Clone guide · 2026-07-30

Turning a Clone Into a Mother Plant

A single $69 clone can supply every plant you grow from now on. The process is old horticulture and it works the same for cannabis as for tomatoes.

How do I turn a purchased clone into a mother?

Keep it in vegetative light, 18 hours or more per day, and simply never flip it to flower. Pot it up as it grows, feed it a nitrogen-forward veg diet, and in four to six weeks a healthy 8-12" clone becomes a bush that can spare cuttings. That plant is now a mother: a permanent, living copy of the genetics you bought once.

How many cuttings can one mother produce?

A modest mother in a five-gallon container comfortably gives a handful of cuttings every few weeks, and taking them doubles as the pruning that keeps her bushy. Scale the container and light and the number scales with them. The practical limit for a home grower is almost never the mother; it is the plant count on your state's law.

Do mother plants count against my legal plant limit?

Yes, in every state we track. A mother is a cannabis plant regardless of whether it ever flowers, and rooted cuttings count the moment they are plants in their own right. States with mature and immature tiers, like New York's three-mature rule, give you useful room: a mother in veg is typically an immature plant. Check your state's page for the exact split before you build a cutting schedule around it.

Which cuts make the best mothers?

Vigorous, forgiving genetics with structure that recovers fast from cutting. The beginner-friendly section of the cannabis clones for sale board is, not coincidentally, also the best mother-plant shopping list: the traits that make a cut easy to grow are the traits that make it generous under the scissors.

Written by Mike Hawley for the Cannabis Clones For Sale reference desk.