Mother plant light on time? Also, cuttings...

[JoeyV]

What is the minimum amount of "on" time that a mother plant needs to keep from going into bloom? Right now she's on 15/9 but 14/10 would be better, I think.

Trying to keep this purple dream mother alive but want her to grow slowly while we learn how to take cuttings.

How long can a mother plant survive and how often can you take cuttings from her? She seems to be growing well, after being re-vegged.

So far, two attempts at taking cuttings failed, however.

First try: Cut a three nice looking new growth branches around 6" long, about four nodes or so. Cut the bottom nodes off and angle cut the ends. Dip in water then rooting powder and into some moist potting soil. After two weeks under a cfl, nothing. it just withered away.

Second try was much the same, except we used an old 10 gallon aquarium to try to up the humidity and used rooting gel and FF Light Warrior. Misted them twice a day. Two weeks later, nothing! nada! niente!

Trying rapid rooters next time. Advice?

 

[bigsteve]

Best vegging schedule requires either 20/4 or 24/0 lights. If you are not flowering you are vegging so you might as well adopt the lighting schedule that produces the most growth. 15/9, whatever, are just gimmicks.

If a mother plant is kept at 20/4 indefinetly she will eventually push herself into flower mode. I usually leave moms in the veg room for 8-9 weeks and take clones from her as soon as she is more than 30 days in dirt. So I'll take a set of clones at 30 days (for mom in dirt) and again every 10 days. When one set has rooted and been moved to the veg room I hit mom for another set. Takes 8-12 days for most of my indica-dominant clones to root. I won't leave moms in veg too long or they will start to flower all on their own. If you do see pre-flowers on your donor mom it is time to kick her into the flower room, eh?

The single most important factor in getting clones to root is making sure you keep the humidity in the dome as close to 100% as possible. I keep 1/2 inch or so of water standing in the dome floor to keep the humidity high. I expect to see condensation in my domes every time I check. So make sure you have water on the dome floor and close the air tabs too. I mist my clones 3-4 times a day. Also, I have better luck with larger 2-inch jiffy pellets than rockwool or anything else.

Ditch the rooting powder. The powders have a bad habit of forming a hard little button that actually prevents the stem from being able to root. Stick to the liquids or gels. I use Roottech for rooting clones.

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[JoeyV]

Thanks for the advice BigSteve. However, what do you mean by 15/9 being a "gimmick"? With 15/9 on/off light schedule, this girl is growing nicely. Too nicely. Adding 5 hours of on time would only keep her growing too fast. She's outgrowing her box as it is.

Not looking to put out mass quantities...just looking to keep this strain alive and producing its fine bud for my personal satisfaction.

 

[bigsteve]

I've never heard of a plant growing "too fast". Methinks maybe the grower is a bit slow? BigSteve.

 

[senny]

your plant will react to the night period give it as much light as you want but as long as you don't push the 6 hour dark period your mother wont want to flower. 6" for a cutting seems a little to long try 2nd node instead of 4th.make sure the media you choose is not to wet or to dry, when we take a cutting we need to remove large leaves our reason being- our plants are constantly under pressure with water leaving the leaves (transpiration) and up taking through the roots. once we've made our cut the cutting is still transpiring but unable to take any more water because there is no roots so chop bigger leaves to slow down transpiration also keep the humidity high just s big steave said to counteract the force.
keep your mother under a cfl quite slow growth also try a product called clonex mist had great results myself
hope everything works mate keeps me informed
peace

 

[Milovan]

Best vegging schedule requires either 20/4 or 24/0 lights.
I won't leave moms in veg too long or they will start to flower all on their own.

Actually some keep Mother Plants in veg as long as 15 - 20 years without the plants
going into flower but I believe they have them on a 24/0 light schedule.

 

[Born Again Vegan]

Hey dude I've kept a mum going on 13 hrs light just fine using the gas lantern technique.

For clones do your angled cut just below a node, and scrape the stem a bit above the cut. Aim is to remove the green layer of the stem and expose the white layer, making it easier for new roots to grow.
Ditch the rooting powder and get gel.
Remove all but the top set of leaves from cutting and the leaves that are left trim in half.
I have 100% success with clones, average time to see roots is a week but usually one by four days.

But this is in jiffy plugs, or coco plugs in soil I have 70% success and will take two weeks to root!

Once the cuttings are in plugs they go in propagator under a T5. I mist the propagator but never the plants!
Leave the lid shut for three days, then on the fourth and fifth day open the lid once to let the air exchange.
On the seventh day open the vent a little and by day nine have it fully open.

Keep temps a 25-8 C and jobs a good un

 

[tyke1973]

Stick to tried and tested ways of growing 18/6 for veg,nothing is gained by vegging in a room with 24 hour of light.
I think that the plants need the rest.

Try clone x just look for a nice clone cut past where you want it,take of a couple of nodes
and then dip into the clone x.then i like to just peel back the stem just a bit before dipping
if you are takeing more than a few make sure that they go straight into water so no air gets trapped in the stem.

Don't think its gone wrong when you look the day after they will wilt a little sometimes they look like there dead but they will bounce back,i think ya might be takeing them a little bit big for a new cloner.

You want a propagator too have the vents closed for the first 24 hour then i open the vents for around 4/5 days then lid comes of and i have a fan blowing across the top of the clones,just
so they move in the breeze,you can leave em in the propagator all the time but sometimes i find they root faster without the lid on you want a high humidity though,i just have 3 large cubes wet through in the room without clones in just to bring the humidity up to around 70/75 %

I also only mist the plants for the first 4/5 days then after that i just let the cubes dry out then re soak in just water.Mist the inside of the propagator lid has well has the clones them selfs.

I had a bit of trouble with mould at one point so i did away with misting like i said after 4/5 days
and to be honest since i have done this the clones have become far better and i have more orders than i can deal with.

I also use a kebab skewer and make a new hole in the rock wool cubes,that is bigger than the stem and just put the clone in and push the rockwool around it with the skewer.don't be in too much of a rush seasons out side can have a effect on indoor growth,i have found that clones tend to take longer in winter than summer sometimes 14/16 days winter summer 6/10 days.just done 12 in 7 days thats through two sets of cubes.

After a week a like to add a very low dose of nutes that contains something like rhizatonic or superthrive in the mix ,but very low dose till they have roots then 1.1 ec

 

[JoeyV]

I've never heard of a plant growing "too fast". Methinks maybe the grower is a bit slow? BigSteve.

Slow? Really? How about answering my question? "What makes a 15/9 on/off light schedule a 'gimmick'?"

Or, how about I simplify my original post for you... Here goes, in as simple English as I can manage, being as slow as I am...

"What is the minimum amount of time the light needs to be on to keep a mother plant from flowering?"

No need to answer that last question though, BigSteve. Several others have answered it for me, and I thank them for their advice.

I am interested in your 'opinion' on alternate light schedules, however. Please, if you will, share with me and the rest of RIU why you think 15/9 is a 'gimmick'?

If you've "never heard of a plant growing too fast", then perhaps you don't know as much about plants as you think. In which case your advice isn't worth much. Fortunately, there are many others on RIU whose advice I find valuable so no big loss.

 

[bigsteve]

If the goal is to produce product, then speed is a good thing to be manipulated for the growers' benefit. If the plants are growing too fast I am suggesting you could get ready for that coming growth spurt by planning ahead. Perhaps your plants are stretching a lot when they are flowering. In that case you can veg longer so you get less stretching. Maybe you think they are growing too fast because you want to start more seeds and your light is in flower mode. Then you should look to getting another light. I'm trying to imagine other scenarios where you would want slower growth and can't come up with anything that can't be fixed by knowledge and planning. You can't change genetics, eh? Best you can do is try to recognize your varieties and adjust your grow to match them. For instance -- if my new batch of clones are slow to root I have to adjust the inventory in 3 different rooms. So I'll start those slow-rooting clones at the same time I have a batch I want to flower an extra week. Point is -- nearly all variables can be used beneficially with smarts and good help.

I used the term "gimmick" to describe a 15/9 lighting schedule and I didn't mean to offend. I've been involved in the reefer "world" since 1964 and have been running a perpetual grow for a few years. I augment my experience with my MJ Bible -- "MARIJUANA HORTICULTURE - THE INDOOR/OUTDOOR MEDICAL GROWER'S BIBLE" by MJ guru Jorge Cervantes. I met Jorge in Mexico in the late '80's and respect him as the most knowledgable pot writer in the field. Jorge did a ton of research and reports that the most efficient light schedule for vegging MJ is either 20/4 or 24/0. I veg at 20/4 to give the light a chance to rest and avoid extra heat under my veg light. Those are the numbers from (I believe) the most knowing guy on the block. So would you be vegging at 15/9 or flowering? If you flower at 15/9 you will waste weeks in lost time as plants revert from veg to flower much slower than at 12/12. EVERYONE agrees 12/12 is the best light schedule for flowering. 20/4 or 24/0 are best for vegging. 15/9 is good when?

Finally, Mother Nature does not produce plants that will never flower. There is no light schedule you can adopt to permanently keep a mom in veg mode. Eventually, my experience says that in 12 -14 weeks at 20/4 my indicas will pre-flower in the veg room. Good luck, just trying to help and I am most interested in hearing from other grower's about things they have tried and the results. I'm interested in advancing my game and like to help newbys for the karma. BigSteve.

 

[JoeyV]

I've found that 15/9 keeps a mother plant in veg, but since the grow time is shorter she won't grow as big as fast. Slowing her growth by reducing the amount of light time she gets seems obvious to me...maybe I'm wrong??? It wouldn't be the first time. It seems to work. But, for me it's not about efficiency because it's not about "product" in the commercial sense.

Failing to get cuttings to grow is frustrating, but part of the learning curve.

As it stands, my mother plant gets pruned at least once a week to keep her undergrowth from getting too bushy. She's being trained too, somewhat. I'm getting her to spread out and grow wider rather than taller. I'm in no hurry to reflower her, or harvest anytime soon. Just trying to find what works for me, and askin' questions on the way.

 

[ProPheT 216]

What is the minimum amount of "on" time that a mother plant needs to keep from going into bloom? Right now she's on 15/9 but 14/10 would be better, I think.

Trying to keep this purple dream mother alive but want her to grow slowly while we learn how to take cuttings.

How long can a mother plant survive and how often can you take cuttings from her? She seems to be growing well, after being re-vegged.

So far, two attempts at taking cuttings failed, however.

First try: Cut a three nice looking new growth branches around 6" long, about four nodes or so. Cut the bottom nodes off and angle cut the ends. Dip in water then rooting powder and into some moist potting soil. After two weeks under a cfl, nothing. it just withered away.

Second try was much the same, except we used an old 10 gallon aquarium to try to up the humidity and used rooting gel and FF Light Warrior. Misted them twice a day. Two weeks later, nothing! nada! niente!

Trying rapid rooters next time. Advice?

16min to 18 hrs. Don't worry about size. If you can't control her by pruning just take cuts and make a new mother plant out of one of your clones and flower out the big 1.