HELP! Need Clone Expert

[grandpasmith]

I need to know if I'm cloning correctly. I don't have a lot of space, a 2x3 grow tent for veg (and regular herbs), a 2x2 grow tent for flower. I'm vegging the 5th generation now (pic, 31 days old).
What I did from the very first grow: first, grew from seed (unknown strain), germinated/seedling stage for 21 days, vegged for 40 days, CLIPPED OFF A CLONE and made sure in rooted, then flowered mother plant.
Every grow since, by the time the mother plant is ready for harvest, the clone is ready for flower. The only difference in my system is instead of starting from a seed, I now start with a clone.

As you can see (from the first clone) they grow offset. Excellent for LST, after 3 nodes, I bent it over and just like that, second cola forms rather quickly. I usually end up with 6-8 colas, but every grow the plant seems to mature earlier and earlier (first grow flowered for 56 days, came out great). Right now, I'm on flower day 43 and I have 90/10 milky/amber trichomes in a few more days, it will be ready to harvest. This means yields get smaller and smaller because I don't want to go too far.

Should I have maintained a mother plant from the beginning, should I start with this plant or is it too late, generationally speaking. I have more seeds, should I start all over again?
Thanks for any advice...

[desertdan]

Your clone will always start at same age as mother plant.

[tyler_ hobbyist]

I agree ur clone is always the same age as ur mother so u cant stop it from matureing faster u just have to start over from seed. If u want more yeild use a pk booster

[Obi-Wan]

If space is tight, there is nothing wrong with cloning the way you have been doing it, you may just need to refresh your genetics at some point. Ideally you would want to keep a mother for as long as possible so you are always taking cuttings from the same plant, thus preserving the genetic qualities of your plant. While it is said that a clone is a genetic copy of the plant it is taken from, they can display slightly different qualities when comparing multiple "generations" of clones.
For example:.....
Let's say the plant you've chosen tends to only stretch 12" and you consider this a desirable trait, by taking a clone and flowering the previous clone, you may notice at some point that your clones begin to stretch more or less than they have in the past, thus losing the desirable genetic trait. However if you maintain a "Healthy" mother to take your cuttings from, each clone will continue to display the desired genetic traits for as long as you can keep the Mother plant healthy.

[grandpasmith]

Thank you so much Obi-Wan! Makes perfect sense. I think in my haste for some enjoyment, I fell into a not so desirable grow habit. I will definitely start all over again since I still have some seeds. From my era, far out man....