What-up DGC,
I was gifted two plants that were vegged way to long. I cut them back, and took clones. I plan on keeping the clones as mother plants, and flipping the cut back plants into flower. If I like how these plants grow, taste, and smell I’ll have it around for a while. I can also gift it to others. I searched the site and just listened to show 1064 that discussed mother plants, but it only mentioned lowering the light level. My plan is to put the clones into 3 gallon pots with Grow Dots and water them on occasion with Recharge. My goal is to keep them healthy and alive for future clones.
If Grow Dots will work how much is needed to keep slow growth under low light conditions? I know the grow dots will eventually run out of steam, and I don’t mind re-potting every so often, but I want to keep it as simple as possible. Maybe I’m all wrong, and there is a easier way to keep mother plants.
Any help is good help.
Thanks,
ThChrMn
Mother plants are just plants kept in veg until they get too big and are replaced. Too big is dependent on your space. Shaping them to give you uniform cuts is the trick. Main-lining techniques work best for uniformity. I keep my moms about 3 months and make their replacements after they are about a month old. I don’t kill moms until I have viable replacements. Keeping genetics for future clones/moms only requires keeping small plants in like 5 inch pots. Veg them for a month then clone the top. Rinse and repeat until you want to grow one/some of them out to produce clones. Grow Dots are designed and formulated for full cycle growing. Grow Dots are not for moms as Grow Dots only have a veg charge for about 6 weeks before releasing flower ratios.
Hey Jmystro,
Sounds simple. I’ll throw them in small pots and veg them as I would all my plants.
Thanks,
ThChrMn
Starve (for fert) and underpot you moms (1g is all i use). replace with a fresh clone quarterly. You can repot them back into a 1gal if you take a root saw and literally slice about 1/3 of the root ball out like a starfish? pattern and repot with fresh soil in the removed sections.
Jmystro has some great info. Basically nailed my usual answer of lower light, less feeding, training, ect. If you see any of these things stressing your plant, remedy it ASAP, you want a healthy plant to take clones from.
One addition here – people talk about “clonal drift”…. yes and no, but I mention it for this reason – Take your clone from lower on the plant. There is a thing called “somatic mutations” in cannabis (google exactly that, look for the 2022 paper by Kristian Adamek) which can be the boogieman behind clonal drift. Essentially it says that clones from the upper areas of the plant are more susceptible to slight genetic coding errors. So, to get the best clone we can with our naked eyes, I like to take them from the bottom.
BTW, I went clone to clone to clone for seven years with the same strain. All was well.
your better feeding mother plants flowering nutes in low consentrations than veg nutes.
always get better results but cant remember where i got the information from. think it was a cloning guide that called for low nitrogen levels when taking clones.
if im talking shit correct me please. life gets easier that way
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