Modified on: 20/09/2022
Find out more about cannabis cloning and the critical role of mother plants
If you are a hemp connoisseur, you may have heard about the ‘cannabis mother plant‘ during some reading or talked about its propagation, but without really knowing what it was.
What is meant by this strange appellation?
Is it possible to create new specimens with mother plants without starting with marijuana seeds?
This article will take a closer look at the world of clonal propagation of hemp, clarifying, point by point, all the preliminary information about it.
What is a cannabis mother plant?
A mother plant is a robust and vigorous specimen of hemp chosen for clonal propagation.
Part of the branches are taken from this plant, then rooted and grown like regular plants.
Cloning mother plants aim to reproduce perfect copies of the best specimens to preserve and exploit their characteristics over time.
Almost all hemp varieties can be cloned, except for plants born from auto-flowering seeds.
As far as durability is concerned, a mother plant can last indefinitely and can be propagated many times over if adequately cared for.
Ideally, it should be exposed to light cycles of 18 to 24 hours a day and fed with calcium, magnesium, boron, manganese, and sulphur fertilisers so that it can remain in the vegetative growth phase throughout its life.
Read also: Vertical growing: features, advantages and disadvantages
What are the advantages of cloning cannabis?
The main advantage of cloning a mother hemp plant is that its specific phenotype can be preserved for years to come. When cannabis growers find the perfect plant, they want to ensure its characteristics are not lost.
You’re probably thinking that instead of creating clones from a mother plant, you could use the same cannabis seeds over and over again, but it doesn’t work that way.
When growing marijuana from seed, some plants may develop higher qualities than others, even if they come from the same gene family.
Cloning a mother plant offers other unique advantages.
First, you are guaranteed to get only female plants (a bit like planting feminised seeds).
Secondly, growing clones of the mother plant mean growing plants that will develop evenly and have similar flowering times.
And finally, hemp growers have the advantage of knowing the characteristics of the replicated plants in advance, which is no minor detail that makes cultivation much easier.
How to select a mother plant?
At this point in the article, you probably wonder how canapiculturists select the plants from which to produce so many new cuttings. The most important characteristics that are assessed before choosing a mother plant are these:
- strength and vigour.
When cannabis growers plant cannabis seeds, they can see which plants germinate fastest and which grow strongest and most vigorous during the vegetative phase. So, when choosing a mother plant, you have to consider those that have distinguished themselves by these characteristics; - large and robust root system.
Before choosing a mother plant, you should also consider the root health of all specimens. Plants that seem to have developed the strongest and healthiest root system should be the most resistant and vigorous; - resistance to pathogens and pests.
When growing cannabis, one may have to deal with pests and pathogens of various kinds. On these occasions, cannabis growers observe the plants to identify those that have proven to be most resistant and have suffered the least damage; - excellent flowering potential.
The flowering phase is also carefully observed before choosing which hemp plant to clone. Plants that flower more quickly and produce many quality flowers are undoubtedly preferable to those that make few flowers; - aromas and cannabinoids.
Finally, after the flowers have been picked and dried, the aromas, flavours, and cannabinoid potency are evaluated.
Specimens that meet most of these requirements can be chosen as mother plants.
Read also: Cannabis sativa and online sales: helpful information
To conclude
As we have already explained, a mother plant is a specimen of hemp constantly kept in the vegetative growth phase to produce cuttings. From these cuttings, new plants will develop with the same characteristics as the first specimen (strength, growth speed, aromas, etc.): a super-profitable practice!
We hope we have satisfied your curiosity and invite you to visit our SensorySeeds onlinea store, where you can find the best cannabis seed genetics online, all for you to collect.
Choose from our wide range of quality weed seeds to complete your collection: feminized seeds, auto flower seeds, fast growing weed seeds, there is something for every taste!
We look forward to seeing you on Sensoryseeds.com!
