Plant cloning can be a great way to grow new plants and watch your indoor grow tent or grow room thrive. If you’ve already done a bit of cloning and want to upgrade your garden, or if you’re a beginner looking for the best place to start, we’ve put together the ultimate clone grower’s shopping list for you.
Whether you already have some tools and experience or want to start from scratch, there’s definitely a kit below to fit your needs!
If you’re not sure how the process works or are just curious and want a little bit more info on plant cloning, we’ve outlined the basics for you below. That way you can decide if you want to dive into clone growing and get started on your very own garden of clones.
Table of Contents
- Plant Cloning and How to Do It
- The Plant Cloning Shopping List
- What You Need to Take Cuttings and Rooting Clones
- What You Need to Root and Grow Clones
- What You Need for Lighting and Feeding Clones
-
Complete Cloning Packages
- Growing Your Plant Clones
- You’re Ready to Grow Plant Clones
Let's get right to it and talk about what plant cloning is and how you can grow your own plants from clones!
Plant Cloning and How to Do It
Plant cloning may sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but it’s actually quite simple. Cloning a plant is the process of taking a clipping from one plant and producing an identical plant from that original clipping.
All it takes is cutting part of a healthy plant and placing it in a moist plant growing medium (like soil) so that it can grow its own roots. This new plant will have the same DNA as its parent plant, making it a clone.
Plant cloning is a great alternative to growing plants from a seed because it’s the best way to create an exact replica of another plant, including all of its desired characteristics. What’s really cool is that you can continue the process over and over again, as many times as you please.
Cloning plants will ensure consistency in each generation, too. So if you grow commercially and want to produce the highest quality plants every time, you should definitely give plant cloning a try.
Properly cloning your plants is simple and only takes a few steps:
- Take a cutting from an existing plant. Using a scalpel or shears, you're going to slowly and carefully cut a leaf branch from one of your plants. You'll want to make sure you cut close to the stem so there's plenty potential for growth.
- Place your plant cuttings in water. You'll want to do this immediately after taking the cuttings from another plant. This will help your cutting avoid receiving too much exposure to air.
- Cut each clipping at a 45-degree angle. This will expose each clipping's stem more, allowing for optimal growth.
- Dip your clippings in cloning gel. You'll want to make sure each clipping has a generous coating of gel. Though this is optional as rooting will occur naturally, using a rooting solution like a cloning gel increases the speed at which your plant clones begin to grow and produce roots.
- Place your clippings in a rooting medium. Now that you've prepped your clippings, all that's left is to plant them and watch them grow.
The Plant Cloning Shopping List
Everyone's plans of cloning come to a halt when they realize they don't have the equipment they need to pull it off. Maybe you have soil, but you don't have anything to take cutting from your plant. Perhaps you have all the tools but no lights or medium to help clones thrive. If you're not sure what you need or if what you have is enough, here's a list of everything all growers need when growing clones:
Don't let this list fool you. It may seem like a lot of tools for growing clones, but once you know why these items are important, you'll understand why not having even one of these can make things a lot harder to do when it comes to growing clones.
In the next three sections, we'll break down each of these items and let you know which tools we recommend for your grow. Let's get to it!
I. What You Need to Take Cuttings and Rooting Clones
If you’re going to plant your clones, you’re going to need the right tools and the proper medium to get the job done.
Pruning Tools
You're going to need clipping and pruning tools if you want to grow your own clones. By using a scalpel or shears, you can collect clippings from existing plants. You'll then use these clippings as the starting points for new clones.
Scalpels are a particularly excellent choice as they'll provide you with the precision and sharpness you need to carefully remove clippings from your plants. With these scalpels, you'll have full control as you slice a small branch off your current plant.
Alternatively, you can also use pruning shears to gather the necessary clippings to grow clones. Pruning tools like pruning shears are made with stainless steel micro blades. This will ensure a close trim without damaging your clippings.
Recommended Pruning Tools:
- Gro1 Scalpels (Our Price $15.99)
- Gro1 Large Pruning Shears (Our Price $12.30)
II. What You Need to Root and Grow Clones
You've got what you need to remove a cutting from your plant. Now it's time to turn that leaf into a full-grown plant by getting it to root. Doing that will require the right environment to stimulate and encourage root growth.
Rooting Medium
Your rooting medium is what holds the water your plant grows in. You’ll definitely need some sort of rooting medium that retains lots of water — like a starter tray or rockwool cubes — because young plants need lots of water, and can suffer quickly from overwatering.
Starter trays with a pre-filled medium give clones and seedlings perfect air-to-water ratio for the absolute best water retention and aeration for your plants. This environment is ideal and promotes root branching for healthy plants with strong roots. Plus, it works for both soil and hydroponic gardens.
Rockwool cubes also have a great air-to-water ratio and a fiber structure that holds water longer. These cubes are incredibly firm, encourage fast initial rooting, and provide less resistance for the roots to grow in so that they turn out super strong.
Recommended Mediums:
- For growers who want to grow clones in soil and top-feed coco growers, we recommend Accel-A-Root 50 Cell Starter Trays (Our Price: $19.95)
- For growers who will put their seeds in a hydroponic system, we recommend 6” x 6” x 4” Cultilene Rockwool Cubes (Our Price $149.95)
Growing Trays
Growing trays are another important part of cloning, because they’re what your growing medium sits on, whether it’s a starter tray or rockwool. Propagation trays are the perfect option for seed and cutting propagation.
We recommend going with heavy duty trays that are 3 times as thick as the standard option. This heavy duty design and rigid construction allow it to hold up to 35 pounds of weight with no problem. You can rest assured that this propagation tray will be able to handle all of your seed and clone growing needs.
Recommended Tray:
- Yield Lab Heavy Duty 10 x 20 inch Propagation Tray (Our Price $3.50)
Insulating/Humidity Dome
Insulated domes are vital to growing clones because they help create the perfect environment by regulating the temperature and humidity levels that clones will thrive in. The Yield Lab 7 Inch Propagation Dome is made from high-quality plastic and includes adjustable vents that give you control over the temperature and humidity.
Luckily, domes like these are also compatible with standard 10in x 20in trays. If you want to have full control of your clones’ growing environment, a good insulating dome like this one is essential.
Recommended Tray:
- Yield Lab 7 Inch Propagation Domes (Our Price $4.95)
Heat Mat
Heat mats help you control the temperature of your clone’s roots to ensure they’re growing properly. If the temperature is too cold or too hot, your plants could suffer.
Grow room heat mats are portable, long-lasting, and water resistant. They're able to warm your plants’ root area 10 to 20 degrees over ambient temperature, so they'll keep temperatures at a controlled level.
For extra control over your growing environment, you can use a temperature controller. These controllers will let you adjust and maintain a heat mat’s temperature, ensuring it’s always where your plants need it to be at.
The Yield Lab Heat Mat Thermostat Temperature Controller is perfect for clones and clippings that rely on specific temperatures to grow. It's lightweight, compact, and super easy to use. With this controller, you'll be able to control your heat mat’s temperature and avoid overheating, which can fry and kill roots.
Recommended Heat Mat:
Rooting Solution
If you want to jumpstart the rooting process for your clones, you're going to want to use a rooting solution. Using clone gels and root stimulators is a great way to boost growth in your plant clones. Simply dip your clippings in the gel and place in your rooting medium.
While you don't need a rooting solution like clone gel, it can certainly help achieve desired results a lot quicker and more efficiently. Plus, solutions like X Nutrients MX Clone Gel contain antibacterial and antifungal agents to help combat potential diseases in your plants.
Recommended Rooting Solution:
- X Nutrients MX Clone Gel (8 Oz) (Our Price $35.95)
III. What You Need for Lighting and Feeding Clones
Planting clones is one thing. Growing your clones is another story. So once your clones are planted in their medium, make sure you’re equipped with everything you need to nurture and care for your clones.
Grow Lights
Grow lights are an important part of the growing process because they help your plants grow, open up, and take in the water they need to keep growing. Normally there are two types of lights people use for growing clones: T5 fluorescent lights and lower wattage LED grow lights.
T5 grow lights provide a bright white/blue light that's filled with wavelengths perfect for vegging young plants. However, by swapping the T5 bulb out with a different wavelength bulb, they can be ideal for every part of the growth cycle.
Another great light option for your plant clones are all blue LED grow light panels. These grow lights provide an intense blue wavelength that also promotes healthy, beautiful plant growth between the germination and flowering stage.
The key to lighting clones is to ensure they have the wavelengths of light necessary to thrive with an intensity that won't overwhelm them. Higher wattage HIDs and LEDs tend to overwhelm young plants and need to be hung high to ensure they don't fry. The problem with doing this is that if you hang your plants too high, they're virtually ineffective. That's why we recommend using lower watt LEDs and T5 lights.
Recommended Grow Lights:
- For those who prefer similar wavelengths to HID lights, we recommend the Yield Lab Complete 4 Foot 54w 2 Bulb T5 Fluorescent Grow Light Kit (6400K) (Our Price: $129.00)
- For growers who want an all LED experience, we recommend 50 Watt Advance Spectrum All Blue LED Grow Light Panel
- For growers who want the best of T5s and LEDs, we recommend Yield Lab 40W Full Spectrum 4 Foot 2 Bulb LED Grow Light Bar with Stand (Our Price $89.95)
Sprayer/Mister
An often overlooked item, a hand sprayer or mister is important to feed your plants and give them a bit of water to help them thrive. A hand sprayer is portable and simple to use, no complication involved. While you can use a spray bottle to feed clones (which is a well-practiced method of feeding them), we recommend sprayers.
Thanks to their handheld pressure control and mister nozzle, sprayers offer a steady stream of mist instead of big bursts of water like you'd get with a spray bottle. Thinner mist evaporates faster and is easier to be consumed by plants. Plus, the less stress you put on plant at an early age, the better.
Recommended Sprayer:
- Gro1 64 oz. Hand Sprayer (Our Price: $17.95)
Complete Cloning Packages
Now, you're probably looking at this list and saying to yourself, "Wow, I have a lot of shopping to do." Don't worry, we've all been there. Thankfully, when it comes to cloning, you can make it as simple or as complex as you'd like. Some growers prefer to keep it simple and only buy the essentials: pruning shears, a medium, and a light.
If you’re looking to take your cloning game to the next level, though, you're going to want a complete cloning kit. These kits offer everything you need to successfully grow large numbers of clones. And while there are quite a few options out there, here are the top three cloning packages we recommend, whether you're starting from square one or you're supplementing the equipment you already have.
Pro Series Complete Clone and Rooting Package — Best for Growers Who Need a Complete Cloning Kit
If you’re new to the plant cloning and rooting game, or you want the ultimate cloning kit, you’ll want to start with this Pro Series Complete Clone and Rooting Package.
This kit is the best option for beginners because it’s complete with absolutely everything you need to cut, plant, and grow clones. You'll get a reflective grow tent, an all blue LED light panel, CO2 pads, Humboldt Root Nutrients, a 50 cell starter tray, X Nutrients MX Clone Gel, premium domes, a heat mat, 10 scalpels, and of course, a propagation tray.
Sound like a lot? That’s because it covers all the bases! You won’t need to search for anything outside of this kit in order to start cutting, planting, and growing your very own plant clones. And though it’s idea for beginners, it’s also perfect for longtime growers looking for a top tier cloning kit.
Our Price: $234.99 | Click Here to Buy This Plant Cloning Kit
Yield lab Seed and Clone Starter Kit with 24w All Blue LED Grow Light — Best for Growers Who Need Mediums and Lighting
If you’re able to cut plants and have a medium to grow in, but you’re in need of a good growing environment and grow lights for your seeds and clones, the Yield Lab Seed and Clone Starter Kit with 24w All Blue LED Grow Light will help you complete the process.
This cloning kit comes with a propagation dome and tray, as well as a seed and clone heat mat with a thermostat temperature controller. This will ensure you’re able to adjust to the perfect temperature for your seeds and clones.
To top it off, this kit also includes an all blue LED grow light to help your plants grow and thrive. It’s a perfect addition whether you’re using your primary lights or need a designated light for your clones.
Our Price: $99.99 | Click Here to Buy This Plant Cloning Kit
Seed and Clone Rooting Kit — Best for Growers with Lights Who Only Need Rooting Mediums
Maybe you have an eye for cutting clones and have all the lighting you need but still want them to thrive a bit more. If that’s the case, look no further than this Seed and Clone Rooting Kit.
This cloning kit is complete with all the things you need for easy propagation: premium domes, a heavy-duty propagation tray, a 50 cell starter tray, and a reusable heat mat. It’s perfect for beginners and experienced growers alike, and it’s the best option to help your clones or seedlings thrive in an ideal environment.
Just make sure you have grow lights, tools for cutting clones, and a rooting solution to get the grow started. Other than that, this kit has you covered.
Our Price: $49.95 | Click Here to Buy This Plant Cloning Kit
Growing Your Plant Clones
Once your clones are placed in their rooting medium, there's a two-part goal: growing roots, and then growing the plant. So to start that process, here's how to grow them until they're ready to transplant:
- Moisten your rockwool cubes or starter cell thoroughly with water (400 to 600 PPM), then place them in a growing tray.
- Note: Don't soak your medium too much. It should be moistened enough to hold in a good amount of water, but not so much that it's leaking water.
- Place the dome over the clones to enclose their environment.
- Place the tray and dome under your grow light.
- If you're using T5s, maintain a height of 2 to 5 inches above your plants' canopy.
- If you're using LEDs, maintain a height of 5 to 10 inches above their canopy.
- Maintain a temperature of around 75 to 85°F, with a humidity level of 90 to 100 percent.
- Take off the dome every 3 to 4 days to help lower the humidity level of your clones. If the humidity level is too high, your plants will receive too much water.
- If your clone's environment drops in humidity, spray a little water in there to pick things up.
- Keep an eye on your growing clones. Usually after 7 to 10 days, you'll see significant root growth. From there, you'll let them grow until the clones are ready to be transplanted.
You’re Ready to Grow Plant Clones
Now that you know what cloning is, how to do it, and what you’ll need to successfully do it, you’re ready to grow some awesome plant clones.
The bottom line is that cloning can be a great way to ensure consistency in your plants. If you’d rather not start growing from seeds, or if you just want to experiment in your grow room, cloning is a great alternative.
Whether you need tools, a grow light, or just some extra space for your clones, one of these kits will fit your needs perfectly. With so many options to choose from, you’ll be able to put together the perfect cloning kit for you and your garden.
All that's left now is for you to find your favorite plant and grow a clone with it.