My mother area on 24/0

[Opie Yutts]

Weedhound asked me to show and tell my mother area, so here ya go. Ask and ye shall receive.

But first, How Not to Clone:
I suppose I can briefly throw in this fiasco since it happened in my mother area. More on this journey through failure in another thread.

Opie Yutts Reviewed by Opie Yutts on 05-14-2008. My mother area on 24/0 Weedhound asked me to show and tell my mother area, so here ya go. Ask and ye shall receive. But first, How Not to Clone: I suppose I can briefly throw in this fiasco since it happened in my mother area. More on this journey through failure in another thread. Rating: 5

[Opie Yutts]

Things are underway to remedy the situation, but at the present Iâ??m down to 2 varieties. They are in a closet in our junk storage room. I got a plastic shelf system from BiMart, left out one shelf and turned it into 2 stands, each with a top and bottom. It works out quite nicely for a 2-tier mother area. Weedhound talks of her 2 yoyo technique, notice my 2 wheelbarrow tire technique.

Don't forget the rules, cough, you must take hits while waiting for photos to upload.

[Opie Yutts]

Environment:
Temperatures remain pretty much whatever we have our household thermostat set to, and thatâ??s about 72 in the day and 68 at night. We have a heat pump so itâ??s pretty much like that year round, maybe a little higher in summer unless weâ??re feeling particularly wealthy or hot. Temperatures are checked with a laser thermometer, and vary a couple degrees here and there throughout the area. Not sure of humidity, never checked. Feels like, seems like, a little low, maybe 40%. The fan is slightly stronger than needed, which brings humidity down some.

Ventilation:
Thereâ??s one small oscillating fan in the upper left on the low setting, and both the room and closet doors are left open nearly all the time. At one point I went several months without a fan, and mushrooms started growing in the containers with the moms, so I guess I canâ??t recommend doing that.

Lighting:
Iâ??ve been experimenting with 24 hour lighting for about 5 months now. Iâ??ve not seen anything adverse from it so far. Thereâ??s some controversy about it, but Iâ??ve always thought a weed plant needed a dark period to properly thrive. The contrary seems to be the case for my moms. They seem to be doing quite well and growing pretty fast. Both top and bottom sections have 4 foot fluorescent tubes. On top is a 6500K, 54 watt T5 in a reflector. For the bottom there is one 40 watt reflector holding two T12 tubes. One is 5500K and one is 6500K. The lights are on small chains with a half link on the end so I can easily adjust the light, and hook the chain on the corrugated shelf, or whatever is handy. The top and bottom sections seem to perform about the same as far as causing plant growth and putting off Lumens. Weâ??re not talking about the rapid growth of HID, but I was actually surprised at how well they do. My light meter says the T5 puts off 760 foot candles, at 6 inches directly under it. The T12 combo puts off 630 foot candles at that distance, but I think itâ??s a little closer to the optimum vegging spectrum. One foot candle equals one lumen per square foot of surface.

Medium:
The moms are in what ever soil I decided to whip up at the time. I used to use vermiculite, but found it isnâ??t really needed, and kept the soil too moist for my liking. Often Iâ??ll get seedling starting soil for the young ones, but normally I get the best potting soil I can find in my little home town, and add about 20% perlite, and occasionally 1% clay pellets, just eye-balling it as I mix. I highly recommend this as it will drastically cut down on conditions that are too damp and moldy. Iâ??ve never inoculated my soil or put it in the oven. It sits outside in a bag until Iâ??m ready for it. The few times Iâ??ve tested the PH of my soils theyâ??ve been right around 6.8, which is perfect for growing weed in dirt. I used the run-off method. You flood your plant with PH 7 water, catch the first run-off and test it. I want to try keeping some hydroponic moms in the near future, probably a simple shallow water culture.

Food and Drink:
I try to peek in the door at least once per day. If I know theyâ??ve all recently been watered, sometimes I donâ??t check on them for several days. If a plant looks a little droopy Iâ??ll water it. I flood the container until it runs out the bottom. My well water comes out of the tap at 260 PPM, and I adjust the PH from 7.6 to 6.8, give or take a tenth. About every 3rd watering Iâ??ll feed them at about half recommended strength with whatever hydro nutrients I happen to be using at the time, along with a couple drops of SuperThrive per gallon. Also a little CalMag about every other feeding, maybe 1 tablespoon per gallon. For nearly a year theyâ??ve been eating Gro Aqua by Supernatural. I try to make sure the watering before any cuttings are taken is just water, but it doesnâ??t seem to make a huge difference either way. Some people say to deprive your mom of nitrogen before taking cuttings, but Iâ??ve never worried about it.

Other maintenance:
Plants grow bigger and so do their roots. Occasionally Iâ??ll feel the need to put my moms into a bigger container. Sometimes if sheâ??s yellowing and you canâ??t figure out what the problem is, a bigger home and a quick flush solves the issue. Be sure to check out the thread simply titled â??mumsâ?� (I think). Thatâ??s the way I want to do it some day. Cutting back both foliage and roots to nearly nothing from time to time, but so far Iâ??ve been too afraid or too lazy to try. I just keep making new moms and I occasionally transplant them. Soon Iâ??ll try it the right way, promise.

At least 2 or 3 times per year Iâ??ll flush them. I just run a bunch of PHâ??d water through the pots, like maybe 4 or 5 times the volume of the container. This is probably more of a preventative (or delusional?) measure than anything. The plants certainly donâ??t mind, and I think it just helps get rid of anything toxic that might have been building up. I donâ??t have any pest problems except the occasional spider, which unlike the spider mite, I welcome.

About the only other maintenance I do is LST and topping. Notice the difference between the plant on the top shelf (first photo) and the same variety on the bottom left (second photo). The top one has never been LSTâ??d, only topped for cuttings one time. The bottom one was tied down in several places to get it to bush out more. Soon I will do the same to the top plant since it is growing too tall, and Iâ??d like it to spread out more. Also see how spread out the other mom on the bottom shelf is (third photo). There are many nodes, and light is able to find itâ??s way to most of them. This one has more foliage lower, near the container, because I started LST from the beginning instead of after a reveg. Notice how tying down one branch lets light get to all the nodes on it, and itâ??s almost like you get a bunch of new plants growing out of it (fourth photo).

Photo 1: BBxNL from a second generation seed. First generation was from Kind Seed. I got about 6 seeds from 8 plants.
Photo 2: BBxNL revegged from the first generation. If you look close you may be able to see the little brown buds left on the plant after flowering. Obviously this plant stretched badly in itâ??s young days.
Photo 3: AK-47, the strongest of one of two clones, taken from a clone purchased from a dealer. Ready for a container bigger than this one that I used in my wedding. No it wasnâ??t holding a weed plant at that time, they were various kinds of purple, pink and burgundy flowers.
Photo 4: An AK-47 branch, tripping on LST.
Photo 5: 2 cuttings from the AK-47 mom, stuck in the dirt 3 weeks ago and watered, nothing done since. Looks like theyâ??ll make it despite the yellowing on the lower levels.

more photos, more hits, cough.

[Opie Yutts]

Weedhound asked how I get such nice tight node placement and such bushy plants. The color of light helps, but mostly itâ??s from LST and topping, which Iâ??m constantly doing to my mothers. Bluish vegging lighting promotes shorter, bushier plants and tighter node spacing. They would probably be more stretched out if I was using your typical 2700K CFL. Also LST lets light get to the lower nodes so they grow nearly as well as the main shoots. I guess a good way of putting it would be that I kinda spread out the plant all over the top of the container. Other than that, I donâ??t know. Maybe itâ??s just the variety, but thatâ??s what theyâ??ve always seem to do for me. I know you can also buy fertilizers that promote bushiness, but I donâ??t know what they are.

When itâ??s time to take cuttings, make sure sheâ??s not at all thirsty. Like water a few hours before, or at least within a few days. For one thing, if sheâ??s full up on the liquids the cuttings will be less likely to get an embolism. I try not to take away more than 1/3 of a plant when taking cuttings, but many varieties will tolerate more, like maybe 2/3. Remember that a plant will want less food and water when you remove a bunch of itâ??s foliage. As for what part to cut off her, use whatever branches or stalks are the healthiest. You just have to make sure there is at least one emerging growth shoot. You can even top a plant, then take another cutting or two, lower down from the first cutting. Along with a growth shoot there should be a couple 3 branches with good healthy leaves. Sorry, now Iâ??ve switched to a cloning thread.

I hope that helps, or was at least a little interesting. Comments, criticisms, questions, bashings with a cane, are all welcome. I know I donâ??t do things the way some consider to be the â??rightâ?� way, but hey, works for me. Iâ??m not concerned with fast growth or any kind of superplants when it comes to my moms. As long as they stay mostly healthy, and continue to grow enough to supply cuttings, Iâ??m pleased as punch.

Mark my word: My mother area will soon expand. I already have several new great varieties of seeds, and another T5, just waiting for more plants to shine on. Thank you very much to the good people.

Peace n Love n stuff

[Opie Yutts]

Correction: Photo #2 in the series of 5 above is not just of a revegged BBxNL. There are two plants, and the one on the right is the AK-47.

[grey1223]

I used to do 24/0 and had no problems. I went back to 18/6 because I only saw a slight improvement with the extra light. Besides, the damn things grow too fast in veg anyway so I figured why waste the electricity.

[justanotherbozo]

LOL, really, as a cfl'er myself, and also a newbie grower, it's encouraging to see your results, my own vegatative growth has been much better than i'd expected.
do you flower with fluoro's as well? if so, details please, please.
btw, and if you've already answered this just point me at the answer, but what happened with that bubble cloner? that's what that was right? i only ask 'cause my own seems to be working so well and if there is something that i should monitor to prevent what you experienced it would be nice to know, LOL (i shouldn't have had a 'lunch' puff)

anyway, i got my eye on you dude!

bozo,
peace, love, dope

[Opie Yutts]

I used to do 24/0 and had no problems. I went back to 18/6 because I only saw a slight improvement with the extra light. Besides, the damn things grow too fast in veg anyway so I figured why waste the electricity.

Yeah, they are actually growing much faster than I need them too. I plan on cutting back to 18/6 pretty soon. I just needed to see for myself what happens.

[Opie Yutts]

do you flower with fluoro's as well? if so, details please, please.
btw, and if you've already answered this just point me at the answer, but what happened with that bubble cloner? that's what that was right? i only ask 'cause my own seems to be working so well and if there is something that i should monitor to prevent what you experienced it would be nice to know

Sometimes I use bluish fluoros in my budding section, but only as a supplement to my 600W HPS. You can get wonderful results with fluors alone if you do things correctly, but in general I only use them in situations when I don't really care about fast growth.

I'm in the process of working on a more detailed thread about it, but it was my first try with my new cloner, in a new and cooler area. The badness started when I put in an aquarium heater and didn't pay attention. The next day the water was 92 and there was a little mold on some of the stems. I tried to air out the stems, and ended up sealing them. That's all she wrote. Make sure you keep the plants and the reservoir about 76-80 for best results. Too cold, and they take forever to root. Too warm and they mold or rot. And be sure to burp your humidity dome often.

[Weedhound]

My WW never got all nice and bushy like that.

How about a photo of your lights?

I like the thought of lst vs topping.....i know you do both but I honestly didn't consider lst during veg so will now.

I'm strongly thinking of making a clone mom with these plants that fell from heaven.

What if the nutes your are using or laying around are bloom nutes? Do you still use them for your moms?

What's a shallow water culture.....time for me to go google things.

Lastly....mushrooms grew eh? What kind?