Clones

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Mother Plants and Cutting Clones

A clone is a cutting with viable top growth taken from a Mother plant. The Mother plant should preferably be in the vegetative growth phase, healthy, and watered recently. If it was droopy before watering wait till it has perked up. Since this cutting is going to be the new plants main stem you of course want to use healthy and happy growth from a strong growing plant free of disease and defects.


The cutting should be taken at the joint to a stem or just above a leaf node like when topping. It should have the top leaf growth and at least one node of two (or more) fan leaves. Be sure to take cuttings with enough stem to bury for it to support its own weight.

As soon as you cut it place it in spring water or dechlorinated water until you are ready to prepare it for rooting. Don’t use distilled or strait reverse osmosis (RO) water as they can draw nutrients out of the plant.

Turn a Cutting Into a Clone

1) Prepare your grow medium of choice and make sure it’s lightly damp not soaking wet. It should be in a small container that has holes in the bottom with a humidity dome as these cutting will only be using moisture from the air to survive they won't survive without a dome. A clear plastic drinking cup works great, just be sure to place into a light blocking pot. Now you can pull it out to check for roots with ease.


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Good: Pots w/ Humidity Domes These are fantastic for giving away small clones to your family.

I use this

Better: Befano Pots w/ Humidity Domes These are fantastic for giving away larger clones to your family.

I use this

Best: Humidity Dome Tray Perfect for keeping several clones happy in one spot and doubling as a seed starting container.

I use this

2) Use a razor blade to cut the bottom of the stem off at a sharp angle to expose the inner pith (the center of the stem). The inner few rings is where the roots come out so we want to expose as much of this area without damaging it in a negative way. If your stem is wide enough you can slit it long ways about 1/4" to expose even more inner pith area. Also gently shave the outer skin from the bottom 1/2" of the stem.

3) Dip the stem of this this prepared cutting in your rooting hormone gel or if using powder dip it in spring water and then into the powder.

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Good: Take Root Rooting Hormone Powder

I use this

Best: CloneX Rooting Hormone Gel

4) Pre-poke a hole in your grow medium of choice so when you push the stem in it doesn't wipe away the rooting hormone.

Pictured here is Fox Farm's Coco-Loco

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Good: Rapid Rooters are convenient but far from necessary

Best: Coco Loco Potting Mix is one of the best potting mixes around. Very pricey for a bag of "soil" but then its not really soil its coco coir and amendments.

I use this

5) Use a misting spray bottle to spray your clone and give a shot to the inside of the dome lid.

You can mix up a very weak foliar spray nutrient that will help keep your clones happy until they have roots. in one gallon of spring water use just 1/4tsp (a little over 1ml) of Dyna-Gro Grow fertilizer or other similar NKP fertilizer that's safe for foliar feeding. If you're using distilled or RO water you'll need to add some Cal-Mag as well here are two brands I like, I'd get which ever is more reasonably priced when you're buying.

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Dyna-Gro Grow will take you through the whole vegetative growth phase. See the Nutrients page for more info

I use this

Cal-Mag is something you need to have on hand through the whole grow. If you use filtered water or water from your dehumidifier then you need to add it at every feeding.

Humboldts Secret Cal-Mag & Iron has always been great for me. You can't go wrong with either of these brands of cal-mag.

I use this

Caring for Fresh Clones


Using the method outlined above the clone will take about a week to form roots. If you don’t prepare the stem it can take up to 4 weeks. During this time a 16hr light and 8hr dark cycle seems to work very well. The light should be dimmed down or raiser way up to keep any heat from reaching the clone and drying its leaves. To water mist it with a spray bottle anytime time the dome looks dry. If the grow medium starts to look dry give it a small amount of water near the clones' stem base. After a week or more has passed visible roots may have formed. It’s time to start hardening off the clone. This is the process of getting it out of the dome which can happen all at once or might take a few days. If you take the dome off and walk away for couple days without hardening off there is a good chance your clone will die even if it has some roots.

Hardening Off

Lets get the clone out of the dome:

1) Open an air vent or two in your dome. Over the next couple of hours watch the clones for wilting . Wilting is ok, when it happens give them a misty spray of spring water and close the vents. Once they perk back up give them an extra day with sealed vents before trying again. Once the clones are happy with the dome vents open or if your dome doesn't have vents move on to step two.


2) Take the dome off for an hour or two and keep an eye on the clones. If they are ok leave the dome off until they wilt then mist and replace the dome. After they have perked up repeat the process daily or every few days till you don’t see wilting then move on to step three.


3) Leave the dome off overnight. If they are wilted the next day then go back to step two for a few more days.


4) If the plants good without the dome overnight congratulations the clone has been hardened off and is living on its own root structure. Over the next week you can increase the light intensity to normal vegetative levels. If your clone is in soil wait a week before transplanting to a larger pot.


Some clones move from step one to four all at once. While some clones may take a week or more to get out of the dome.

In the end you should have a happy little cloned plant with roots like this.