How to Maintain a Mother?, Need some Pointers Please!

[ooS0uPoo]

Hey Farm!,

So I am going to be setting up a space in my veg tent to dedicate to some real keepers I found on this last grow. The tent is a 3X3X6 space (not very big for mom/veg) lit by a 400w blue spectrum MH. The tent is well ventilated and maintains 71F with 33%H With the light on 24 hours a day. I took some time and tried to hunt down a tutorial out there on how to maintain mothers without them growing out of control (I need to still use that space to veg my clones), but no real step by step guides. I will be using the moonshine organic soil mix and am not thinking I will need to fert for the life of the soil, but I cant have the moms getting too tall. Any suggestions on the way you experienced farmers do it would be appreciated (Pot size, cutting times, height control techniques ,nute schedule) Even if someone has a suggestion or link to search out it would be awesome!

Thanks in advance!

-S0uP

 

[Nobodynobody]

You have the right idea for single mother. Had ton of bad luck with organic so i used the Water Farm from General Hydroponics. Get a Single bucket and the 13Gres and controller. Then PH check it every day and up the PPM when i saw some yellow or 10ppms each day up. Organic does not move fast enuff for my clone rates...

Change Cims every week and flush. If organic flush 3 times the amount of root mass...

When taking clones you want to SHAPE her up. Take anything that stretch to much. After taking the cutting Go down the branch and PINCH so it wont strech for a while and heal the branch. Dont worry this wont hurt her; Classic saying"what does not kill you makes you stronger!" Never pinch the area that will be used for cloning!

After like 1_1/2mos the bottem will need some liming. Clear all the old foliage so no bugs or other things happen. Give it room to let the air move and the moisture out of the bottom.

When taking clones, i always had better % of roots with branches that looks HEALTHY and PERKY. The lower area that does not get light, and is pretty much good for a nutrient buffer for nitrogen or other elements that is needing to move around.

Turn every day or every other day 1/4 to 1/2. Over time you will have an eye to just let one area have a ton of light because you clone to much there Or one side got light burn because it did not get turn for a little to long up close.

Good Luck.

 

[ooS0uPoo]

You have the right idea for single mother. Had ton of bad luck with organic so i used the Water Farm from General Hydroponics. Get a Single bucket and the 13Gres and controller. Then PH check it every day and up the PPM when i saw some yellow or 10ppms each day up. Organic does not move fast enuff for my clone rates...

Change Cims every week and flush. If organic flush 3 times the amount of root mass...

When taking clones you want to SHAPE her up. Take anything that stretch to much. After taking the cutting Go down the branch and PINCH so it wont strech for a while and heal the branch. Dont worry this wont hurt her; Classic saying"what does not kill you makes you stronger!" Never pinch the area that will be used for cloning!

After like 1_1/2mos the bottem will need some liming. Clear all the old foliage so no bugs or other things happen. Give it room to let the air move and the moisture out of the bottom.

When taking clones, i always had better % of roots with branches that looks HEALTHY and PERKY. The lower area that does not get light, and is pretty much good for a nutrient buffer for nitrogen or other elements that is needing to move around.

Turn every day or every other day 1/4 to 1/2. Over time you will have an eye to just let one area have a ton of light because you clone to much there Or one side got light burn because it did not get turn for a little to long up close.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice bro,

I actually have been looking into an Under Curret system for my flower room (4 Site 13 gallon bucket under 1 1000w) but have no experience with hydroponics (been growing soil for almost 10 years) Maybe this would be a perfect opportunity to buy a single self contained bubble bucket and see how I fair with the beast! Tackle some issues before I invest my entire space to it. I dont think I have to worry about cloning rates being too high ( I just dont have the space to take advantage of, maybe like 8 a month is all. I appreciate the advice about super cropping the areas after taking my clones... but do you top your mothers on a regular basis to keep them short? are there other methods of keeping them a bit more bonsai?

Thanks
-S0uP

 

[weedfarm]

i always kept moms in hydro. Since you have been using soil I would suggest staying with that.

8 clones a month is nothing. A plant under a small light will do that. As far as the actual bonsai process, try this thread

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31919&highlight=bonsai

 

[ooS0uPoo]

i always kept moms in hydro. Since you have been using soil I would suggest staying with that.

8 clones a month is nothing. A plant under a small light will do that. As far as the actual bonsai process, try this thread

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31919&highlight=bonsai

Thanks for the link! Perfect info! As far as soil/Hydro switch I may do 1 of each just to get my feet wet. I am well aware that 8 clones a month is nothing which is why I am so interested in keeping the moms as small as I can, looks like the bonsai link you provided has enough info to help me on my way!

Thanks again I was thinking I might have postd this in the wrong forum until your response.

-S0uP

 

[gudkarma]

i always kept moms in hydro. Since you have been using soil I would suggest staying with that.

8 clones a month is nothing. A plant under a small light will do that.

exactly.

you can grow trees dwc. cuts for ages & ages.

you can get plenty of cuts from a good mom in soil... with my soil moms, my excess is such that i throw away 30 cuts (in the trash) every two weeks.

you can keep a single small mom. easy.
or, multiple mothers. easy.

i maintain my moms since i take 45 to 50 cuts every three weeks.

i find, grow bags take up less floor space.

and, with a few small moms you could achieve variety of smoke and have back up cuts (which is important imo) utilizing a small footprint & using minimal wattage.

 

[crom]

Nice thread Farmers! I love these discussions about mother/father areas and techniques.

Cheers,
Crom

 

[JAWS]

really nice thread, thanks to all the ppl putting up info in here...

some day i'll be looking to keep moms and these would be some of the same Questioned id be asking...

very very subbed and i hope peeps keep dropping info in here as well..
really nice:RastaBong:

 

[motta-tokka]

I would suggest soil for the moms as its less hassle and much easier to maintain. With the hydro its just another setup to worry about that's not needed. All you want is to keep her going for backups at 8 clones a month.

Now if you were a clone doner to a collective or needing a ton of cuts, then a more rapid rate of growth would be preferred. Heck for that I would recommend L/P Aeroponics anytime of the week or hydro for that matter as long as you can dial it in appropriately.

I would use nutrients according to plant height and age always regardless of what brand of nutes but this is just my preference. If you really want to save money and get the best bang for your buck, research compost tea diy methods. Giving that to any plant (preferably in the early stages) will make them take off!

 

[Nobodynobody]

OH for 8, I say stay in Dirt and T5 lamps for less light and growth.

Yhea always Topping to keep short. Never let it go to wast Clone it....

You can also drill small holes around the top of your bucket.Use string to pull the tall branch back down to make mom go sideways. Because of that all the lower branches would get light now and be New healthy branches for your clones now...

Saw good link, It cover some other Ideas you might be able to use.

 

[ooS0uPoo]

exactly.

you can grow trees dwc. cuts for ages & ages.

you can get plenty of cuts from a good mom in soil... with my soil moms, my excess is such that i throw away 30 cuts (in the trash) every two weeks.

you can keep a single small mom. easy.
or, multiple mothers. easy.

i maintain my moms since i take 45 to 50 cuts every three weeks.

i find, grow bags take up less floor space.

and, with a few small moms you could achieve variety of smoke and have back up cuts (which is important imo) utilizing a small footprint & using minimal wattage.

Nice thread Farmers! I love these discussions about mother/father areas and techniques.

Cheers,
Crom

really nice thread, thanks to all the ppl putting up info in here...

some day i'll be looking to keep moms and these would be some of the same Questioned id be asking...

very very subbed and i hope peeps keep dropping info in here as well..
really nice:RastaBong:

I would suggest soil for the moms as its less hassle and much easier to maintain. With the hydro its just another setup to worry about that's not needed. All you want is to keep her going for backups at 8 clones a month.

Now if you were a clone doner to a collective or needing a ton of cuts, then a more rapid rate of growth would be preferred. Heck for that I would recommend L/P Aeroponics anytime of the week or hydro for that matter as long as you can dial it in appropriately.

I would use nutrients according to plant height and age always regardless of what brand of nutes but this is just my preference. If you really want to save money and get the best bang for your buck, research compost tea diy methods. Giving that to any plant (preferably in the early stages) will make them take off!

Thanks to everyones input! I would really like to keep this project simple and it sounds like with a little effort it will be. I think this is a pertinant issue to anyone with limited space that wants to maintain a self sufficiant garden. ie. perpetual micro growers like myself! Although I personally only need 8-12 clones a month it sounds like the same techniques suggested could be used for a larger amount of babies as well! Keep the info coming guys I truly do appreciate it! Now if I could only find where to acquire some pollen so I could get some breeding experiments going in my limited space as well...(Wishful thinking!)

+Rep to everyone!!!

-S0uP

 

[gudkarma]

always keep in mind a few extra.

to say, if you need 8 cuts best to cut/clone 12 ...you take the best 8.

i need 23-24 cuts every three weeks.

in case i have an issue, hit a rough spot, loose a piece of equipment, or to select the best of the best, i root about 50 at a time.

50 to take the best 24.

the rest i can give away, throw away, keep in a seperate coner (dwc) for back up, etc...

 

[weedfarm]

I actually agree and encourage you to keep moms in soil. From what I understand, soil is more forgiving. Less watering, no equipment failures, etc. I always did hydro since thats what I know and also needed A LOT of clones and rapid mother growth. Plus for me going to soil was a whole new learning curve

A T5 would be great.

Good luck, you'll be fine