Choosing a mother plant

Hey guys went to see my babies today ( Guerilla bomb ) all 15 are going well I have one plant I’ve been growing to become a mother , I haven’t ever had a mother always grown from seed but thinking of time saving would it be better to take clones rather than grow from seed as I heard it much quicker only thing is I don’t know what strain it is was a gift from a friend been lying in a drawer for a couple year but it popped and is doing well , she looks the part but don’t know if it’s a good yield or smoke or should I just mother one Guerilla bomb ?

Read about flowering clones and forget maintaining a mother. Get better yields as well.

Flowering clones is that taking clones when it’s in flower? A thought keeping a mother then it’s a constant supply of clones

Yes, taking clones in flower is a perfectly fine thing - and then you don't ever have a mother just sitting there. You do get the advantages of monstercropping - those flowering clones will throw crazy amounts of 'main' branches - so with less topping and training you just get a really bushy plant with a lot of solid colas.

That said, nothing wrong with keeping a mother around either, if that's your preference. Personally, I take 3 clones from each plant right as I do the flip. I keep them well labeled and veg them super slowly (I keep them under a crummy 80 true watt blurple I got for $45 on Amazon). Any branch on them that gets long enough to produce two new growth tips, I top... so I end up with small bushy plants with LOTS of potential clones. That way they stay manageable in size until the main plants have finished, dried, cured, been weighed and tried out. Then I can decide based on yield, taste and effect which plant is worth preserving, and the strongest clone of that plant gets to become the new mother.

learn to clone, try the simple methods first. MONITOR YOUR TEMPS. Once you can clone reliably the world of preserving genetics without variation opens up for you. Back crossing seeds to the same mom, creating fem seed crosses, fun! Cloning can be frustrating but it's a great tool.
Consider how much space you want to devote to it.

If you have a choice try to pick the plant that has the shortest internodal spaces - the amount of stem between nodes. That should provide more cuttings for clones.
I like to top or FIM potential moms to increase growing points which = more cuttings. Moms should be kept in perpetual veg mode so I light mine at 24/0.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Ave picked one Steve topped her a week ago now has to main colas and topped side shoots and supercroped the two main colas today to keep her short and bushy will give her time to recover then think about taking a few cuttings or is it two early she is quite short

The big upside on keeping a mother is easier flexibility in veg durations for perpetual, space provided.

You can do it alternatively, one way as described above. The other way is running even less plants with normal W usage but topping the shit out of them to reduce vert growth, it's a big learning curve but probably better than keeping a mother in the long run.

So just top the shit out it keeping it bushy then just take as many cuttings as I can ? I usually top and lst and super crop my babies just sick of buying seeds tbh

Reidybhoy88 said:

So just top the shit out it keeping it bushy then just take as many cuttings as I can ? I usually top and lst and super crop my babies just sick of buying seeds tbh

Click to expand...

Yes but it depends on how much head height you have and how long the flowering strain takes. If it's a 10+ week you may begin to struggle regardless. Also take into account harvest and drying time if you only have veg/flower space as that could be up to 2 extra weeks veg.

Using a traditional propagator can be good as they can take up to 3 weeks to start showing decent roots. You can keep them in there for around 4 weeks if needs be and is a good idea if you are going in coco (they can take at-least half strength feed in that 4th prop week/ 0.6 ec or so). On top of that up pot them to around 1L pots and then on the next up pot to final pot strip the lower branches and bury it deeper to shorten the plant if you think it's needed, then top a week later.

You can do it many ways but it's a learning curve on how many pots any particular style can handle to not over grow the space. Still, it's better to make the mistake of having them on the small side rather than too big.

Space ain’t a issue I have propagation tent where they can go out the way just need a steady supply and less costly bro lol every days a school day ma man always something to learn lol I don’t know the strain was one from a crop about 3 year ago so dunno the exact info but looks like an indica with the short fat leaves height is no issue either , if I take the cuttings then I should take them a week before switching ? 4 weeks to root them they need to veg so need to open up a veg room and flower room to run at the same time ?