Dear Cheri,

Can you please talk about the advantages or disadvantages of growing cannabis from seeds as opposed to from clones?  Thanks for any insight.

Excellent question.  Without a doubt both growing methods can produce exceptional cannabis.  So when it comes to choosing to grow cannabis from seeds vs clones, it will depend on your circumstances.

What is a Cannabis Clone?

Just to clarify for the beginning gardeners who may not know, a cannabis clone is a cutting taken from an existing cannabis plant that is allowed to root and form an entirely new plant.

Both methods and have advantages and disadvantages so let’s explore.  And be sure to watch the video above for a more in-depth discussion of this topic.

Advantages of growing cannabis from seeds

• Seeds are easy for anyone to get.  Seeds happen.  You may find a stray seed in some cannabis you bought, if it’s decent cannabis save it.  Friends may share seeds.  And you can always buy seeds by ordering from a seed bank.
• You can pretty much get any strain of cannabis you want if you are growing from seeds.  Sourcing exact strains in clones can be challenging to say the least.  But most strains you would want are available as seeds.

Disadvantages of growing cannabis from seeds

• You may or may not get a female plant.
• Sometimes seeds don’t germinate, although if you sourced your seeds from a reputable seed bank, this in theory shouldn’t be an issue.
• If you have to buy them, quality seeds can be pricey.

You can get around point 1 by purchasing feminized seeds.  And if you are a casual home grower, we do recommend that’s what you get.  This way you are guaranteed a female plant.  So that takes away the biggest disadvantage of seeds.

Advantages of growing cannabis from clones

• You know exactly what you will get as the clone will be the same as the plant that donated the cutting.  You know your plant will be female and it will have the same characteristics as the mother.
• Clones can be a great way to keep crops of your favorite strains going, just keep taking cuttings from your own plants. 
• If you are going to grow multiple plants, it’s easy to root several clippings from the same plant, and you will have multiple plants that will all require the exact same care and be on the same light and nutrient schedules.
• Clones, if they are shared from a friend or taken from one of your own plants, are FREE!

Disadvantages of growing cannabis from clones

• Clones can be pricey if you have to buy them.
• Not all dispensaries sell clones, so they can be difficult to find for sale.
• Depending on where you live and who you know (or don’t know), clones can be hard to find even for free.
  

Really the disadvantages of clones are all in the sourcing.  Aside from that, there really is not a downside to growing cannabis from clones.  And once you have your first crop, you can continue to take clones from that and future crops, so you need never be without clones for new crops once you get going. 

However, all of the clones will be alike.  So, for variety’s sake, you may still choose to get seeds in order to grow other strains.

The bottom line on seeds vs clones

Both are great ways to start a cannabis grow.  If you have access to a clone from a good strain of cannabis, take advantage of the opportunity as you will know what to expect and it will be slightly less work that routing from a seed.

However, clones will not be an option for a lot of people.  

No worries.  People have been grow quality cannabis from seeds for thousands of years and you can too.