Mother, topping and cloning combo question...

Hello again.

Thanks to Stinky et al for my water q's. Went with RO and Calmag, with great results. Went through a spurt of spiders, killed em with safer and no bug whatchmacallit hanger thing....weekly treatment with neem, five 1 month old babies doing great. Working on the 7th node, still symmetrical though, no preflowers yet.....

So my new question....

I have 5 tomato plants, getting big, and want to figure out sex and start flower. I have come up with this plan. Use the top as a clone, once it roots put the mother to flower. If it is good, then use the clone as the new mother, leaving the original mother as the flower, all big and mature, while the clone top continues to veg for eternity.
Doing this as opposed to snip a clone, root, flower to determine sex and you are still left with mom all vegged having to reclone, root and flower, leaving you with 2-4 wasted weeks.....I know I can do 4 clones, flower one, and have 3 to flower if things are good....

Just seems like a good plan to use the big bushy mom as the flower maker and keep a clone to veg as the future mom, ya know what I mean????? And if they are boys, then I am out a clone and the mom.

Thanks for the advice in advance....:thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jst300z

And if they are boys, then I am out a clone and the mom.

---

If they're boys, wouldn't that make them a clone and the dad :D.

FWIW, I tried what your suggesting on my white widow grow last fall. The tops didn't take, at all. But the cuttings I later took from lower down did. I think it's because the stems from the top were somewhat woody, but I don't know for sure. I've *heard* that branches from the bottom of the plant will clone easier - something about them being closer to the roots - but I couldn't tell you for sure if that's true. It seemed to be the case with my cloning attempts, though.

Also, you *can* take clones from a fully flowering plant. They don't root quite so easily, but it's definitely doable. My current grow came from a mother that was made from a cutting taken two weeks before harvest. I don't know if that has any bearing, but the plants are now 2 full weeks ahead of schedule for flowering. I'm only 5 weeks into 12/12 and it looks like I'm going to be harvesting in a few more days.

You can take the top as a clone- Read my 'donkey dick' log in the grow log section for detailed pics of the cloning process for taking tops. Make sure that you leave enough of the plant behind to continue to grow with least possible stress. And give at least 3 weeks after topping before you toss the donor into flower.