Cannabis: What's better, Seed or Clones?

When it comes to growing your own cannabis, there are two options available to start your cultivation: cannabis seeds or cannabis clones. It's a significant decision to make because it determines the path to your cultivation success. Both methods have their pros and cons. The technique you use to cultivate your marijuana plants will depend on several factors, including your end goal, your desired produce, and your expertise in growing plants. So, how do you decide which option is better for you?

In this blog, we compare seeds and clones and explore the advantages and disadvantages to help you choose the best option for planting. Let's get started!

Growing Cannabis from Seeds

Growing cannabis plants from seeds is the comfortable, natural, and easiest way to gain abundant crops. You can pick them according to effects, flavors, flowering times, and sizes. Home growers begin the cultivation of cannabis from seeds because they have experience and skills. Starting from seeds gives many growers a more profound feeling of satisfaction as they watch their crops grow from sprout to fully developed flowers.

Stable and unstable seed strains are two types of seed. A stable seed strain lineage has similar characteristics. The growers will start with a male and female plant and will continue to breed the plants until the plant shows all specific desired qualities. Moreover, the new plants in the breed's genome will share the most desired characteristics, with a few genetic differences.

On the other hand, an unstable seed strain produces plants with inconsistent traits and harvest quality. The majority of cannabis shops won't purchase products cultivated from unstable seed strains. Cannabis plants grown from seeds are much healthier than those produced from clones.

Advantages

Let's look at the best reasons to start with cannabis seeds.

Easier to Access

Getting cannabis seeds without leaving your house is one of the many things that the internet has made easier. These days, you can order seeds online from seed banks, and they will ship them directly to your doorstep.

Breed Your Own Strains

You can begin creating your own strains once you have known the art of growing cannabis from seeds. To breed select male plants with your favorite females to develop signature strains. You will have hundreds of seeds at the end of the growing period.

Healthy and Stronger Plants

Plants grown from seeds are healthier and more robust because the seed has a much stronger root system, a taproot. It creates a strong anchor that allows it to access rich nutrients found in the soil.

High-Quality Flower

While traditional seeds emerge as both sexes, high-quality feminized seeds provide a 99% guarantee of being female. Female cannabis plants produce sticky and cannabinoid-rich buds. Additionally, males have pollen sacs. You'll save time and work using feminized seeds instead of wasting time getting rid of males. In return, you will receive an abundance of high-quality cannabis.

Greater Yields

Seeds tend to produce plants that create significant product yield. A lot of home and commercial growers discovered that seeds produce bigger harvests than clones because clones grow into weaker plants if not properly maintained.

Disadvantages

Longer Growing Time

The main disadvantage of starting cannabis from seed is that it takes longer to reach harvest because seeds germinate and then grow into mature plants. If you're in a hurry to get consumable cannabis, cloning is the fastest way.

Irregular Germination

Only some seeds will grow. No matter how you care for them, the germination will never occur to 100%. It's possible that you could care for seeds for months and get no yield. Therefore, you should start a grow with several additional seeds, even if you plan to grow only one plant.

Requires More Growing Experience

Growing cannabis from seeds requires skill and experience because seeds are highly delicate in the early growth stage. Not everyone knows the skill of germinating seeds. This can be a problem for newbie growers who are still learning things.

Genotype and Phenotype Variation

Achieving a consistent crop from seed is more complex than with clones. Every seed from a parent plant will feature genetic variations, meaning there will be differences in plant flavor, color, and yield. In addition, cannabis plants develop specific traits depending on external factors that affect their phenotype. Temperature, light, water, humidity, and nutrients all impact plants' phenotype, causing more crop variations.

Growing Cannabis from Clones

Cannabis cloning is a quick and easier method to cultivate female marijuana plants, ensuring an exact genetic copy of the parent plant each time. Cannabis clones only need to take root because the plant is already established. Rapid plant growth means economical and quicker harvest.

Clones are cuttings taken from the mother plant and then developed into adult plants. It is a piece several inches long taken from the healthy branch. Since clones are created from healthy female plants, they'll also be female once they mature.

Advantages

Saves Time

The main advantage of cannabis cloning is that you don't have to wait for a seed to germinate and then develop into mature seedlings. With clones, you completely skip this step, which saves you time. All you need to do is root your cutting, and your plant will be ready to transplant into an outdoor garden or grow room.

Avoid Male Plants

Clones are exact copies, so cuttings taken from a female mother cannabis plant are guaranteed to produce another female plant.

Create the Exact Plants You Require

Clones carry over all the mother plant's desirable traits, including taste, size, appearance, and productivity.

Disadvantages

Difficult to Find

You can easily find seeds online, but not clones. They are cut from a mother plant in an active vegetating state. So, buying clones online is challenging and risky.

Requires Carefully Tailored Environment

Seeds are tougher than clones. You can throw seeds straight into the soil. However, clones are fragile and must be handled carefully; otherwise, they may die before they start rooting. Delicate cuttings require a tailored and customized environment with optimum humidity and temperatures for the best start.

Getting Undesirable Traits

Clones inherit all the traits of mother plants, even bad ones. The mother plant may have an underlying genetic issue that might not become apparent. So, clones may reproduce those undesirable issues or faults.

Bottom Line: Cannabis Seeds or Clones

Deciding the right technique to start growing your cannabis plant depends on personal preferences and the grower's skill level. Both seeds and clone methods have their own pros and cons, which we discussed in detail. Growing from seeds takes more know-how, time, and patience than starting from a clone.

If you're a newbie to the gardening world, growing a marijuana plant from a clone is the better option. However, if you have some excellent gardening skills but are new to cultivating cannabis, growing cannabis clones might still be the best option. In any case, you can have your cannabis plant or many plants by employing patience, sun, water, and little effort. So, try out both methods and see what works best for your growing style!

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