.
This is a really interesting article. Marijuana is legal where I live and I’ve toyed with the idea of growing a few plants of my own. Do you have any articles about growing plants at home and the best ways to grow plants in a small space? That would be really useful for a lot of people in states that are legalizing marijuana.
Hi Rob from your comment I am assuming that you are American. Since you are in a state that allows you to grow can I ask you how many plants are you allowed to grow? I am in Ontario, Canada and we are now allowed to grow 4 plants per household. I do have other articles on this site about growing plants at home. Following this link for more information.
What a power information. I did not know that Marijuana was planted as a seed. I used to think that was a plant to plant, the cloning way to be exact.
In my opinion, the legalization of growing marijuana was beneficial for some people and not so much for others. A lots use as a medicinal way to cure or reduce some disease and some other just want for recreation that can lead them to be an addict.
I don’t understand that why planting marijuana is legal in some states, but if the Police found out they destroy the plantation, put people in jail, etc, I am confused on that.
Thank for the seeds and cloning explanation way on how to grow up those
Cheers,
Hi Telma thanks for your comment. I will assume when you talk about marijuana being legal in some states and not others you are referring to the United States. To be honest I find that confusing also but as a Canadian I do not have that problem. Legalizing marijuana has helped many people with medical issues. Although many people do use marijuana for recreational purpose I do not believe that that is the only factor to lead to addiction. It has been my experience that when people use drugs or drink alcohol to help with their problems they usually will not get any satisfaction. This will usually increase the use of the alcohol or drug and that will lead to an addiction.
Great info thank you! I was wondering though, If I wanted to use a grow lamp instead of sunlight, would I still want to limit the amount of light the cutting receives, or do you advise against grow lamps? Also should I keep a close watch on the temperature of the room the cutting is in? What is the ideal temperature to grow them in?
Hi Darrin light is light so you will still need to limit the light. If you are growing inside you are going to need grow lamps. Temperature is another important factor when growing marijuana. When you plant is in the vegetative state it does need a bit warmer temperature than when it is in the flowering stage. Try between 70-85F in the vegetative stage and around 65 -80F in the flowering stage. When your lights are off your plants can handle a cooler temperature – nothing too drastic though. If you want more info about lights Click Here
I did not realize you could clone a marijuana plant. I have taken house plants, such as some vining plants, and placed them in a glass until they grew roots. I had no idea that you could do that with a marijuana plant. I love that when you do that, you know whether the plant is male or female, that’s pretty cool. Love your website!
Hi Babs cloning a marijuana plant will basically give you the same quality over and over again. You would not however want to clone a male plant. The female plant is the one that produces the large buds that are consumed. Male plants are basically used for breeding seeds. As a grower you will not find a male plant in someone’s marijuana garden.
Great info! If they ever legalize growing it in MN I would be open to growing and now cloning the plant. I just didn’t know how cloning was done. I guess I’m curious though. You said that clones come from a mother plant. Can you clone a male plant too? If they could I’m sure it would open up a ton of ways to prevent completely lose strains in case of disease.
Hi Aaron I imagine you could clone a male plant but why as a grower would you want to? Don’t get me wrong they do have their use but are used by breeders not growers. If you are looking to consume marijuana then you want to be growing female plant. Most people who grow would destroy a male plant as soon as they detect it. As a Canadian I am not all that familiar with your laws but I believe medical marijuana is legal in MN. What you need to do to get a medical licence is something that may be worth exploring.
Hello,
Very informative article! Call me old fashion because I had no idea marijuana can be grown any other way than with seeds. The cloning method you mentioned in your article was the first I’ve heard. Even growing marijuana by placing seeds in soil requires some attention here and there. Cloning though appears to require more attention to make sure the marijuana doesn’t get infected by the environment as mentioned in your article and to do so can get a little expensive trying to keep the plant healthy. Very interesting to know of such a method “cloning” from you marijuana plant (mother?).
Forgive me for sounding dumb, but in your article you mentioned ” there is no need to worry about whether there is going to be a male or female plant”. I never knew plants could be determined as male or female.
How is that possible? Or, what do you mean by that male, female statement?
Can you also tell me, if the main reason for cloning is because it mains the potency of the plant it’s cloned from?
I look forward to your response.
Thank you so much for the education!
Dwilli
Hi Diana most people usually do grow using seeds as it is easier and more convenient. However when growing from seeds you may get a male plant which you do not want. Although you need male plants to create more cannabis this is best left to the breeders in the industry. The main reason for cloning is to produce the same plant again. When you find a great plant in your garden and want a repeat of that plant you may want to try cloning it. A cloned plant will have the same genetics as your original plant.