Cloning hemp
Cloning hemp is a cheap, quick way to get plants. The average gardener has taken cuttings from his/her house plants at one time or another. It’s not much different with hemp. We only have to make sure the carefully removed cuttings from the mother plant are brought to root. A healthy mother plant can pass on her THC-producing properties from generation to generation by means of cuttings. Each cutting has the same properties as the mother plant. A cutting can be taken from a cutting. And from that cutting, yet another. There are growers who have raised 20 generations from a mother plant this way, without diminishing the growing power of the plants. The yield from the 20th generation is just as good as the yield from the first one! By then, the original mother plant is long past use. Taking cuttings causes trauma to a plant. The plant reacts by taking on a deviant form, and by starting male branches. A third problem is regressive mutation. The mother plant has been developed by cross breeding. With regressive mutation, the carefully bred properties (to a degree) are lost. The quality of the plant (and, of course, the quality of the harvest!) decreases. For this reason, we replace the original plant with one of her fresh, healthy daughters after 12 weeks at maximum. The ease with which hemp can be cloned makes planting cannabis seed less attractive. In the first place, sowing seed takes a lot more time than growing from clones. An advantage not to be underestimated is the fact that you can harvest much more often if you raise clones rather than grow from seed. On top of that, you get males as well as female plants from seed. The chance that a seed produces a male plant is just as great as the chance a female will appear: 50% . . . To make hemp cuttings/clones we need: – a high-quality mother plant; – sharp scissors, or a sharp knife; – any commercial hormone mixture to promote root growth; – something to start the cuttings in (a cutting tray with rockwool plugs, a small grow-tank with washed, rough sand, fine vermiculite, a soil-free mixture, or potting soil); – phosphoric acid – a ‘cool white 33’ fluorescent tubelight with the proper armature; – ventilation; – clean working methods, and clean sur roundings; – ‘green fingers’ In contrast to raising cannabis plants, for which we use 400 Watt or 600 Watt high-pressure gas lamps, clones develop their roots best under fluorescent light. Fluorescent tubes emit light primarily in the blue spectrum. Controlling the temperature when using fluorescent lights is also less complicated, because fluorescent tubes give off little heat. The fluorescent tube armature is mounted approximately 25 cm above the tops of the clones. We’re going to illuminate the cuttings 18 or 24 hours per day. We keep the light on 24 hours a day during the cold months. The illumination times suggested here are a guide. What it actually involves is allowing the climatological conditions to vary as little as possible. You get the best results with an even climate. It requires some experience to create the optimum conditions . . . The hemp cuttings form their roots best at a temperature of 25 to 26 degrees Celsius, and a relative air humidity of 70-75%. Just as is the case with actual growing, climate control is very important for cuttings. Moulds and pests insects must never get a chance. Above all, mould spores can cause problems if the climatic conditions aren’t optimal. In principle, every part of a hemp plant is suitable to use as a cutting. But a single leaf with a few roots is of no use of course In any case, a good cutting has a growth-point. The size of the cutting doesn’t matter so much; a 2 cm cutting can grow to be a top-quality plant, just like a 10 cm cutting. Before you put the cutting in the growth medium, you have to make preparations. We’re talking about raising cuttings in rockwool substrate. First, the growing tray should be soaked in a nutrient solution. The pH value must be 5.8, the EC value 0.8 to 1.0. To reach a pH value of 5.8, you best use phosphoric acid. The advantage of phosphoric acid is that it helps the cuttings develop roots. We fill the tray for the cuttings with the nutrient solution and drain it off again. We do this several hours before taking cuttings from the mother plant. The cuttings are clipped, or cut with a sharp knife or scissors. Take care not to leave the ends frayed. A clean cutting loses less sap than a cutting with a frayed end. Moreover, there’s the risk that ravelled parts of the plant will rot. Directly after clipping or cutting, we dip the clone first in water, and then in rooting hormones. Then we stick the cutting into the rockwool plug. The growing tray for the cuttings must then be saturated for 3 or 4 days with nutrient solution. Good hygiene is very important when getting cannabis cuttings to root. Work as clean as possible. Always clean your scissors, knife and growing trays with a medical disinfectant (i.e. Dettol) after you’ve used them. Check the clones daily for possible rotting parts. Rotting leaves or stems must always be removed, so that molds won’t get a chance. It’s also important not to put the clone tray in a bed of water. That makes rooting more troublesome, and the roots will be of less quality. Also, a too wet clone tray causes root rots such as pythium a fungus on the roots. Just like all plants, hemp cuttings also need fresh air containing CO2. We have to ventilate the clone room, too. Sometimes, ventilation is necessary to keep the temperature stable. When using a ventilator, you must try to create an optimal climate without exposing the plants to gale force 9. The cuttings can dry out as a consequence of too much air movement. When you have all the climatic conditions under control, you can start waiting for roots to develop. It takes about 10 days before you see the first results with healthy plants. After a fortnight, healthy cuttings will have enough roots to be transplanted. In principal, approximately 80% of the cuttings will root, if you control the climate well. Allow the cuttings which have no roots after a fortnight one more week. These cuttings can produce a plant of lesser quality. If no roots have grown after 3 weeks, you can throw those cuttings away. Don’t count on all the cuttings taking root; plant about 20% more than you ultimately intend to keep. Planting rooted clones is a tedious job. The root systems of the young plants are very tender, and can easily be damaged. The extremely small root hairs are very important for a healthy plant. Many splendid cuttings have been ruined by rough transplanting The roots of plants don’t like light (they grow in the dark), and air (they dry out quickly). The young plants will now go to the spot where they will spend the rest of their lives. For plants, transplanting more than once is just as traumatic as making people move house twice a month . . . Now, the plants must become accustomed to their new surroundings. They must get sufficient water, but not yet the full amount of light. After a few days, the real irrigation schedule can begin, and the plants go under the full light of the high-pressure gas lamps. The vegetative, or growth phase begins…