Cloning a plant involves taking a sample cutting and exposing it to nutrients to generate new growth. It is best to choose the highest quality plant to ensure the desired DNA along with all its good qualities transfer to the next plant, or the clone.
As an indoor grower, you need to understand that cloning is a delicate process, and it requires establishing ideal conditions that help in the process. For example, providing the plants with sufficient nutrients, installing the best LED grow lights, and giving the plants enough water will ensure their healthy growth. Maintaining humid conditions and enough water for the plants serves well to develop the plant roots.
Cloning with LED Grow Lights
Making cuttings or cloning is an excellent way to propagate plants. This process allows different plants to be cloned, regardless of their growth stage, or age. A cloned plant is the exact genetic replica of a mother plant. The mother plant cell will carry the DNA blueprint and the clone will be its genetic copy. Female plants will reproduce more females like the mother. You should keep the mother plants in the vegetative stage of growth for consistent cloning. For the duration of light under Dorm Grow lights, the mother plants should receive at least 18 hours of light per day. To promote rooting, the mother plants should get less nitrogen, and this should also help to root the clones.
The mother plant should be at least two months old and preferably in the vegetative stage of growth. Clones from mother plants less than two months old can develop unevenly, and they may even grow slowly. Although clones from flowering plants will root more quickly, they will require many weeks to go back to their vegetative growth stage after being cloned. A young clone is not ready for flowering so it must revert to vegetative stage. For this reason, it is much better to clone plants that are already in veg.
Once you take the clone cuttings, you can grow them well under the G8LED Veg/Flower grow lights for 18 hours of light per day.
How to Cut the Stems
When cutting the stems for the clones, you should make sure that they have a 45 degrees angle. This will help to provide enough surface area for the clones to take up enough nutrients. The best choice is to use a sharp knife at an angle, which will reduce the risks of damages that may affect the roots and hinder their growth. Trim the bottom branches (2-3 sets) and their growth nodes. These trimmed areas will go down below the soil line. With a sharp knife, you should make a split an inch of the stem from the clone’s bottom, which would give it more surface area and ensure that the plants grow well. You should then place the cut end in water until you are ready to plant the clones.
Summary of Cloning Tips
When you clone plants under the best LED grow lights, it is advisable that you choose clones that come from mother plants in their vegetative growth stage and at least two months old. You should keep in mind that the plants that are younger than this can grow unevenly and slowly. When you take the clones, you need to choose lower mother plant branches, which will serve as an assurance that they contain more hormones.
As you clone plants indoors, you need to understand that environmental factors and the lighting conditions are critical. Use the best LED grow lights, which will help to boost the growth of the clones and help continue your genetics into the future.
