Clone
A genetically identical cutting taken from a mother cannabis plant and rooted to grow as a new plant.
A clone is just a cutting. It's the same plant as its mother, genetically speaking — same cannabinoid potential, same growth habits, same vulnerabilities. That's the appeal: consistency. But 'genetically identical' doesn't mean 'identical product.' Environment, nutrients, light, and pests still shape what you get. Clones can also carry diseases (hop latent viroid, powdery mildew) from the mother, and 'clone-only' strains are sometimes more marketing than mystery. Treat clones as a way to lock in a phenotype, not as a guarantee of quality.
Definition
A clone is a rooted cutting taken from a living cannabis plant (the mother) and grown into a new plant with the same genome. In horticulture this is called vegetative or asexual propagation, and cannabis growers have used it for decades to preserve specific phenotypes [1]. Because the clone shares the mother's DNA, it carries the same cannabinoid and terpene potential, growth structure, flowering time, and sex.
How it's done
A grower snips a healthy branch — usually 4–6 inches with several nodes — from a mother in vegetative growth, trims the lower leaves, optionally dips the cut end in rooting hormone, and places it in a humid medium (rockwool, peat plug, water, or aeroponic cloner). Roots typically form within 7–14 days [1][2]. The new plant can then be vegged and flowered like any other.
What clones do
- Lock in a phenotype. If you find a great individual plant from a seed pack, cloning is the only way to grow that exact plant again Strong evidence.
- Skip sexing. Clones from a female mother are female Strong evidence.
- Shorten the grow cycle. A rooted clone is already past germination and early seedling stages.
- Enable commercial consistency. Most licensed producers run clone-based gardens so batches resemble each other [3].
What clones don't do
- Guarantee identical chemistry. Environment, nutrients, light spectrum, and harvest timing all shift cannabinoid and terpene output even between genetically identical plants Strong evidence[4].
- Stay disease-free. Clones readily transmit hop latent viroid (HLVd), which can silently reduce yield and potency across an entire facility, plus viruses, powdery mildew, russet mites, and fungus gnats [2][5].
- Last forever without drift. Whether mother plants genuinely 'degrade' over many generations is Disputed — much of what growers call drift may actually be accumulated pathogens or husbandry changes.
Used in articles about
Clones come up in discussions of Mother Plant, Phenotype, Hop Latent Viroid, Tissue Culture, and so-called Clone-Only Strains like the original OG Kush or Chemdog cuts that were never widely released as seed.
Sources
- Book Cervantes, J. (2006). Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible. Van Patten Publishing.
- Book Rosenthal, E. (2010). Marijuana Grower's Handbook. Quick American Publishing.
- Reported Schaneman, B. (2022). 'Why cannabis cultivators rely on mother plants and clones.' MJBizDaily. ↗
- Peer-reviewed Danziger, N., & Bernstein, N. (2021). Plant architecture manipulation increases cannabis cannabinoid standardization. Industrial Crops and Products, 167, 113528.
- Peer-reviewed Bektaş, A., Hardwick, K. M., Waterman, K., & Kristof, J. (2019). Occurrence of hop latent viroid in Cannabis sativa with symptoms of cannabis stunting disease in California. Plant Disease, 103(10), 2699.
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