Clone
A rooted cutting that grows into a genetically identical plant.
Clones let you copy a plant you love — same cannabinoids, same terpenes, same growth pattern. But environment still matters: two clones grown differently won't be identical chemically. And clones carry disease risk if the mother is infected. Think of it as a Xerox, not a guarantee.
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. Because the clone shares the mother's DNA, it carries the same cannabinoid and terpene potential, growth structure, flowering time, and sex Strong evidence.
How clones are made
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 aerocloner). Roots typically form within 7–14 days Strong evidence. The rooted clone can then be vegged and flowered like any other plant.
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.
- Guarantee female offspring. Clones from a female mother are female Strong evidence.
- Shorten the grow cycle. A rooted clone skips germination and early seedling stages.
- Enable commercial consistency. Most licensed producers run clone-based gardens to make batches resemble each other in structure and growth timeline Strong evidence[1].
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[2].
- Stay disease-free. Clones readily transmit hop latent viroid (HLVd), which can silently reduce yield and potency across an entire facility. They also carry risk of viruses, powdery mildew, russet mites, and fungus gnats Strong evidence[3].
- Remain unchanged indefinitely. Growers often report that mother plants "drift" — producing subtly different plants over many generations — but whether this is genetic degradation, accumulated pathogen load, or husbandry drift is not clearly established in peer-reviewed literature Disputed.
Clone-only strains
Some cannabis varieties, such as early OG Kush and Chemdog cuts, became famous as "clone-only" strains because they were never widely released as seeds. Growers propagated them exclusively from rooted cuttings passed hand-to-hand within the community. This practice began in underground cultivation and persists today among some craft growers and as collectible genetics in licensed markets.
Sources
- 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.
How this page was made
Generation history
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Related
- Aerocloners — A low-pressure spray system for rooting cannabis cuttings in air and mist.
- Rooting Cannabis Clones in Water — A simple, low-cost cloning method using only water and a container.
- Internode Spacing — Distance between leaf nodes on the stem; shaped by genetics and light.