If I were to grow hydro but want to keep some donors in soil with very little maintenence how should I go about it? I just want to water and keep healthy. Is there an easy way to do this?
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If I were to grow hydro but want to keep some donors in soil with very little maintenence how should I go about it? I just want to water and keep healthy. Is there an easy way to do this?
I am new to growing, about one cycle through... I am interested in this topic as well.
Some on this forum have said growing a "bonsai mom" is the easiest way to do it - do some searching of the forum and you will find out about what I'm talking about.
Me personally, I also am starting to think how to get a mother going, and I am tentatively planning to put her in a cabinet inside my closet. Mothers sometimes are more suseptable to bugs I have concluded through my research, so I feel more comfortable having her outside of my main growing area.
Best of luck, will read what others say about this as well.
Yep its no problem to keep em in soil for me - you could fit 3 or 4 decent sized mothers in a trashcan or something, mount some cfls to the lid. I have 4 different moms right now in a 2x2x3 box with a couple of cfls on 24/0 - just feed 1/2 strength grow food with every other watering. I can get about 8-10 cuts from each one every ~ 2 weeks or so. Depending on how many cuts/clones you need each time, you can size your moms appropriately
How tall do you keep Mommy? Do you throw your cuttings in a Ez-Clone or something like that after you cut them? I am about to be done with my first grow, I'm buying clones from the same person this time, but I'm going to veg a mom this time and cut my own clones for the next run. Only will need about 30-40 every 10 weeks...can this be done with one mother just by leaving the cuttings on, and then taking 30 at once? Or maybe split it up 15 15 over the course of a few weeks? Thanks in advance.
razza, i just took like 60 clones of a mom. Yeah, i just let her veg inbetween cycles. Like tokudai said, this mom could have filled up a trash can. I dont know about your harvets cycle, but i only need ipping every 8 weeks. If you harvest all at one time, you want to take your clippings at the same time or else they will be different sizes, and this might mess up your sog.
I throw them in a wick cloner after cutting them- Since I run a perpetual garden so everything is in different stages of life, I find myself taking a couple of clones every week or two so - depends on what strain is running, which one is runnning low in stash etc etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by razzapiggy
Remember it takes a good 2 weeks after cutting clones for them to be ready for the big room/light. Rooting can be done in 8-10 or so, and then you want a few days for them to get established in the system at minimum, before treating them like fully grown plants. If your flowering time is 10 weeks, you wanna cut from mommy at least 2 weeks before harvest, more if you want to veg them bigger. if you cut clones the day of harvest you have downtime in the bloomroom.
30-40 clones will take a pretty decent sized mother to maintain, but should fit in a small trashcan. You can also take cuttings, and store them in a baggie filled with water (submerge all of the cuttings completely - several per bag is ok) and store them in your fridge - they CAN NOT FREEZE or they will die!! Then recut and clone them when you are ready. You can save up clones if mom is too small. I have done this for 2 weeks before and all the cuttings survived. Its also a great way to ship strains that are clone only - a thermos and air mail, wrap it like a birthday gift ;)
I have plenty room and plenty mothers but it just seems theyall looked good at first but now turning yellow and not growing new nodes. Are you just supposed to take cuttings off the stems and leave them attached to the main plant or cut off at the main stalk?
bump. About to start mothering a plant and I like to read about others experiences. I need about 50 clones every ten weeks, how large of a space do I need for this mother and what do I need for lights?
Razza, you will want multiple mothers for a couple reasons- efficient use of space, possibility of losing one or more to diseases, etc.
I'd keep 4 big short wide moms in 5 gallon buckets under a MH 400, or a 3x3 tray of smaller moms in quart pots- this raises your plant count, but you can sell or flower them when they are ready to retire, and if you have to move your grow, it's much easier.
I like to suggest that people keep moms in my compost mix even if they are hydro growers, just because there is so little that can go wrong in compost, and your mothers are your investment!
Razza - My mothers are in #5 pots with coco. (That's just where they happen to be. Next set of mothers will be in soil. They grow great in the coco; I just want to get away from watering every day.)
In any event. I first cut the moms when they were about 18" tall. This resulted in a main stem about 6"-8" long with lots of branches coming off the main stem. Now I let the plant get to 2' - 3' tall and can then take about 60 very nice clones from them. When I cut them way back, they are really scraggley and only about 12" tall. But they rebound real quickly and are ready to cut again in about 3-4 weeks.
Trust me on this, if you get a couple of healthy mothers going, having enough clones will be the least of your problems. :D Cloning is fun and it is easy. If you follow the simple instructions you can find here on the forum, you will have an overwhelming success rate and, well when the mom is ready to be cut, she's ready to be cut and you hate to throw away good cuttings so you clone them and then one day you look around and find that you have clones coming out your ears.
So, good luck! Enjoy your new venture! :thumbsup:
PC :smokin:
BTW - I keep the moms in a 2' x 3' x 4'h box with 4 x 65 watt 6500k cfl's + 1 x 125watt cfl that I hang vertically when the plants get real bushy.
PC :smokin:
Do you need to ventilate that box? I am considering building a box myself in my grow room, but I am thinking it's going to get quite hot in there.
i know i am not who you are asking, but yes you would at least need to ventilate it. you are trying for healthy mothers to keep you in clones. i am new to this part but i think i am doing pretty well. i just cloned out a mom, not a big one, and got 15 decent clones from her plus a nice branch left on her to flower with the clones that i had started earlier. now i have 5 clones from earlier and 2 will be mothers for the next time through and probably get flowered as well. my light is too small to have to many under it so these 4 will be fine i think. i am thinking a little bigger now though since i should be getting a bigger light very shortly. the mom plant wasnt all that big and was lst'd to promote more cloning sites. flourescent lights and a closet or box should be enough to keep some healthy moms, if it was big enough you could also start your clones in the same closet/box.
Oh yeah, absolutely! No way around the vents. :jointsmile:Quote:
Originally Posted by razzapiggy
PC :thumbsup:
what type of ventilation fan would i need to use for the mothering room? needing to cut holes in the box makes it a little tougher to build a box in your actual grow room....light would escape i am guessing
You do not nescesarilly need ventilation, for instance if your using only fluoros .. fluoros throw almost zero heat . plants like what u like, comfortable temperatures, if you were say using a 1000k light in a large room that had central air , you still probly wouldnt need a vent. But if u had a 1k light in a 4x4 box u would definately need a vent. All depends on what your using to light it, and size of grow area, and if the room has ac going to it etc..
And would also like to add , having larger pot makes less maintenance = less watering.
You do not nescesarilly need ventilation, for instance if your using only fluoros .. fluoros throw almost zero heat . plants like what u like, comfortable temperatures, if you were say using a 1000k light in a large room that had central air , you still probly wouldnt need a vent. But if u had a 1k light in a 4x4 box u would definately need a vent. All depends on what your using to light it, and size of grow area, and if the room has ac going to it etc..
And would also like to add , having larger pot makes less maintenance = less watering.
and less watering = more time for :rasta:
If you grow in a box, you ventilate. Plain and simple.
Besides the heat issue, whether you have one or not, you need fresh air circulation. The plants need CO2 and if the air gets stagnant, your plants suffer.
Always run a fan on your girl and have a cheapo Home Depot $25.00 inline fane taking air out of the box. No matter what size, no matter what temps are.
Simulate, as much as you can, the outdoor invironment. Even these current exotic crossbred Indica strains operate off the same life mechanics as their sativa counterparts.
ALWAYS.
No - no - no - no! :(Quote:
Originally Posted by blackdomina
Yes - yes - yes - yes! :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by HARDDON
You don't want your moms in giant pots - it will give you giant moms, which you don't really want.
PC :smokin:
there are ways to stop light leaks, ask stinky lol. you could vent your box by using a couple of pvc elbows and maybe some dark screening. make a fitting for the hole in the box(better yet make the hole the size of the pvc you will be using) put a couple of elbows together at 90 degrees and that should stop the light from entering or leaving the box. added protection, use some dark screen over each end of the pipe. you would need an intake near the bottom and and an exhaust near the top. i hope this helps, it would be very easy to do.