So this leads us to the question: What’s the best way to take cuttings? Enter the aeroponic cloning machine! This units aims to provide the optimal environment for your cuttings in order for them to develop roots of their own. So here’s our guide to taking aeroponic cuttings and how to give your babies the ultimate in pampering!

First let’s get some basic concepts out of the way. The whole reason you want to take cuttings in the first place is because you’ve gotten hold of something really good and you want to preserve the genetics exactly. Yes, seeds are Mother Nature’s common way of perpetuating life on this planet, but even two seeds from the same pod or packet can produce very different plants. That’s because there’s always an element of genetic randomness in gene expression. If things didn’t change from generation to generation, nothing would evolve, so it’s all good in the hood! However, sometimes we don’t want things to change. Maybe we’ve happened upon a tomato phenotype that produces prolific amounts of sweet, cherry-like fruits, bursting with unusual amounts of sweetness and flavor. Perhaps it’s the only tomato your kids will touch? Or it might be the color of fruits and flowers that floats their boat. In any case, we’re going to assume you’ve already a plant that you wish to perpetuate.

You Love Your Mother, Don’t You?

Your mother (or donor) plant is a sacred thing. Look after her! Arguably, her health represents the health of your entire garden. If your mother plant is just “doing okay” legging up in the corner of your indoor garden then it stands to reason that all cuttings taken from her will just “do okay” too—in short, they will inherit her state of health and vigor. No amount of cloning gel and aftercare is going to erase a history of neglect.

The aim of the game with mother plants is to keep them in a perpetual state of growth. (You don’t want your mother plant to flower!) The easiest way to do this for many annual plants is to ensure that irrigation cycles are regular and your lights are kept on for 15–18 hours a day. Basically you ‘trick’ your plant into believing it’s in a perpetual summer! Ask your grow store for a T5 (6500K) fluorescent fixture or a 250–400W metal halide HID grow light. Both these lights have a great spectrum (high in blue light) which encourages lots of vegetative growth.

Ideally your mother plant should be grown in an ample-sized container (at least four gallons) or, for the ultimate in Mother-love, in its own dedicated hydroponic unit. The Waterfarm by General Hydroponics is a very popular choice for maintaining a mother plant as it encourages prodigious levels of growth with very little maintenance. It’s essentially a two-gallon grow chamber sitting on top of an integral four-gallon reservoir. The grow chamber is usually filled with well-washed clay balls, and a small pump drip irrigates constantly when the lights are on. (Some growers wait until 30–60 minutes after the lights come on before commencing irrigation.) If you are using any type of dripper feed system for an extended period, make sure you regularly check for salt build-up around the drippers. Take a close look at each hole and verify that all the dripper points are actually dripping when they should be! Some growers use a small drill bit to increase the size of the holes in the dripper ring whereas others prefer to flush periodically with plain water or a low EC nutrient solution. Always use a grow formula for your nutrients but don’t over-do it (keep your mother plant as small as possible)—excessive levels of nitrogen can inhibit root development in cuttings.

Keep your mother well trained. Make sure she is regularly pruned to maintain a manageable size. As you take more and more cuttings from your mother plant, you will notice that she becomes increasingly bushy. If she becomes too bushy, start a new mother plant with a fresh cutting. Most growers tend to replace their mother plants every six months or so.

Taking cuttings is an easy concept to grasp. You’re effectively cutting off part of a plant, adapting the environment to enable it to survive without a root system, and then encouraging it to form roots of its own. Hey presto, you have another plant! A cutting is a 100% genetic copy of the mother plant, so it’s a great way of ensuring consistency from crop to crop.

Just for the record, let’s go through the (very simple) process of taking a cutting. We’ll keep things brief as, no doubt, most of you know the drill. It’s not so much the actual taking of the cutting we wish to focus on, it’s looking after them afterwards! Anyway, here we go:

How To Take a Cutting

Stem cuttings are by far the most common type of cutting that gardeners take. It involves removing some stem from a plant that contains a healthy growth tip. We’re using tomatoes for this example but this method applies to nearly all soft-wood plants.

Step 1 – Take a clean scalpel or a very sharp knife and remove a healthy looking branch from your mother plant. The sharper the blade, the cleaner the cut and the less tissue damage around it—meaning less chance of disease.

Step 2 – Remove any excess stem. Many grow guides will tell you to take a cutting at a 45 degree angle, to increase the surface area of the exposed cutting to rooting stimulators. At risk of being contentious, this really is not necessary! I actually prefer to take a ’squarer cut’ because the cut part of the stem is less susceptible to damage.

Step 3 – The more foliage on your cuttings, the more ‘life’ it has to support. It makes sense, therefore, to remove any excessive foliage. Yes, some leaves need to remain but you’re really after small, manageable cuttings that aren’t going to crowd out your propagator or cloning machine. Trim the tips of larger leaves so that the cutting is no larger than the space it is going to be given in your cloning machine. Less foliage on your cuttings makes life easier because there are fewer leaves for the cutting to support through this acutely stressful period in its life! Just as importantly, small cuttings don’t overlap each other so much, which significantly reduces the risk of mold.

Step 4 – Your cutting should look something like this. Most growers aim for cuttings between three and five inches from top to bottom. The next step is to dip your cutting into some rooting stimulator. Though not essential, rooting times will be shorter, decreasing the chance of mold or stem rot. Several compounds can be used to promote the formation of roots. They work by signaling the activity of plant hormone auxins. Among the commonly used chemicals is indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) used as a powder, liquid solution or gel. There are also cloning products on the market that use only natural ingredients. Whichever route you take (pun intended, sorry), don’t dip your cutting straight into the jar the product came in as this can lead to contamination and a far less effective product. Instead, pour a small amount into a shot glass and dip into that instead. Clean the shot glass and your blade regularly, particularly if taking cuttings from more than one mother plant. You don’t want to be transferring viruses between plants!

Okay, so now you have a freshly-taken, foliage-trimmed cutting, that’s been dipped into rooting gel or powder. It’s time to fire up your cloning machine! A timely word of advice: it’s important not to dawdle when taking cuttings! Remember, every second counts. After all, if you leave a cutting on your kitchen table, it will dehydrate and be well on the way to dying in a matter of minutes. So the sooner you can get your cutting into a propagator or cloning machine, the better. Preparation is key, especially if you are taking lots of cuttings.

Aeroponic Cuttings – Pros and Cons

Pros

1) Quicker, more vigorous rooting
2) Cleaner, so less chance of disease
3) Less maintenance
4) Reduced risk of drying out or wet / dry stress
5) No need to purchase or prepare growth media.
6) More flexibility when you choose to use your cuttings.
7) Larger cuttings can be more readily supported in aeroponic cloning machines.
Aeroponic cuttings tend to be a little hardier as they haven’t rooted inside a propagation dome.

Cons

1) Extra care needs to be taken when transferring to loose fill media.
2) Aeroponic cuttings are more sensitive to changes / extremes in temperature.
3) Increased start-up costs—unless you fashion your own machine!
4) Risk of power-cuts! A few hours of no misting can damage or kill your clones. Consider using a UPS battery back-up if power cuts are common in your area.
5) Pumps (or: The pump) and misters can be a little on the noisy side. Nothing too severe, but you wouldn’t want them in your bedroom.

Aeroponic Cloning

Fresh tomato cuttings inserted into a cloning machine. Foam disks hold the cutting firmly but gently in place.

An aeroponic cloning machine allows you to root your cuttings without the expense of buying media or the time necessary to prepare it. Typically, a submerged pump drives nutrient solution into low pressure misters. Amazingly, no humidity dome is required because the cuttings are still able to uptake any moisture they need directly from the mist. As with all equipment you use for taking cuttings, make sure your cloning machine is kept clean! Fill the machine to the indicated level with water that is at 65–68°F (18–20°C).

This low pressure mister attaches directly onto a submersible pump, creating an even mist for the cuttings. Be sure to install it so the misters point upwards.

There’s no need to add any nutrients because your cuttings don’t have roots yet! Saying this, some growers still prefer to add some hydroponic nutrients at this stage, so that as soon as the cuttings develop roots of their own, they have some immediate food available.  Hydroponic nutrients are preferable over organic nutrients as they can be immediately assimilated by your cuttings and they don’t foul up your “res.” Many growers use a very dilute version of their standard ‘bloom formulation’ because the phosphorus encourages further root development. Others prefer to use a specialist product for young plants so that the ratios of micro and macro elements are kept in balance. If you add nutrients, adjust to pH 6.0–6.3 with dilute phosphoric acid and shoot for an EC of between 0.4 and 0.6.

Room Environment

As mentioned earlier, aeroponic cloning machines don’t need humidity domes. This means it’s absolutely crucial to have your room’s environment dialed in. Your cuttings will be happiest when located in a room kept around a steady 70°F (21°C.) Try to keep room temperatures below 75°F (24°C) as excess heat just adds transpirational stress, and more stress is the last thing your cuttings want! Aim to keep the nutrient solution at 68°F (20°C); any warmer will decrease levels of dissolved oxygen in your nutrients and increase the likelihood of pathogens and stem / root rot. If your room (or nutrient solution) is too cold this will slow metabolism, shock your cuttings and inhibit that all important root development. The submerged pump will heat the nutrient solution slightly so you definitely need to keep an eye on nutrient solution temperatures. Use a nutrient thermometer to keep on top of things. If you find that the pump is warming up your nutrient solution excessively, try relocating your cloning machine on to a stone floor, lower ambient temperatures in your room if you can, or run the pump on a timer, five minutes on, five minutes off, rather than letting it run constantly. Relative humidity levels should be at least 65%. If the relative humidity in your room is less than this, you should consider misting or using a propagation dome to help increase the relative humidity directly around your cuttings.

Light Levels

Cuttings don’t require much light; in fact, high light levels are to be avoided. Remember, you want your cuttings to concentrate their energy on creating roots, not coping with an intense growing environment—that will come in time! A pair of two-foot, 55 watt, T5 fluorescent tubes hung five to eight inches away is more than enough to keep 30 or 40 cuttings very happy. Other growers will simply relegate their cloning machine to the corner of the veg chamber so that it is in the diffused light of their metal halide grow lamps. Just be sure the lights are not too intense and keep them on for 18 hours a day. Some growers prefer a 24-hour lights on approach as it makes temperatures easier to regulate, but all plants benefit from a little time out. There’s no need to overwork them! Make sure temperatures do not drop too low during the lights out period. Use a Min/Max thermometer and a thermostatically controlled heater if required, but don’t blow warm air directly on to your cuttings … ever! This will dry them out and cause them untold stress.

Insert each cutting into the center of the foam discs supplied with your cloning machine so that at least two inches of stem dangles in the misting chamber below the lid. Remember, there should not be any leaves in the misting chamber—just bare stem.

Day 1 – Settling In

Day 1 – Freshly inserted cuttings viewed as they are seen from the misting chamber.

Don’t be concerned if your cuttings wilt a little immediately after insertion into your cloning machine. They should perk up within an hour and return to looking pert. If they continue to appear limp you should try applying a very light spray with water or a dilute foliar solution with a wetting agent to help the moisture cling to the leaves. Amazingly no humidity dome is required when using aeroponic cloning machines as the cuttings are still able to uptake moisture from the misting chamber—even without roots! Your cuttings will thrive in a well ventilated but not drafty space. The last thing you want is a fan blowing on them. You shouldn’t have to do anything for the first few days—just keep an eye out for any wilting. If any cuttings don’t look happy, it’s not too late to replace them.

Day 3 – Roots start to develop

Day 3 – Cuttings start developing root calluses.

Cuttings tend to root faster in aeroponic cloning machines. It won’t be long until you see the beginning of root development. Typically this starts with the formation of small white calluses on the stem. Keep an especially watchful eye over your cuttings during the next few days. Roots should be bright white. If you observe brown or discolored roots, this could be a sign that your nutrient solution is too warm. If you haven’t done so already, it’s definitely a good idea to add some mineral nutrition to your cloning machine’s reservoir at this point as your cuttings can certainly derive benefit from it. Some growers change out the res at this stage.

Day 7 – Root Explosion!

Just 7 days after being taken, these cuttings are already bursting with root development.

With such prolific root development, it’s tempting to think the job is done, but it pays to be a little more patient before removing your cuttings from the cloning machine. This is just the ‘first generation’ of roots.

Day 8 – Secondary roots begin to develop

Day 8 – We can see the first signs of secondary root development.

As secondary roots begin to emerge, we are fast approaching the time when the cuttings will leave the cloning machine and begin life as young plants!

Day 10 / 11 – Ready and Raring to Go!

The cuttings are ready!

Lots of secondary root development and root hairs too. They are ready for transplanting.

The emergence of more secondary roots and root hairs is a sure sign that your cuttings are developed enough to handle life outside of the cloning machine. If you’re not quite ready though, don’t worry; the cuttings will be quite happy to bathe in their nutrient mist for days, even weeks if required! Just be sure to change out the nutrients once a week and keep an eye on pH levels. If roots become very long you can always trim them —they won’t mind!

Transplanting

A net pot is an ideal next stage for an aeroponic cutting. This gives you a chance to establish your cutting in the growth media of your choice. One common question about aeroponic clones is how to handle transplanting them into a pot of loose-fill media or hydroponic system. For instance, there is a common myth that aeroponic clones don’t do well in soil or coco coir. This is simply not the case; you just need to take care. Ensure your chosen media is at room temperature and fairly moist. Also, remember roots hate light, so be kind to your cuttings and transplant them away from bright lights. Partially fill the pot with media, make a hole just big enough to insert the rooted cutting, and gently back fill around it so all the roots are covered and your cutting is well supported. They will need a few days to adjust, so don’t go whacking them straight under your 1000W metal halides just yet. Ease them in gently under a 6500K T5 fluorescent or a 250W metal halide. Some growers foliar spray with sea kelp products which help to reduce stress levels. Other growers use a Victorian Bell Cloche to increase humidity levels for the first few days as the cuttings settle in.

PHOTO CREDITS: OUR BELOVED GRUBBYCUP

AEROPONIC CLONING FAQ

Here are some of the most common questions about aeroponic cloning:

1) What kind of water should be used initially to fill the res? Is regular tap ok? Or should I use distilled? Any need to pH adjust the water initially?

Regular tap water is typically fine in most major areas. It’s what I always recommend trying first. Distilled water should NOT be used, as it is so stripped of any type of mineral content that it pulls important minerals from the plant tissue hindering the initiation of root development. I often recommend users run their system without cuttings in it for the first 24 hours if they have the time. This allows them to check what their temps will be and allows some time for pH stabilization. Water should be pH adjusted after any types of solutions are added and adjusted again after cuttings have been inserted. Fill the cloning machine as high as you can so that the water level is just below the misters. The more water that is in the res, the more stable the pH and temperature.

2) Do you recommend adding anything to the water?
Yes. Use a rooting stimulator – check the label but 1 teaspoon per gallon is a general guide. Also, consider adding a silica product – this will assist in building strong cell walls and protect against bacteria etc.

3) What about adding some mineral nutrition? Should growers wait until they see roots developing? How much? And what sort of strength / pH?

I typically add nutrients only after roots have gotten between 3-4 inches in length. It’s the grower’s preference whether they go mineral (hydroponic) or organic, however I find regular hydroponic nutrients usually keeps the reservoir cleaner. I usually stay between 400-500 ppm for new clones after root development. pH between 5.8-6.3. I prefer 5.8.  I’ve also noticed that even without additives of any kind, the pH of tap water will have a tendency to rise over the course of 24-48 hours. To compensate for this, I adjust my initial pH down to approximately 5.2 because I know the pH will slowly rise somewhere close to between 5.8 and 6.3. This is an acceptable range for getting quality results. I keep the closest eye on my pH during the first 24-48 hrs. If the pH needs to be adjusted again later on, do so, but it usually stables out after the first couple adjustments. If you are not sure if you’ve got an accurate pH reading, I highly recommend getting a quality digital pH meter.

4) Veg or bloom nutrients?  Something with phosphorus (for rooting) and nitrogen?  If using GH 3-part for instance, what ratios would you use?

As long as I’m taking cuttings from a healthy Mother plant, I don’t use nutes for cloning. A cutting is developing roots because it’s searching for food. If you try to feed something that doesn’t have a mouth yet, you’re defeating the purpose. Cuttings root perfectly fine with some IBA’s and Vitamin B-1.

5) Any additives?  Either in the res or foliar?

This is a tricky topic because there are so many different additives on the market. I can’t recommend just one. We are introducing a brand new product to the market right now called EZ-CLONE Clear Rez that is designed to keep all of the internal workings of your cloner free from pathogens and promotes prolific white root growth. We’ve been testing it for over a year. It’s amazing…

6) Can you explain how root-less cuttings are still able to uptake water, with no need for humidity dome?  We’ve seen it with our own eyes, just wondered if there’s a scientific explanation.

The plant tissue still absorbs a sufficient amount of moisture for the cutting to sustain itself upright. Roots develop because the cuttings are searching for food. Humidity domes are NOT necessary with aeroponic cloners. In fact, I suspect domes help to promote airborne bacterias such as powdery mildew and prevent the cutting from transpiring naturally.

7) What are the general signs that a cutting is ready to leave the machine?

It depends what medium you’re transplanting into. I prefer to let the roots get 6-8 inches in length before transplanting into soil, coco, hydroton clay rocks, or other aeroponic systems.
The longer the roots, the better chance of your cutting surviving after its been transplanted.

Any danger signs to look out for? If root tips are slightly off color, is that okay, or a bad sign? When are nutrient temperatures definitely too high?

When res temps get above 80 degrees, cuttings are more prone to pathogens and bad bacteria. Slightly off color can be ok. If you start getting greyish/brown slime cover the bottom of your cuttings, it’s time to take precautionary measures.

9) Any general tips for transplanting aeroponic cuttings into media?

The longer the roots, the better. It’s always ok to cut excessive root growth off with sterile scissors if you’re trying to transplant a cutting into a rockwool cube or other similar medium. Most people don’t understand that this will NOT kill the cutting. Just make sure scissors are clean and always be delicate when transplanting.

10) Have you heard of growers using cloches / domes to reduce transplant stress?
Only when cuttings come from cloning methods where domes were used. When they’re cloned without domes, they transplant into domeless mediums MUCH easier.

11) Any other golden rules / tips / tricks?
We’ve kept our water temp coolest and actually saw slightly better results when putting the pump on a half hour on/ half hour off timer…a little new found info.

12) Is it necessary to change out the reservoir during one cloning cycle?
No, if everything is in proper working order, you should be able to continue using the same water for 4-6 weeks.

Everest Fernandez

As a cloning medium…

Cloning allows us to take the advanced age of a mother plant (ideally, just prior to flowering) and generate several, ready-to-go copies. You can then take those copies, vegetate them for a much shorter period of time, and push them right into flowering. Meanwhile, you’re growing more clone-able branches on your mother plant for another round of cuttings.

Sounds simple, no?

Well, it’s not. We all have our preferred methods for cloning. I’ve tried cloning in plastic cups with plain ol’ high-PPM, high-PH tap water. I’ve tried cloning in soil, in coco plugs, and even medium-less with an 8-cell Daisy Cloner. None of these cloning attempts came even close to the success of the Rapid Rooters in a seedling tray.

My new recipe? Dip my cuttings in Clonex, shove into Rapid Rooters, insert into seedling tray with a heating mat beneath and a humidity dome on top. Fin.

I’ve gone from a 50% rooting success rate of my cuttings to a 90% rooting success rate. Not only that, I’ve hastened the time for rooting. Previously, my cuttings in straight coco-fiber would take three weeks or longer to root—if at all. With the Rapid Rooters, I had root sprouts from 50% of my cuttings in 5 days. In 2 weeks, 90% of my cuttings had advanced, ready-to-plant root systems.

As a seed medium…

Rapid Rooters provide a great seed medium. Insert a seed or three into the pre-cut seed hole, insert into seedling tray, and wait. The RR’s nutrients will not burn your seeds and will accelerate their fledgling root systems beautifully.

As an added bonus, AeroGardeners can use Rapid Rooter plugs. You simply cut down the size of the RR plug, insert it into the AeroGarden plastic seed pod, and insert your seeds. Not only are they much cheaper than AeroGarden’s replacement grow sponges, but Rapid Rooters will rapidly root (pun intended) your seeds.

A good root system is the basis of a healthy plant. With GH’s Rapid Rooters, I saw not only success, but FAST success. My seed starts and cuttings have never been happier or more successful than in RR plugs.

Thank you General Hydroponics!

Has Curtis convinced you? Have you had your own love affair with a particular propagation method? Share!

A mother plant is there for one thing and one thing only. Cuttings. Lots and lots of lovely cuttings – or “baby chimps,” as I call them. If you grow plants that are sensitive to photoperiod you’ll want to let her bask under at least 18 hours of light per day so that she remains permanently in vegetative mode. She just grows and grows and never flowers, providing you with all the cuttings you need. Pretty amazing stuff when you stop to think about it. So you see, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a mother plant is the central pillar of any productive indoor gardening operation.

So why is it that so many of my fellow gardeners neglect their mothers? (Heheheh … I’ll let you fill in the gaps on that one!) Time and time again I find them in a right old sorry state, sprawled out and legging up in a dull corner of a vegetative room, looking old and decrepit with lots of brown, dead foliage at the bottom and untrained gnarly growth everywhere. (What a terrible image!) These offenders (and you know who you are!) think that all keeping a mother plant entails is to whack her in a 15 litre pot and fill it up with their chosen growing medium – oh and occasionally feeding it when she starts to wilt. It’s a crying shame. Too often the attitude is “keep the mother going” rather than “keep the mother thriving.” I don’t know about you, but it’s plainly obvious through good old common sense, let alone science, that the health of the mother plant has a direct bearing on the health and future yields of the scores of cuttings she produces!

Dedicate Some Space

Experienced growers have a dedicated mother room or tent. They don’t mind giving up this space and using the extra power because of the many benefits and conveniences that having a mother plant to hand brings. For one thing, growing from cuttings is way faster than growing from seeds every time. You can also flip a cutting over into flowering at any point, whereas you have to wait for a seedling to mature before it will do the business. Seeds also cost money, sometimes quite a lot of money, and they are often fairly unpredictable. On the other hand, you can be sure that all cuttings taken from the same mother will perform in the same way, so you know exactly what you’re going to get every time. That said, make sure you choose a good’n! You’re after a vigorous plant that yields well, resist pests and rot, and is pleasing to all the senses! Furthermore it’s a real bonus to have a mother plant that produces cuttings which are easy to root. Even plants of the same genus can vary incredibly – some taking twice or three times longer to root than others. So you definitely want to take rooting time / ease of rooting into consideration.

Choosing a system

Right then, we’ve established that you really, really need to take care of your mother plant. And no doubt some of you will have seen them thriving at friends’ houses in big pots and them being fed passively with drippers or a watering can. But if you really want her to thrive, the best choice is to treat her to her very own active hydroponics system. A Waterfarm, Aquafarm or similar single top feed bucket system is an excellent choice and it certainly won’t break the bank. Also, it’s a far more hands-off method. After you’ve filled the top bucket with well-washed clay pebbles, all you’ll need to do is keep the reservoir topped up and change the nutrient solution every week or two, and that’s about it. I have the drippers on constantly – especially when the mother is well established – as they can be very thirsty buggers. The growth is incredibly fast in these systems, meaning you can take lots of cuttings and your old dear will replenish herself in no time. Using a hydroponics system also gives you more control over the nutrients available to your mother plant. For instance, some growers like to decrease the levels of nitrogen available to the mother plant (by about 10%) prior to taking cuttings, claiming it promotes faster rooting.

Taming the Beast

As I mentioned earlier, it’s all too easy to allow your mother to become out of control. As you take more cuttings from your mother plant it will become bushier and bushier. Where you remove one growth tip to take a cutting, two will take the lead in its place. And two become four, and four become eight, etc. Eventually you end up with the mother plant equivalent of an afro. You can either do some serious remedial pruning, or start afresh by turning a cutting into a new mother plant. When taking cuttings, think like a hairdresser and try to shape your plant so that most of it is under a good amount of light. There’s no point in letting a mother plant get too tall and pointy – take these tips out and try to develop a candelabra-shaped plant instead.

Candelabra

The perfect shape to aim for when pruning your mother is a candelabra. This allows the most growth tips access to positions with optimum light levels.

Lighting

Remember, even if you’re not using all the vegetation she produces, your mother plant needs to thrive. It’s this intrinsic ‘health’ and ‘vigor’ that your cuttings will take with them when they become plants in their own right. Remember, your mother plant “sets the pace” so she needs to bask under lots of light. The dull corner of a veg room is far from ideal. If you have a separate vegging chamber, don’t be tempted just to stick her in there. For starters, your mother plant is likely to be a vastly different size to plants that are in early veg – she needs her own dedicated light. Many growers use 125 – 250 watt compact florescent units or some go the whole hog with a 250 – 400 watt metal halide HID. It’s unlikely that you’ll need anything more than this unless you’re growing up a monster – and if this is the case perhaps it’s worth considering growing more than one mother? CFLs need to be placed closer to the plant. For this reason, I personally find that a metal halide with a large, wide dispersing reflector is more practical.

Keep Things Fresh

After prolonged use a mother can become incredibly bushy, making it more difficult to take good sized cuttings. At this point it’s worth considering replacing your mother with a cutting from itself. This is a good time to give things a real deep clean – rinse out the hydroponics system that’s supporting the mother with a mild bleach solution. Remember that disease and pests on your mother will invariably be passed to any cuttings taken from her. So look after her! Depending on how well you take care of her, she will keep going and going for years before those characteristics you love her for start to wane. “How long?” you ask. Well, this is difficult to say. Some growers change their genetics every 6-9 months. I know of others who’ve been using the same chromosomes for as many years! But here’s a rule of thumb: as well as diminishing yields, a particularly telling sign is rooting time. If you are used to your mother producing cuttings that root in, say, ten days, and suddenly it’s taking two weeks or more, you may want to consider sourcing some fresh new genetics from seed and starting over.

18 or 24?

The jury is still split over whether mother plants prefer 18 hours of light a day or 24. Certainly it’s more natural to allow your plants to have some “dark time” – and your mother room lighting electricity costs will be reduced too. It’s less hassle to just plug a light in rather than faff with timers (and maybe electricians) so a lot of growers take the ‘lazy’ option of 24 hour light. Some Dutch growers I know even claim that it produces more vigorous plants!

Mothering Tips

• Dedicate a standard sized grow tent to your mother plant. Use a control unit, and a 5 or 6 inch extractor to maintain temperatures at 73 to 82°F (23 to 28°C) and relative humidity at around 60%.
• Don’t grow your mother plants in coco coir. After a few months it tends to lock out nitrogen – which is an essential primary nutrient for continued growth.
• Rotate your mother plant from time to time to ensure more even growth.
• Remove all dead leaves. Check right inside the mother plant as she gets bushier.
• If you insist on growing your mother in a pot, periodically check the roots to ensure the plant is not becoming too pot bound. If this is the case, use a sharp, sterile knife to remove around an inch of the root ball (messy business!) and re-pot in a larger container. It looks brutal, but your mother will thank you for it!
• If you are growing your plant in a hydroponics system (recommended) make sure you keep the reservoir topped up and check that the pH is always around 5.8. Completely refresh your nutrient solution every 7 – 10 days.
• Use a grow light rich in the blue spectrum like a metal halide HID or a CFL. The 250 watt Enviroglow is a great choice. It screws directly into the reflector – no need for a ballast or electrician if using with a timer. Remember to ask for the blue version for growth!
• If using CFLs, remember they do not give off much heat. They work best a lot closer to your plants than a standard HID light.

Everest’s Mother Plant Shopping List

Ok, so you’ve decided to grow up your very own mother plant? Here’s a list of things I think you’re going to need:

• A standard-sized grow tent. The Homebox is a great choice. Also, the Homebox Light (not designed to be lightproof ) is a good budget option as a mother plant does not require set amounts of complete darkness. Size assembled: 39 1/2 by 39 1/2 by 78 3/4 inches (100 by 100 by 200 centimeters).
• 1 x Top Feed Bucket System, e.g. Nurticulture Flo Gro FG500, or GHE’s Waterfarm / Aquafarm. All these systems use a ring dripper that ensures a wide dispersal of nutrients to all parts of the root zone.
• 1 x 400 watt HID lighting system with a Metal Halide lamp and a large reflector for a wide spread of light. The Sunpulse range also features a dedicated vegetative light (6.5K).
• A pair of Ezi-hangers to hang and adjust your lights.
• S hooks – to attach your Ezi-hangers to the top of your grow tent.
• Clay pebbles.
• Extraction kit: 6” carbon filter + fan + ducting

Inflow: Passive should be fine through the grow tent venting. If your mother plant becomes very large, you could supplement this with an RVK100 style fan. Blow fresh air in at the bottom of the tent.

• Control unit (automate inflow and extractor fan speeds to regulate temperature and humidity).
• High quality vegetative nutrient pack. Ask your local hydro store for advice on the water quality in your area and make sure you buy an appropriate nutrient.
• Hygrozyme is a personal favorite of mine for keeping mother plants (as well as vegetating cuttings) in tip top health. It helps to break down any old root mass and stimulate fresh new growth.
• Trichoderma or funganic powder – beneficial bacteria for a healthy root zone.
• I’m assuming you already have your humidity, pH and conductivity (nutrient strength) meters! If not – make the investment!
• Cheap and affordable “auto-top up” systems are available if you are planning to go away for an extended period.
• Don’t forget scalpels, rooting hormone, propagation media (e.g. rockwool cubes) and propagators for taking all those lovely, healthy cuttings!

So good luck everybody and remember: look after your mother and she will look after you!

{Cue needle scratch sound on record.}

”YOU DON’T NEED A MOTHER PLANT!” cries a dissenting voice.

Whaaat!!!? Who dares declare this heresy? Why, it is Mr. Billy Graham! (Not the preacher.) We begged him to step forth and elaborate … and he did!

Now then, now then, settle down you feisty Urban Gardeners. I know that a lot of you are very attached to your precious mother plants. After all, you’ve probably been hacking away at them for a good few seasons now, right? You love taking your cuttings! Of course you do! You’re badder than bad with that lil’ scalpel of yours!

Don‘t get me wrong – I’m not knocking it. Taking cuttings has every right to be so popular with urban gardeners because it’s such lo-fi technology. As long as you have a plant that’s reasonably easy to take cuttings from, it’s a technique that works well for most growers. Lop off a bit of branch, dunk, plonk, propagator lid on, wait a week or so, hey presto. One rooted cutting ready to go.

But what if there was a system that provided you with all the rooted cuttings you could ever need, and gave you back your mother room? That’s right, I’m talking about freeing up that space for other activities! Like … another flowering room for instance! And you no longer have to take care of a mother plant all the time, come rain or shine, and let’s not even begin to think about all the lighting and other energy consuming resources you would no longer need. You know, come to think of it, a mother room is a pretty demanding beast.

What is Plant Tissue Culture?

A plant tissue culture laboratory technician.

So what am I talking about? Plant tissue culture! Professional nurseries do not grow big rooms full of mother plants. If a crop is not grown from seeds, it’s more than likely to have been produced in tissue culture. You don’t always hear about it because only a few labs are necessary to grow the plants for all those greenhouses. You would be surprised how many of the plants you find all around you arose from tissue culture. Expensive equipment has prevented growers from setting up anything but the largest laboratories. So am I really serious about doing this sort of stuff at home? I most certainly am, thanks to new home tissue culture kits. These little gems have eliminated the need for expensive hoods and autoclaves. So yes, if you’re a plant enthusiast, you can now achieve lab quality tissue culture in your home.

How does it work in practice?

Let me start by saying this: tissue culture combines mother plants, cloning, and rooting in a single system that’s 10 to 100 times as efficient as ordinary cloning. Tissue culture growers produce hundreds or thousands of clones a month, or as few as they wish, from the multiplying and rooting of plants in jars. There are only a few basic steps that are easy to understand.

Small pieces of plant tissue are grown on gels made to multiply or root the plants. The first bunch of plants are grown with branching hormone to make them multiply like crazy. The secret is in the gel made from very special ingredients. I guess you could say it’s like “hydroponic jello” and is made from agar, nutrients, vitamins, sugar and hormones and a special preservative to eliminate the need to work under an expensive hood.

The sugar feeds the plant energy and the hormones make it grow the direction you want. Use the branching hormones to make a few plant pieces grow into full jars of new plants every month or five weeks. Plants are taken from the multiplying jars and divided to give a few hundred new plants. Most of them will be your new plants.

Dip them in rooting gel and plant away or root them in tissue culture and continue feeding them in sugar in larger jars. The tissue culture cuttings will grow tall and burst with roots in only a few weeks, and they will do it faster. Rooted tissue culture clones are ready to plant just like clones from a professional cloning machine. The remaining small plants are replanted into new multiplying jars to grow and fill all over again. The system takes on a “two shelf” operation. The jars on the top shelf multiply a few plants into many plants. The lower shelf gets them taller and puts roots on them.

Shelf Life

Dragon Tree plant tissue culture.

And another great thing:  the clones are ready when you are. The plants in the jars have everything they need for months of growth and the containers they are grown in are easy to ship and transport. Tissue culture plants have been left on the counters of stores for months with no care, watering, or special lighting – that’s right … nothing. The sugar and nutrients provide the energy. Kit plants are given light for faster growth and speeded up by cutting and transplanting them more often.

It only takes a few plant pieces to get it all started. It begins with plant nodes and tips just about ¾” long with the branch bud ready to grow out. An ordinary cutting of 4 to 6 inches provides 3 to 6 node cuttings for tissue culture meristem culture. The node is trimmed with about ¼” above and below the node and the same for the petiole, or leaf stem. The pieces are washed in alcohol, bleach water, then rinsed, trimmed, and planted in a jar.

What equipment is needed?

So what does it take to be able to do all of this? Mix jars of gel just like gelatin, heat and cool, trim plants using scalpels and forceps, and grow the plants in a small clean location. Remember when taking clones seemed like a lot of scientific techie stuff? Now it’s second-nature, right? Well I think it’s the same with tissue culture. The skills will become second nature after only a few uses. It’s easy when you give it a go and practice a few times. Imagine what indoor hydroponics sounded like to a dirt and sun farmer when they heard about it for the first time! “Cover the walls, put up sodium lights, and use this nutrient solution in these rockwool cubes, pH adjust …. Etc.” This is no different and there’s already a breed of pioneering urban gardeners out there who have mastered tissue culture propagation and have a whole bank of genetics on a single shelf, rather than a room for a mother plants.  If you’re serious about preserving a whole array of interesting plant varieties, then plant tissue culture is definitely worth investigating!

Everest adds …

Plant tissue culture is used in commercial plant production because it’s possible to turn one plant into thousands, relatively easily. Imagine how great it would feel to take a single rare orchid and turn it into 10,000 plants? Woohoo! Orchids R Us babyo! Plant tissue culture is also useful for plant species that don’t root well and for germinating some types of seeds e.g. agave which have very specific moisture content requirements.

The tiny plantlets grown in tissue culture are extremely delicate when they emerge and it takes time and patience to harden them off sufficiently for the ‘real world’ of the growroom. I reckon that tissue culture will be of more interest to the very serious hobbyist / semi-professional rather than small-scale hobbyist growers. (I think they will be hard pressed to replace their mother plants, $20 propagators, rockwool cubes and scalpels with a Petri dish and agar but hey, you never know!) It’s great to see that these kits are out there for those growers who are serious about plant propagation.

And, plant tissue culture makes it very easy to transport your precious plant genetics. Anyway, as always, don’t forget to let us know your thoughts and/or experiences by posting a comment below.

Many thanks to Billy Graham for introducing us to this interesting propagation technique.  For more information please visit: www.planttc.com.

But are all cuttings really equal? And can you take a cutting from a cutting from a cutting forever?

Jeff Winterborne, our resident propagation expert, reveals all!

Why take cuttings?

To the experienced gardener this might seem like a daft question, but it’s definitely worth a closer look. We take cuttings to generate more plants. It’s possible to make hundreds of new plants from one large “mother plant.” Many advantages are apparent when choosing to take cuttings to generate new plant stock in this way. The main benefits are that the clones taken from the plant are almost exactly that– clones, i.e. the cutting that you take from the mother plant will have almost identical characteristics, so quality, size, yield, taste, sex, and vigor (to name a few traits) are passed down to the clones. Therefore, all the important factors are already known as they follow the attributes that the mother carries. As the characteristics are already known, the cuttings will also have these same traits and grow to a similar shape, size, so on and so forth. So in effect, the space in your greenhouse or grow room can be more efficiently utilized. The other very big benefit is that no further cost apart from sundry equipment is needed, meaning that you do not need to make another outlay on purchasing the seeds, as new plants can be generated from the existing stock of plants. Many new plants can be grown from your original stock for an absolute minimal cost.

Which parts of the mother plant can I use to make a cutting?

Any part of the plant can be used as a cutting, as long as it encompasses a growing tip. However, some parts of the mother plant produce easier rooting clones than others. It is widely believed that the main centre head of the plants and the very top arm tips make for easier rooting cuttings and therefore better cuttings. This is rightly believed due to the fact that these parts of the plants have a higher concentration of auxins (which are growth hormones) compared to the lower canopy of the plants, and therefore make for better clones that are more likely to root. Now, although the science here is correct, the science of nature is a completely different ball game. Through personal experience, although the tops of the plant are very easily rooted, the lower canopy side branches have more vigor once rooted than their counterparts from the top.

The reasons for this may be many, but an obvious one is that the lower canopy (compared to the upper canopy) has had it hard. The lower canopy is struggling for existence, therefore is working hard to survive compared to the tops, which have got it very easy – “completely pampered” is somewhat of an understatement. So, when you take cuttings from the lower canopy, these cuttings have within them the “motivation” gained via struggle and, when given an opportunity to become fully fledged plants themselves, they literally fly out of the starting blocks and continue to exhibit this inherent motivation throughout their whole existence.

Clones taken from the tops of the plant, which at first make a better cutting, have however inherited a type of “laziness” and lack of motivation that the lower canopy cuttings do not possess. So with all the above in mind, if you could extrapolate this over the course of a few generations, you would obviously only be taking the cuttings from the best of the stock plants. Then in turn, the very best of those cuttings would become the new stock plants, and through taking cuttings from the cream of those stock plants, you would, before you know it, two to three generations later, have the best of the best of the best, all with turbocharged motivation and momentum for their survival. The end result would be supercharged stock plants – truly professional specimens that any grower would sell their mother-in-law for!

Can the cutting from a cutting cycle go on forever?

This is a controversial area. If you’ve studied plant biology you may have been taught that a clone is a 100% genetic copy. So surely it follows that a copy of a copy of a copy is going to be the same as the original – right?

Wrong. If you speak to many growers who take cuttings to reproduce annual plants (rather than pollination and seeding), they will tell you, from their experience, that plant genetics actually degrade over time. Actually, it might be more accurate to say that the genetics diversify, or even malfunction. As a rule of thumb you should take the best cutting from the plant you’ve grown from seed, grow that cutting up, take the best cutting from that cutting, and take the best cutting from that. Make this your mother plant. If you look after it, it should give you two years’ worth of happy cuttings. After three to four years, however, your genetics will probably become “tired.” Vigor, yield and harvest quality will decrease significantly. Cuttings taken from a tired mother are also more prone to pests and disease. Typically the same applies to clones taken from clones once you get past four generations. However, it must be stated that, depending on the genetics of your seeds in the first place, which will dictate the longevity of your mothers or clones, some genomes can withstand more than others. For example, some species will allow possibly six to eight generations of clones from clones before genetic diversification sets in, while others can break down after one or two generations. In fact, some genomes or breeds or even types of breed do not make for good mothers or clones … period.

Urban Garden Magazine would like to issue its heartfelt thanks to Jeff Winterborne for kindly permitting us to adapt and print this excerpt from his book:  “Hydroponics: Indoor Horticulture.”  When Everest first read this book he wanted to hug the author.  Finally somebody had organized all the facts for the indoor hydro grower into plain English!

ISBN: 0-9550112-0-5
For more information visit www.hydroponicist.com

Do you agree or disagree with Jeff?  Have you experienced ‘lazy cuttings’?  Tell us about it below!

CLONEX from Growth Technology is a popular rooting hormone product.

She was finally ready.  Over the last few weeks before harvest one specimen in particular had caught my eye in the growroom.   She was clearly the star of the show and, each time I popped my head around the door, she appeared to stand out more and more.  The girth of her stem had been noticeably thicker than her neighbour’s since she was little more than a seedling.  Sometimes those early leaders turned out to be poor finishers – but not this time.  The flower heads that this sturdy frame was now tasked with supporting were respectively endowed.

This glorious freak of nature was twice as impressive as her nearest competitor.  I spent the following few weeks congratulating myself over and over again on having grown, in my eyes at least, the best plant in the world …. ever.

The rest of the crop paled in comparison.  Perhaps I’m guilty of a little over-personification but it was as if the other plants had given up the ghost when they saw the competition.  Or perhaps it was just the presence of this uber-specimen that highlighted my otherwise mediocre results more than usual.

All that happened many years ago now.  But before you dismiss this as another ethno-botanical urban myth, please let me say that I haven’t grown anything to match it since!  I was more or less a complete novice grower in those days.  It was a case of me being the lucky recipient of freak genetics, a holy matrimony of chromosomes, rather than the seed being the benefactor of anywhere nearly approaching an ideal growing environment.  I’ve since come to realise just how precious good genetics are!

In the years that followed my growrooms grew in size perhaps a little disproportionate to my proficiency, but if one axiom has remained true throughout it’s that the best growroom in the world can only realise the potential of the plant genetics to hand.  I’ve not come across a plant quite as monstrously resinous as the aforementioned specimen since and, alas, the genetics of that alpha-female, are lost.  Forever.

Back then I’d heard about taking cuttings (aka clones) but, apart from a lack of space, I dismissed the technique as a bit too advanced or hit and miss for me.  Had I known how easy it was to take cuttings from my favourite plants my growroom could have been filled with super-plants for years to come. (And, let’s not forget, had I been altruistic as well as prudent, my green-fingered friends could have benefited too.)

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve daydreamed about harvesting row after row of those identical super-plants.  Alas, the daydreams always leave me with a deep regret that I did not take any cuttings.

There are probably as many different ways of taking cuttings as there are people who take them.  Rather than try to exhaustively list each and every one I just want to start by describing my own simple, inexpensive method that has worked consistently well for me over the years.  There can be a lot of growers’ ‘hocus pocus’ when it comes to taking cuttings so let’s start with a little common sense.  If I accidentally snap off part of a plant and leave it discarded on my growroom floor then that severed portion will, of course, die!  It’s been separated from its root system and therefore has no way of feeding itself or replenishing lost moisture.  In less than an hour it will be shrivelled up and limp.  So in order for cuttings to survive with no root system of their own they need to be placed quickly into a sort of “incubation chamber”.  There’s no need to pilfer the local maternity ward as all these ‘newly born cuttings’ need is a warm, humid environment – and this is very simple to create.

Essentials

- A healthy, vigorous plant with lots of vegetative growth
- A clean scalpel (or a small, very sharp kitchen knife)
- Propagator (aka humidity dome)
- Plastic seedling tray (usually comes with propagator)
- Some rooting medium (unless you are using an aeroponic cloning system)
- Some 25% strength nutrient solution
- Light.  Not too bright!  A single 50cm fluorescent tube will do – as will the ambient light in the corner of your grow room.

Good preparation is going to be key to your success.  The quicker you can rush your fresh cuttings into their “incubators” the better.

Firstly, prepare your rooting medium:  I prefer rockwool cubes as they provide a sturdy base for my cuttings and they are fairly easy to work with.  I use medium-sized cubes (about 1.5 inches square) as I find that smaller cubes have a tendency to dry out quicker and require almost daily maintenance.  I make up a 25% strength vegetative nutrient solution at pH 5.6 – 5.8 and soak the cubes for a few hours (if I have time, overnight).  It’s important to reduce the pH of rockwool because otherwise it’s too high for optimum nutrient uptake.

In a full size propagator (that generally has room for about 77 cuttings) I arrange about 35 rockwool cubes in a chessboard formation.  An overly crowded propagator can all too easily become a mould farm.  Of course you don’t have to take 35 cuttings at a time!  Smaller propagators are available which can comfortably hold up to 6 cuttings.  A friend who used to only take a handful of cuttings at a time used to place them in small pots beneath individual ‘humidity domes’ he’d fashioned out of plastic lemonade bottles cut in half.  Whether you buy a propagator from your local garden centre or create something a little more “Heath Robinson” the heuristic remains the same:  Keep that precious moisture in!

Your rooting medium should be moist but not saturated in nutrient solution.  I tend to give my rockwool cubes a gentle squeeze to release any excess moisture before placing them into the propagator.  Once you have your rooting medium prepared it’s time to take some cuttings!

Using a scalpel or sharp knife, slice off a cutting from your donor plant, making a clean cut through the stem at roughly a 45 degree angle.  It’s important to have as sharp an edge as possible because your aim is to take the cutting with the minimum amount of tissue damage.   The 45 degree angle opens up an increased surface area of inner-stem to rooting potential.  When taking cuttings from particularly woody stems (usually from older mother plants) I sometimes carefully remove some of the outer layers of ‘bark’ to expose more of this “inner stem” – especially if using rooting hormone products.
The size of your cuttings is important.  I usually take cuttings that are between two and four inches long with one or two young growth tips and three or four small leaves.  Cuttings smaller than these are fiddly and overly-delicate and they take longer overall to grow to the desired size.  Ideally cuttings should fit comfortably into the propagator allowing for a little growth.  I remove any large fan leaves as these tend to die anyway.  Remove any growth tips or leaves close to the bottom of the cutting as you need a nice inch or so of clean stem to insert into your rooting medium.

Other Useful Items

- Rooting hormone (e.g. Clonex or Roota)
- Small sterile container (e.g. a shot glass)
- Rhizotonic
- Digital min/max thermometer with probe

Next I dip the cutting into rooting hormone.  It’s worth pointing out that I’ve had success without using any hormone products but it does speed the process up which lessens the chance of mould and disease.  I prefer to use rooting gel (such as Clonex or Roota) as these are very easy to use (no mixing or diluting required).  Rooting hormone gels tend to have a short shelf life so don’t buy more than you need and always check the best before date.  Avoid dipping your cuttings directly into the rooting hormone product container.  It’s wise to keep any surplus hormone clean and untainted otherwise you could inadvertently be spreading disease from one set of clones to another.  Pour a little into a small receptacle (not the lid of the rooting hormone!)

Take care when placing the cutting into the rooting medium.  Most rockwool cubes come complete with a small hole and I find that this is more than sufficient to hold the cutting.  It’s important not to bruise or bend the cutting stem.

Place the cutting into your propagator.  Be sure to turn any fans off, and replace the lid in-between taking each cutting or give them a light spray with a mister – it’s amazing how quickly they dry out.  Once you have taken all your cuttings you should place the propagator into a warm environment (about 25 degrees Celsius is perfect).  Ensure the lid is on firmly, any vents are closed, and any excess moisture at the bottom of the propagator tray is removed.  A single fluorescent tube placed directly on top of the lid provides ample light for the cuttings to root.  Do not place your cuttings directly under a high intensity bulb.  If you have a separate vegetative growroom you can provide adequate light for your cuttings by placing the propagator in the corner of your growroom.  (If you use this method try placing some bubble-wrap over the propagator to keep the light well dispersed.)

The propagator should mist up.  This is perfectly normal and shows that everything’s working: i.e. the moisture is being retained inside the propagator!  Check the propagator daily.  Be sure to remove any dead leaves, growth tips or cuttings as their presence can cause mould (stem rot).  I tend not to spray my cuttings initially as there tends to be more than enough humidity generated from the moist rooting medium.

Now it’s just a case of waiting through the “incubation period”.  Some plant varieties can root in 5 days, and some can take over 14 days!  When checking your cuttings be careful not to disturb them too much and never pull on a cutting to see if it has rooted (instead check for small white roots emerging from the bottom of the cube).  Wipe any excess moisture from the propagator lid with a kitchen towel.  Most importantly, check the rooting medium of each cutting regularly to ensure that it has not dried out.   If I find a cube is a little dry give it a quick dip in some freshly made 25% nutrient solution, followed by a little squeeze to get rid of any excess.  Rockwool cubes tend to be fine for the first 3 or 4 days in an optimum environment.  Be especially vigilant towards the end of the incubation period or as soon as you see the first sign of root development – suddenly cuttings that seemed like they were doing nothing for days on end turn into thirsty little blighters and can dry up in hours!  During the latter stages of the incubation period I tend to open my propagator vents a little.

Some cuttings will root faster than others.  You can keep dipping the leaders in more nutrient solution whilst the others catch up so that you can plant out your rooted cuttings all together.  It’s important to realise that your rooted cuttings are still very delicate little creatures.  After all, they’ve just stepped out of their incubator – placing a newly rooted cutting directly in the full on glare of a 400 watt or higher HID light is a little like expecting a baby to ride a bicycle.  Either stage their development with a fluorescent unit or 250 watt metal halide or ensure any higher wattage lights are raised at least 3 feet above the tops of your plants.

This introduction to taking cuttings should be all you need to enable you to start growing your favourite plants again and again.  However cuttings bring more horticultural benefits than consistently high quality crops.  If you already know exactly what you are growing then its predictable nature allows you to concentrate on optimising other growroom variables such as feed strengths and vegetation times.  When you come to know a particular instance of a plant (also known as a “phenotype”) in this personal way you can focus on whether she performs best with two days in vegetation, a week, or ten days, matrixed with other factors such as the spacing of plants and the resulting availability of medium.  Clones are the quintessential constant in the growroom that allow the grower to explore other factors in a more scientific way.

In order to enjoy continual access to cuttings from your favourite plant it needs to be maintained in a separate growing environment to the area in which you flower off your developed cuttings.  This plant is often referred to as a ‘mother’ or ‘mother-plant’.

Read the second part to our beginner’s guide to taking cuttings…