But I'd have to keep those clones alive for 8 - 12 weeks whilst their mothers flower. Plus it is double the amount of plants I have when the Police come knocking.
Unless you have a ton of room for many different mothers you're growing the same strain over and over again. I'll grow 4 different strains each grow. Growing the same strain seems boring.
There are plenty of reasons
not to make or keep clones, but
difficulty of making clones is not one of them. It is really easy (and fun) to clone a plant, which was the main point of my reply.
Also, I do not think you need a lot of room to keep mothers. The mothers can be really small, maybe in 2L pots on a capillary mat or something. They don't need a lot of light either. As long as you do not have to take 20 clones off a single plant at the same time to fill an SoG, it really does not matter how big the mother plants are.
If you mainly grow for your own consumption, in my opinion the best way is to buy fem-autos and pop those. Lots of variety that way and short time from seed to harvest.
My friends who partake a lot and grow for personal use actually do not want clones because they'd rather keep ordering seeds and try new strains. Fair enough!
Any other operation basically requires clones for consistency and economy.
You can still grow from clone and have variety it’s not hard at all.
Yeah, and as long as you want to keep producing, this is far easier, more consistent, and cheaper than going from seeds all the time.
Plant count can be an issue, however. The judiciary will take into account that you keep mothers and take clones, and they can hold that against you (because it definitely points towards "growing for distribution" as opposed to "personal use only").