I’m looking at keeping a mother plant through a bloom cycle in a space bucket so I need to keep it small. My plan is to keep an el cheapo Amazon boof led on it in an 18:6 light cycle. My questions are:
A: do I have to line it with a reflective material?
B: how light should I feed it?
C: should I keep topping it and root pruning it or will light feeding and a shit light keep it just happy enough to survive?
Mother plants don’t need a ton of light but enough so they don’t get scraggly and stretchy. Keep it as close as possible to their tops. You shouldn’t need any reflective material on the sides. You can prune them often to keep them short. I prune my mothers every 7-10 days. They don’t need a high ppm/E.C. You can feed them 500-600 ppm.
I keep about 18 “mothers” in 1 gallon root pouches and some smaller clones in a 2×4 under an hlg 65. I prefer the fabric pots because they won’t lead to root circling. I amend their soil with biolive and top dress this feed periodically. Like Jmystro, I also prune them every couple of weeks.
The absolute worst thing you can do to a mother plant is let it get root bound. That stress thins out the stems big time.
Ya I was thinking of going with an air pot or fabric pot for that reason but would I have to still root trim
Don’t use an air pot. Those pots are fungus gnat hotels.