Need help choosing a mother - currently day 45 of veg from seed

Hi everyone - I have 4 females 45 days vegging from seed - I originally had 13 seedlings but now I have 4 females left and they are all looking great.

They are under 150w of 6500k CFL's - I know the amount of light is kinda low for 4 plants but it's all I got right now.

They are all varying heights... ranging from 6 inches to 11inches

The 6" plant basically has no node stretching at all...

The thing is all 4 plants were the same size and the same height from the lights - this stretching seems to be unique to each plant.

My assumption is that the plant that has not stretched is the best and I should keep that one as the mother? Or do I keep the one that seems to be 2-3 days more mature then the others (slightly bigger secondary leaves)

I plant to veg them for another 15 days.

I was going to flower only 3 of them and keep one as a mother.

Do you think I will be able to get 4 good clones from this 60 day old mother or will I need to let them veg for another 2 weeks or so after that.

My plan was to take 4 clones and veg them for 60 days while the other 3 originals finsih flowering.

Then when i put the new clones into flowering, I will take another 4 clones from the mother which now has had 60 days to grow back branches etc.

Right now the plants are on their 8th node - and the secondary growth that comes in beside the calyx's are about an inch wide.

Also I was not sure if I should top or LST my potential mother I choose right now or just leave it as is. I just want to make sure I have enough to take 4 clones from it 2 weeks from now.

Honestly I would clone every mother, then flower them all and then choose a mother from the clones.

chose the healthiest one. stretching isnt genetics, well sativas will stretch more than indicas but your stretch seems like it was the lighting. if your flower rooms lighting is good your clones wont stretch like the mom. LST is on you. do you not have enough height in the room? do you want an even canopy?

BSIv2.0 said:

That's what I'd do.

Clone em all...choose a mom after.

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Me too, if you can. If not then choose the one that has the best growth, maybe that one that is the most mature? But you cant know what the buds are gonna be like from the speed at which the plant grows in veg. What your hoping for is that there isnt much difference among the phenos in the batch when it comes to potency and quality.

If your going to flower 3 of them, why not flower all of them, take a couple of cuttings from each one now, theyll all be big mamas by the time you harvest. And you will know which ones are the dogs bollox....

Whats the strain btw?

ok thanks for the suggestions...

I need to get a harvest in 75 days from now...

What if I kept 1 potential mother in veg... in 2 weeks from now at day 60, I move 3/4 mothers to flower but before I do that I take a clone from all 4 mothers.

Then I veg the 4 clones for 60 days while the other 3 flower. After 60 days I will harvest the 3 big ass mothers and whatever one is the best I will know and the clone I made from that one I will leave in veg and take some clones from her. Stick the other 2 in for flowering and also stick in the 4th clone and see how this 4th clone does in realtion to the mother.

the only reason I was thinking of this strategy is because I read a mother grown from seed is better than a mother made from a clone. So I was thinking I ahve a 25% chance of getting lucky and picking the best mother right away and keeping it original from seed.

One question I have is this:

If I take a clone and I veg it for 60 days (including the 2 weeks needed to grow roots) will I be able to take a few clones from it at that 60 day point? Will it be "big" enough?

Thanks

Edit: Professor Manali: Are you saying that 60 days after taking a clone you will have a big ass plant that you can easily take cuttings from? What about a mother from seed vs a mother from clone?

After typing what I was typing I realized yeah why not take some clones from each and then flower all 4?

Oh and it's bagseed - indica dominant

GoldenGanja13 said:

Honestly I would clone every mother, then flower them all and then choose a mother from the clones.

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^This^

You never know which is going to be the best mom until after you've harvested. If you're going to clone one plant it's really not that much more work to clone 4 plants. Just throw away the clones you don't like. I've thrown away some great potential mom clones because they didn't look special 4 weeks into flowering.

If you pick moms based on how good they look during veg you'll be disappointed a lot of the time.

okay thanks - I will flower all 4 of them and take clones before i do it. They don't look big enough to take clones from yet - only working on node 8 but in 15 days they should be better... OR I could wait until day 21 of flowering then take clones from them as I read somewhere else and I should have more to work with?

My plan is to veg or reveg the clones for 60 days total including the 15 day time for rooting.

Speaking of which can you guys point me to or explain the most noob friendly method of cloning.

marinegreen said:

okay thanks - I will flower all 4 of them and take clones before i do it. They don't look big enough to take clones from yet - only working on node 8 but in 15 days they should be better...

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correct.

OR I could wait until day 21 of flowering then take clones from them as I read somewhere else and I should have more to work with?

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fail.

I like to clone the day before flowering. I've picked the bud off a branch and cloned it deep into flowering when I figured out I fucked up by not cloning it earlier several times. But that's a desperate move. It's way more reliable to cut clones in veg.

Speaking of which can you guys point me to or explain the most noob friendly method of cloning.

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Sure.

buy these things:
1 bottle dip and grow.
1 small bottle jump of jump start
Rockwool plugs (how ever many you need)
plastic trey to put your RW plugs in
1 ph down
1 plastic dropper with 1mm measurements
1 humidity dome
1 razorblade

Then do this:
1) Soak RW plugs over night in PH'd water over night with 1mm/pg jump start
2) take that water poor it into a 4 plastic keg cups
(better yet fresh water because it has more oxygen, but I'm lazy, so fuck that right?)
3) Label the cups #1-#4. Tag plants with corresponding numbers
4) Cut a few clones off each plant just in case shit happens. Make sure you're keeping track of what cutting comes from what plant.
5) cut big fan leaves half way down so they take up less of the plant's energy
6) let the clones soak in the water for 30min-1 hour
7) make dip N grow solution according to box
dip cutting in dip N grow for 5-10 seconds
9) stick cuttings in RW plugs. Remember to tag the cuttings so you can tell them apart!
10) dump excess water in your plastic tray that is holding the plugs
11) put on humidity dome, put them under a single t5 bulb, forget about them for 4 days

On day 5:

12) take off humidity dome
13) dump a little more water on plugs if dry
14) make spray solution of jump start as directed on bottle. spray tops and bottoms of leaves
15) check plugs every few days to make sure they don't get totally dry, if dry, water

On day 9:

16) spray cuttings with neem or rosemary oil to protect them from bugs
17) start checking for roots. Some will start showing around day 6-7 but most will be showing by about day 10. They will all probably be done on day 14-20.

It's kinda ghetto, but it works for me.

oh, and always wash hands before cutting clones and don't smoke around them.

cloneing by yeild rather than veg look is way better, so like thay said clone um all then pick

60 days of veg, not including the 2 weeks of rooting time you need, that shoudl be one big ass plant, you could take dozens of clones of that plant. But they would be small. If you top it after it has say 6 nodes, then you will get a good number of really nice big cuttings.

You should have a look at Al B. Fucts threads, they are stickies now cos they are like encyclopedias i.e. how to do Clones in rockwool, how to get a harvest every 2 weeks with flood and drain sog. I learnt sooo much from these threads.