How To Clone Cannabis Plants

There are many reasons why you should know how to clone cannabis plants. In fact, this is an important skill for anyone who wants to be a serious weed grower. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know how to clone cannabis plants. By following a few basic steps, you’ll be cloning like a pro and producing more bud than ever before.

Why You Should Know How To Clone Cannabis Plants

Any legit grower needs to know how to clone cannabis plants. Growing clones offers a number of benefits. For starters, it’s a cheap and easy way to get tons of new plants. If you grow from seed, you need to buy a new batch of seeds for every new crop. That can get expensive. Your only other option is harvesting your own seeds, but to do that you have to let at least one of your mature plants go to seed rather than produce smokable flowers without any seeds in them.

Additionally, cloning lets you get a precise final product. When you make a clone, it is a genetic copy of the “mother” plant. That means you already know what you’re getting. For example, if you grow a mature female plant with tons of trichome-coated flowers, and you love everything about it, make a clone. Every clone that mother plant generates will be a perfect match.

Finally, growing from clones instead of seeds is a quicker process. You don’t have to worry about germinating seeds and caring for tiny little sprouts. Once your clone puts out roots of its own, you basically transplant it and let it do its thing.

Cloning Cannabis Plants: Getting Started

Here’s what you will need to clone a cannabis plant:

• A healthy, mature female cannabis plant
• A razor blade or super sharp scissors
• Disinfectant
• Rooting hormone or rooting gel
• Rooting medium
• Water
• A light source

Another great thing about cloning is that it does not require any expensive or hard-to-find, specialty gear. In fact, you can produce good clones with nothing more than sharp scissors and a cup of water. But in this guide, we’ll give you a slightly more structured approach than that.

Step 1: Take The Cuttings From The Mother Plant

To start things off, you have to make your “cuttings.” These are the pieces of the mother plant that you will cut away, and that will eventually develop their own roots. To make a cutting, start off by using your disinfectant to sanitize the razor blade or scissors you will use.

Now, identify where on the mother plant you take the cutting. Look for well-established branches, low down on the plant, which have a lot of new growth at their tips. Pull back all other nearby branches so you have easy and clear access to the branch you want to cut.

Using your razor blade or scissors, carefully cut the branch away from the main stalk of the plant. Cut it at a 45-degree angle. Be quick but gentle. You want to minimize the amount of trauma your plants experience throughout this process. Put the cutting directly into a cup of water.

Step 2: Prep The Rooting Medium

The rooting medium is the stuff that will house your cuttings while they begin developing their own roots. While it is possible to put your cutting directly into a small container of soil or to suspend it in water, we suggest using these Rapid Rooter plugs. They make the entire process easier. Soak each one in water for about five minutes before inserting your cutting.

Step 3: Put The Cuttings Into The Rooting Medium

After the rooting medium has soaked, remove your cutting from the glass of water. Dip the cut end into either rooting hormone powder or rooting hormone gel. Be sure to coat the entire cut in the rooting hormone. Next, gently and carefully place the cuttings into the rooting hormone.

Pro Tip: To give your cuttings the best of all possible worlds, dip them in the gel first and then follow it up with some powder.

Step 4: Let The Cuttings Develop Roots

To promote the growth of strong roots, be sure to clip away any big leaves located low down on your cutting. Similarly, if the tip of your cutting has tons of huge leaves, trim them a bit. Don’t cut them off entirely, just trim them back. The idea is to signal to your cutting to focus on growing roots rather than on growing vegetation.

During the rooting phase, cuttings like warm and moist environments. Shoot for somewhere between 72 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit with enough humidity to keep the leaves slightly moist. One super easy way to do all this is to place your cuttings in a simple humidity dome.

Along with maintaining proper levels of humidity and temperature, pay attention to light. Your cuttings will do best if they have six to eight hours of darkness per day. You can simply place them in a sunny spot in your home and let them work with the natural sunlight. Or, if you are using a lighting system, go with less-powerful compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Step 5: Transplant The Cuttings

Your cuttings are ready to be transplanted when they have a root system that is strong enough to start producing brand new vegetative growth. When your plants are ready, begin by carefully preparing a space large enough for your cutting and its new roots in whatever growing medium you will be using. From there, you can transplant the entire cutting—Rapid Rooters and all—directly into your soil or your hydroponics system.

When transplanting, go slow and be careful. Your clones are still young, and transplant shock can damage them. Gently place them into your growing medium. If you are using soil, carefully pack soil around it so it can stand up on its own.

Step 6: Grow Your Clones

From there, take care of your clones the same way you do a regular cannabis plant. Focus on light and nutrients. Maintain the right temperatures and humidity levels, and watch out for mold, bacteria, and harmful pests. Once clones have an established root system, they tend to grow quickly. So take care of your babies and get ready to enjoy a great harvest.

Final Hit: How To Clone Cannabis Plants

By knowing how to clone cannabis plants, you significantly expand your options for growing great weed. If you do it right, cloning can be an affordable and straightforward way to yield high-quality plants and ultimately, buds. The best part of all is that, since they’re all genetic copies of each other, your plants will all give you a remarkably consistent final product.