Growing a Mother Plant: How to?

Hey peeps, first time poster here. Nessecity is the mother of all Message Board registrations.

So I tipped the dudes at the medicinal store I buy all my goods at in LA and they gave me a clone as a gift. Its about 5 inches tall and sitting in the typical sponge wrapped with a paper strip. I'm not all that interested in getting a harvest out of this thing but I would like to nurture it into a Mother Plant, you know...get a nice fat stalk on it with plenty of branches. Tall, bushy, healthy. Give it a name and treat it like the pet I don't have.

I've checked out a number of sites but all of their growing advice/info is based on getting a harvest out of a clone...not raising it into a Mother Plant from which to cut clones from.

So having said that, any info straight off the bat I should know? I'm going to use natural light (18/6) for the time being until I decide what direction I'll take this baby. Dirt soil as opposed to those red ball whats-its and all the nutes needed...that shit is beyond my comprehension, presently.

Due to my schedual I won't be able to hit the hydro store until Saturday so any advice you expirenced growers have out there for keeping this thing alive would be appreciated. And if there are those who know specifically about curtailing a plant into a Mother, I'm all ears and thank you very much.

H. G.

keep the clone moist... not wet...
she'll last like that for a long time.. if need be...
you can purchase a 10 dollar flurescent bulb at HOME DEPOT and keep it 1 inch from your "pet" and she will do great fro a couple weeks to a month.

1. You should get a 3-5 gallon container
2. put a pieces of news paper at the botton to cover the drain holes (you want water to come out the bottom.. but NOT the perlite)
3. pour in about 1/2 - 1 inch of perlite (little white rocks - they sell at home depot also)
4. Use a high quality organic soil - buy a 10 dollar bag of soil -
5. fill your container with soil on top of the perlite base.
6. put your "pet" in the dirt
7. completely saturate the pot.. at least a couple gallons of water..
8. put about 1 table sppon of water at the base of your plant everyday until she gets some good roots (could take 10-14 days)
9. once she has rooted only water her when the top 3 inches of soil are DRY!!! this is KEY...
10. If you make sur she has 18 hours of light - example - 12 hours sun - 6 hours flurescent she will be huge in 2 months... HUGE

good luck and post some pics...

DANKE! Thank you very much. You know I once made a bong out of a garden gnome....I'll post pics once Mother is settled.

Garden knowm....Thanks for the good tips on cloning.....Ive been looking for those simplistic instructions for a LONG time!:D

H.D.
Good luck and stick to this forum for help, their the best for info, and a good laugh from time to time:) Peace and happy growing!-emtpockets-