Retarding growth in mother plants

[potpimp]

It's all I can do to not get my grow started. I just don't have any room here and I don't have a carbon filter yet so I'm a little concerned about the odor (please don't suggest Ona!), more because of the landlord than the cops. My original plan was to have a bunch of mother plants, take clones and have them rooted by May, plant them in guerilla grows outdoors and just let them go nuts in the long Alaskan summer sun. I've recently decided to go back with hydro and I'm leaning towards building a vertical unit with 3,000W HPS in the center, 72 plants with only a 4' footprint. But I need good mother plants for that and I can't have huge mother plants here.

That begged a question: How can I retard vertical growth in my mother plants. I've read and subscribed to the thread about bonsai'ing plants. I've read and subscribed to FDD's topping thread to get big-assed bushes, but I want small-assed bushes with lots of branches for cuttings. I need to work this out soon or my head is going to explode.

Bottom line: Is there anyone here that keeps mother plants and is successfully keeping them small?

 

[Wetdog]

Yes, bonsai, LST, and regular 'haircuts' every 2-3 weeks. Just like you're taking clones, but I toss the cuts instead.

My current batch of moms are in 1 gallon pots, right at 1' tall and are 11 months in these containers.

Wet

 

[potpimp]

Yes, bonsai, LST, and regular 'haircuts' every 2-3 weeks. Just like you're taking clones, but I toss the cuts instead.

My current batch of moms are in 1 gallon pots, right at 1' tall and are 11 months in these containers.

Wet

WOW!! OK, that's the ticket. What kinda light(s) do you use for these? Do you feed them or do anything extra for them?

 

[cheddar1985]

Fim the fuck out the bitches and chop chop chop then chop sum more is the only way to keeping mothers small then once the main branches ac got to big cut them off, at the end of the day your not gonna kill em by cutting big chunks out of them if done correctly so i see no reason why you cant keep your mothers short and bushy !!
Chedz

 

[Wetdog]

WOW!! OK, that's the ticket. What kinda light(s) do you use for these? Do you feed them or do anything extra for them?

Some are under T-12's in the basement. Some are under t-5 HO's for the moment. But, these are vegging lights normally, just not in use right now. Actually, the T-12's seem to work better as the growth isn't as fast.

For food, I've had the best success with Peters (Jack's Classic), Bloom Booster 10-30-20. Enough N for growth and the higher P and K help for strong stems and good rooting. I use 3/4 strength every 2 weeks. Not trying to push them, just keep them healthy. I'm also doing some organic, but that is a pain with long term plants like mothers, knowing when and how much to top dress amendments.

Wet

 

[potpimp]

Roger that on the T-12's; I'll pick up a shop light this week. I think that's the only thing I need. Heck, I may get dressed and go to Lowes or Home de Pot and pick one up today!! ...yep, after careful consideration of about 2 seconds, I'm gonna do that right now.

 

[Wetdog]

Roger that on the T-12's; I'll pick up a shop light this week. I think that's the only thing I need. Heck, I may get dressed and go to Lowes or Home de Pot and pick one up today!! ...yep, after careful consideration of about 2 seconds, I'm gonna do that right now.

My 30+YO clone/mother set-up is all from HD. 2-T-12 shop lights, outdoor timer, sawhorse brackets+2x4's, jack chain and 's' hooks. That's pretty much it.

My Deluxe cloner is clear plastic shoe/storage boxes from the $ store. Drill some 1/8" holes in one, sprinkle a bit of perlite on the bottom (very important), add the clones in RW cubes. Put in the shoebox with no holes, add cloning solution, when saturated, lift, let drain and put under the light. This is for when you need to remoisten the RW or Jiffy cubes, or whatever you're using. When you first do the clones, just put in the box with the holes and the bit of perlite on the bottom.

The perlite keeps the RW cubes from sucking themselves tight to the plastic, cutting off air and inducing root rot. I don't mist or use a dome or get crazy. Clonex Gel and the Cloning solution is all I've ever used.

Wet

 

[potpimp]

Awesome! I just picked up an incredible T8 Hi-Bay light and a case of 3500K bulbs. I know you said T12 but this unit was just rocking and calling my name. It was about 5x the brightness of anything else there, including the T5's. It has 6 bulbs and is built like the Quantum Badboy T5's but this one was only $86 at Home de Pot. I bought a bunch of 1x2's to frame out my cabinet. I will be stapling panda film over those. I bought some Clonex gel yesterday and I've got Rapid Rooters for taking my clones.

It's raining right now so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start cutting and making the cabinet frame. Right now I'm going to go pick out which seeds I want to sprout for my moms and get those babies going! Thanks so much for the help.

 

[potpimp]

OK, not much to show but I did pick out two feminized Dr. Greenthumb Iranian G-13's, two feminized Pure Power Plant, four regular Ice, and four regular Jock Horror seeds. I got my dome set up with about 1/4" of warm water in the bottom, heated seed mat underneath, wetted Rapid Rooters (and the seeds in them) and labled so I know which is which. You can see the panda film, the lights and fixture, and my son's new snowboard. Hopefully I'll have some cracked babies by Tuesday!

 

[TangerineDr]

Looks like you have everything figured out. Just make sure you use a good strong plant as your mother and if you give them the right care they can live for years. In regards to the bonsai'ing; I too was running out of space as my mother was over 3' tall at one point. I just started topping it in stages and reverting it to a bonsai sized plant. Right now its sitting as about a 1' tall bush and I plan on continuing to trim it until I have something that works for the space. My veg'ing setup runs 2xT5's but i only run about 2 plants at a time so it works for me. Good luck. Subb'ed

My mother:

 

[potpimp]

Thanks TD. BTW, I love the group "Tangerine Dream"; they are amazing musicians. Your plants look very healthy! I started a new thread to continue the grow with a more descriptive title. Thanks for joining up!