Cannabis Cloning Explained: How Growers Take Cuttings

Last updated October 2026.

Ask a commercial cannabis grower how they keep every batch consistent and the answer usually starts with cloning. A clone is a cutting taken from an established plant, known as the mother plant, and grown on until it forms its own roots.

This article is a plain-English overview of how and why licensed growers propagate cannabis from cuttings, drawing on recent university research. It is horticultural background, not a set of instructions.

First, the legal position in Thailand

Cultivating cannabis in Thailand requires a licence. Growing sites operate under licences issued with conditions, and in July 2026 the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine (DTAM) briefed provincial public health offices nationwide on stricter inspections of licensed cultivation plots. Officials can suspend or revoke a licence immediately if its conditions are broken, and police and local administrative officers join the inspections.

Cannabis flower supplied to licensed shops must also come from a site certified under Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP). In September 2026 the Cabinet endorsed a draft cannabis control bill that would go further, requiring cultivation plots to be registered by size so they can be traced. At the time of writing that bill is still before Parliament.

If you are considering growing for any purpose, speak to your provincial public health office before you plant anything. Our guide to Thailand’s cannabis rules covers the wider picture.

Why growers use clones

Genetic consistency

Every seed is a new genetic combination, so plants grown from the same packet can differ in shape, growth speed and chemical make-up. A cutting does not have that problem: it is a copy of its mother. A 2025 study in the journal HortScience describes clonal propagation through apical stem cuttings (cuttings taken from the growing tips) as the main way medicinal cannabis is propagated, precisely to keep phytochemical profiles consistent and production efficient.

For a licensed producer, a consistent chemical profile from one harvest to the next makes laboratory results more predictable. If you want to understand how those cultivars are grouped, see our indica, sativa and hybrid guide.

Healthy, verified mother plants

The same study notes that commercial growers take cuttings from genotype-verified, virus-free mother plants. In other words, the quality of every clone depends on the health of the plant it came from, so mother plants are usually kept in a separate, carefully managed area.

How cuttings are taken and rooted

In outline, the process looks like this:

• The cutting: growers usually take the growing tip of a healthy stem with a clean, sharp blade. Researchers at the University of Connecticut also tested “retips”, cuttings taken from new shoots on young plants that had recently come out of tissue culture.
• Rooting hormone: cut ends are often dipped in a synthetic auxin such as IBA, a plant hormone that encourages roots. Their 2022 study found that retips rooted well without any hormone, with IBA giving only slightly higher rooting. The 2025 study notes that some organic standards restrict synthetic auxins, which is one reason researchers are looking at alternatives.
• The rooting medium: rockwool cubes and vermiculite are common choices in research settings because they are clean, light and hold moisture evenly.
• Humidity: without roots, a cutting cannot replace the water it loses through its leaves. Trays are kept covered with clear propagation domes, which are then vented gradually to bring humidity down as roots form.
• Light: cuttings need gentle, steady light. The 2025 study found that brighter light during propagation increased root mass at two weeks without changing how many cuttings rooted, and that the age of the mother plant made no difference to rooting.

Once a healthy root system has formed, the young plant is moved into a larger container and grown on like any other plant.

Hygiene and clean stock

The hidden risk in cloning

Cloning copies everything about a plant, which is a strength and a weakness. One pathogen in particular, hop latent viroid (HLVd), has become a major concern for cannabis producers. According to the trade publication Greenhouse Grower, HLVd can spread without visible symptoms, mostly through shared tools moving between infected and healthy plants. Infected plants can show stunted growth, deformed leaves and smaller, sparser flowers with fewer trichomes.

That is why professional nurseries clean blades between plants, test mother stock for pathogens and replace mothers that show problems. The University of Connecticut team also points out that mother plants accumulate pathogens and lose vigour over time as shoots are repeatedly removed, so even well-kept mothers need replacing. Good hygiene in the propagation room protects every plant that comes after it.

Tissue culture

Tissue culture, also called micropropagation, grows new plants from tiny pieces of tissue in sterile laboratory conditions. It is increasingly used to build “clean stock”: mother plants that have been tested and confirmed free of known pathogens. In one reported study by a plant science company, combining heat exposure with meristem culture (growing new plants from the very tip of the shoot) cleared HLVd from six infected cannabis varieties, all of which then tested negative.

Tissue culture does not replace ordinary cuttings. The 2022 HortScience research found that plants grown from tissue-culture microcuttings, stem cuttings and retips performed similarly in the greenhouse, and the propagation method did not change cannabinoid content.

What this means for the flower you see in a dispensary

For a consumer, cloning is mostly invisible, but it sits behind the consistency and traceability that Thai rules now expect. GACP-certified farms keep seed-to-sale records, including where their seeds or plants came from, fertiliser logs and pest management reports, and DTAM inspectors review soil, water, pesticide use, worker hygiene and post-harvest handling.

That paper trail, together with a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) from a laboratory, is how a licensed shop can show where a batch came from and what is in it. Our article on what GACP and CoA mean explains how to read those documents.

Key takeaways

If you would like to know more about how the flower in our store is sourced and tested, you are welcome to visit CannaBuri on Pattaya 3rd Road or contact the team. We are happy to talk through GACP, CoAs and the current rules.

This article is general information, not legal or medical advice.

Sources

• HortScience (2025): Mother Plant Age and Light Intensity Minimally Alter Adventitious Root Formation in Medicinal Cannabis
• HortScience (2022): Ex Vitro Rooting of Cannabis sativa Microcuttings Compared to Retip and Stem Cuttings
• Greenhouse Grower: How a Clean Stock Program Can Help Prevent Viroid Spread in Cannabis
• Tilleke & Gibbins: Thailand’s New Cannabis Controls Impact Doctors, Dispensaries and Growers
• Khaosod English: Health Ministry tightens cannabis farm inspections nationwide
• Hfocus: DTAM briefing on supervision of licensed cannabis cultivation plots (Thai)
• Nation Thailand: Thai cabinet endorses draft cannabis control bill for medical use