Best way to start and easily maintain mother plants?

[bigbud751]

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?

bigbud751 Reviewed by bigbud751 on 02-19-2007. Best way to start and easily maintain mother plants? 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? Rating: 5

[twoguysupnorth]

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.

[razzapiggy]

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.

[Tokudai]

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

[razzapiggy]

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.

[dusto2k3]

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.

[Tokudai]

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.

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.

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

[bigbud751]

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?

[PharmaCan]

You do not nescesarilly need ventilation, for instance if your using only fluoros .. fluoros throw almost zero heat .

And would also like to add , having larger pot makes less maintenance = less watering.

and less watering = more time for :rasta:

No - no - no - no!

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.

Yes - yes - yes - yes! :thumbsup:

You don't want your moms in giant pots - it will give you giant moms, which you don't really want.

PC :smokin:

[PharmaCan]

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.

Oh yeah, absolutely! No way around the vents. :jointsmile:

PC :thumbsup: