How many clones from completely cannibalizing a mother

[RecklessRon]

I'm planning to grow a few plants indoors in tents that I will 100% cannibalize to make clones to be planted outdoors.

I want to have 100 clones.

If each plant spends 2 weeks in a greenhouse and then is vegged for 8 weeks, with 2 pinchings/toppings, how many clones would it produce?

I need to know that to know how many mothers I will need.

BALLPARK figures are fine as I understand I'm asking how long a piece of string is. So many, many factors but the bottom line is I need a reasonable estimate.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Are you going to top at a certain node the first time ? It depends on which node you top at, because that tells us how many branches will be left to top. If you top at the fourth node that leaves you 8 branches to top. That will give you 8 clones. If you top again when the branches grow out you will get 16 clones. Some people use side branching for clones also. So you can get a lot of clones from one plant. I've heard some have even cloned from just the leaf.

 

[Roy Growin]

Hello and welcome to 420 @RecklessRon
To do the maths, define 'a few'
16 clones off a mother plant should be no problem but how many mothers do you have?

 

[RecklessRon]

Hello and welcome to 420 @RecklessRon
To do the maths, define 'a few'
16 clones off a mother plant should be no problem but how many mothers do you have?

I'll have as many mothers as I need to get 100 clones. I'll definitely be topping aggressively, probably node 3 and again on node 4 of the main stalk but also all of the large branches around the time of node 6 of the main stalk. I was hoping I'd only need 3 mothers. Note that I don't have any plans to put the mother into bud so I don't have to worry about trimming some of the branches to get good lighting. As long as it has a node that can be cloned I'll leave it and probably pinch it once. Also I can compensate by trimming more of the fan leaves than normal as I don't need the branches to grow long and strong.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I'll have as many mothers as I need to get 100 clones. I'll definitely be topping aggressively, probably node 3 and again on node 4 of the main stalk but also all of the large branches around the time of node 6 of the main stalk. I was hoping I'd only need 3 mothers. Note that I don't have any plans to put the mother into bud so I don't have to worry about trimming some of the branches to get good lighting. As long as it has a node that can be cloned I'll leave it and probably pinch it once. Also I can compensate by trimming more of the fan leaves than normal as I don't need the branches to grow long and strong.

If you top at node 3, there wont be a node 4 or node 6. Topping at node 3 will give you 6 branches to work with. Since these will be mothers for clones I'd top at node 5 & get 10 branches. Then top the 10 branches at their 3rd node to get 20 clones.

 

[LKABudMan]

I just took over 24 clones from a mother and you could hardly tell. I could have taken 24 more if I didn't care about the mother. I took the side branches and suckers that were going to be removed anyways. If you are growing a mother for 8 weeks just for clones, you should be able to get 30+ clones off each mother easily.

20220610_110921.jpg

• LKABudMan
• Jun 13, 2022

Linda side 6/10 day before

20220611_155140.jpg

• LKABudMan
• Jun 13, 2022

Cloner all full top

20220611_155210.jpg

• LKABudMan
• Jun 13, 2022

20220611_155234.jpg

• LKABudMan
• Jun 13, 2022

Linda top after clones

20220708_121832.jpg

• LKABudMan
• Jul 8, 2022

Clones 7/8 day 27

 

[TorturedSoul]

You don't actually need to use the end of a stem. People just generally do. In other words, you can get multiple cuttings from one stem, depending on its length. That might end up changing your math, just a bit. Especially if, by "completely cannibalizing," you mean that you don't care, at all, what the mother plant looks like afterwards.

I've heard some have even cloned from just the leaf.

I've never done it with cannabis, but used to do so with African violets, once in a while. And Mom, who is in her 80s, has been doing that sort of thing at least as long as I have been alive. She'll be out somewhere, see a plant that she likes the look of, take one of its leaves, wrap it in a Kleenax, stick it in her purse - and the next time I visit, I'll see it in a glass of water, on the windowsill. She rarely even bothers to change the water, lol. And her success rate is best described as thus: She might end up throwing one away this year - or next year. Again, these aren't cannabis plants. But they're whatever catches her eye, so a fairly large variety of species. Many of which have undoubtedly been more difficult to clone than cannabis, if only because cannabis is so easy to root. She even has a literal tree that she started that way. It doesn't exactly present as a tree (meaning it's small and pretty flexible), being between two and three feet tall as measured from the surface of the soil. But it's in a three-gallon container, or thereabouts, and has never been outside or under a grow light (most often, it's near a window that has both a gauzy white curtain and a light tint stuck to the glass to block some of the sunlight .

So, yes, you can successfully propagate a plant from a leaf. Or even a much smaller piece (aka "micropropagation" / tissue culture).

Mom has also been known to bring home a bunch of celery from the grocery store, keep it in her refrigerator as she s-l-o-w-l-y eats the stalks - and then, instead of throwing the tag-end away, place it in a dish, add some water, and onto the windowsill it goes. Which is actually kind of cool, because it doesn't produce one stem, it produces several.

Again... Mom. Not a botanist. In her 80s. Nearly 100% lifetime success rate. With a freaking glass of water and a windowsill. HtH are there so many "HELP!!! I CAN'T ROOT A CUTTING!" threads here, LMAO?

 

[Buds Buddy]

I had a terrible success rate till I found out about Bubble Cloners & built one. Now all my clones root. I'm one of those guys who only uses the ends of the stems where I top for cloning. Pretty much my whole reason for topping more than once is for the clones. I don't use the side branches & never tried a leaf.
Pretty cool how your mom does that.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I'm planning to grow a few plants indoors in tents that I will 100% cannibalize to make clones to be planted outdoors.

I want to have 100 clones.

If each plant spends 2 weeks in a greenhouse and then is vegged for 8 weeks, with 2 pinchings/toppings, how many clones would it produce?

I need to know that to know how many mothers I will need.

BALLPARK figures are fine as I understand I'm asking how long a piece of string is. So many, many factors but the bottom line is I need a reasonable estimate.

Hi Ron, and welcome to the forum! I'm a regular cloner and you can check out my 100% cloning method, which is linked in my signature below.

So, you want to grow X number of females in one or more tents, under veg lighting, and produce 100 clones. I take it you'd like to produce these clones as quickly as possible.

I take cuttings from the end of main branches only, and occasionally from the top if I'm topping a plant.

Let's start with a baseline that doesn't involve topping the plants. In this case, I would estimate 12-16 clones per plant, depending on various factors.

Now, if you top above the first major node, this will effectively give you two "stems", and up to 2x the number of clones per plant, because you can then take cuttings on the end of each of the branches coming off these "stems" . If you top above the 2nd node, this will effectively give you four "stems" and up to 4x the number of clones per plant.

Taking into consideration a plant's time to adjust to being topped, I'll take a wild guess that topping above the first major node is the happy medium, and will be the fastest overall to produce your desired number of clones. I'll further guess 10-12 clones per "stem," so 20-24 clones per plant. So, you would need 4-5 plants – I would choose 5, so you have some wiggle room in case some clones don't take (still assuming near 100% cloning success). These plants would need plenty of space in the tent(s), including ample vertical space.