Everything starts with seed… erm… clone. 
I would say cloning is absolutely critical thing for any serious grower. It is way to be independent on others and makes everything easier. You can get your genetics in time just when you need it prepared for other phases. Of course, you need to have separate grow chamber with mothers and possibly also cloning area.
But this doesn’t need to be large. In times when I had to “tighten my belt” and become modest I had lived with area this small:
New mothers growing under Metal Halid lamp and clones above on the shelf under fluorescent tubes 10000°K
Note: Camera white balance has been calibrated so that HPS in flowering room (left) looks white and MH and fluoros look very bluish & violet (right).
You can take cuttings from mother plants which you keep just for this purpose, or you can cut side branches off the plants in vegetative stage (or just after the switch) before they show flowers. It is said that clones from top branches are better, but if you need some vast amounts of them, don’t be afraid to use also side branches (but not the lowest weakest ones).
What tools do you need?
- Scissors to cut branches
- Fresh razor (I use everytime new one) to cut off leaves and finally stem diagonally
- Gloves (I use one time latex gloves)
- Cloning hormones (your favourite brand, I’ve used pretty much every brand, but prefer liquid ones)
- Rockwool cubes
How to create cuttings?
Warning: Absolute must is sterile environment. You can’t do this half-way. You have to use gloves and keep everything clean. For this reason I use fresh sharp razor everytime and don’t reuse them.
After making diagonal cut on stem with razor, I dip it into cloning hormone and insert it into predrilled rockwool cube.
Rockwool has to be pH “buffered”, because it naturally has higher pH than we need. For this I use water adjusted to pH 4 and soak RW cubes in it for 24 hours.
How to maintain cuttings?
I’ve got best results with rockwool cubes 3,5 x 3,5 x 4 cm. But still I think they hold slightly more water than I need. After every watering with pH adjusted water I swing plateau from side to side to displace excessive water. It is kind of manual centrifuge. Then I put all separated water back into watering bucket. This way I feel I’ve got ideal mix of water and air inside mineral wool cubes.
I keep RW plateaus inside small plastic hotbeds. First days they are fully closed to maintain proper humidity. Then I gradually open them to let them suck more fresh air from outside, lower the humidity and to promote root initiation.
But that is not enough still… Every 24 hours (no excuses) I go, open every hotbed, water it, centrifuge it and ventilate it manually.
Every hotbed is placed on shelf which has its own heater or is heated with another fluorescent tube which is placed on the bottom side of the shelf. Shelving is very advantageous as each fluorescent light heats shelf above it. Temps around 25°C are recommended.
Clones do like warm and humid environment. But for fast and proper rooting they also need some air. Allowing air in makes them root faster. My results in years of cloning and improving this technique were rooted clones in 14 days (some obviously faster but generally in this period). You can’t speed this up. Also I do replant them only when they have rooted completely through the cube, so they have pretty developed root system.
Mother plants
When available I’m using Plagron Startup also for mother plants occasionally as it promotes branching. I’ve been also very satisfied with Mum8 from Metrop.
You can see my flowering room here.
