Cloning is the magic that makes consistent, affordable closet cultivation possible. Producing good sensimillia in the small space afforded by a closet is only possible if the male half of the genome is totally removed from the equation. This is easy enough to accomplish if you recognize and remove all males while sexing the firswt corp, and then consistently propagate your crops exclusively through cloning.
Understand that cloning is no more difficult than any other step in weed cultivation, provided you adhere to the cleanliness provision mentioned earlier and understand how the process works.
Cloning involves taking small cuttings from a “mother” plant (any unfertilized female weed plant in vegetative growth state) and treating it with auxin, a hormone that encourages root growth. Thus treated, the cutting is planted in fresh, moist potting soil and put under 24-hour light until it grows enough of its own roots to develop into another complete, viable, female plant.
There are four different naturally-occurring auxins and five synthetic ones. Any of them will work for encouraging root growth in weed cuttings; our recommendation is to go to a gardening store and select the cheapest “cloning powder” they carry. Many stores will buy one variety or another in bulk bags and then break them down into smaller, store-branded packaging for retail sale. If you are unable to find any cloning powders, you can make your own cloning solution by crushing fresh willow branches into fibers and soaking them in water. The natural auxins in the willow will steep out into the water, and you can then treat your cuttings by soaking their bottoms in this same water for a few hours before transplanting them.
Assuming you are able to find a commercial cloning powder, the process of cutting and planting clones is relatively simple.
The axiom “as above, so below” is important to remember when cutting clippings for cloning. The mass of the cutting that ends up beneath the soil in the new pot needs to be large enough, before rooting, to supply moisture and nutrients to the entire body of the plant above. For this reason, one large branch cut from a mother plant should be cut into a number of smaller clippings for planting. Each clipping need only be as large as a single node, with it’s leaf attached, and the straight piece of stem beneath it. All of the “stem” will turn into roots, and the new plant will develop from the small bud that hides between the large leaf and the node. Many novice cloners have discovered, much to their chagrin, that a large, seemingly-viable growth tip, will wither and die if planted with only one node’s worth of stem to take root.
If you are trying to keep your original mothers alive and in vegetative growth indefinitely, never cut more than one half of the total number of branches off for cloning. However, you can also cut up the entire mother for you second crop, selecting one of the better clones that develops to hold back for use in propagating the crop after that.
Before you start cutting, ensure that you have every thing you need for the cloning process set up. You should have as many one liter containers filled with fresh, moist potting soil as you will need to plant all the cuttings you make. Each one should have a finger-sized hole poked in the middle, so you have a ready place to secure each clone after treatment. You should also have a large container of chlorine-free water, a container of cloning powder (or a well-steeped container of willow water,) one clean chopstick, some more soil in a bowl, and something to cut the clones with.
A razor blade or scalpel is required to clip the cuttings. Using scissors will crush the delicate tubules in the stem that allow water to flow up to the plant. Use the blade to cut a large branch off the mother plant. Place the branch on the table in front of you, and cut it into smaller pieces, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing. Each cut should be directly above one of the nodes, and cut diagonally across the stem at an angle directly opposite the angle at which the leaf below branches off from the stem. The diagonal cut ensures a large surface area of internal plant matter is exposed.
Take the first clipping you want to treat. You need to hold it delicately by the leaf and gently scrape away some of
the “skin” on the outside of the small piece of stem beneath the note. The aim here is to make it easier for roots to break out of the main body of the plant. Once this is done, you should dip the part of the stem beneath the node into the container of water, ensuring that is nice and wet. Next dip the stem into the cloning powder; the water should cause the cloning powder to adhere to the stem, coating it in a thing layer of powder. Thus powdered, the clone’s stem/root can be placed into one of the prepared containers of soil – use the chop stick to push the clone down into the hole in the soil, and then pack a little of the soil from the bowl around the the cutting, securing it in place. Finally, add a little more water to hydrate new cutting. Your clone is now made, and can be placed directly under 24-hour light to develop into a regular plant. Repeat the process for the rest of the cuttings, ensuring that once they’re all in the vegetating chamber you lower the light to within an inch or two of the new clones. If you’re using the willow watter method, scrape each clone as described above, and then place them so that their stems are in the willow water but the leaves and nodes are not. Let them sit in the willow water for two hours, and then transfer them to the new pots. Water clones treated with willow water with more willow water until it runs out, and then switch them to regular water. Don’t fertilize any clones during the first week of their development. After that, you can fertilize them every other day, as you would with any other weed plant.
Do not be surprised if only half of your clones survive. The process is fraught with difficulty, so always start more clones than you think you will need.
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