Learn exactly how the team at Dirty Bird Genetics clones their cannabis plants.

With 15 years of experience under our belts, I am here to share the process that we use at Dirty Bird Genetics + NASC to clone our cannabis plants. This procedure works great, both in a home grow setting as well as in a small-to-mid sized commercial setting, and if you follow the steps below, I’m confident you will find success cloning your own plants. 

Cloning is vital to any photoperiod grow that wishes to preserve mother plants. A mother plant is a special cultivar that you take cuts from for cloning, breeding, growing, genetic preservation, or whatever the purpose may be. The clones that come off a mother plant are genetic replicas of the mother, preserving both her good and her bad genetic traits. You can clone male plants exactly as you’d clone a female plant, though males are generally less desirable unless you are breeding.

Can Auto’s be Cloned?

Cloning is unique to photoperiod plants because a photoperiod plant can live indefinitely under 18-24 hour light per day. Autoflower plants cannot be cloned. While it’s technically possible to root a cut taken from an autoflower, by the time that cut was rooted, it would be flowering. This is because autoflowering plants begin flowering automatically around week 5 of their life cycle, and because a clone is a genetic replica of its mother, the clone will initiate floral development at the same time its mother does.

Healthy Mother = Healthy Baby

At Dirty Bird, we clone our mother plants every few months, cycling in fresh mothers and discarding old ones. We do this to keep the mother plants healthy and thriving. While it is possible for a single mother to live indefinitely, it’s recommended you cycle out your mother plants with a fresh copy of itself somewhat regularly so that the plant and its rootzone stay as vigorous as possible. Do note, however, that if the mother plant is infected with diseases like HLVd, it will pass on to the clone, so you want to ensure your mother is healthy before taking cuts. It is absolutely critical to use a fresh, sterilized razor every time you cut a new plant so that you do not pass on diseases that may be lurking beneath the surface, but more on this below.

What’s the Difference between a Cut and a Clone?

The words ‘cut’ and ‘clone’ are often used interchangeably. In our business, a cut becomes a clone once it is rooted. Once that cut is rooted, it is a clone.

Materials List for Cloning:

• Sterile razors, for taking the cut
• Solo cup with clean water, for holding the cut 
• Great White Shark, or any similar rooting gel/powder
• EZ-Clone Plant Cloning Machine, for rooting the cut 
• EZ-Clone Clear Rez, 1 oz per 5/gal water - Water treatment for your EZ-Clone machine
• Small pots, for planting the rooted clone (we use 3.5” x 3.5” pots, but 1 gals also work well)
• Soil, we use Promix BX as we find it has a good balance of soil and perlite 
• Transplant solution*, our recipe as follows:
  • Sensi Grow pt A + B, 7.5ml/ gal
  • B52, 7.5ml/gal
  • Voodoo juice, 7.5/gal
  • Optional: Sensizyme, 7.5/gal
  • Optional: Bud Candy, 7.5/gal
  • Optional: Rhino Skin, 7.5/gal

*Note on the Transplant Solution: You do not have to use all of these items; even just a little water will do the trick; however, if you are already using the Advanced Nutrients regimen for your veg and flower feedings, then why not make the healthiest and most vigorous clones possible? As a business that sells clones, that’s what we shoot for, and this “Transplant Solution” is what we use. 

Taking a Cut:

1. Prepare one clean solo cup half-filled with water for each mother plant you plan to take cuts from. 
   • Gather your sterile razor and the plant you wish to cut.
     PRO TIP: We keep a cup of bleach near our cloning station and throw used razors into the bleach after we take cuts from each plant. We use one razor per plant and never reuse a razor when moving on to a new plant. This helps stop the spread of disease, which often, we are not privy to until it’s too late. 
2. Take a cut that is about 8” long off the apical meristem of the plant, cutting as close to a node as possible, and at a diagonal.
   • PRO TIP: Bonus points if your cut has 1-2 node sites on it that you can cut off, exposing the flesh of the stalk. Long internodal spacing can make this difficult to achieve on some cultivars, so don’t stress if this isn’t feasible.  
   • Cut any foliage/stem off the lower stalk so that you have one long stem to submerge in the cloner. Any foliage should be above the cloning collar; you do not want any leaf material submerging into the water as that will cause mold, mildew and/or rot to form. 

3. Once the cut is taken and prepared, place it into the solo cup of water so that it stays fresh and doesn’t wilt. At this point, you can prepare to put the cut into your cloner, or you can proceed cutting other mothers and gathering all of the cuts you’d like to take.

Rooting a Cut

Dip the bottom 2” of your cut into Great White Shark or any other rooting gel or rooting powder. 

1. Make sure your cloner is filled and turned on. We use EZ-Clone Clear Rez mixed into our water in order to keep the water and the system as clean as possible. Place the cut into the cloning collar, making sure that all foliage sits above the cloning collar to avoid mildew, mold, and rot. Place the cloning collar and the cut into the cloner. 
2. It will take approximately 7-10 days for your cut to grow roots. Check in on it daily by lifting the lid of the EZ-Clone machine. Once you see roots that are at least 2-3” long, preferably 6”, it is time to pot the rooted cut into your medium of choice. 

These roots are 3-6” long, the perfect length for stable transplanting. Roots can discolor in the cloner, especially if you add anything to your cloner water, but as long as nothing is rotting, they should take hold quickly and easily in the new medium.

Potting a Cut

Set up your potting station with soil, pots, and “Transplant Solution” or water. 

1. Prefill your pots ⅔ full with soil. 
2. Carefully take your clone out of the cloner and place the roots into the soil while supporting the cut with one hand. Grab some soil with your free hand and fill the rest of the pot with soil, gently covering the base and the roots until the clone is self-supporting, the roots are buried, and the pot is full. Don’t pack the soil tightly; you want to allow good airflow down to the roots as roots thrive off of oxygen.

3. Gently water the freshly potted cut with water, transplant solution (recipe above), or your product of choice. Be careful not to overwater. You want enough water to penetrate the roots, but you do not want to totally soak all of the soil in the pot. It’s easy for small root systems to get water logged and stunted. It’s better to water a small amount every day, or every other day, than a large amount once a week. Keep a close eye on this as your plant stabilizes and the roots take hold.

Light for your freshly potted clone

We choose to keep our clones out of direct light for 24-72 hours so they can acclimate. This isn’t necessary, however, if you do choose to put your clone directly under light, we recommend a T5, or an LED strip light designed for clones and seedlings; nothing that is too strong. 

1. After 24-48 hours, we put our clones under T5 or LED strip lights until they’re ready to transplant and move in with the larger vegetative plants under high intensity LED’s or Metal Halides. This is optional. If you only have one light, use that light, just keep the plant further from the light when it’s smaller. 

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step guide on how Dirty Bird + NASC make clones. Stay tuned for more step-by-step guides, and for a more visual guide, please enjoy this video about cloning that we made in-house at Dirty Bird: Click to Watch!