How to Clone a Weed Plant

Have you ever had a weed plant that you really, truly loved? Maybe it was one of the rarest cannabis strains out there. Or, maybe it was just your favorite Maui Wowie plant ever.

I had a favorite plant and actually used to cure my own marijuana at home for a short period of time. Unfortunately, it died after my friend peed on it. (No, really, it did.) I was devastated.

Had I known that you could clone a weed plant, I would still have a nice smokeable stash. Truth be told, I should have still had that plant. If you have a cannabis plant you love, don't be like me. Clone it using these quick and easy steps below.

First, let's talk about what we mean by "clone a plant."

There are two ways to cultivate marijuana: via sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction.

With cannabis, sexual reproduction is crossing a male plant's pollen with a female plant's parts. This process will create a plant that's a hybrid of both the male and female plant. Every hybrid strain out there, whether it's CBD-rich or not, is made through this method.

Cannabis also can reproduce without another partner. If you clip cuttings of your favorite plant and put them in the ground, you'll end up getting two plants. This is asexual reproduction.

When we're talking about how to clone a weed plant, we're talking about asexual reproduction.

Why would you want to clone a weed plant, anyway?

If you've ever smoked some really good kush, you will already know the answer to this. Some plants really do deserve to be kept pure and unhybridized because they are so awesome.

Cloning a weed plant means you will get a plant that's genetically identical to the plant you love smoking so much. This means that it will most likely have the same terpenes, the same CBD levels, and of course, the same THC levels.

This is also a good way to conserve cannabis that comes from excessively rare strains. It's conservation of time, money, and potentially cannabis species too!

Before you can clone a weed plant, you're going to need a couple of supplies. Here's what you should have on hand:

• A Rooting Medium. Soil, rockwool cubes, and water all work well as rooting mediums. This is what you're going to use to let your pot plants grow. So, it's a growing medium.
• A Rooting Hormone. Garden Safe makes affordable rooting hormones, if you're interested.
• Peat Pots. This is a great choice of container for plants that need to be transferred into soil.
• Water. Water has got what plants crave.
• A Razor. An X-acto knife can also work. You'll need it to cut your plant with.
• A Pot Plant. You should try to work with a very healthy pot plant that is around two months old.

Now, let's prepare the "mother" plant.

Cloning a weed plant isn't easy on the plant. If you're not careful or choose a sick plant, you can accidentally kill your ganja. Ideally, you'll work in a very clean environment.

Right before you clone a weed plant, you will need to stop fertilizing the original plant. This will force the plant to concentrate on rooting. Once a couple of days have passed, you're ready to clip and cut.

Here's how to cut the mother plant.

This is often the hardest part to learn when you clone a weed plant for the first time. To cut your plant, you will need to grab a razor or X-acto knife.

You want to take cuttings from branches that are about 8 to 10 inches in length, ideally very close to the main stem with nodes on them. When cutting, angle your razor to around 30 degrees. This will help your plant root better.

Try to aim for around 4 to 8 cuttings per cloning session. The moment you take a cutting, you should place the cutting in water. This prevents air bubbles from killing your new clone.

The next step to clone a weed plant is to get roots to start growing. To do this, you're going to need a rooting medium to encourage growth and you're going to need to place your plant cuttings in that medium.

The easiest rooting medium to do is water. It requires no hormones, and all you need to do is keep your plant in a glass of water until roots start to form. However, a lot of cannabis plants don't work well with water.

A lot of people choose rockwool cubes or soil as a rooting medium—and then they'll top it with rooting hormones for that extra boost. Most of the time, they'll use peat cups to hold the plant when they choose this route.

It's best to choose rockwool or soil as your medium, primarily because it lowers the risk of transplant shock. (Yes, that's a thing.)

Once your plants have been transferred to the medium, you'll have to wait for them to take root.

Patience is a virtue! Take time to carefully monitor your plant clippings and make sure that they get plenty of light and moisture.

This is a key time when plant clones tend to die; they need all the resources they can get to survive clipping. If you live in a shady area (literally, not figuratively, like growing weed in your closet), you may want to get grow lights for your plant.

Sadly, part of learning how to clone a weed plant is realizing that not all clippings will take root. You'll know when a plant has taken root. When it has, it's time to transfer...

Time to transfer your plant to soil—if you haven't used the soil or rockwool method, anyway.

The final step you need to complete to clone a weed plant is to take the healthy clones and plant them in soil. Once they are planted in soil, you will have to keep an eye on them for a bit longer. They will need to take further root.

It's possible to have a plant die from transfer shock. This is why you should take multiple cuttings from a plant. It's just more likely that you'll have at least one successful clone.

And that's how you clone a weed plant.

It's really that simple. No magical cloning devices needed. No need to be an evil genius. Just simple cutting, watering, and care. Who knew? Now that it's cloned, learn how to grow huge cannabis buds so you get the most out of your new friend.