Question on Cloning? How many times

[oldandbold]

I have a small Vegetation area and instead of maintaining mothers I have been cloning at 8 weeks and then flowering the donors. I am growing White Russian and have been doing this for about 15 months. I am noticing that my plants are getting smaller and bushier each time although my production is still high. Is there a limit to how long I can keep doing this and not have any real problems?

 

[asdewqasdfgh]

well the longer you keep a mother alive, the more it becomes susceptible to rot, deficiencies, and over all bad health. if you clone a plant for months or even years then it may affect the clones. but as long as your bud is still dank and you are getting high yields then who cares!?

 

[thc&me]

That's debatable, but likely there is some degradation of DNA as the plant ages. Unlike seedlings, clones are exact copies of the donor plant, and so they also inherit the donor plant's age. I have noticed that after several generations the plants immunity suffers slightly and their health begins to slowly decline. Still, this really only happens after repeated generations.

 

[Thedillestpickle]

If the mother suffers a severe trauma and is stunted but is otherwise healthy, will the clones all be stunted as well?

 

[Grumpy']

If the mother suffers a severe trauma and is stunted but is otherwise healthy, will the clones all be stunted as well?

That's a negative. It's carries the same genetics across, not factors of stress.

 

[thc&me]

If the mother suffers a severe trauma and is stunted but is otherwise healthy, will the clones all be stunted as well?

No. External damage or trauma (ie dropped or burnt plants, pest infestations) will not affect the genetics of the afflicted plant. On the other hand, undesirable traits such as hermaphrodism and low-resistance to mold, just to name a few, are hereditary. Plants which display these characteristics should be culled.