I need advice about my mother.......

[stinkyattic]

I need advice about my mother...

Remember to call her on her birthday.
Don't tell her about that tattoo you got on spring break in Cancun.
Tell her how good her meatloaf is even if it tastes like Alpo with bread crumbs and a ketchup glaze.

All joking aside, you have come to the right place. I currently keep 50+ mothers in a perpetual state of veg and prep them for cuttings only when needed.

If someone could tell me the best way to harbor a mother....

Soil prep is VERY VERY important.
I recommend AGAINST any peat-based soil, since mothers are expected to inhabit the same pot longer than a plant destined for bud production.
I am using a soil mix that is about 65% composted manure and composted humus (store brand from Agway, the Eastern US farm supply chain) and 35% coarse grade perlite.
It holds a constant pH and is very easy to flush.
You WILL be flushing your mother at some point, trust me.
A pot with excellent drainage is also a must. 3 gallon square plastic kitty litter buckets with 1/2" holes drilled in the bottom AND SIDES are GREAT for keeping a mother who is about 18-24" tall and pruned to several leads.

I grow in soil, but I just want to know what kind of light I would need to just keep her in a slow but steady veg state....

Ample but not super intense light in the bluer end of the spectrum.

I have a 2'x5' partition of my grow space set aside for her and just put in ventilation..... I'm going out to get lights, but I need suggestions for lights....... Would three 4' long fluorescents be sufficient if I run them vertically? If so is there any particular wattage and light color that would be prefferable?

In the 2x5 section, you should plan to house actually 2 mothers in 3 gallon pails plus your propagation dome. That is a comfortable fit.

3 x 4' 2-bulb 80w total shop lights is more than enough light for that space for that use.

2 of those fixtures is plenty to keep your moms in slow constant veg. Hang the thrid, but only turn it on when you are prepping the moms for cuttings- 2 weeks before cutting date when you are trying to encourage rapid growth at teh leaders.

Note that when there is a set of clones rooting, if you are doing it in the same closet, put the prop dome in the shade of the plants or cut the overhead light down to only one of the 3 fixtures. Clones wilt easily and often fail if lighting is too intense.

For comparison, I keep about 30 foot-tall moms in quart pots (yes they are a bit root bound, haha!) under only 2 shop lights like that, with 'cool white' bulbs, and the lights are actually rather high above the plants compared to what you would want for a plant in vegetative growth. When I want to take cuttings from a certain mother, I toss her under a MH for a week or 2 so she 'wakes up' and throws cloneable shoots. I wish I had a pic of this but I'm nowhere near the girls at the moment.