Mother plant question

[TenaciousKiM]

Am planning on keeping 4 mother plants from different strains. Bubblekush, OG kush, white widow and purple kush. Was browsing throw forums and can't find any mother plant guides or instructions. I've heard you can keep a Mother for up to 6 years without budding, so I need to know how you keep the plant from budding. Sorry for the dumb questions.. I've google'd and I have an idea how to.. but everyone has there own method and ideas.. can someone please enlighten me?

 

[TorturedSoul]

so I need to know how you keep the plant from budding.

Keep it on a vegetative light schedule. If it is growing too much/fast, cut the total number of light hours but do so by "taking hours out of the middle" so that there is at no point anything approaching 12 hours of darkness in a row. Reduce nutrients somewhat (as warranted) and keep the nitrogen higher in proportion.

It doesn't take major lighting to keep a plant alive as opposed to actually making it grow. If you are not close to the time that you need to take cuttings then you should be thinking "stasis" more than "growth."

 

[TenaciousKiM]

So not letting the plant go over 12 hours of darkness in a row keeps it from budding - ok..
"Stasis".. hmmm had to google that.. didn't know you can fridge a clone. Also was thinking of keeping the mother indoors for 12 hours 400 watt MH then taking it outdoor early mornings for 12 hours, would that confuse the growth cycle of the mother?

 

[TorturedSoul]

So not letting the plant go over 12 hours of darkness in a row keeps it from budding - ok..

Well, it's not exactly that cut & dried. Many strains will flower under somewhat less than 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness. I should have used a smaller number than 12. I was in a hurry and not thinking. Change that to 8-10. Depending on the strain you could go higher, but better safe than sorry.

"Stasis".. hmmm had to google that.. didn't know you can fridge a clone.

Wait... What? ::

Err... I was actually thinking of another definition: A state or condition in which there is no action or progress; static situation.

Also was thinking of keeping the mother indoors for 12 hours 400 watt MH then taking it outdoor early mornings for 12 hours, would that confuse the growth cycle of the mother?

Hmm... I doubt it - but the bugs that would jump for joy at the chance to hop onto it every time you carried it outside would probably annoy the sh*t out of it (and you when they commenced to feasting), lol.

But, do you need to do so just to keep four plants from flowering? I have kept mothers in aluminum trash cans with nothing more than CFL lighting (and not much of that). Of course, when I was getting close to the time I expected to take cuttings from it I would ramp up the light significantly. But other than those times... I didn't want my mothers to turn into monsters. I didn't want to end up trimming the mothers because they were getting too big. It's not like the time when I was going to need clones ever came as a surprise event so I didn't need to have mothers that were constantly growing all year long. But then I wasn't taking 80 of them at a time in order to fill a Volksgarden or the like, either - I generally grew with less plants and a longer vegetative period so I only needed a few at a time when I did need them.

A lot depends on how many cuttings you need to take from each plant - how many clones you actually need and what your rate of success at cloning is (it's pretty easy and so should be approaching 100%, but if you haven't done it before - or never watched your mother/grandmother take cuttings from a plant, stick them in a glass of water on her kitchen windowsill or into a pot of "dirt" - then you might need to allow for some extras until you get the hang of it) - and how often you will be needing to take them. If you run a perpetual setup, you likely will want slow but steady growth so that you can take a couple/few every couple/few weeks. If you flower an entire rooms' worth of plants in one cycle start to finish then you'll want to take more clones at one time but less times - so you'd want to see a lot of growth, but only for a ~couple weeks before you actually cut them. (And if you grow large-scale SoG then you would, of course, increase your number of cuttings accordingly.)

 

[TenaciousKiM]

TorturedSoul you are awesome! thanks for the advise, you totally put things in perspective for me. I will be adding you to my contacts, I will have further question for you to come. Hope thats ok.

 

[datrippp]

Hi kim, Just thought Id give you my little input on how I keep my Mums.
I made a seperate little area for them, and Since I changed to just using cfl's for my mums, Ive noticed a little steadier growth, that I can keep under control by either adding, or decreasing lights. I keep them on an 18-6 light schedule, and havent had any trouble. Also, I highly recommend using nutrients made for mother plants. I started using the International dynamics Mother Plant nutrients, and have noticed a very nice change in my ladies. They love it, it makes my shoots very nice for cloning, and Ive had 100% success with my clones since using it. Also, it helps to promote multiple clone sites, that are soft and very easy to cut and work with. I know of people having the same mother for over 15 years, and getting wonderfull crops from her. Also, by using the Int. mother plant nutes, I dont go through my nutes as fast, and the mother plant nutes is inexpensive. You can change up your feeding schedule to help control growth, I use a water, water, feed schedule, and have changed one strain to a water, water, water, feed schedule, and now all mothers of all strains I keep stay very close to same size, and output. The other nice part is the mother plant nutes are just a simple 2 part, A&B formula that you mix equal parts A&B, so they last a long time, and are very very easy to use. The A&B have all the ingredients in them, so you dont need a bunch of additives with it.
Ill try and post some pics of a couple of my moms tonight, so You can see how well they look using just the simple A&B mother plant nutes. Other than a bit of purple from them getting cold the last 2 weeks, Now I got a heater added for them. lol.. They really look beautiful, and healthy.
Hope this helps a little anyway. lol. There is a ton of different ways to do things, and mums are no different. This is just whats been working very well for me.

 

[TenaciousKiM]

Hi kim, Just thought Id give you my little input on how I keep my Mums.
I made a seperate little area for them, and Since I changed to just using cfl's for my mums, Ive noticed a little steadier growth, that I can keep under control by either adding, or decreasing lights. I keep them on an 18-6 light schedule, and havent had any trouble. Also, I highly recommend using nutrients made for mother plants. I started using the International dynamics Mother Plant nutrients, and have noticed a very nice change in my ladies. They love it, it makes my shoots very nice for cloning, and Ive had 100% success with my clones since using it. Also, it helps to promote multiple clone sites, that are soft and very easy to cut and work with. I know of people having the same mother for over 15 years, and getting wonderfull crops from her. Also, by using the Int. mother plant nutes, I dont go through my nutes as fast, and the mother plant nutes is inexpensive. You can change up your feeding schedule to help control growth, I use a water, water, feed schedule, and have changed one strain to a water, water, water, feed schedule, and now all mothers of all strains I keep stay very close to same size, and output. The other nice part is the mother plant nutes are just a simple 2 part, A&B formula that you mix equal parts A&B, so they last a long time, and are very very easy to use. The A&B have all the ingredients in them, so you dont need a bunch of additives with it.
Ill try and post some pics of a couple of my moms tonight, so You can see how well they look using just the simple A&B mother plant nutes. Other than a bit of purple from them getting cold the last 2 weeks, Now I got a heater added for them. lol.. They really look beautiful, and healthy.
Hope this helps a little anyway. lol. There is a ton of different ways to do things, and mums are no different. This is just whats been working very well for me.

What's the cfl watt's you use for that single mother? am guessing should be low wattage to keep her on a steady grow.

International dynamics Mother Plant nutrients: I google'd but can't seem to find the nutrient, can you post a link so I can have an idea what am looking for when I go to the hydroponics store.

And yes please post your pics would love to see the mums...


Here's a pic of the first mum am gonna try to keep for a year or so, she's 29 days old, had her since a seedling.. PURPLE KUSH!

Also sorry for the pic quality took it with my phone.. havent had a chance to buy a new camera since my old one busted.

 

[datrippp]

Sorry, I messed up, lol.. its hydrodynamics international Mother plant.. Not sure how I got the other name, lol.. But heres the correct one. Ill get some pics after the light comes on, and the hockey game is over..
GO AVALANCHE!!!!!! lol....

 

[datrippp]

Ok, heres My barneys farm L.S.D. shes 11 weeks old, in only a 2 gal. pot (for space), and shes got alot of nice shoots ready for the picking. Also, I havent topped her yet either, so theres still a ton of potential. Im using 3 18w cfls, all 2700k, gotta trade out for 2 6k's but thats later.. They're in a 30x36 closet, and shes 19" from soil to top. at this size, I can easily keep 6 in this closet, and make 3 levels. for 18 mums total in 1 closet with breathing room..

 

[TenaciousKiM]

Sweet! I have the purple kush mother in a 5 gallon pot... so she's gonna grow pretty big "big mistake lol"... but that's a good looking mum, the petiole are very long with extra fan leaves growing from each side. "she's a keeper"

 

[datrippp]

Nice, I used 3 gal. pots last time, and wanted to see how a 2 would work for a mum, so I can maximize space use. lol.. Sounds good in theory anyway...

 

[TorturedSoul]

TorturedSoul you are awesome!

Hardly. If that were the case, I'd be able to find a woman who isn't of the "questionable virtue" variety (although I've heard that's overrated, lol) and one who's hobbies don't consist of equal doses of trying to kill herself in creative ways and trying to kill ME in different - but even more creative - ways. Then again, who wants a long boring life when they can have a really exciting few minutes instead? After all, the undertaker charges enough that he ought to not mind having a little extra work in preparation for the viewing, right? And they can always put a turtleneck on my carcass to hide the stitches - or just stick the head on top of the casket so that people don't have to walk all the way to the front of the room in order to pay their respects. I won't be there anyway; I never did like funerals.

thanks for the advise, you totally put things in perspective for me.

Don't tell your pShrink that. It's officially grounds for committal.

I will be adding you to my contacts,

<SHRUGS> You are certainly welcome to. As soon as I figure out what all of that is actually for, I'll be sure to accept you and the other 30 or 40 people who have requests in. I've been a member and/or staff at sites that only allowed PMs to friends/contacts, and one that had an "IM-type pop-up message" function that allowed people to send pop-ups to those on their contact list. But this site doesn't have that and also doesn't restrict PMs to just contacts/friends. So... I don't get it? In the meantime, feel free to hit me up in a thread or PM. Thread is probably better as your question will be seen by many people (most of whom probably know at least as much as I do - if not more) and I'll probably be one of them if it's a thread that I've posted in as I have the "auto-subscribe" option turned on in my User CP. But if I miss a few days I sometimes return to see 50+ threads with new activity on my list, so a PM might get my attention faster. Flip a coin. It's yer nickel, as they (used to) say.

I'm here to help, to learn, and to entertain myself as much as possible whilst doing so. If in the process I actually manage to do some good then it's a plus.

I'm rambling (you may have noticed that I do that occasionally).

I'll stop now, shall I?

 

[sickboy949]

simply called "Mother Plant Nutrients. part A and part B. Part A is 2-0-0 and part B is 1-1-3

 

[Supernaut]

I grow all my mothers as bonsai trees. It allows me to keep 6 mothers in a 1x2.5' area. They need branch and root pruning about every 2 weeks, but not a big deal.

Here's a link - mums