Slowing Down Mother Plants

since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Not too many posts or threads on mother plant maintenance. And alot of people dont keep mother plants for cloning stock. Just take cuts off the preflowering plants before or soon after the flip. These are big plant growers that can handle plants vegging for 2 or more months while the others flower. I kinda do it both ways. But I still like to keep solid mothers for all my stable of keepers. Years ago I thought a self contained individual hydroponic system for each mother was ideal. It sure was...too ideal really. Mother plants always in veg in a dwc or bucket drip system grows WAY too big and fast for my setup, style, and methods. Taking over the dedicated veg areas in short time. I found slow and low for mothers was the ticket. What i do now..and have been for quite sometime...is to pot up a new mother clone...which is always a healthy bushy small plant...into at least a 7 gallon fabric pot of straight Promix. Under dedicated T5's on 18-6. Any other lighting or plant medium is too fast. Only fertilizing once in awhile. A low nitrogen/high carbohydrate base (1.0 to 1.3 EC )about every 2 weeks being ideal. More frequent feeds - they just get out of hand. Straight water mostly. I try to keep the root zone cool as possible to really slow her down as well. And topping and training for a low wide bush with potential cutting branches all over. Spraying a kelp foliar every 10 days or so keeps em from growing vertical as well. With foliar sprays of kelp...they stay short compact and wide. None of my mothers are over 24 inches or so. Nice and manageable. I actually have about 12 different mother plants of varieties all over the indica/sativa spectrum at another house with all t5's. Some of them are slightly more than a year old. I dont let em get much older than this though. These older milfs I will take cuts for new moms and if the timing is right alot of these older broads get put outside to pasture in the spring planting season. I get big yields from these faithful ladies in October. Anyways...i dont use the cuts from all of them at once. Some of my mother stock branches havent seen a 12 -12 room in awhile. But when I want to change it up... I just go to my mother house and with a cup of water...take cuts as I need. Come back to the main spot and in the fridge they go until iam ready to strike them. With my methods the mothers are slow and low. Lots of canopy management for my motherplants. I figured out the hard way...if you want to keep mothers of your favorite cultivars...you have to employ methods and techniques to maintain them...or else they will definitely out grow your grow. So how about it? If you keep mother plant stock...how do you keep them in check?
 
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Johnei

Johnei

Well-Known Member
Yes, bonzai, keep a well rooted clone of the strain on the side in case of disaster, then trim the mother plants' roots and leaves and rake her roots out and fit her in a small wide planter. Watch non-mj 'Making bonzai plants' videos on youtube. This will work to keep mothers manageable, and still have tons of cutting material if/when needed.
 
Gquebed

Gquebed

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Not too many posts or threads on mother plant maintenance. And alot of people dont keep mother plants for cloning stock. Just take cuts off the preflowering plants before or soon after the flip. These are big plant growers that can handle plants vegging for 2 or more months while the others flower. I kinda do it both ways. But I still like to keep solid mothers for all my stable of keepers. Years ago I thought a self contained individual hydroponic system for each mother was ideal. It sure was...too ideal really. Mother plants always in veg in a dwc or bucket drip system grows WAY too big and fast for my setup, style, and methods. Taking over the dedicated veg areas in short time. I found slow and low for mothers was the ticket. What i do now..and have been for quite sometime...is to pot up a new mother clone...which is always a healthy bushy small plant...into at least a 7 gallon fabric pot of straight Promix. Under dedicated T5's on 18-6. Any other lighting or plant medium is too fast. Only fertilizing once in awhile. A low nitrogen/high carbohydrate base (1.0 to 1.3 EC )about every 2 weeks being ideal. More frequent feeds - they just get out of hand. Straight water mostly. I try to keep the root zone cool as possible to really slow her down as well. And topping and training for a low wide bush with potential cutting branches all over. Spraying a kelp foliar every 10 days or so keeps em from growing vertical as well. With foliar sprays of kelp...they stay short compact and wide. None of my mothers are over 24 inches or so. Nice and manageable. I actually have about 12 different mother plants of varieties all over the indica/sativa spectrum at another house with all t5's. Some of them are slightly more than a year old. I dont let em get much older than this though. These older milfs I will take cuts for new moms and if the timing is right alot of these older broads get put outside to pasture in the spring planting season. I get big yields from these faithful ladies in October. Anyways...i dont use the cuts from all of them at once. Some of my mother stock branches havent seen a 12 -12 room in awhile. But when I want to change it up... I just go to my mother house and with a cup of water...take cuts as I need. Come back to the main spot and in the fridge they go until iam ready to strike them. With my methods the mothers are slow and low. Lots of canopy management for my motherplants. I figured out the hard way...if you want to keep mothers of your favorite cultivars...you have to employ methods and techniques to maintain them...or else they will definitely out grow your grow. So how about it? If you keep mother plant stock...how do you keep them in check?
Click to expand...
Say... you keep moms under t5s like I do... before you cut clones do you jack her up with a more intense light of some kind?

I heard this helps the clones to root faster and heartier...
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Gquebed said:
Say... you keep moms under t5s like I do... before you cut clones do you jack her up with a more intense light of some kind?

I heard this helps the clones to root faster and heartier...
Click to expand...
No. I just get a new red dixie cup of decent water and snip my branches envisioning how iam going to get a good trimmed up cut out of each. Label the cups. Bunch up and tie the branches together...and put them in a fridge for a few days to stiffen em up before plugging them in the try and dome. They sort of like being in the cold fridge up to a week or so. Kinda like cut flowers being stored in water in the fridge at florist shops.
 
stnr420

stnr420

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Not too many posts or threads on mother plant maintenance. And alot of people dont keep mother plants for cloning stock. Just take cuts off the preflowering plants before or soon after the flip. These are big plant growers that can handle plants vegging for 2 or more months while the others flower. I kinda do it both ways. But I still like to keep solid mothers for all my stable of keepers. Years ago I thought a self contained individual hydroponic system for each mother was ideal. It sure was...too ideal really. Mother plants always in veg in a dwc or bucket drip system grows WAY too big and fast for my setup, style, and methods. Taking over the dedicated veg areas in short time. I found slow and low for mothers was the ticket. What i do now..and have been for quite sometime...is to pot up a new mother clone...which is always a healthy bushy small plant...into at least a 7 gallon fabric pot of straight Promix. Under dedicated T5's on 18-6. Any other lighting or plant medium is too fast. Only fertilizing once in awhile. A low nitrogen/high carbohydrate base (1.0 to 1.3 EC )about every 2 weeks being ideal. More frequent feeds - they just get out of hand. Straight water mostly. I try to keep the root zone cool as possible to really slow her down as well. And topping and training for a low wide bush with potential cutting branches all over. Spraying a kelp foliar every 10 days or so keeps em from growing vertical as well. With foliar sprays of kelp...they stay short compact and wide. None of my mothers are over 24 inches or so. Nice and manageable. I actually have about 12 different mother plants of varieties all over the indica/sativa spectrum at another house with all t5's. Some of them are slightly more than a year old. I dont let em get much older than this though. These older milfs I will take cuts for new moms and if the timing is right alot of these older broads get put outside to pasture in the spring planting season. I get big yields from these faithful ladies in October. Anyways...i dont use the cuts from all of them at once. Some of my mother stock branches havent seen a 12 -12 room in awhile. But when I want to change it up... I just go to my mother house and with a cup of water...take cuts as I need. Come back to the main spot and in the fridge they go until iam ready to strike them. With my methods the mothers are slow and low. Lots of canopy management for my motherplants. I figured out the hard way...if you want to keep mothers of your favorite cultivars...you have to employ methods and techniques to maintain them...or else they will definitely out grow your grow. So how about it? If you keep mother plant stock...how do you keep them in check?
Click to expand...
Lots of haircuts and t12 fluorescent s
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
chemphlegm said:
um, I haphazardly whack them to the height and width I need whenever they become unruly. I dont give two shits where I cut or how its done. Razor, scalpel, scissors, no matter, cut cut cut. whats the fuss about?
Click to expand...
I used to use something like this, take it down to the height I want like a flat top hair cut, trim around the sides, then pull the roots and cut those down with scissors.


Regular trimming, low EC feedings and low light intensity will keep them from getting out of control. I like T8s for mothers, my T5 induced to fast of growth for my cycling.
 
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