Cloning Cannabis Plants

Luckily, for us, we haven’t figured out how to clone ourselves, yet.
But just as lucky, for those of us who happen to grow our own medicine,
cannabis plants can be cloned quite easily.  Growing weed indoors depends
on cloning to preserve genetics.

There are many many methods for cloning your girls,
no, not your actual girlfriends, your weed women, your ganja girlfriends.

But, many years of trial and error have led us, to our Primo cloning technique,
and now it can be yours too.

When growing weed indoors, some people like to keep what’s called
a Mother plant growing in their veg. room,
and take all their clones from her.
Keeping mother plants, is the best way
to make sure your strain’s genetics stay intact,
and don’t change, or drift, over generations.

But still, we choose NOT to use mother plants.  Here’s why
Mother plants take up a motherload of space,
in a veg. room, but never produce anything, except clones.

They just keep growing and growing,
and you don’t want to keep hacking them back down to size,
because every time you do, you cut off all your best cloning branches.

So it gets taller, and wider, and weirder shaped.
You start hacking away major branches so they stop blocking light to other vegging girls,
And finally, you say, I can’t take it, bloom those blobbing behemoths!

Now, an old mother will bloom like crazy,
and beat all your harvest records,
but that still can’t make up for all the plants
she prevented from vegging,
while she was turning your garden into a Little Shop of Horrors.

Feed me Seymour!

If, on the other hand, you take your clones from your growing, vegging plants,
no precious space is wasted in your veg. room.
We take clones from plants that are still 3 to 4 weeks away from bloom size.
That way, the branch that’s clipped, to make the clone,
will grow into several new top flowers,
by the time she goes under the bloom lights.

Let me show you what I mean.

This bodacious babe, number 2, is exactly 10 weeks from cloning.
She’s scheduled to go under the bloom lights in 3 weeks.
This is the perfect time to take clones from her,
because by the time she goes into bloom,
the nodes below the cut site will have
grown up into the canopy,
creating several top flowers.

When I pick a branch to clone, I look for a few things.
I’m automatically inclined to take the tallest branch,
so when the lower nodes grow up to replace the top flower,
they’ll be closer in height to the rest of the tops.

Next, I look at the nodes on that top branch.
I want two nodes to grow into the new plant,
I want two nodes to strip when I pot it, pun intended, (smile)
and I want the remaining stem to be as tall as possible.

Sometimes a smaller stem will be a better choice

because the stem and nodes I’m going to leave behind
are more numerous or more robust,
ready to reach for the light.

Here looks good.
So let’s get all our cloning gear together.

There is a big variety of cloning hormones and
fertilizers out there, and I’m sure most work great.
I am not making this video to promote any specific
product, company, or method, or to put any down.
I’m just here to share what works for us,
with the hope that it can help you.

We use four products in our cloning procedure.
Clonex, the old granddaddy of cloning, has been used for generations.
A liquid hormone, Dip N Grow, which you’ve probably heard of.
A powdered hormone.
And a product called Liquid Karma.
for a little extra karmic boost.

Oh, God, I feel like Lady Gaga in that telephone video.
She’s a crack–up.

The crucial ingredient in the entire process is a hormone
called indole- 5 – butyric acid.
Clonex doesn’t list their ingredients,
but this acid is listed on both the Dip N Grow and the powdered hormone.

Beware, if your cloning procedure does not contain indole-5-butyric acid
you may be disappointed with your results.
OK, so let’s mix up what I like to call “cloning water”.
We’ll take one pint of water, add a half cap of Clonex,
and two drops of Liquid Karma.

Ancient Chinese secret huh?
No secrets here, we’re letting you in on all the inside tricks.

Rule #1 when cloning, is to get the cut end out of the air
and into the cloning water, as soon as possible.
The new cloned plant will not survive if air is
sucked up into the cut stem.  Air bubbles inside the stem
block the flow of water and nutrients.   These air embollisms,
as they’re technically known, can kill your baby girl
up to a month after you plant the clone.
When that happens it’s a total bummer.
Some growers even submerge the branch into water,
before cutting the clone, to prevent embolisms.

For us, if we can’t get the stripped branch into water in less than 5 seconds,
we throw it out and try another one.
If you decide to use a rooting medium,
not absolutely necessary, but pretty convenient and effective,
squeeze it in the cloning water,
then squeeze most of it out,
split it open to wrap around your clone later, and set aside.

Now let’s mix up some Dip N Grow,
using our cloning water.

Awright, let’s take the cutting,
Then I’m going to remove the sprouts
from the two nodes I want to remove,
and get it in the Dip N Grow, all in less than 5 seconds.

Time me.

Snip, cut cut and in.  OK, I’ve had some practice,
but you should be able to beat five seconds your first try.
While that soaks up some rooting hormone
for a minute or so,
I’ll prepare for planting, in a clear cup.

I’ve read that you should always

use opaque planters, because light can harm the roots
but clear cups have worked fine for years,
and it’s great to be able to see the roots.

Use a razor blade, or a poker to make drainage holes.
Now I’m going to dip the branch in the powder hormone,
wrap it in my rooting medium,
and bury it in dirt.
Pack it down nice and firm,
and make sure the rooting medium
is completely buried below the dirt.

Next, soak the dirt all the way through,
until water leaks out the bottom.
When the water stops leaking,
trim the edges off of the clone’s big fan leaves.

She doesn’t need them anymore,
and this clearly distinguishes pre-clone growth
from post-clone growth.
They’ll need to be pruned later anyway.

Place the clone under a humidity dome, that won’t block light.
A gallon size plastic bag, like this, will work well too.
Anything that keeps the moisture in, but doesn’t block light.

Keep the babies under a clone dome, for the first two weeks.
Remove it daily to exhange the air inside,
and remove it completely for the third week.
Place the baby girl, under her humidity dome,
about 12 inches under a fluorescent light
for 18 hours on, 6 hours off.

This clone has done her full three weeks
under the fluorescents.
You can plainly see the new roots,
and the new growth on top

She’s ready to be transplanted into her final home,
a four gallon bucket.

And that’s how we clone.  Like I said,
hemp is so hearty that she’s easy to clone using many methods,
but this is the Primo way, it works, and now it’s yours.

Thank you so much, once again,
for joining us this week on Letstalkaboutpot.com
The struggle continues for legitimacy
and we continue to fight on towards legality.

Thanks for being there with us.

Now get growing!