Cannabis Clone Care: Temperature, Humidity and Picking a Mother

Cannabis clones need steady warmth (20 to 26 °C / 68 to 79 °F), very high humidity at first (90 to 100%, never dropping below 60 to 70%), gentle airflow and a healthy mother plant to start from. Growing weed from clones is a popular technique among growers who want to reproduce plants with specific traits and keep their harvest uniform. But clones, which are basically young plants taken from a mother plant, need special care to develop healthy and strong. These basics are crucial to making sure your clones settle into their new environment and grow vigorously.

In this guide, we cover the fundamentals of caring for cannabis clones, including setting up the right environment, their water and nutrient needs, and the handling habits that encourage optimal growth.

What is cloning in cannabis growing?

Cloning is a specialized process that lets you reproduce plants with specific traits by taking cuttings from a mother plant. Widely used by growers who want consistency in their grows, it involves cutting a branch from the mother, ideally a young shoot with fresh leaves at the tip.

The goal is to get the cutting to grow roots and become a complete new plant.

When you clone a female cannabis plant, every cutting carries the same DNA as the mother, giving you plants with identical growth, flavor and effects. That's especially valuable in cannabis, where growers want to replicate the qualities they love with precision, something that's less predictable when growing from seed, even with the most stable strains.

How to choose a mother plant for cloning cannabis

Picking the right mother plant is crucial to cloning success. This step is essential because the whole point is to preserve and multiply the original plant's valuable genetics, extending its life and locking in the quality of future harvests.

To choose the ideal mother, growers and breeders should weigh a few key factors:

• Yield: The plant's ability to produce a serious harvest.
• Height: The plant's final size, which affects how you manage your space and your grow.
• Growth speed: How quickly the plant develops from sprout to maturity.
• Potency: The concentration of cannabinoids and other active compounds that shape the plant's effects.
• Flowering time: How long the flowering cycle lasts, which affects the total time from planting to harvest.
• Flavor and effects: The plant's aroma, taste and the high it delivers.

Some niche traits can matter too, like high CBD levels (increasingly sought after for medical use) or cold tolerance (important for growers in colder regions).

When you grow from seed, it's hard to predict how a potential mother will perform until she flowers. That's why it's a good idea to take cuttings from seed-grown plants once they've spent a few weeks in the vegetative stage.

Root those cuttings and then put them on a 12/12 light cycle to trigger flowering. That way you can judge the quality of each one, and then keep the most promising mothers in vegetative growth so you can keep taking new clones.

How to care for a cannabis cutting

To make sure your cannabis clones take, you need to keep specific environmental conditions for the cuttings. Look after them closely so they root well and grow strong.

Ideal conditions for clones

1. Temperature: Keep cuttings at a steady temperature between 20 and 26 °C (68 and 79 °F). That range encourages proper root development and healthy growth.
2. Relative humidity: Humidity is crucial for cuttings. At first, it should sit between 90% and 100% to prevent them from drying out and to encourage rooting. After the first two or three days, you can gradually lower it, but never let it drop below 60 to 70%.

Considerations by type of cannabis

Cannabis is classified into three main subtypes: sativa, indica and ruderalis. These categories can influence what cuttings need, but most commercial strains are hybrids and their lineage can be murky. So you may need to experiment to find the best conditions for each specific strain. Be ready to lose a few clones while you dial things in for each type of plant.

Preventing mold and other problems

Cannabis is prone to rot and mold problems, like powdery mildew and botrytis (gray mold, also called bud rot). To prevent them, follow these tips:

• Humidity and temperature: Keep humidity high enough that the plant tissue stays hydrated, but watch it closely to keep mold from showing up. Make sure the medium doesn't get too wet, since a soggy medium can rot the stems.
• Airflow: Good air circulation is vital for preventing mold. Use a small fan to move air around the cuttings; it clears out saturated air and brings fresh air to the stems and leaves.
• Stopping rot: If stems start rotting, whether from a fungus like botrytis or from too much water, it's best to toss the affected clones. Rot is usually irreversible and can put your whole grow at risk.

Follow these guidelines and you'll boost your odds of cloning success, setting your future plants up for strong, healthy growth.

Happy cloning.