For the clone-experts : Best commercial setup for moms/clones

[Moppel]

This thread is for people who already know how to make clones and keep moms. so we dont need explanaition about that....

I wanna hear your input about how you would setup , lets say , a 8 x 8 tent with moms, to get the most cutttings in the shortest possible time . What kind of medium, how many moms p light, which lights, etc, etc.

 

[Mate Dave]

Bonsai each plant at a foot high 200 + off a little plant, they fit in 8x8 sea of green producing 1000's a month. Make them look like topiary, dwc or small nft for moms 5 x 200 site aero cloners. Hps all the way no Etiolation. And customers to boot. busy busy busy. I can get 1000 in my propagator. In hortuculture grading is of up-most importance and the best clones come from the healthiest mothers regardless. Using jiffy vitro plugs you can sell them for twice as much and no infections! No rooting hormones

 

[one Q]

How about I just throw a number out there.

Assuming that you want the most clones from each mom and electricity is not thing, then why not go 600w for each 4x4 area and just have one mom under each in a 20g tote with lots of training. Add BluMat for watering so that you get NO stalling in growth.

But if electric is an issue, then Id go with 400s in adjust a wings and maybe still use 20g totes, training, and blumats.

Im sure you;ll get some good ideas. tho

 

[Moppel]

One Q, with 1 plant a light it would take ages to get big nrs of cuttings....

 

[AlexTrebek]

One Q, with 1 plant a light it would take ages to get big nrs of cuttings....

It's all relative.

1 Big mom vs. 4 moms that are a quarter of the size = will make the same amount of cuttings.

 

[moses wellfleet]

as far as medium goes checkout the link below... least labour intensive, cheapest method. except that after further research i am now using superthrive vitamin B instead of kelp solution... hope this helps!

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Depends on what you're doing.

Mono-cropping only one or two strains? Easier to take care of 1-2 really big plants.

Mono-cropping but changing strains or have multiple strains? Bonsai is really the way to go.

One res for each strain (whether that's a gallon jug or a 50 gallon res, your call) keeps everyone feeding properly. Keep the plants at approximately one foot per bonsai mum info from Ot1.

You can get approximately 200 cuttings from each plant, nice sized cutting, once it's established. I used to keep one mum of each strain as backup and then run cuttings in an E&F to turn into bonsai mums. Explosive growth rates under HID with Maxibloom and hydro makes for a quick turn around on your next round of cuttings. Double mums for a strain will give you 200+ cuttings every 2 weeks or so when staggered.

You can get a lot of clones from an 8x8. Wow.

Stay Safe!

 

[duk]

Hey guys i have already posted on a french thread about mothers but i want contribute too here

So i have few mothers under a 192W T5 and i'm using the MAM8 Metrop
They are all in soil

When my mothers are in good health i can make 10 15 cut by moms, for me that really enough to start a new session

i think the better to have more cut in shortest possible it's one big mom in hydro (RDWC, NFT) with a small MH like 250W for one mom, cut apex and cut many times, have the more possible "ramification" like supercropping...

And a non stop nutrition! that possible in DR60 (60x60x120 in cm for one mom)

 

[Moppel]

It's all relative.

1 Big mom vs. 4 moms that are a quarter of the size = will make the same amount of cuttings.

yes, but not in the same amount of time....

 

[buddah]

you know i am not a expert but i seen 3-4 big clone producer in austria !
most have their plants in coco, they have big mums and replace them about every half year
check out floweryfield here on ic...

but i guess you need just as much clones you can get in short time

i would start in 3,5 liters - 600w mh per 1,5m2 - set in as much clones in as you can - take the first cutz as soon as you can - and make a second round of mums from them - after 5-6 weeks you can take the first cutz from the second round and have big mothers from the first run -
i would say if you start with 15 cutz you can take about 200 or more cutz in 5-7 weeks

 

[Moppel]

buddah, what kind of watering system do they use?

 

[TLoft13]

Floweryfield atleast waters by hand.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I personally prefer to hand water, especially mums.

I find that it only takes a couple seconds while you're doing your daily inspection for issues with each individual plant. You DO do that... right? The last thing we need is a problem in the up-and-coming crop of clones about to be cut for rooting.

There's plenty of great info here to get a lot of cuttings a number of ways. Have fun and....

Stay Safe!

 

[Moppel]

There's plenty of great info here to get a lot of cuttings a number of ways. Have fun and....

link us

 

[growshopfrank]

this guy can be entertaining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUw7e-nrTKg&list=UUzgHqfT9fE7cQq1QdaoOVRw&index=20&feature=plcp

 

[AlexTrebek]

yes, but not in the same amount of time....

I knew someone would make that mistake.
The money and time are a separate thing,
I'm saying the size is relative to the amount of cuttings, not relative to other factors.

And the best for commercial is T5's due to their even footprint and low heat, their practically plug and play.
If you want to do it with MH's then you start dealing with heat, light dark spots, plant health, light failure and plenty of things that need to be overcome.
I can say that T5's make healthy green plants consistently, can't always for the MH.

 

[Moppel]

so what about fimming, lst, etc....

 

[Moppel]

I knew someone would make that mistake.
The money and time are a separate thing,
I'm saying the size is relative to the amount of cuttings, not relative to other factors.

And the best for commercial is T5's due to their even footprint and low heat, their practically plug and play.
If you want to do it with MH's then you start dealing with heat, light dark spots, plant health, light failure and plenty of things that need to be overcome.
I can say that T5's make healthy green plants consistently, can't always for the MH.

i dont have a problem to keep my plants healthy under MH.

 

[Moppel]

bump..?

 

[banana buds]

qualifications: been vending clones since i moved into my current shop last may

having run mothers from 1 gallon all the way up to 32gal trash cans and 20gal smart pots (all coco), i found the sweet spot with keeping smaller mothers. huge ones were cool at first, but they end up being really a lot more work to maintain, and on a square footage / wattage basis they don't produce enough cuts even running a bunch of vertical 1000s. i've been slowly scrapping my 5+ foot tall mothers in favor of heavily LST'd ones in 3 gallon smart pots that are a foot or two tall at most. i can get 72 cuts off a mother that occupies 1 square foot, vs getting 144 cuts off a mother that occupies 9 square feet (3x3) and sits in a trash can (heavy!).

as far as cloning methods - i used aeros for a while but finally realized that it wasn't worth it for producing mass quantities of clones. yes my aero clones are much faster to take off after transplant, i can clone bigger stuff, etc. but the problem is it was a lot of work maintaining proper conditions in the cloners to avoid losing whole batches to rot, and they were not a good use of the floor space. as much as i prefer my aero clones for my own rooms, plugs have been far far better for making a lot of stuff to send out of the shop. my most densely-packed aero cloner has 167 sites in about a 2x4ft bin, and in that same floorspace i could fit a shelf that will hold 15 plug trays for a total of 1080 cuttings. part of my experience with the aeros is also most likely due to keeping them in use 24/7 for months on end - don't get a chance to break down and sterilize like you would if you were only producing clones for your own cycles.

my current setup with my mothers is:
-2x 1000w Mh over ~40ft^2 worth of handwatered 3gal pots of coco, mothers that are being used heavily
-2x 4ftx8bulb T5 over ~32ft^2 worth of stuff that is either not being cut much right now, or is being vegged out for future use
-1x 400w HPS for other random stuff

for cloning:
-lots and lots of trays domes and plugs
-huge rack that holds 42 trays under T8 lights
-good sharp scissors that get replaced when they get slightly dull
-dip-n-grow (its cheap, it works for me)


lessons i've learned the hard way:
-pest management is REALLY important, you need to be very very very on top of this or it will trash your mothers which in turn trashes future cuttings (cant send stuff out with mite damaged foliage even if the mites are long gone).
-mother health is the most important thing in your ability to produce clones. you can root stuff from unhappy mothers but it will take twice as long and they will look twice as beat up by the time they are rooted. keep your mothers lush and green and supple, you will be rewarded with fast rooting times and clones that look as good as the day they were cut.


thats all i have for now, hope that helps.