Bonsai Mothers - help/info

[Tigershark]

I will be starting my grow on a stealth cabinet. Got my seeds froms SD recently and I plan to grow some mothers and keep them on a veg. state with 4 15 watt fluorescent bulbs ina 1.25 sq. ft. area (8in x 18in).

I need if anybody of you guys have experience on using bonsai technique on mothers that can help with some tips.

Will focus my grow on Sour diesel 2.5 for the moment.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Guest]

Training your plants is an aquired skill, one that is truly learned by manipulating the branching and observing the effect. It's really easy to get started, check out the link in my sig. Bonsai may not go that large before training, but this is the best way to get a number of similar sized cuttings from a small clone mother. I keep my mothers fairly large, but I switch to SOG grows every now and again in my experiments, so I need a lot of clones sometimes.

To make a smaller mother, just cut off more branches earlier. This mom is BADLY in need of a trim

 

[Tigershark]

caprichoso, thanks for the great info. I followed the links and all the technique you explained should work for me, I will keep you guys informed.

 

[Sinfuldreams]

I've been Bonsaing my moms

I've been Bonsaing my moms

Like Caprichoso has said you learn as you grow
Heres some of what I've done, and my GF is much better than I am at it.
Heres the LOOP



The LOOP or Majestic Lady as we called her was not a mom.
But she was fun to grow!


Here is a Mom that She is Still working on.
It now is a Crown and is very beatuful to look at.
I will get some pics of it next time i see her.


Train em right! LOL
Sin

 

[Guest]

Okay what I have found to work best.

Is low feeding and low wattage light make for slow growth. I keep my mother's this way until I need cutting's. In crease the food and light and they can produce alot .

I start out using 2" pot's, keeping root's restricted helps slow growth. Now as root's come out othe bottom of the 2" pot I up the size to a 4" pot. I change the medium completely during the change in pot size.

I also trim back the root's some, again to slow down growth.

I have fund under flurescent light's you get the tightest node gap and this is what I like on my mother's.

I use the Tea Cup method. I seen a smaller plant as a mother above, and one with stem manipulation to keep vertical height low, but I would say the tea cup method works best for me.

You have the plant you want to be your mother, you let it grow and develope lateral branch's, I like to super crop the plant to make the lateral branch's grow more.

Now after thes lower 3 to 5 branch's are established I top the plant, cut the main stem just above the last branch. This will stop all vertical growth in the main stem and how I regulate the size of the mother plant.

Now I use wire and I poke small hole in the lip area of the pot and wire the branch's out horizontally. Most of the time you are near a 6" pot by this time, that is the biggest I will use, but with these branchs growing horizontally it does not take alot of head room with flo's to keep them alive and happy.

Now as the branch grow's out past the edge of the pot you can keep wire around the stem to keep it horizontal, or let the grow tip go vertically. After they get a few inch's tall top the branch's and root the cutting's taken, if not need practice rooting them, if that is not an issue, trash can them. Now that the branchs are topped all the node's down the stem produce lateral branch's at about the same time and they grow at the same rate, hence when it is hair cut time in a week or so the cutting's are all 2 to 3 inch's tall, let it go a bit longer in vegy stage and you have bigger cutting's.

I stage my mother's, first the 3 to 5 cutting's are grow tips from branch's, second harvest is 6 to 10, third time she will give me 12 to 20, basically double the amount of cutting's taken each time.

I have a Willy D mother that I have been working on, not the slower increasing pot method, but a rooted clone that I deamed to be a mother and went right into a 6" pot and I started the manipulation of her and shapping her. She has only three main branch's, first round I got 6 cutting's, now that the branch's have been topped, well she is filling in and should give me alot more than I need. I have learned it is much better to take twice what you need and then pick out the best looking rooted clne's when it is time to vegy them. That is how I do my mother's.

Preferred medium, sterile soil, and I have found GH nutrient to work just fine for them.

grow safe.

realhigh.

 

[Tigershark]

Sinduldreams, how you got that stem that thick ? seems the stem is from an older plant....

Realhigh, thanks for the info. seems that you mix two different methods, cutting and bending, Caprichoso advise was only to bend....for the meantime I will only use the bending technique for my mothers. I started bending this morning so I will post some pics next friday and see the results I am getting, I am now on my 2 week of veg. for my new mothers.

 

[Sinfuldreams]

Sinduldreams, how you got that stem that thick ? seems the stem is from an older plant....

That was started as a seed and trained very young, it was about 2 to 3 months old when the pic was taken. It was Not a Mom just something to
Play with. Nonthin more.
Sin

 

[Guest]

You will find that a combination of bending and prunning of the plant, it is more like sculptureing the plant, into the shape and desired amount of cutting's.

If you run a couple of plant's at a time in the flower room, well the mother's do not need to be sculptured or prunned that much, but if you plan to need 20 to 40 cutting's from the same mother, yet have restriction's, I think you will find it take's both method's to get this, okay apparently for me and what I want it does. Now the trick is have enough area to keep 5 or 6 mother's of different strain's going that way you can rotate what is in the flower room. I hope you the best, and if it does not work out as you wish, take cutting's, and try again.
When you talk about bonsai mother's trimming the root's is part of the art along with taking of new growth in area's it is not wanted, maybe I get into it to much.

Grow safe and stay the same way, safe.

realhigh.

 

[jolee]

http://www.cannabase.com/cl/ a look at this mate.Its a great read.

 

[Sinfuldreams]

jolee
Thanks for the link
BookMarked.
Sin

 

[Guest]

That was a nice link, OT1 over at OG taught me about mother's year's ago, but this link is nice looking and keep's the information flowing.

grow safe.

realhigh.

 

[ezozo]

Sin wow nice.
How big these pots ?
and do you cut the roots and re-pot them back ?
if yes, how many times you do that ?

thanks
zozo

 

[ezozo]

yep, thanks jolee
good one

peace
zozo

 

[Sinfuldreams]

Yes zozo

Yes zozo

Sin wow nice.
How big these pots ?
and do you cut the roots and re-pot them back ?
if yes, how many times you do that ?

thanks
zozo

I Cut the roots after oh a long time maybe every 6 or 7 months.
That Loop was done in 7" Square Pot. No root Cutting. I wish I had a Pick of it in flower, It was tranplanted into a 3 Gal and the Stem Was very thick.

Im useing smaller 4 and 5 inch pots now.
The Idea being of course to keep em small for more moms.
And if you keep clones if you screw one up
you just start over.
Lot of fun just to play with.
I take a good chunk of old root mass off.
Sin

 

[ezozo]

Thanks m8,
I am trying to save some moms,
this is a big help

peace
zozo

 

[jolee]

must agree ot1 is a star.He's not on overgrow now but uk420.com over here, and still being an inspiration. :smile:

 

[bovrin]

Hi

I trim the roots on my mums to keep them small, every few weeks I get about 15-25 cuttings from the romulon x ubc chemo mum, she is nearly a year old

Trimming the roots is easy, just take it out the pot, trim about 1/2-2/3of the soil and roots from all round the centre of the plant, leaving a tennis ball size root ball, repot it in the same size pot.

I usually use nitrozyme or root juice for a few days after....

This one has had her roots trimmed now about 8 times, I think she is due for another go tomorrow I am going to flower this one soon and create a new mother

Bovrin

 

[Tigershark]

bovrin, got you, your method seems very easy to follow. After the root trim how much the plant suffers, recovery time ?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

I hope this is not out of place, but another's view on it, when I do mine, and it is done just like above, I notice about a week to two week's recovery time, some time's it is more like a slow down in growth rate of new branch's, but they always seem to be explosive in growth after it. I think the plant enjoy's to be handled with love and cared for.

You can wack the heck out of them, just leave a little green growth on the mother and she usually come's back just fine. Some mom's love it, other's react more negative to it, but you get the feel for the mother plant real soon. If she die's and does not come back, alway's have cutting's of her to make a new mom and start over again.

It is a timming thing for me, that way the mother is producing cutting's heavely at the time I need them, after that they are just maintained and some what forgotten, and this can some time's give you a very bush plant as they do grow over time.

As long as you keep the pest's away a mother can be around for year's before she need's replacing.

grow safe.

realhigh.

 

[Xtrakritical]

Hey Great Pics friends!

Im workin on a mum myself...

Right now she has given up a few cuts, and is getting ready for a bunch more!


Let me go get a pic...