Is It a myth that Cloning Autoflowering Varieties Of Cannabis is actually possible?
Autoflower Clone? You ask any professional cannabis grower and they will say that autoflowering marijuana strains can’t be cloned. Most growers use clones to replicate their favourite buds on a consistent basis. Not to mention it is much cheaper. You can get hundreds of exact copies of your mother cannabis plant from a single cannabis seed.
Cloning your first cannabis plant is a fun and interesting endeavour. It requires you to take a cutting from an established healthy plant. After which you will use this cutting to create an entirely new cannabis plant. The best part is you will already know what it will turn out like if you have already harvested a clone of that strain. Your cutting will have identical genetics to the cannabis plant that it was cut from.
Cannabis growers have long used cloning to preserve their favourite strain genetics. The clone will have all of the terpenes, THC content, CBD content, etc as the mother plant.
Cloning marijuana plants is also appealing to the wallet for many cannabis cultivators. The grower no longer needs to purchase any seeds for their favourite strain, just keep making copies. The grower can simply take a new cutting from a loved plant within their grow and make a copy.
Autoflower Clone
One big drawback of autoflowering seed strains of cannabis is they are almost, but not impossible, to make a viable clone of. Autoflowering seed varieties have some huge advantages over regular seed strains, such as a more compact bud to square meter ratio and rapid flowering time. This coupled with the constant growing cycles with no need to keep separate growing areas keeps people growing auto flower seed varieties.
The real myth when it comes to making autoflower clones is that it is impossible to do. It can be accomplished but will not be worth it. You won’t change the growing cycle of the new cutting and it will have to recover and develop roots while it continues to go through its normal cycle.
Autoflowering strains do what their name suggests – they grow and then flower automatically based on growing time, rather than on light cycles like photoperiodic strains.
Photoperiod Strains
Photoperiodic plants require you to lessen the amount of light they receive to 12 hours a day or less. This change in the light cycle moves the plant from its vegetative phase into the flowering stage.
This plant function came about as a part of natural earth evolution. Autoflowering cannabis is known to have originated in northern climates of the world where there is less daylight throughout the growing season. This allowed them to conserve growing time and flower when they needed to in order to survive the harsh climate.
This short growing time and perpetual grow setup makes them appealing to beginner and advanced growers achieving large yields of dank cannabis.
Photoperiodic strains originated in the warmer parts of the world. When Photo strains are cultivated indoors, they require you to shorten the light cycle which mimics nature changing the season from summer to fall. The plant thinks winter is coming and tries to duplicate itself through flowering and dropping seeds.
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR THE AUTOFLOWER CLONE?
Every genetic detail is duplicated when you take a clone, even the part of the life cycle it was in at the time you took the cutting. The autoflower clone will follow the same growing timeline as the donor plant and will continue through to the flowering stage, regardless of its size or health. This means smaller buds on the same branch and minimal yields to consume later.
Photoperiodic seed varieties are far better for cloning. The clone can grow and flourish through its own vegetative cycle before flowering. Only when the grower is ready will he switch the light cycle and send his plants to flower.
CAN IT ACTUALLY BE DONE?
Some growers may claim to have cloned autoflowering cannabis varieties, but they suffer from diminishing returns. The plant has to recover and grow new roots all while continuing throughout its life cycle. Don’t let us stop you from trying though, experimenting with growing is fun.