Cannabis cloning is one of the most important tools in a cannabis growers tool kit. To clone cannabis take a piece of a cannabis plant and use it to create a brand spanking new cannabis plant. This new plant will be exactly the same as the plant that it came from. Cloning is so important because you can keep two versions of the same plant. Say you would like to have one plant to flower out for your fresh buds and another plant you would like to keep in a vegetative state. Both the flowering plant and the vegetative plant will both be the same so you can use the vegetative version to make more clones and when you’re finished just take the plant and flower that one as well! Pretty cool right?
What do you need to Clone Cannabis?
When Cloning Cannabis plants, you only need a few things, to get going with your own clones. Here are the things you will require to clone your cannabis plant.
- Scissors
- Spray Bottle
- Gel Rooting Hormone
- A small shot size cup
- A Glass of Water
- Some soluble Seaweed
- A Sharp Clean Razor Blade
- Small Rock Wool Cubes or another type of cloning cannabis medium like “Rapid Rooters”
- Small bucket
Cloning cannabis doesn’t require a ton of work but does require these tools above to get cloning your favorite cannabis plants.
Preparing to start your marijuana cloning
To get started you will need a clean area free of pests and diseases. Before you do anything make sure you clean all your tools with 70% alcohol this will kill anything that may be living in the tool that will root your clones before they even get going with roots. Have everything laid out in front of you so you can access it quickly when needed. The most important tools you will need right away are the clean razor blade to make your cuts on the branch for the clone itself and you clean glass of water. If you like you can add a bit of soluble seaweed in the glass, this will help keep your clone green until they root. Add your get rooting hormone to the small shot cup, depending on how many clones you are doing only add as much as you need, you can always add more if you need it.
That the medium (Rooting cubes) and place them in your small bucket. We like to add a bit of dried soluble seaweed into this water that we use to soak the cubes in. This is the perfect nutrient source for fresh cutting and will keep your clones nice and green until they are fully rooted in the trays.
Pro Tip:
Never dip your cut cannabis clone directly into the bottom of rooting hormone this is never a good idea. If you dip in a clone cutting with something that shouldn’t be in the bottle, it will ruin the whole bottle of rooting gel. Always dump a bit of rooting gel into something else like the shot glass and use that to dip cuttings into for cloning.
How to Take Cannabis Clones from your Mother Plants
When taking a clone from you mother plants, take your sharp razor blade and cut the branch just below the node, this is where the leaves are growing out of the plant. Once you have cut the plant just below the node on the branch take the cutting quickly and place the cut end into the water glass. This is important to do quickly as you don’t want the cut tip to get an air bubble this happens with the fresh cutting tries to take up water after it was cut and can only get air. Once it is in the water this will prevent the air bubble from forming at the cut.
Steps once the Cannabis Clone has been cut
Now you can do one clone at a time, or take a few clones just make sure you add them all to the water glass. Once you have a few clone cuttings from your mother plant take one of the cuttings out of the water glass. Use the scissors to trim the leaves, leaving the upper most leaves and the growing tip (Growing node) remove all the other leaves on the cut branch. With the largest upper most leaves cut off the outer most tips of the leaves. The reason for this is that the cutting will transpire (lose cutting moisture) though the leave tips. By removing the leaf tips, you will prevent the cutting from losing moisture in your clone helping to keep it healthy until it is able to bring in moisture from its new roots.
Next take the cutting with the trimmed leaves and place it on a flat surface. Then take the razor blade and cut the bottom of your fresh cut right in the center of the node just above your first cut. Make this cut on a 45-degree angle. On node is where the most life is happening on the cutting and will be the first place for new roots to grow out of. You may also take the razor blade and gently rub the sides on the bottom of the cutting. This will help destroy the outer most cells of the cutting and will help to form roots along the sides of the cuttings that will be under the medium.
Next and quickly to once again prevent an air bubble in the cut, place the new cut into the shot glass with your rooting gel. Roll the cutting around in the gel for a few seconds making sure to completely cover the bottom of the stem that will be under the rooting medium of your choice.
Then gently slide the cutting into the rooting cubes, rapid rooters or other chosen medium. Make sure not to damage or break the cutting as it is placed into the medium. This will hinder or prevent the cutting from rooting.
Taking care of your new marijuana clones
Now that your new cutting is a fresh new clone, place it in the tray with however many clones you are going to do. Depending on how dry the climate is you can cover the clones with a clear tray. This will keep the humidity in for the clones as they will not have roots to give them water and moisture so they will need to bring in this moisture for the next 4 to 5 days until the new roots start to form. If the climate is more humid you may not need to use a clear humidity dome on your new cuttings. If you go this rout then you will need to use your spray bottle to spray the fresh clones of the next few days two to three times a day, you can also add seaweed to this water in the spray bottle and this will also help keep your clone green. If it looks like the clones are drooping you can spray them more often or add a humidity dome.
How long will it take new cannabis clones to root?
Typically, it will take 10 to 14 days before you will see roots coming out of your chosen marijuana rooting medium. Once you see roots starting to grow out of the rooting medium it is now important to transplant them into your growing system, this can be a hydroponic growing system, soilless medium or soil.
Pro Tip:
Never let the roots and rooting medium dry out before or after placing them in your growing system. This will stunt your new clones depending on how dry the cubes and the root were before you transplanted them. If they became too dry, they will most likely die.
How to Transplant your newly rooting marijuana clones
Gently remove the clones from the cloning tray and place them carefully into the new growing environment, making sure not to break or damage any of the new root protruding from the rooting blocks or medium.
Pro Tip:
Add a bit of mycorrhizal inoculant around the roots before transplanting this will help the plant to take off even faster once it has been transplanted, it will also grow faster and healthier.
After the new clones have been transplanted add a bit of fresh water to them to keep the roots from drying out and making it easier for the roots to work their way into the fresh new growing medium. Place the new plants from clones under a light and watch them grow into exact replicas of the mother plants they were taken from!
