Clone Or Seed ?!?

Hey everyone,

I'm currently building my new and first closet box. It's not the largest area but it should do well with some proper training. The dimensions of my space are as follows. 18" (front to back) 25" (Left to Right) and 39.5" (Tall) Its a built in box that currently is still in the works. I don't have my digital camera to take pictures but I will in a day or two. Now I'm planning to use some CFL's for this particular grow and move to a HPS I have coming to me in about 3 months when a buddy moves back to the city. So now down to my real questions...

First and foremost due to the small amount of room I have to grow in, I'm not incredibly excited about starting with say 7 seeds and hoping for at least 3 or 4 females. Now in Toronto, I've been to a few seed banks and prices for seeds vary from as low as $30 CDN all the way up to $380 CDN for 5 - 15 seeds. Depending on what seed bank I deal with. I do have another option, I happen to know someone who's currently growing and willing to sell me a clone. The problem is.. He wants $50 bucks for it.

So I guess in the end my question for the experience folks is what would you do ? Buy a 10 pack of seeds and hope for the best ? OR sped 50 bucks on 1 clone grow her into a decent mother and then take clones from her for now on ? The 2nd seems safer as I'm more or less guarenteed females unless I over stress. But well you know what I mean...

Any input is GREATLY appreciated !!

Thanks,

-Tdot

I would say go for the clone, but then the aspect of your box size comes into play. You would need another dedicated grow space for the mother to keep her in veg while her clones flowered under some type of LST/SCROG method in the grow box. I was recently forced into a similar situation because some relatives moved into town and are always coming over. When downsizing from a full scale space I decided to go with feminized seeds from an autoflowering strain. If you are tricky you can self produce a decent collection of feminized seeds and then continually grow in your little box with something like LR2 or AutoAK........just a thought. Good luck.

$50.00 for a clone???? That is highway robbery.
I personally would buy seed if those were my options. Heck, you could get a good 5 pack of feminized seed for that price and have a good idea on the genetics.....just my 2 cents

Thank you both very much for your responses.

gimley: I had forgot to mention in my previous post that I am also planning to setup a dedicated mother/clone room which will be smaller in width but same height and depth. Then use the room I previously described as a strictly flowering room. What do you think ?

Shipinit: I couldn't agree anymore with the highway robbery for a stinking clone. One would think he would want to help someone out either way I can't control that. I don't know anyone else in my area who grows. Not personally at least I mean its a big city(Toronto) and I know its around I just haven't found "it". If anyone else had some help or could point me in a direction I'd greatly appreciate it. Either here or via Pm !

As for now i'm going to just setup my box and monitor the temps with a few small Basil plants in there as I weigh my options a bit more and see if i can't talk the dude down to something reasonable if I buy 2 or 3.. maybe he'd do 3 for $75 but somehow I highly doubt it !!

Thanks for the responses... Any more opinions are welcome !!

wow man u got it tuff, when i bought my clones for $10 each i thought that was enough, no way would i buy a clone for $50

Even 50 canadian is too much for a clone and that is barely real money!

But seriously, a clone that could grow you 4oz of pot is worth 50 bucks, but the dude should throw you at least 4 clones for 50 in case you kill some. Better then growing from seed though;

dude buy you some feminized seeds grow you 1 or 2 mothers keep them in veg area and clone from them its very easy bro, dont pay $50 for clones thats ass rape do it yourself

Thanks for more opinions guys much appreciated !!

Buddman: Since we're in the same province how about helping a fellow Ontarian out ?!?! hehe Drop me a PM man


I completely agree with you guys for 50 you'd think he could toss in a few in case I rough it up and I've found a nice seed bank in the city that has some nice strains for 30 - 50 so at least I'll be getting 10 seeds to work with. I'm going to germ 3 at a time in hopes of at the very least 1 mother.

I'd still prefer to start with clone(s) as it'll guarantee me some nice ladies !

Thanks again
-Tdot

The more I look online, the more I want to try everything. Does anyone have any advice of a regular strain to grow in a small area such as the one I have ? And by regular I mean not a Lowryder or Mdanzig or any Auto Flower. As interested as I am in them, I'd like to keep a mother plant out of my first grow. So again any strain suggestions for a small area ??

-Tdot

I give away clones, usually a 3-pack or a 4-pack with each harvest to my dude, who then gives them to people who will make use of them. I don't know who those people are, and they don't know who I am either, but I'm told they've been happy with my $0.00 price and the quality of the clones. Doesn't do me any harm. I might even pick up a few karma points!

In your situation though, if you have no other options, I'd probably pay $50 for a clone and make that clone a mother. (Assuming it's a decent strain.) Then you can end up getting a lifetime of clones off that mother, if you like the strain enough to keep it around that long. I guess it's not really all *that* bad of a deal for $50 when you look at it like that.

Oh, a nice, short potent strain that has good strong genetics is Nirvana's Hindu Kush. Quite potent, good yielder, doesn't get too big, nice dense nugs. Cheap too!

Bongulator: Awesome input, much appreciated. Its kinda funny you mentioned Hindu Kush, I was looking at some HK crosses. I'll take a look around the Canadian seed banks, see who's offering it. Sounds like what I might be looking for, Thanks man... I'll get ya some +rep. Its a shame you can't get the clones out to me ! haha but it is what it is.

As a sort of general update. I spoke to my contact again today so I could have them ask the strain type as the grower claims he got the seeds from Amsterdam. The response kinda "shocked" me. He ordered the seeds from Amsterdam but doesn't know the strain. What kinda crap is that ?!?! I mean unless he got some random pack (which I doubt) How does one not know the strain unless of course its bag seed that he doesn't want clientel to know hes growing just regs. Hmm, that might just be the answer to my problem there. If I can't find another person to get some healthy clones from at a decent price I'm going to have to go the seed route plant max 5 and hope for no more than 3 females. I'll do some reading on Hindu Kush.

Thanks again, and more opinions are welcome PLEASE !!!

-Tdot

Hey Bongulator if you happen to check this thread out again or anyone else.. I know you had said Nirvanas Hindu Kush, however I happened to have found this one from a local seed bank

Toronto420 Seed Bank - Top Quality Seeds At Affordable Prices

Its from Ontario's Best.
Its $50 for 5 seeds, so thats the same price as the guys freakin clone and I'm sure outta the 5 seeds I'll get at the very very least 1 female to which will become my mother. I can keep clones from her for as long as I'd like. Is there anything stopping me from constantly trimming and keeping a mother in veg ?

-Tdot

Looks good to me! Description sounds just like my Nirvana Hindu Kush plants, so I guess Hindu Kushes are all kinda Hindu-y and Kushy. Hehe

Nothing stops you from constantly trimming and keeping a mother in veg. I don't though. I don't have like, *a* Hindu Kush mother at all. I have like half a dozen clones. When I want to grow some of them out, I'll take some more cuttings a couple of weeks before I transplant them into larger pots, to replace the ones about to start flowering, and so on. Just a constant stream of Hindu Kush plants, with no particular mother that you can point to. It seems easier that way, at least to me. And I do the same with some other strains too, have several of them going at all times, in all the various stages of growth.

But there's not a thing wrong with keeping the same mother and just bushing her out, keeping her alive for years. I've read about people keeping the same mother alive for well over a decade. I'm just interested in keeping the genetics going myself, and have no attachment to any particular plant, just want their genes.

Right on, I think I might very well just give that a go. Next pay cheque I'm heading over to that seed bank and I'll grab me a 10 pack. I'm a germ 3 of them and hope to find at least 1 female. If I get 3, I'll just keep the strongest as my mother and flower the other 2 to see if I even love the high or if it helps me. I'm going to start a journal up when that happens. I'll be sure to send you a PM or just look out for it. I could use someone with experiences help. I'm thinking about roughly 6 - 8 23W CFL's for Veg. And then At least 4 42W CFL's for Flowering. In the space I have provided with mylar on all the surfaces that should be plenty of lighting. Keeping the temps down is going to be the hardest thing. I have to either get some pc fans as an input and exhaust or something. I'm going to borrow a camera from my brother in the next few days and I'll get some pics going on.

Thanks again,
-Tdot