Mother plant questions

[T-rex]

Greetings everyone!

What are the best ways to establish healthy mother plants? Raised from a clone and never allowed to flower. Harvested, then put back in to revegging. I would like to have 3-4 mother plants at all times, cutting my clones from these. If you grew the plant from a clone and kept it in veg stage, it would seem to me to have a healthier, and non-stressed plant to get clones from. Or am I wrong?

Is it possible to keep the moms fairly small and compact by container size, trimming,etc? I want to keep them in my clone closet, which has 2-4' 40 watt flouros. If I up the wattage on the flouros will that be enough or should I get a T5 flouro setup? Again, I don't want them growing too much or too fast, since they'll basically be like well maintained houseplants.

How do you all raise and maintain your mothers?

I have 8 recently cut clones just starting out.

Thanks alot,
T-rex

 

[jmansweed]

My mothers are started from clones and planted in large pots. I use 10 gallon. I also heavily amend the soil for my mothers allowing for minimul soluble fertlizer applications. "Moms" can get tricky to maintain healthy for long periods and pH swings frequently become issues. Research your initial soil well - it's got to have some lasting, balanced qualities. I've had good luck taking clones off mothers in comparison to taking them as I train plants and such. You can "prep" mother plants for cloning, adding apropriate nutreints or flushing days before taking cutting. There are many benefits to raising plants for cloning purposes alone.

I use a spread of 24 hour T-5's for much of my veg - including mothers. My plants get pretty large however, pushing 5' from the ground.

 

[legalize_freedom]

I take clones from all plants that I start from seed, labeling every plant, and its set of clones. I then flower out those plants while the clones are rooting etc. Once I see males, I kill those plants, and the clones from them. After the original donor plants have been flowered, dried and tested, I then decide which one(s) will be mothers, and put the remaining clones in the flower room. [edit] it's important to be very picky when deciding to keep a mother, as space is limited. If no plants are of the right caliber they must not be kept, sort of like breeding animals, you don't want to waste your time with inferior genetics.]

I keep my moms in 5 gl containers (10gl would be better but I don't have the space) I do alot of training with them, LST, and pruning(taking cuttings to clone).

Since I don't have the space, when the mother gets to be too big for my space I simply keep one of her clones out to take her place, and flower her out. "They" (the books) say that over time they will lose potency and get weaker, from taking clone, from clone, from clone,(genetic drift) I have not seen any change in potency and I have done it this way for yrs.

I keep some of my moms in my veg area under a 400w MH and I have some in another bedroom, under 4'T8 floro's. My feeling on the lighting is that I'm not wanting alot of growth with these anyway, so I don't need the intense light, just enough to keep them alive and healthy.

Hope you got the answers you were looking for.

 

[Growdude]

I keep my mother plant under a 2 foot 4 bulb T5.

Its in a single waterfarm.

Mine is around 2.5 - 3 feet tall, I just keep cutting it down and thinning main branches as it gets thicker and thicker from removing the tops.

It can be maintained forever like this, mine is well over a year old now and can produce at least a couple dozen clones at any time.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

some keep for long tie and some like me just keep long enough to get a replacement..I do Lst on the chosen Mother...I take clkones from that plant untill i have one rooted then i flower it and another one becomes the mother/Donor..


Growdude...Ive heard people stateing they will keep forever..but I read in my grow bible that its a myth..they start to weaken in thc..Ill find my resource for clarifacation..but seems to me it said around 5 yrs then most get a replacement..IDK..will be interested in watching yours..I remember you showing her last year..:48:

 

[LEFTHAND]

some keep for long tie and some like me just keep long enough to get a replacement..I do Lst on the chosen Mother...I take clkones from that plant untill i have one rooted then i flower it and another one becomes the mother/Donor..


Growdude...Ive heard people stateing they will keep forever..but I read in my grow bible that its a myth..they start to weaken in thc..Ill find my resource for clarifacation..but seems to me it said around 5 yrs then most get a replacement..IDK..will be interested in watching yours..I remember you showing her last year..:48:

i would say bullbeans man.....
look at the mothers and people whove had them for yrs.. still dank bud... this would mean the clone off the mother would be shwag... then all the pre 98 bk and the rest of the true strains would be weak and the craps... no..... therory behind it confirms false. not even plausable...
....
LH
just my thoughts..

 

[LEFTHAND]

Greetings everyone!

What are the best ways to establish healthy mother plants? Raised from a clone and never allowed to flower. Harvested, then put back in to revegging. I would like to have 3-4 mother plants at all times, cutting my clones from these. If you grew the plant from a clone and kept it in veg stage, it would seem to me to have a healthier, and non-stressed plant to get clones from. Or am I wrong?

Is it possible to keep the moms fairly small and compact by container size, trimming,etc? I want to keep them in my clone closet, which has 2-4' 40 watt flouros. If I up the wattage on the flouros will that be enough or should I get a T5 flouro setup? Again, I don't want them growing too much or too fast, since they'll basically be like well maintained houseplants.

How do you all raise and maintain your mothers?

I have 8 recently cut clones just starting out.

Thanks alot,
T-rex

Other then the pruning and trimming treat it like a house plant.. add 1/8 to 1/2 strength nutes. doesnt need much just enough to keep healthy... try to always keep in mind only cut 1/3 of the tops this will help not turn her hermi and keep the stress down.. if you screw up clone and start over its that easy...IMHO i dont recomend a revegged clone or plant as a mother... pretty simple to do REX you seem to got it down..
LH

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I do not keep mothers. I used to, but they take up so much room and if you are not taking a fair amount of clones on a regular basis, they get a little unruly. I now take clone from clones. I have seen no deterioration in quality in the plants I have done this.