Seeds vs Clones

[JJP53]

What do you guys like starting with when you start a new grow regular seeds, feminized seeds or clones? Do clones lose some of their potency the more times they are removed from the original mother plant?

 

[mal]

I Like Them All

They all have their + and - clones can go right to bud and you know what you'll get. With seeds there is that unknown where you might get anything, regular you get males to kill or play with. The fem seeds are if you are looking only for weed not breeding. Good Luck, and get growing



mal

 

[Kingkong]

In my limited experience clones seem to be easier and quicker to root and get the grow underway..I like clones:party0042:

 

[Stoney Macgyver]

Clones can be iffy your not the one who cloned them. The could be 5th Generation for all you know and you'll harvest a whole lot less than you would of from a seed. And that's not true that Fem. seeds are for buds only. I have bred a couple times and gotten Fem. seeds. It's a lot better than traditional breeding.
I recommend seeds, but if you want grow a couple seeds until you know which are your females and then clone them. You know they're young and clones will produce a lot more bud sites than a from a Seed which make a Christmas Tree Cannabis Shape

 

[pimpin]

I have also heard they lose potency over so many times cut who can let us no this is a good ?

 

[mal]

Yep

If your cloning is off in one of many ways the plants will soon loose vigor/potency or basically their lust for life after a few clonings. That is why people keep mother plants, while keeping the mother plant in vegetative growth you can take many sets of clones off of her and they will all be very similar



mal

 

[Kingkong]

I have also heard they lose potency over so many times cut who can let us no this is a good ?

Is this true anybody??


Thanks mal

 

[harley34]

how easy is it to take clones from a mother plant from seed. In this case dr greenthumbs endless sky

 

[IVIars]

Seed. Clones have a chance of bugs, mold, mildew etc..... Ive never heard of clones being less potent, they should be the same as the mother. But Mal is right, the plants will lose vigor after repetative cloning

 

[Stoney Macgyver]

Clones do not have more of a chance of getting mold or mildew, or even bugs if that! That's all the grower's fault my friend. The clone is the same exact plant as the mother. So if the mother is 2 years old, the clone is two years old. If the mother is prone to bugs/mildew/mold, then the clone will be too! The do not lose potency unless you chop early. And clones are easy. Keep em moist under a 6500k Flouro Tube or light, but are suitable.

 

[treehugger]

I have also heard they lose potency over so many times cut who can let us no this is a good ?

Is this true anybody??


Thanks mal

NO! It is not true! I wish people would stop repeating that old wife's tale. stop it!

 

[Gartner]

Seeds or Clone

What do you guys like starting with when you start a new grow regular seeds, feminized seeds or clones? Do clones lose some of their potency the more times they are removed from the original mother plant?

As my experience, if you have a good variety of female plant its best to clone it, as you will set the same of the mother plant...
But cloning has to be done very careful, or the mother plant will get hurt, its better to clone before the flowering stage..

But i do use seeds of different types, the indica variety which gives me a good yield because of the busy leaves, So it your wish both will do better, the mainthing is the propercare, has to be taken in all the stages of the growth for a better gowth:party0042::harvest:

 

[MakinGoo]

I like seeds but juss cuz I like 2 watch them grow rite from the start.. But I wouldn't say seeds r better then clones.. I don't believe clones get weaker with each generation of clones.. If that was tha case every clone only strain would SUCK.. But clone only strains like Tahoe OG,Fire OG,Larry OG,SFV OG, The White, Chem Dawg,Sour Diesel r all Fire They haven't gotten Weaker after many, many times cloned..
I grew a Purple Cream strain 4 like 3 yrs never keeping a mother juss growing clones & rite b4 flower take a cut.. & they never got weaker they got more potent.. They got better cuz I got better as a grower not cuz i cloned it a grip of times.. 1 time I almost lost the strain.. No cuts rooted & I was super deep in2 flowering I cut a clone with a nug on top.. It was my only chance or lose the strain so I tryed & it worked & it was still bomb the plant grew in2 a crazy bush that's all..:harvest:

 

[smokestack23]

OK..I'll chime-in.

The part about clones possibly having bugs or other problems..I think what was meant was that when you buy clones..for example from a cc club, the clones could already be infested. You hear a lot of horror stories from people who just bought clones from a club or friend only to find that they also brought with them a nasty mite infestation.

The part about clones losing "potency"..well..."studies show that"..if you take a clone off a mother and grow that..then take a clone off that and grow it..then clone that one and grow the clone and take a cutting off that one and make it your mother, your plants will lose vigor. Don't know how many "generations" it takes for problems to start to manifest but..I've never seen it, because I don't do that.

OK now..clones, seeds or fem seeds...

If you start from seed..say regular non-femenized ones, say 10 of them and you plant them all. You have to let them grow for, say a month before you can take a cutting from each one. You SHOULD take two just in case. To save time, rather than rooting those cuts and flowering them, just label which of the 10 seed plants your cuttings came from and put the seedplants into flower while the cuttings root.
The ONLY way you can tell if a plant is male or female is to look at it's flowers.

So..when you see male flowers, if you don't want any pollen for breeding or storing, kill the male plants and the cuttings you took from them.

Now, as you flower the female plants you grew from seed, take note of which grows the most vigorously, stretches the amount you want, is easiest to grow-most forgiving, flowers fastest and or is the best yielder and/or potent/tasty...whatever characteristic you prefer.

Meanwhile, your two cuttings from each female will now be well established with roots and should be vegging along nicely. Once you've decided on a keeper(s), cull the rest.
You now have your best mother plant(s) from which to take clones for future crops.

Here's the problem with that scenario. It'll be a GOOD 5 months before you get your first best plant only harvest.

If you start from feminized seeds you should follow the steps above except for the sexing obviously. Or..like I do with feminized seeds..just plant 2 or 3 or however many mothers you want to start out with. Once they're big enough take cuttings.
So, say you want 15 plants to flower and you have 3 feminized plants growing from seed. As soon as the 3 plants can give up 5 clones each you go for it.

If there are different phenotypes (characteristics) among the 3 I'll choose one and HOPE I'm right. I say that because I have to decide before the first batch (5 clones from each of the 3 mothers) finishes flowering if I want to have fresh rooted vegged clones ready to replace the ones that are about to finish. Hope that makes sense.

OR..you can go from clone.
If you are getting clones from a trusted reputable source and they are not too far cloned from a clone from a clone from a clone, and if they are a strain you want, get a couple.
They're rooted and sexed already and all you have to do is grow them into mothers. That is if you WANT mothers. I suppose if you can buy all the clones you want for a great price, over and over again...and you don't have resources to have a veg room...buy 15 clones (pretending that you want to flower 15 plants..just an example).

Even if you get clones from a trusted source, it's a good idea to take some precautionary measures like maybe some dunks in miticides, fungicides, mildew-icides(wtf?), virus killers (seeds can have a virus too)..all that stuff. Point is that when they're little it's much easier to nuke em.

So...to sum it all up.

Get normal seeds if:
-you have a lot of time and if you would like to make some pollen for breeding and to maybe select your favorite phenotype from a strain.
-you can't get a strain you want in feminized version
-you can't get trusted clones of a strain you want

Get feminized seeds if:
-You don't have time or the need to deal with male plants
-You have a med permit with a low plant count and can't waste your count on male plants
-They are a strain you want from a reputable dealer. Some "breeders" create femmed seeds by hermaphroditic means. This is NOT the right way.

Get clones if:
-you can
-at least that's what I would do to shave months off the process. I'd also keep a couple as mothers.

Good luck and I hope that helps if even just a little.

 

[Stoney Macgyver]

But clone only strains like Tahoe OG,Fire OG,Larry OG,SFV OG, The White, Chem Dawg,Sour Diesel r all Fire They haven't gotten Weaker after many, many times cloned..

Wait wait wait wait wait! Clone only strain? Tahoe OG? Isn't that a Cali Connect? And clone only strain my ass. You can breed a plant with itself. It may have more chance of Hermie. But shit its better that keeping that bitch alive for that long.
If someone says its a clone only strain. I bet I can get seeds for it. Just like everyone used to say G-13 was clone only from the Government. BS, I've grown from seed. It was real shit too. Not some re-named strain. Bomb stanky purple.

 

[MakinGoo]

I was talking about the Clone only Tahoe OG not the other Tahoe OG that's from Cali Connection.. Those r 2 different strains..But Swerve from Cali Conection was the Man that released the Tahoe OG clone only strain 2 Cali Clubs & he also worked many OG strains 2 create seeds 4 us..But he did not create Tahoe OG clone only strain.. & when I say clone only I mean what the general public can get there hands on.. U might b rite whoever created each rare strain could maybe slight chance have seeds 2 there creation who no's I'm not that far up on the food chain.. I'm juss a regular guy & I can only obtain these cuts as clone only.. But let's get it straight I'm not talking about Cali Connections beans I'm talking about the original cuts the clone only strains used 2 make CC beans.. If u can get seeds from any clone lonely strain u should get seeds from OGR's Fire OG Kush. :giggle

 

[below frigid]

Personal prefference. Each have their time and place.

 

[budboy299]

One thing not really mentioned is the root formation. Clones have no tap root whereas seeds do.

Outdoors this can be very important. In dry areas I like seed because the tap root can extend quite a ways straight down in search of water. Clones roots tend to stay more shallow.

I use close in areas which are damper (if thats a term) just because the roots tend to stay shallow.

Not a huge point but outdoors it can make a difference if you are in an area that you cannot water on a regular basis.

 

[Blaze]

Both have advantages and disadvantages. Seeds will be much more hearty and stronger and grow faster. They will also be more resistant to pests and diseases because of their increased vigor. However, they do take more time than clones, and you will end up with multiple phenotypes, so they can be less stable and reliable. This makes them more desirable for outdoor growing

Clones are not as vigorous, do not develop the main tap root, and are more prone to pests and diseases. This becomes especially true if the clone is taken off older tissues. It is important to remember cannabis is an annual - keeping it alive for years and years is not how it normally lives so more care must be taken to maintain healthy clone lines. However clones are more stable and reliable - each and every clone will be pretty much the same as the mother plant. This makes them more desirable for indoor growing.

Clones lines can be maintained indefinitely so long as the mother plant remains healthy, which can be quite tricky. There are clone only strains I have seen and grown that are 20+ years old and still doing fine. Many of our fruit cultivar's that we eat are clone lines that are a century or more old, or in the case of some banana cultivars, thousands of years old.

 

[Gartner]

Clones are best

What do you guys like starting with when you start a new grow regular seeds, feminized seeds or clones? Do clones lose some of their potency the more times they are removed from the original mother plant?

Clones are the best, the mother plants will never loose its potency.
It will be the Perfect copy of the mother plant. Buts its suggested to clone four to five times from a plant, so that it will not get hurt..:harvest: