If you’re familiar with growing cannabis, chances are you’ve at least heard of clones. These tiny little plants make propagating your favorite strains a breeze. They can be a little delicate, though, particularly when they’re new. As a result, you need to take special care of clones. We’ll look at what a clone is and how to take care of them in this post.
Cloning Cannabis 101: Caring for New Clones
So you’ve just picked up a new clone from Green Goddess Collective and you’re about to take it home. That’s exciting! But a new clone is similar to a new pet. If you don’t take care of it, it’s going to be unhappy. What’s more, it won’t produce come harvest day.
What is a Clone?
In simplest terms, a clone is a baby cannabis plant. But there’s a little more to it than that.
Cultivators cut clones off of mother plants during their vegetative phase. Then, they take these little sprouts, dip them in special hormones, and plant them in a rock wool cube. The cut then takes root, turning into a new baby plant.
A clone is an exact genetic copy of its mother plant. That’s made them hugely popular among both amateur and professional cultivators alike. If you have a strain that you really love, cutting clones from a mother plant is the surest way to reproduce those exact genetics in another plant.
How to Care for New Clones
Your journey to a healthy plant starts before you even buy a clone: You don’t want to just pick any plant. Instead, look at the roots of all available clones and choose the ones with the brightest white roots. White roots indicate that a clone is healthy, and that will set your plant up for success further into the growing cycle.
Transplanting
Once you’ve selected your clone, it’s time to bring it home. Make sure your clone spends as little time in your car as possible. It’s too hot in there! As soon as you get home, transplant your clone into a larger vessel. You can either put it into another rock wool cube or plant it in a pot with soil, peat moss, coco coir, or another growing medium. Saturate the medium with water (if you’re using soil) or a nutrient mix (if you’re using a different medium) to encourage root growth.
Light and Darkness
Freshly-transplanted clones can be picky when it comes to a handful of environmental factors, including light. You’ll want to give your clone between 16 and 18 hours of light every day. During all other hours, keep it in complete darkness. This is an important point: the darkness must be complete. If it’s not, you’ll run into problems with your clone later on.
Environment
Ideally you’ll want to keep the temperature in your garden between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, you’ll want to keep the relative humidity fairly constant in your garden. Stick between 50% and 60% relative humidity for the first week or so, and slowly reduce it to about 30% afterwards.
Watering
Your plant needs moisture and nutrients just like you do! Keep an eye on your medium and water your new clone when it gets dry. When it’s still a baby, you won’t need to water it very much. But as it grows, its watering needs will change quite a bit.
How to Care for Clones: Wrapping Up
Follow these tips and your clone will bud into a big, tall, healthy cannabis plant that throws down impressive yields on harvest day. But first, you’ll need to pick up a clone for yourself. That’s where Green Goddess Collective comes in. Check out our full selection of clones here to find your next plant.
