take2hikes
New Member
Hi everyone. I read a thread "Choosing a Mother" posted by oldmac but the thread was dated almost 3 years ago, so I figured I would post my questions in a separate thread.
About 45 days ago I planted 6 (out of 10) Feminized Liberty Haze seeds from Barney's Coffee Shop. About 2 weeks later I planted another 6 (out of 18) Regular Critical Mass (Mr. Nice) seeds.
I had organized the LH's in order originally from which of the seeds had stronger tap roots (mostly as an experiment). I continued labeling them in order of best size/fastest growing and kept 2 labeled for the strongest (1 and 2, respectively). The one that was doing the best is still far better than the others. It's got a very thick stem, short internode spacing, and generally just 'bushier'. It is also a tad taller than the others, but much more full. My runner up, however, has a nice thick stem and SUPER close internode spacing (damn near one on top of the other). But, it is no longer one of the largest - it is probably 25% shorter than #1. Some of this could be due to me having a deficiency on them at first, and then later burning them a tad bit (I've only done hydro up until now, so it was a learning curve) - but my #1 handled even that smoothly. My question is, given the choice between my #2 with the shortest internode spacing and another that is a bit taller but not as bushy with not as good of spacing - what would people pick? How important is the internode spacing?
As far as the CM's go, they are all gorgeous so far. No deficiency or burning, all relatively the same size so far but very bushy and thick foliage. Quite a bit different than the LH's, as they are all very neck-in-neck with each other. I only planted 6 of the 18 seeds because of space in my room and available light. I was hoping to spot some of the males by some growing taller, more spindly, etc - but so far the best guess is that I lucked out and they are all female (I will pull my hair out if they are all males). Only time will tell. With both strains, I picked the best looking seeds based off of size, hardness, and color. With the LH's, at least my one selected mother so far and my tentative runner up, I can see the pistils and know they are females. I'm hoping to be able to tell on the CM's soon.
My method for these is going to be not quite as thorough as I'd like, based off of time and my grow setup. I currently have 45 in veg and 40 in flower (Legal Medical Grower in my state). I select the the best 40 of veg to go into flower in case there are some runts, etc. Because of this, I was going to base the genetics almost solely off of veg growth and appearance. I have planned to keep 2 from each strain as a prospective mother. I will take approximately 10 clones from each, mark them, and run a cycle with them. Then I can see which mother of each strain is 'better'. I am somewhat hoping to have 2 good mothers of both just to make cloning very simple and able to keep the mothers fairly small.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Tips for selecting mothers would be awesome. In my experience, the height of a plant does not necessarily mean anything in regards to yield - especially because some strains can be flowered at 12" and more than triple in height. But I have noticed throughout the 2 years I've done this is that the stem thickness does seem to be a good overall quality indicator.
Thanks again, and sorry for the rambling!
.t2h
About 45 days ago I planted 6 (out of 10) Feminized Liberty Haze seeds from Barney's Coffee Shop. About 2 weeks later I planted another 6 (out of 18) Regular Critical Mass (Mr. Nice) seeds.
I had organized the LH's in order originally from which of the seeds had stronger tap roots (mostly as an experiment). I continued labeling them in order of best size/fastest growing and kept 2 labeled for the strongest (1 and 2, respectively). The one that was doing the best is still far better than the others. It's got a very thick stem, short internode spacing, and generally just 'bushier'. It is also a tad taller than the others, but much more full. My runner up, however, has a nice thick stem and SUPER close internode spacing (damn near one on top of the other). But, it is no longer one of the largest - it is probably 25% shorter than #1. Some of this could be due to me having a deficiency on them at first, and then later burning them a tad bit (I've only done hydro up until now, so it was a learning curve) - but my #1 handled even that smoothly. My question is, given the choice between my #2 with the shortest internode spacing and another that is a bit taller but not as bushy with not as good of spacing - what would people pick? How important is the internode spacing?
As far as the CM's go, they are all gorgeous so far. No deficiency or burning, all relatively the same size so far but very bushy and thick foliage. Quite a bit different than the LH's, as they are all very neck-in-neck with each other. I only planted 6 of the 18 seeds because of space in my room and available light. I was hoping to spot some of the males by some growing taller, more spindly, etc - but so far the best guess is that I lucked out and they are all female (I will pull my hair out if they are all males). Only time will tell. With both strains, I picked the best looking seeds based off of size, hardness, and color. With the LH's, at least my one selected mother so far and my tentative runner up, I can see the pistils and know they are females. I'm hoping to be able to tell on the CM's soon.
My method for these is going to be not quite as thorough as I'd like, based off of time and my grow setup. I currently have 45 in veg and 40 in flower (Legal Medical Grower in my state). I select the the best 40 of veg to go into flower in case there are some runts, etc. Because of this, I was going to base the genetics almost solely off of veg growth and appearance. I have planned to keep 2 from each strain as a prospective mother. I will take approximately 10 clones from each, mark them, and run a cycle with them. Then I can see which mother of each strain is 'better'. I am somewhat hoping to have 2 good mothers of both just to make cloning very simple and able to keep the mothers fairly small.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Tips for selecting mothers would be awesome. In my experience, the height of a plant does not necessarily mean anything in regards to yield - especially because some strains can be flowered at 12" and more than triple in height. But I have noticed throughout the 2 years I've done this is that the stem thickness does seem to be a good overall quality indicator.
Thanks again, and sorry for the rambling!
.t2h
