Mother Plant

[Bukshot911]

Well, I'm getting into cloning and I feel pretty good about the technique I'm going to use. The issue I have is with keeping a mother plant. How do you keep the girl from flowering? I use only photoperiod strains but I still feel like with enough time they might just bud. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong and that if you keep it on an 18/6 light cycle it will forever remain in the veg. stage, but either way how do I maintain a mother or two?


So here's what I'm thinking about doing. I want a small tent to house the mother(s) with some t5 tubes for lighting and an ebb and flow system. Possibly an exhaust system involving a small can fan/filter set. Does that sound like a good Idea? Any tips or advice?

 

[bi0phreak420]

Yep keep the mothers on 18/6 and the wont flower just make sure to that you keep them trimmed up so they dont get to big and you should be good to go
!!!

 

[nova564t]

So why not 24 hours of light, I would have to assume that 18/6 will keep them smaller?

 

[vdog]

Hi Buckshot, no disrespect especially since your the senior guy, but I was recently told to use normal text for more replies?

To answer your question, what is your grow media? You can look into root trimming and transplanting, or you can keep a strain alive by taking clones from clones. I have seen an article where a guy had a 5 year old mother in one of those orange hardware store 5 gallon buckets, every time the mother got to a certain height, he pulled it, trimmed the root mass, and placed back in fresh media. The stalk was like 3 inchs in diameter. The picture below is a plant that was used as a small donor, after I took the cuttings, I pulled the plant, trimmed the roots down to a third of what they were and then replanted it in fresh soil. The vegetation on the bottum edge of the picture, is from that plant, I pulled it down to show the remnants of the center stalk.
View attachment 000_1099.JPG

 

[SensiStarFan]

I stopped keeping mothers simply because of space. I just take clones from my vegging plants. Once these root the vegging plants go into flower and the rooted clones take the place of the vegging plants. Two months later the cycle repeats. This way I don't use electricity or space in my vegging area lighting mothers. When I was growing one strain I kept a mother but now that I am doing 4 it is easier this way.
-Using this method has a disadvantage though. Supposedly if you keep taking clones from clones the quality of the clones is going to deteriorate over time (years), but I am on around my 11th cycle of clones from clones and I have noticed zero loss in quality.

-If you do decide to keep mothers I would recomend keeping them in soil just because it makes the mothers easier to work with. You can pick them up, move them around, etc. In my experience soil is a lot more forgiving and if you have something go wrong with a hydro system in which you have all your mothers, then you could be stuck.
My $.02
-SSfan-

 

[vdog]

Thanks Sensi and Orange, for sharing your experience because that is something I always wondered about. I have heard arguments in both directions on that one. Me, Im going with the each of you, as I do both, keep long termers around and clone to clone propogation.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

i don't keep mothers either---clones from clones from clones---perpetual harvest---also believe degeneration of genetics is hogwash----been running the same way with the same strain for second year---the strain is actually getting better on each run---thanks to all the info here---:hubba:

I wouldnt say so much that the strain is getting better each run as I would your skills are improveing each run...the clone doesnt change...But clone the clone the clone..then clone that clone eh:bolt::bong:

 

[SensiStarFan]

:yeahthat: but he did say, "thanks to the info here", so I don't think he was implying that the strain is actually getting better.

 

[ozzydiodude]

Orange you are just getting the strain you have going dialed in and a healthy plant will grow better, clone easier. It is when a person doesn't have the plants healthy that you see the clone get harder to take and a loss of genetic strength. A sick plant that is cloned will pass on sick genetics and that is were you start to see a loss of genetic make up in clones.

 

[Bukshot911]

Thanks for the info guys but I'm pretty hell bent on keeping mothers. Space, electricity, and cost are all non-factors for my situation. I find keeping a mother to potentially be a stable way to have a clone harvest. I put much thought into clipping from the vegging plants and I'm sure that method works well but I feel it rushes you into the next season. For whatever reason if I don't want to start a run right after another, I can take clones whenever I feel like and start the season then. Anyway I'm useing hydrotron grow medium and the plants are all in individual pots within my hydrosystem. This makes everything nice and easy to move. I am quite skilled with ebb and flow systems and pretty confident I can keep a plant to any size I need. But I do have another questition about keeping a mother...
Should I dial back the nutes? I only say this because the purpose of my veg nutes is explosive growth. If I'm trying to just keep a plant alive instead of growing the $h•t out of it, it shouldn't require a normal amount of nutes right?

 

[SensiStarFan]

Should I dial back the nutes? I only say this because the purpose of my veg nutes is explosive growth. If I'm trying to just keep a plant alive instead of growing the $h•t out of it, it shouldn't require a normal amount of nutes right?

Yes, you just want to make sure you are still giving the mother the correct ratio of nutes.

 

[Bukshot911]

Ok awesome. Thanks a lot, I will dial it back keeping the same ratios. Oh and thanks to everybody for the help. All advice has or will be considered.