HOW TO keep a mother..?

deadbeet

deadbeet

Member
Hey, folks..

Looking for some guidance on how to keep a mother plant alive indoors thru winter. I'm otherwise a strictly outdoor grower but have some genetics that I'd love to keep around (gonna run outta these seeds and they're no longer available). We recently acquired a 4X4X6 tent with lights. Can anyone point me towards an article or blog they trust with some related info? For what it's worth, we're not interested in having the plant flower during the winter months. Again, just hopeful to keep this strain around for next year's outdoor season. Any tips? Thanks for your time..
 
TCH

TCH

Well-Known Member
The basics of it would be as follows: Take clones, MAKE SURE THEY ARE PEST AND MILDEW FREE (treat them for any issues), root them, grow them out. You can either keep the mother going over winter or run perpetual clones so it doesn't get huge. That said, you can keep mom trimmed down. Depending on the size of your outdoor grow, you can have as many clones as you would need to harden off and throw outside come spring time.

Disclosure: I haven't done this. Just what I've picked up on the forums while I'm learning.
 
weedstoner420

weedstoner420

Well-Known Member
I keep some very small moms, but the same method should work for any size plant. I just use a decent potting mix with a bit of added compost, feed them with Alaska fish fertilizer and EasyWeed soluble seaweed powder every two weeks, and water with plain water the rest of the time.

Vegging plants can get pretty big pretty quick, but you can limit their size by pruning frequently, keeping them in smaller pots, and having weaker lighting (but still keep the lights on 16+hrs/day to prevent them flowering).
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
TCH said:
The basics of it would be as follows: Take clones, MAKE SURE THEY ARE PEST AND MILDEW FREE (treat them for any issues), root them, grow them out. You can either keep the mother going over winter or run perpetual clones so it doesn't get huge. That said, you can keep mom trimmed down. Depending on the size of your outdoor grow, you can have as many clones as you would need to harden off and throw outside come spring time.

Disclosure: I haven't done this. Just what I've picked up on the forums while I'm learning.
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I run perpetual clones. Last time I ran mothers I had to use a plasma light to flower them. They were so big my light wouldn't penetrate.

1688052268030.png

Never doing that again.
 
calvin.m16

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
I run a perpetual flowering room where I am moving 6 x 10 gallon plants out or 18 5 gal plants every 4 weeks. Right before I move plants out I take cuttings, then they later go to the veg room and the cycle repeats. You can have Clone & Veg in the same room.

I don't use clonex or any rooting products, the plants do that themselves. I just cut nice branches off, stab them into Root Riots and mist every couple days with pure water until I have roots.

I've kept "mother plants" and they end up getting in the way also as they get very bushy unless your taking A LOT of cuttings off it, it's not worth feeding them nutrients and maintaining them compared to just "re-cloning" the plants IMO. I've been re-cloning some genetics since 2018 without issue.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
I keep a bunch of bonsai mothers in 4" rockwool cubes. I water them once a day and prune maybe once every 2 weeks. It's easy and doesn't take up much space. They are little cute plants and taking care of them is enjoyable. If they were in an equal sized pot of soil they could probably go for a week without needing watered.
 
TCH

TCH

Well-Known Member
lusidghost said:
I keep a bunch of bonsai mothers in 4" rockwool cubes. I water them once a day and prune maybe once every 2 weeks. It's easy and doesn't take up much space. They are little cute plants and taking care of them is enjoyable. If they were in an equal sized pot of soil they could probably go for a week without needing watered.
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I wish I could do this without the smell and just keep them out like houseplants.
 
EBgrows420

EBgrows420

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
It's pretty easy to keep a veg plant alive as long as you like. I cut mine back taking a dozen clones 11 days ago and it's pretty close to the same size again now so you have to keep on top of it.View attachment 5303627
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So to keep a mother for a bit of time you have to pretty much constantly trim it to keep it small?
I attempted to keep a mother plant but it literally blew up on me and I wasn't quite sure what to do so I flowered it, now its filling out my whole 4x4
 
shnkrmn

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
EBgrows420 said:
So to keep a mother for a bit of time you have to pretty much constantly trim it to keep it small?
I attempted to keep a mother plant but it literally blew up on me and I wasn't quite sure what to do so I flowered it, now its filling out my whole 4x4
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Any healthy veg plant takes hard pruning well. As long as there's a node on the branch it will resprout.

And yes that's my humidity tray. I have a dozen cuttings in there now.
 
A

ALPHA.GanjaGuy

Well-Known Member
TCH said:
We should have a challemge like the solo cup challenge, but a fridge cut challenge. As far as I know, 104 days in the fridge is the current record for getting one (actually 3 as of now) to root. Haha
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I'm down.. I totally forgot until I saw that post above.. :sleep::eyesmoke:
 
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