Do I Need a mother plant?

TURBS

Active Member
Can I just take a clone or two, keep them in a separate veg box while the main plant buds out? I am building a stealth cabinet and am in the stages of designing a small veg box in it, would you guys recommend keeping a mother, or just clip your main plant?
 

Bartic

Active Member
If you have the space a mother is nice. Keeps genetics the same> If i were you i would make the veg room enough for veg plants and a mother so you can have a perpetual grow and harvest every 3 weeks or so.
 

TURBS

Active Member
If you have the space a mother is nice. Keeps genetics the same> If i were you i would make the veg room enough for veg plants and a mother so you can have a perpetual grow and harvest every 3 weeks or so.
Click on my name to see the post with my cabinet, maybe you could recommend a size. I will be doing scrog in a rubbermaid in this. What do you think?
 

Bartic

Active Member
Here's the cabinet:
I seriously don't think you have enough room for a mother in there and that's completely fine. As long as you have a spot to keep clones from the veg stage until they are done budding you can clone from the veging plant.
 

TURBS

Active Member
I seriously don't think you have enough room for a mother in there and that's completely fine. As long as you have a spot to keep clones from the veg stage until they are done budding you can clone from the veging plant.
Cool that's the answer I was looking for, Thanks for the quick reply. What do you think about a box say 12x12x16high , just enough room for a clone bubbler of sorts. I know I will have to isolate the light vents but thats no prob.
 

Bartic

Active Member
Cool that's the answer I was looking for, Thanks for the quick reply. What do you think about a box say 12x12x16high , just enough room for a clone bubbler of sorts. I know I will have to isolate the light vents but thats no prob.
Sounds good to me but the real test will be when you try it out the first time. Those clones have to be in there for the duration on flowering so 8 weeks. How tall are your plants normally at 8 weeks? That will decide it.
 

TURBS

Active Member
Sounds good to me but the real test will be when you try it out the first time. Those clones have to be in there for the duration on flowering so 8 weeks. How tall are your plants normally at 8 weeks? That will decide it.
Well honestly this is all new to me. I may be using an indca dominate strain. I could dedicate around 18" or so in height minus the bubble tray. and up to one square foot fo surface area. I would likey do some of the training in the box as well, that may help? Really I can make it 22" deep x 28" wide and up to 20" high. This would basicaly separate my main plant from the carbon scrubber at the top. I would have to design in some flow through. That would give me a Veg chamber that is 4.2 square feet, basicaly the same size as the flower cahmber. Now you got me thinking.
 

Hash Lover

Well-Known Member
What you use for lights and how you set them up can help make a difference with your limited head room. Keeping the mom really small helps to save some space too.
 

TURBS

Active Member
What you use for lights and how you set them up can help make a difference with your limited head room. Keeping the mom really small helps to save some space too.
I would likey use 2 to 4 blue cfls as I would just want to maintain the plant. I would be more concerned with the shape of the plant. Any suggestions. Should I split my cabinet in half for a larger veg room or just build a 18"square box in there? My cabinet is 5 foot tall 30"s wide, 23" deep.
 

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Hash Lover

Well-Known Member
I would prefer more space for flowering than veg. Maybe use 1/3 of the box for veg and 2/3 for flower. Use the shortest pot you can even if you make your own. And be sure to use square pot at least for their final size. Lot more room for roots in the same space as round pots. I like the ones I get at Walmart, there 7x7x7 in. and hold 1 gal. Just need to light proof them. This mom is about 6 months old, she just got a major haircut and some of her clones are there.. That box is 25 1/2 x 27 x 31 in. high. The lights could be setup better for more height but I haven't really needed it. It's one of 3 areas I have plus flower space. I also like the 42 watt cfl's. They are a soft white not a daylight A little stronger light and does not seem to want to make them stretch. That is what she has had and has grown fairly slow. Adjusting the nutes can help too.
 

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TURBS

Active Member
I would prefer more space for flowering than veg. Maybe use 1/3 of the box for veg and 2/3 for flower. Use the shortest pot you can even if you make your own. And be sure to use square pot at least for their final size. Lot more room for roots in the same space as round pots. I like the ones I get at Walmart, there 7x7x7 in. and hold 1 gal. Just need to light proof them. This mom is about 6 months old, she just got a major haircut and some of her clones are there.. That box is 25 1/2 x 27 x 31 in. high. The lights could be setup better for more height but I haven't really needed it. It's one of 3 areas I have plus flower space. I also like the 42 watt cfl's. They are a soft white not a daylight A little stronger light and does not seem to want to make them stretch. That is what she has had and has grown fairly slow. Adjusting the nutes can help too.
Plus one rep for ya. If I was keeping one in a bubbler, would it matter as much if the container was square? I got a bubble type cloner thought out using a plasic folgers can. I will see what else I could use.
 

mared juwan

Well-Known Member
turbs, consider this. I do the same technique. Rather than maintaining separate mothers I continually clone clones. I have not found that it reduces potency as some claim. As far as yield and plant structure it is important to keep track of your lineage. Number your clones and keep track of which cutting comes from which clone down through the generations (I am 8 generations deep in one strain right now). You want to take cuttings from all plants but pay attention to how the plant you took the cutting from does. Some will have tighter growth structure with fatter buds. This usually is the ones that root fastest and therefore have the strongest root mass. Now because the veg process will take a shorter amount of time than flower I highly recommend that you stagger the ages of your flowering plants. Rooting and vegging a clone long enough to take new clones will take about 4 weeks. You will want to flower them small it sounds like so as soon as they start to grow after rooting I would flower. Well that's all fine except that you still have your original plants flowering for another 4+ weeks. So the only way to keep this process going continually is to have 1/3 of your flowering plants almost ready to harvest, another 1/3 midway through, and a final 1/3 in the beginning. In addition to labeling the plants with numbers for their lineage I would also put the date you started flowering them on there. Also keep a calendar in a discrete spot to keep track. I hope this isn't too confusing. Just know that to keep the garden going perpetually without mothers this motto always holds true; "The more planning you do today, the happier you will be 2 months from now."
 

TURBS

Active Member
turbs, consider this. I do the same technique. Rather than maintaining separate mothers I continually clone clones. I have not found that it reduces potency as some claim. As far as yield and plant structure it is important to keep track of your lineage. Number your clones and keep track of which cutting comes from which clone down through the generations (I am 8 generations deep in one strain right now). You want to take cuttings from all plants but pay attention to how the plant you took the cutting from does. Some will have tighter growth structure with fatter buds. This usually is the ones that root fastest and therefore have the strongest root mass. Now because the veg process will take a shorter amount of time than flower I highly recommend that you stagger the ages of your flowering plants. Rooting and vegging a clone long enough to take new clones will take about 4 weeks. You will want to flower them small it sounds like so as soon as they start to grow after rooting I would flower. Well that's all fine except that you still have your original plants flowering for another 4+ weeks. So the only way to keep this process going continually is to have 1/3 of your flowering plants almost ready to harvest, another 1/3 midway through, and a final 1/3 in the beginning. In addition to labeling the plants with numbers for their lineage I would also put the date you started flowering them on there. Also keep a calendar in a discrete spot to keep track. I hope this isn't too confusing. Just know that to keep the garden going perpetually without mothers this motto always holds true; "The more planning you do today, the happier you will be 2 months from now."
Thank you, well put.
 
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