So you are setting up your grow and you need plants. Now it’s decision time: seeds or clones? There are benefits to both selecting seeds or selecting clones – just as there are drawbacks to each. Let’s discuss the selection process a bit:
Seeds: Healthy seeds will generally produce strong and vigorous plants. The downside is seedlings will take at least eight weeks reach sexual maturity and to show signs of sex.
Clones: Clones produce genetically identical plants to the mother plants from which they came – but the problems of the mother are also passed down to the clones, so beware! If the mother is prone to producing powdery mildew, then guess what? The clones will also be prone to producing powdery mildew, Make sure your clones come from a reputable source. You don’t want to bring another grower’s problems into your garden! IIf you have an existing garden, it’s also advisable that you quarantine your clones away from other cannabis plants for at least 30 days. A benefit to clones is they can be flowered at any time regardless of age.
While is is always most gratifying to germinate a seed, grow and flower her, it is laborious, time-consuming, and a crap shoot.
I purchased a bag of White Widow seeds a long time ago, germinated all 25 seeds and grew them for 2 months, tok clippings of each, putclipings in clonex before putting the mothers/fathers under HPS 12/12. I killed all males once they grew pollen sacs and flowered all the females. Once I harvested and cured, I got to choose which mother to keep. By that time there were like 14 mothers, 13 went to flowering because I only had space to grow the best. I took clones from the mother (WW#2) and cloned her daughters (cloned clippings) for 5 years (cycled, of course. I let the original mother live for a year, then flowered her…).
Clones were so much more advantageous because I knew EXACLTY what I was getting, which I selected - best clone adaptability, best yield, smell, THC production…but like all things…it came to an end.
I would love to repeat the process with seed then select for cloning.
For ease and predictability and larger operations clones are the way to go but after a couple of runs it tends to be boring. to really find a plant that suits you best and learn something about cannabis genetics past and present nothing beat seeds.
I’m not a cultivator, but I can definitely see the merit in starting with seed and using cloning to extend the life of preferred lines.
Does anyone here clone using callus culture instead of rooting cuttings? Growing callus is a skill I could bring to a business and could last longer than cutting clones.
I like both.
I like to have seed on hand to start something new, but I also like to keep those strains that I enjoy around as long as I can (especially if theirs a bit more range in the offspring I started from seed).
I’ve been back to growing for a little over 2 years and have several strains that I acquired as clippings from local dispensaries about that long ago (there were a few that I didn’t keep and only one recent that I deemed a keeper for now).
The rest of the strains in my garden come originally from seed and the keepers I clone… the downside being that I’m about full up on what I can handle with the limits I’m stuff with for a Personal Production License where I’m at.
I’ve been thinking about looking at micro-propagation as a way to sort of put a strain on ‘pause’ for a cycle or two… I just haven’t made the time to do a little research, make some space to experiment and save up for a kit to give it a try (I saw some a few months back that was geared toward school experimentation, so it was certainly affordable).
I’m also looking into creating some feminized seeds as a way to “back up” my real favorites (that seems like a topic on it’s on)… I just need to figure out how I want to isolate this bit from the rest of my grow so that I don’t pollinate everything.
If I had to choose one method to rely on, then I would probably have to go with clones… but thankfully I don’t have to make that decision
I agree. If I’m just looking to pump out flower then clones are the best way to go. I take cutting from all of my plants and root em for the same reasons as everyone else. Seeds are expensive so a combination of both makes perfect sense. But if I want the complete satisfaction from my grow then I’ve gotta plant from seed. Besides, I like to flower out a couple males to do some crossing with a few of the less productive branches on my plant.
Since my flower room is a SOG-ish ebb and flow, I prefer to flower from clone. I already know how the plants will grow, how they will stretch in transition, whether or not they have issues with fungi or my standard feeding schedule, etc. It’s nice not to be guessing in flower.
All that being said, I like variety - so growing from seed is a regular requirement. I can keep 6 mature moms in my veg tent so can rotate strains in and out as desired while maintaining anything I consider special enough to keep around. Right now I’m holding moms from 2nd generation clones for a few different phenos of the same strain.
Okay and know this… if you are thinking of cloning a plant that got Powdery Mildew understand that it gets into the genetics… so cloning a plant with PM will make the clone have PM also…
I have always grown from seeds.
I have my first ever 2 clones, rooted in soil with rooting powder, 3 weeks and growing nicely.
Purple Glam Kush and Blue Dream.
