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B. Sprouting and Cloning
I assume you have already read the section entitled "Cannabis is a Plant." If you have not, then do so now!
Sprouting cannabis seeds is a simple matter. Before you plant your marijuana seeds in the soil, you should germinate them by placing them between two paper towels soaked with distilled water, placed on a plate and covered with plastic wrap. Kept in a warm, dark place, the cannabis seeds should sprout in about 3 to 7 days. Gently put the seedling, sprout-end up, about one-half to one inch below the pre-moistened soil.
Cloning is a much more complicated matter. It requires either some skill, or a green thumb, or fanatical attention to detail, or a lot of trial and error, or possibly all of the above. I think of cloning as an incubation process and have decided that maintaining a constant warm temperature (75-80) is the key factor.
This is the concept. Cut a small piece from an existing plant that is in the vegetative growth stage or one that has been in flowering for less than 2 weeks, (the key here is that is should not have any flowers on it) about 3 to 4 inches long. This piece must be a growing tip of the plant, not a leaf, (though a clone may have a number of leaves on it), but a piece on that new growth has been apparent at its tip. This does not mean that it has to come from the top of the plant, because on any healthy, well-established plant there should be many, or perhaps dozens of growing tips all over it. Handle this piece gently, and using a new razor blade, cut a small piece just about 1/16th of an inch from where the first cut was made, at a 45-degree angle. This exposes the moist, tender inner portion of the stem. For larger clones you may want to cut off one set of the lowest leaves also, leaving approximately 1/16th-inch stubs of the leaf stems. The razor blade can also be used to very gently scrape some of the outer skin off the lower portions of the stem that will be under the soil, again, for the purpose of exposing the tender inner portion of the stem. This should all be done as quickly as possible. Then using rooting hormone, such as Rootone Powder or Dip-n-Gro liquid (diluted 13 parts water to 1), dip the lower part (the part that has been cut and scraped, the part that will be under the soil) of the clone into the hormone and then carefully place it into a hole that was pre-poked in the media using a nail or toothpick.
You can use paper, plastic or Styrofoam cups (always poke holes in the bottom) or small buckets (less than one-half gallon) to hold the soil, or Jiffy-7 peat [moss] pellets, which are small discs that when soaked in water, expand into a cylinder that is basically just peat moss in a tiny nylon sack. These work well for larger batches because of their small size. Place the whole unit inside of some kind of humidity tent or dome, maybe a plastic Ziploc bag for one or two clones in party cups, or a 11x21 inch propagation tray for larger batches for example, to retain the moisture. Small pots evaporate quickly, and since the clone has no roots with which to draw up water, it needs to be kept in a high humidity atmosphere or it will dry out and die promptly.
Absolutely the most important factor is not to over saturate the soil, it should barely feel moist to the touch. Remember- for roots to grow, they need oxygen just as much as they need water. It is as easy to kill a clone with too much water as it is to kill it by letting it dry out. Spray bottles work well to mist the clones. Place the newly planted clones under fluorescent lights on a continuous 24-hour per day light cycle. fluorescents should be kept within about a foot or less from the clones for maximum effectiveness. "Cool white" tubes work very well and are very inexpensive. They generate very little heat and have soft, even light distribution. A 4-foot "shop-light" fixture can be purchased at the hardware store for less than $10 and two tubes to fit it should run about $1 each. This is sufficient light for two 11x21 inch (standard size) propagation trays. Each tray can hold up to about 25-30 clones in Jiffy-7 pellets. Keep the temperature steady and warm, and after about one week, if you are doing well, or two weeks if you need improvement, roots will suddenly sprout directly out of the stem and the clone will start to grow. As soon as this happens, it should be taken out of the dome, transplanted if necessary, and moved into the vegetative area, not too close to the light, not too close to the fan.