Heard The Old Myth Today...

gladstoned said:

I believe most clones do get weaker over time, but because of the growers, not the strain.

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This.

But I'm not going to get into the genetic details as it's a debate I've decided to no longer get into. Genetics are what fascinated me the most about the plant to begin with and is still the part of the entire process that I study the most as the long term game is in genetics.

alcohol said:

Do you not believe in evolution also?

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?

deadgro said:

Because its something spread by people who don't clone.

I've cloned the same strain for 7 years with no change.

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Im gonna take your truth one step further .

My strains have gotten better over a 5 yr period using mothers , then clones from the mothers to make new mothers , the actual age of the genetics comes with increased sexual maturity ,shorter internode spacing , faster bud growth & faster finish times .

green_machine_two9er said:

. I also feel that continuing the cuts that show the best qualities Into next gen overall has made my long term strains better overall.

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Shit you nailed it right there brother , that is the key ! Mothers or clone from clone is the same thing , its all in the selection of which cuttings you select to carry on the strain .

If you choose the one leg red headed step child with a speach impediment to carry on the strain you can expect a drop in quality & watered down genetics or even a new phenotype , ya pick cuttings with the closest internode spacing , best leaf to node ratio & overall vigor then you can expect to increase those traights within the strain .

I will give one to the seed only guys as a given , if ya dont know wtf your doing in clone selection you can fuk the strain up & ive seen it done , but that has no bearing to growers who are skilled in clone selection .

10 yr old clone here, no change

I think a lot of the degradation occurs when you fuck something up, and who's to say a plant will always stay in veg? It might be good to reveg a completely flowered plant every now and then. Shantibaba a very respected guy in the growing community with his white widow. He says if your clone loses vigor put it in the natural spring sunlight and it will regain it's vigor! Something to try if maybe ya fucked somethen up and don't wanna lose a cut : )

CashCrops said:

Give me a clone of some strain that has only been grown in dirt and I'll DWC it and give you a finished bud that will look, smell, and taste completely different with a higher thc content!

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The old soil vs hydro arguement... good to insert anywhere in any thread

Rrog said:

The old soil vs hydro arguement... good to insert anywhere in any thread

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Who's arguing?

IMHO the key to this is the re-introduction of sunlight to the clones. It's not that the genes might change, it's their expression that can change. Sunlight seems to be the common solution in these threads. I believe it keeps certain genes on (or off) and the lack of some component of sunlight over time might cause some different gene expression.

I would also imagine this could be strain-specific.

Exactly rrog, genotype and phenotype. Night and day.