Long term mother care

Ive never kept mothers before and I now have about five that Ild like to keep around for the long haul.

Im familiar with root pruning and bonsai training.

More specifically though, Im curious about the in-between maintenance.

Im using a super soil of sorts, and the moms all recently went into 1 gallon containers of it.

I have several questions that I could use some help with from the knowledge base here at IC.

1) My tap water PH is about 8. Since Im using soil I realize I dont need to worry to much about water PH, however.. for the long haul... will the water pull it up over time? My soil has lime added of course... but how often should I add more lime to the mix to keep the PH bufferred properly? (See question two).

2) Ferts. Of course the super soil will get depleted over time. Im planning on giving a tablespoon of epsoma plant tone 5-3-3 and a tablespoon of lime once a month for maintenance feed and to buffer PH. In between they'll get left over liquid nutes from the flowering ladies. Does this sound like it would be fine?

Ill prune and root prune as necessary but I never hear people talk about the interm maintenance.

maintnace is a bitch. keeping a mom on long term is harder than flowering. my #1 advice go into a big enough pot, so u dont have to fuck with the prunning of the roots for a while.

I use a H&G base nute and Hydrozyme throughout the mom's lifecycle.
7 gallon pot, H&G Magic Green foliar spray to keep things healthy and green.

sinsemilla89 said:

I use a H&G base nute and Hydrozyme throughout the mom's lifecycle.
7 gallon pot, H&G Magic Green foliar spray to keep things healthy and green.

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good advice right here.

OZZZ said:

Ive never kept mothers before and I now have about five that Ild like to keep around for the long haul.

Im familiar with root pruning and bonsai training.

More specifically though, Im curious about the in-between maintenance.

Im using a super soil of sorts, and the moms all recently went into 1 gallon containers of it.

I have several questions that I could use some help with from the knowledge base here at IC.

1) My tap water PH is about 8. Since Im using soil I realize I dont need to worry to much about water PH, however.. for the long haul... will the water pull it up over time? My soil has lime added of course... but how often should I add more lime to the mix to keep the PH bufferred properly? (See question two).

2) Ferts. Of course the super soil will get depleted over time. Im planning on giving a tablespoon of epsoma plant tone 5-3-3 and a tablespoon of lime once a month for maintenance feed and to buffer PH. In between they'll get left over liquid nutes from the flowering ladies. Does this sound like it would be fine?

Ill prune and root prune as necessary but I never hear people talk about the interm maintenance.




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welcome to RIU not IC
i keep mothers for a year and then grow them out. they do quite well. keep them in the same 5 gallon bucket thru-out. they like lots of N. good luck

Thanks for the responses guys. Could someone answer the two specific questions I asked?

Ild appreciate it.

Mainly I'm curious if ph 8 water will overtime raise the soil ph... and if so will a periodic top dressing of lime keep it in check ?

I'm guessing yes and yes.

oh... and ya I mixed up the board name! My mistake!

OZZZ said:

Thanks for the responses guys. Could someone answer the two specific questions I asked?

Ild appreciate it.

Mainly I'm curious if ph 8 water will overtime raise the soil ph... and if so will a periodic top dressing of lime keep it in check ?

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you should get your ph in a better range than 8. your going to keep this mom for a while, make sure everythings right.

Thanks for the reply! I just wasn't sure about long term use of a ph down substance. I used ACV fir a quick fix before but not long term

OZZZ said:

Thanks for the responses guys. Could someone answer the two specific questions I asked?

Ild appreciate it.

Mainly I'm curious if ph 8 water will overtime raise the soil ph... and if so will a periodic top dressing of lime keep it in check ?

Click to expand...

The soil buffers the water, not the other way around.

Periodic top dress of lime, yes, but more like every 3 months than every month.

I like the Garden tone with the lower N for host plants. Every month to 6 weeks.

Regular haircuts and root prunings keep them in 1gal pots for 9 months or so. They start getting gnarly, I start new host plants, transplant the gnarly ones into larger pots and flower them out. All told about a year for a host plant.

Wet

Wetdog said:

The soil buffers the water, not the other way around.

Periodic top dress of lime, yes, but more like every 3 months than every month.

I like the Garden tone with the lower N for host plants. Every month to 6 weeks.

Regular haircuts and root prunings keep them in 1gal pots for 9 months or so. They start getting gnarly, I start new host plants, transplant the gnarly ones into larger pots and flower them out. All told about a year for a host plant.

Wet

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Awesome ... thats what I needed to know I appreciate the input!

Can mother plants be kept in a Hydro system? I am running a Hydro system for Veg, Flowing and clones.. just not sure if it will work and how long they would stay healthy for.
Thanks