Surprising Roots from Clones

While I am not an absolute, absolute beginner, I am pretty new to growing (and using) cannabis, so I am placing this thread here.

This isn't a problem with a plant, but a matter of curiousity:

I've cloned a number of plants in the last few months, with 100% success rate so far. The "mother" plants have been plants bought from a medical collective. I've been using those little discs of peat inside of netting that expand in water to let the roots develop. I've been putting the clones in pots with soil once their roots start poking through the mesh. These roots have always been thin, white, and sort of spindly.

HOWEVER....

About ten days ago I took cuttings from a plant, and in the last couple of days they roots have begun to emerge from the peat packet. The roots are very different from what I have seen before, though. They are quite thick, stout, and they are hairy....there are tons of super thin, super short hairs coming off the much thicker, stubby, sharp main root. I would take and post pictures to show you better, but all I have for a camera is on a very cheap cell phone, so it really can't show things adequately.

Have any of you that have done cloning seen roots emerge as thick, very sharp spikes coated with super fine hairs, rather than thin, thread-like roots?

I don't know the strain of plant these are from; I was told what it was when I got it from the collective, but I have forgotten it since. I wonder if it is a characteristic of the strain, or if it has to do with the fact that the cuttings were taken from a plant that was in flowering stage lighting...the plant wasn't showing signs of flowering yet, but I had had it on flowering stage lighting cycle for a number of days before taking the cuttings. I've had the cutting on twenty-four hours of light since taking it so as to encourage it to revegetate rather than flower, but I wonder if these odd roots are because it was thinking it should flower. Or maybe the twenty-four hour light is responsible?

Any ideas? I'm not worried about the plants, as they look vigorous and healthy, but the much different structure of the roots are surprising to me. Any ideas, comments, etc. are welcome!

 

All I have been doing to take clones is cut branches off at an angle to have a wide swath of exposed tissue, sort of like how florists cut flowers to take up as much water as possible. I run water over the bottom part of the cutting to clean and wet it, then dip it into rooting hormone I got from Lowe's, and just gently stick the branch into one of those water expandable pellet things I mentioned, also from Lowe's or Home Depot. I gently close the soil/peat around the branch, then put the cutting on a plate, along with a small cup of water for humidity, and put the plate under a clear glass bowl. I've done this about ten or twelve times, and every last plant has taken root and survived. Whether that's luck or my technique, I'm not sure, but it works so far!

 

For many years I have been growing summer vegetables, and use those peat thingys to start their seeds in. They work great for tomatoes and peppers, and even sunflowers!