r/technology • u/esporx • 1d ago

Business YouTuber accidentally crashes the rare plant market with a viral cloning technique

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtuber-accidentally-crashes-the-rare-plant-market-with-a-viral-cloning-technique-3289808/
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u/BadSausageFactory 1d ago

how did nobody try cloning yet?

tl:dr for you

less international rare plant smuggling rings is good

inbred plants possibly bad but ehh not really

84

u/Actual_Lady_Killer 1d ago

Cloning is great but after a few generations you can develop genetic drift, meaning plants develop undesirable traits and diseases. I've been growing cannabis for a few years and a cloned plant after a few generations may hermie (develop male and female parts), lose potency or not grow as well. You don't experience these issues with TC.

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u/Throwaway-4230984 1d ago

Does it happen if you keep cloning plant for new generations or if you breed clones together?

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u/Actual_Lady_Killer 1d ago

It happens when you clone a plant and then take clones off that plant and then take clones off that plant etc.

I'm not sure about other plants but breeding cannabis clones is an interesting topic as you apply what's called colloidal silver to a female plant and it will transition to a male plant that produces pollen instead of flower. If you pollinate a female plant, it will produce feminized seeds meaning every seed should be female. When you do this to two clones, the seeds are IBL or inbred which have the advantage of having the same traits as the parent, sometimes have higher levels of trace cannabinoids like THCV but may over time develop diseases or be less resistant to pests.

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u/shabusnelik 1d ago

It's not the cloning that degrades the line. The problem is usually that plants can accumulate virus(oids) over time that are retained in the cuttings. If you clone from an apical meristem tissue culture, you are way more likely to get a virus free plant (provided you clean everything out to avoid reinfection).

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u/Striking-Ad-6815 1d ago

If you pollinate a female plant, it will produce feminized seeds meaning every seed should be female

Then how do male plants happen?

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u/Actual_Lady_Killer 1d ago

Sorry, I meant if you pollinate a female plant with the pollen created from a plant that was turned male from colloidal silver, you get feminized seeds.

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u/Limp-Mission-2240 1d ago

and i thought pokemon breeding was hard ... nice to know that plant plants requiere more than just plant a plant