Chapter Three - Cuttings

      The traditional way to start a new marijuana crop is to plant seeds. About half the resulting plants will be male. The remaining females, even if their background is certain, will be of varying quality.
      Most flower and vegetable seed sold in the United States is standardized. Seed of a particular variety will have uniform growth habits, harvest time, and yield. But marijuana has been bred for uniformity by only a few dedicated growers. Of course, their seed is not commercially available. Without an intensive breeding program, clones (cuttings or slips) are the only way to get a uniform crop. For an all-female crop, of known quality, growers can use either clones or plant regeneration.
      Regeneration, or recropping, is a method of obtaining a second harvest from the same plant. A plant can be returned to its vegetative growth stage by letting a number of healthy shoots and leaves remain on it at the time when most of the buds are harvested. (Bring the lights back up to 18 or more hours per day and fertilize with a high-nitrogen fertilizer.) Plants growing outdoors in containers can be brought inside for another harvest using this method. In a greenhouse, the fall and winter natural light should be supplemented and extended. Within a few months the garden should be ready to be turned back into the flowering phase, which is achieved by increasing the number of hours of uninterrupted darkness (turning the light cycle down to 12 or 13 hours of light per day).
      Such regeneration has several advantages. Your garden can be designed and used most efficiently because you know the plant’s growth habits. Each plant’s qualities are already known, so you can devise a rational breeding program.
      A clone is a genetic duplicate of its parent. Clones should be made whenever you have a unique plant whose particular genetic code is worth preserving. Examples might be extremely potent, fast-growing, or early-flowering plants. A garden of these plants, given the same environmental conditions as their parents, will behave identically. They will be the same height, will have the same growth habits, will flower and ripen at the same time, and will have the same potency.

      Growers often make clones from all their plants while the plants are still in the vegetative growth stage. Later, after harvest and testing, they decide which clones to keep. These plants are grown under lights for their cuttings so that the grower can have a uniform crop the next spring or fall. It is essential for anyone who is performing controlled environmental experiments to use plants of a uniform genotype. Otherwise the experimenter has no way to know what’s being measured.
      Homogeneous or “clone” gardens have several disadvantages. Plants with identical genetic structures have similar resistance and susceptibilities to insect attack and microbial infections, and any type of degeneration is likely to spread more quickly than if the plants were of different varieties, or had simply been grown from different seeds.
      As I mentioned earlier, clones from the same parent will all taste about the same and create the same high. This is fine for a Commercial operation, where standardization may increase profits, but most smokers enjoy using several varieties of pot. For this reason, you may wish to culture clones of several varieties that will flower in succession.
      There are several cloning techniques, including air and soil layering, and tissue culture, that are used commercially to mass-produce some nursery stock. But the easiest and most familiar method of cloning is taking slips or cuttings. Cuttings can be taken at any time in a plant’s life cycle, but those taken before the plant is flowering will root more easily. Larger branches sometimes exhibit white protuberances near the base of the stem. These are called adventitious roots. They appear under humid conditions, and grow readily into roots when placed in water or in various mediums. Cuttings from the lower branches, which contain less nitrogen and have a higher ratio of sugars, root somewhat faster than slips from the top of the plant, so it’s wisest to take your cuttings from the bottom branches.
      To take a cutting, make a clean cut with a razor, knife, or clippers. Place the cut end in water. Remove the large fan leaves so that the cuttings’ water uptake capabilities won’t be overtaxed. The cutting can be propagated in water, pasteurized prepackaged soil, or vermiculite—perlite mixtures. Before being placed in the medium, cuttings should be treated with a fungicidal-B¹ mix that promotes root growth, such as Rootone F.
      Place your cuttings in four-to six-inch individual pots with the stems between two and four inches deep — quart and half-gallon milk containers will work fine — and be sure to keep them in an area that gets only a moderate amount of light or they will wilt. After five days they should be fertilized with the high phosphorous fertilizer, diluted to one-quarter normal strength, once a week. Covering the cuttings with clear plastic will increase the humidity and the success rate.
      Plant rooting is inhibited by lack of oxygen. To prevent this from occurring, aerate the water before use by shaking it vigorously. Cuttings that are propagated in water will do best if the water is either changed regularly, or aerated using an aquarium pump and air stone. Make sure the bubbles rise away from the stems and do not create too much turbulence, which may inhibit root growth.
      Cuttings root in three to five weeks, after which time you should transplant them to larger pots. If they are growing under artificial light, introduce them to sunlight gradually so that the leaves do not burn when placed in full sunlight.