What does the term “cloning” mean in the context of cannabis cultivation?

In cannabis cultivation, "cloning" specifically refers to the process of creating new plants from cuttings taken from a mother plant. This method is commonly employed to produce genetically identical replicas of the parent plant, which can be advantageous for maintaining desirable traits such as high potency, flavor, or growth characteristics. Cloning allows cultivators to rapidly propagate successful plants without the need for seeds, thereby ensuring consistency in the crop's characteristics.

The cloning process typically involves taking a healthy cutting from the mother plant, rooting it in a suitable medium, and providing the necessary conditions for growth. This approach not only accelerates the cultivation timeline but also preserves the genetic integrity of the plant variety being replicated, which is crucial for commercial growers aiming to deliver a consistent product.

Other options suggest alternative approaches to plant propagation or cultivation techniques which are not accurate reflections of the cloning process. For instance, seeding implies starting from scratch with seeds, altering genetic structures pertains to genetic modification rather than traditional cloning practices, and layering is a different horticultural technique used primarily with certain types of plants. Each of these methods differs fundamentally from the direct propagation technique that cloning represents.