Clone Collection

I've done something similar. You may need more than 20 watts for .. a little less than 2 sq ft? I kept 6-8 small 'mother' plants in 1-gallon pots for a couple years -- "1 gallon pots" in america are .6 gallon actual volume. 1-gal 'compressed' i believe is the reasoning there. I probably had about 40watt covering roughly. Efficacy of light will impact watts per sq ft. better to go with umol/s per area relative to hours of light per day (i.e. DLI). 25 DLI is a good target. Trial and error after that. The trick is to prune them back when you don't need cuttings (clones) for at least several weeks. Keep them small and short, but have enough growth tips to cover the number of cuttings you intend to take off them. This will reduce how much time and effort you need to invest watering them and other maintenance. A tiny plant can provide 4-8 cuttings without overcrowding too much. Also, regenerate the mother plants every 4-6 months. This depends on how long you keep them healthy in a small pot. I regularly went longer than 6 months, but they were very healthy. Or, you can learn to root trim, but that's difficult to do with a solid substrate vs hydro. So, learn how long your 'soil' and fertilization keeps the plants supremely healthy, and make sure to regenerate mother plants before they get rootbound and head downhill. Unhealthy mother plants have much less success giving clones. Re-cloning does not weaken the plant nor the genes. It is and always will be the same age as the original plant. Age can be a concern eventually, but it has nothing to do with cloning them. One thing i'd be aware of is "hardened ovules" ... This is a trait that can develop, especially with older plants. It won't require any pollen to get them and they make the weed taste like shit. If you see little white things that resemble seeds but are not (oftenhard, but flatter / smaller), there's no getting rid of them. that plant is trash at that point for flower. No idea if it impacts extracts.