How to Make Cannabis Cuttings?

 Want to make cannabis cuttings to preserve the essence of one of your beautiful plants? If you are going to take cuttings from a mother plant for the first time, be careful, because cloning is a fairly simple technique, however, which can quickly ruin all the work that has been done so far. For cannabis cuttings, follow our advice to the letter and increase your chances of success.

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Several months after you've grown cannabis seeds, you might want to keep some exceptional genetics or an extraordinary specimen. For this, most growers will resort to cannabis cuttings, a technique aimed at cloning a plant in order to extend its life expectancy and simply have robust and healthy plants.

What material is needed for cannabis cuttings?

As with any other cultivation technique, the material used will play an important role since it could make the difference between a resounding success and a failure.

Cuttings accessories

To make cannabis cuttings, you will need to prepare a clean and disinfected work surface in advance to rule out any possible hygiene problems. As for the incisions, you will need small scissors or tweezers (stainless steel, preferably) or a scalpel, but you can also use a disinfected cutter if you have nothing else available.

Ideally, you'll also need to prepare a brush, rooting hormones, a suitable, lightly fattened substrate, and a mini-greenhouse to maintain ideal temperature and humidity for cannabis cuttings .

The cutting substrate

As we said, the substrate is an important aspect to take into account and the options available to you are numerous:

• Coconut or peat jiffies: for cannabis cuttings, 33 mm jiffies will be perfectly suited, but you should always remember to wring out the excess water by pressing lightly on the top to avoid rotting of the cuttings of cannabis during the first few days. You must also check afterwards that the jiffy is not too dry.
• Rock wool: this medium will allow you to easily control the feeding, but you will have to adjust the pH beforehand. To do this, it must be submerged in water with a pH of 4.5 and EC of 0.4 for 12 hours. This way the pH of the rock wool will stabilize at 5.5.
• Directly in soil: some growers prefer to start directly with soil prepared using a mixture that is not too fattened and sprinkled with water that will vary in pH between 5 and 6. In this case, you will just have to think about fill the holes dug around the cannabis cuttings in order to obtain a compact mass.

How to choose a mother plant? What are the best branches?

The quality of a mother plant is very important. The more vigorous the mother plant, the more the cuttings obtained will develop according to your expectations, so pay close attention to which ones you choose. We explain how.

The choice of the mother plant

As you know, the goal of a cannabis cuttings will be to multiply the number of plants while recovering the characteristics of the original, which is why it will be essential for you to choose a strong specimen, always growing and, above all, in good health.

If the mother plant has a very good production, a particularly pleasant flavor, an incredible high or a vigorous development, the cannabis cutting will retain these unusual characteristics and reproduce them. Nevertheless, this genetic inheritance will work both ways since any presence of insects or fungal disease that can infect the mother plant at this time will also end up in the cutting, which will have a much harder time defending itself.

The best branches for cuttings

For making cannabis cuttings, the best branches will usually be in the middle part. On the other hand, those at the top are more likely to have fungus, which is why it is best to avoid them when making cannabis cuttings. In addition, you will need to make sure that the chosen branch has at least four nodes. This way you can cut just below the third and leave another knot on the branch to keep growing. The more nodes that are intact, the better.

Of the minimum three nodes in your cuttings, at least two should stay above the substrate. These nodes will become buds when our cutting has developed its roots. The third node will be buried in the substrate, in order to increase the possibilities of developing roots. Although roots can develop from the cut, a buried knot will help our cutting to grow.

How to cut branches to get cannabis cuttings?

After preparing the substrate and the growth hormones can be applied, it will be time to take the cuttings from the cannabis. To do this, the cut should be made under a knot, as close as possible, and at an angle of 45º in order to promote root growth. If you plan to cut several, it would be best to have a glass of water handy and place them there immediately so that the cut stem spends as little time as possible in contact with air. Once you have the cannabis cuttings, it will be time to apply the rooting hormones.

To apply the hormones, in gel or powder, you can use a brush or immerse them directly. Some do both and apply a layer of hormone gel first, then a powder layer on top. You will then need to place the cutting in the jiffy, in rock wool, in the pot or in the propagator prepared before that.

The first weeks of rooting

The time to place the cannabis in the greenhouse or propagator is after plantation of cannabis cutting. In order for the roots of cannabis cuttings to develop properly, you will need to keep them at a temperature between 18 and 22 ºC, with a humidity of 80 to 90%. In addition, the ideal would be to place them under grow lights programmed for 18 hours of light for 6 hours of darkness. After that, you need to spray a little water and close the greenhouse for at least 24 hours.

From the second day, it will be necessary to ventilate the space times a day for one to two minutes, in order to avoid the appearance of insects or fungi. You can also take the opportunity to check that your weed cuttings don't need more moisture. If so, spray a little water on the cutting or on the walls.

From the 5th day, you can open the greenhouse a little more often to give the clones better ventilation, but without ever dehydrating them, which is why you will have to continue spraying. In addition, many beginners often make the mistake of watering cannabis cuttings, when it will be a question of moistening the visible part of the plant while keeping the substrate as less humid as possible.

From the 8th day, the substrate can finally be watered, but without too much force either, since the main cause of death of a cutting is overwatering leading to rotting of the roots.

After 12 days you can remove the greenhouse, and hopefully your cuttings should stay straight. If they are not ready, the cannabis cuttings will tend to curl up. So, you will just have to put them back in the greenhouse for a few more days. they stay straight, spray them twice a day and the results should be satisfactory.

After 15 days the clones will show their first roots, but all varieties will need a different length of time (usually 10-20 days). Unfortunately, if your cuttings don't have roots after 25 days, chances are they will never develop any.

The different cutting errors

Often times, growers inexperienced in cuttings will make easily avoidable mistakes over time. To avoid these little pitfalls, we have prepared a small list of the most common.

Lighting errors

For rooting clones constant lighting will be unnecessary, which is why while some growers like to keep cannabis cuttings under 24 hour uninterrupted light, most will choose an 18/6 instead. You also won't need to have too much lighting. For this, you can opt for cold LED or fluorescent lamps to avoid the heat stress of the cuttings . At this point in the cloning process, plants are delicate and any additional stress could affect their viability.

Humidity related errors

While growing, cannabis cuttings like hot and humid environments, which is why propagators, or mini-greenhouses, will be perfect for maintaining optimal rooting conditions. Plastic lids retain moisture and help maintain a constant temperature for the plants. However, hot and humid environments also favor molds, fungi and pathogens, which is why it will be necessary to ventilate the interior well.

The small holes in the plastic cover will allow more air flow and the entry of oxygen, which will reduce the risk of mold and infection. It will certainly be wise to opt for a humidity of 80%, but exceeding that would be a serious mistake.

Temperature problems

Aeration will also affect another factor: temperature. The roots and the top of cannabis cuttings grow at different temperatures.

The roots, which cool naturally underground and in the shade, grow at temperatures ranging from 24 to 27 ºC, while the plant mass will instead grow in temperatures of up to 29 ºC. While rooting the clones, it would be best to check the temperature regularly and adjust the aeration if necessary.

Maintenance and cleanliness errors

Cleanliness is one of the most underrated aspects during cloning. Knowing that cuttings root better in warm, humid environments, pathogenic infections can spread. As we told you, it is also necessary to sterilize the work surface before cutting and preparing the cuttings: clean the propagation kit in warm water with soap, just like the pliers before cutting. It will also be important to keep compost, other plants and leftovers away from new cuttings.

Food and nutrition errors

During cuttings, feeding is a double-edged sword. Why? Quite simply because some growers will tend to gain weight immediately after the cuttings, burning the roots at the same time.

The other option would be to soak the coconut fiber, rock wool or propagation cubes in a solution like Root It's First Feed, an ideal product for feeding and caring for plants during the early stages of propagation.

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