How many different mother plants...

[Jonny Lan]

Was just curious as to how many different mother plants other growers were keeping on hand and how many phenos of each strain as well.

Whats the best way for maintaining them? I have about 6 now and its a bitch having to worry about them and vegging plants and flowering plants at the same time. was wondering if their becomes a point where i should just take clones from plants as they go into flower instead of keeping mums?

Just ordered a new pack of seeds (10) gonna have a bunch of plants.

Just looking for some better ideas.
i have one room with an 8x4 and a 4x4 in it. its a 12x10x8.5 bedroom.

 

[Mednugs]

Sounds like a good problem to have.

 

[Jellyfish]

I've done it both of the ways you described. I don't know if one way's better than another.
In my small grows I usually only have 2 or 3 mother plants, they don't take that much space.

As far as phenos of each strain, it depends on how many good ones you get in a pack. I have at times had two or three that I ran a couple times, but eventually I would pick a fave, so I could make room for something. I like to get as much variety as I can out of my closet sized grows.

I maintain mother plants by not worrying about them, and just let them veg with my begging plants. Maybe cut the strength of feedings to keep them from getting too tall. Train them to be like short shrubs- read the thread about 'bonsai mums' or might be bonsai mothers.

Rock on with the new pack!

 

[Lochinvar]

you can always keep cloning them every 2 to 3 months to keep them smaller. if they are already root bound, i would pot em up in a larger container for a couple weeks before cloning. dont clone a bound plant without vigor

 

[growaway]

Keeping mothers

Keeping mothers

I keep one favorite pheno of each geno, with 4-6 mothers in total. Change mothers every 18months or so. In a light augmented and heated small polytunnel next to my house (4x8). In 25l air pruning pots. I use multiple solar powered LED's to maintain adequate photoperiod and diverted heat from my main grow room for heating in cooler months. I restrict root development and cut back hard when propagating. Dont over feed or water. Take big clones and secondary level clones not just tip clones. I can take 30-40 clones per cut every 2-6 weeks depending on time of year and strain. (some are more vegetative than others). For the little bit of work, it sure beats the new seed pheno lottery. Cheers and happy growing.

 

[Dropped Cat]

There are up to eight in my micro veg, plus cuttings and
vegging plants.

Gets crowded real fast!

 

[Phaeton]

As far as varieties go I keep two, tall plant and short plant. One for playing and one for TV and bedtime.

I keep my eye out and if I smoke something better than mine I try really hard to get a clone.

I got a really fine sativa in 2008 and ran it until 2012.

I had a friend with six different plants. None of them ever got dialed in. I took one of his citrus flavored short plants and dialed it in for a year. Smoke his and mine back to back and it was two different highs. A lot to be said for dialing in a garden for a single strain.

But then again, at least one of the plants in the garden gets changed every year or two just because, even if the new strain is not stronger, variety is nice. The four year sativa was special and got lost with my heart attack, sigh.

My conclusion is to go for as many as can be managed and still have fun doing it. As soon as frustration starts up the workload needs toned down, the outside world is stress enough already.

Same the other way, bored? add a new plant known to be difficult.

 

[chronosync]

im working on a little bank myself, i have three real strains i trust and also a random rescue plant, but i love the way it let me train it up. i want to keep it just as much as i do my haze and cheese plants all the options everyone gave are great! i love this hobby, there are so many ways to do it

i dont have much space so in my case here beggars must be choosers. what strain to run first? P. express or SLH? etc., what a problem to have

 

[Jonny Lan]

Sounds like everyone does it a little different. I understand the taking clones from plants with vigour, as when i take clones from older mums they are not as strong as younger ones.

 

[Jellyfish]

Trimming the roots and pruning the plant help keep it young.

 

[Jonny Lan]

Trimming the roots and pruning the plant help keep it young.

I've always been scared to prune roots. I'm going to give it a shot and rip them up.
Knife or by hand?

 

[Jellyfish]

I use scissors.

 

[Phaeton]

I do it by hand with a knife.
The entire plant gets removed from the container and set on a table.
Taking a sharp french knife I cut off the outside inch or so full circle around the rootball, the bottom inch also gets cut off.

Put a layer of replacement growing media in the bottom of the container, set the plant in and fill up around the sides with the plant centered in the container.
Give it a few weeks before taking more clones.

Personally I have found it easier to pick a clone to be the new mother every four sets of cuttings, this assures a healthy growing young plant giving more vigorous clones.

 

[Lester Beans]

With an established plant you can take up to a third of the vegetation or a third of the roots without fear of killing the plant.

I have had up to 50+ Moms at once in the past.

Hydrofarms and soil are the best methods for me to keep mother plants long term.

 

[Lochinvar]

Sounds like everyone does it a little different. I understand the taking clones from plants with vigour, as when i take clones from older mums they are not as strong as younger ones.

i my opinion, its best to keep ones moms young and vigorous. i dont think it matters how often you clone (every 2 months for me) what matters is how strong it is growing when you clone. this is the reason so many older clone only strains get shitty ( in my humble opinion). oh and...dont let em get rootbound

 

[I wood]

Never really kept mothers but take clones before flowering each time.
Two strains have been going strong since 1998 this way, still haven't found anything worthy of knocking them out of my rotation.
I rarely have more than three copies of anything, this allows me to have up to 30 flavors at any point in time and stay within legal limits.
Keeping mothers always seemed problematic and unnecessary.
I think the genetic drift myth is largely perpetuated by unhealthy clones from unhealthy mothers.

 

[dansbuds]

24 was the last count . all in 5" pots Bonzai style .
have 3 strains that have 2 pheno's .

 

[Cannavore]

I've got 5 plants that I'm keeping at the moment. Keep them small and take cuts often to keep the cycle going.

 

[Jonny Lan]

I've got 5 plants that I'm keeping at the moment. Keep them small and take cuts often to keep the cycle going.

I hear you buddy.
I just got word from my Ace Boom Coon that Im getting 32 more seeds, 4 different strains. on top of the two new strains i jus started from seed adding on to the 5 strains i already got going.

I feel stuck mothers at different heights and ages and shit starting to get frustrating and will be way worse when i get these beans from him.

maybe i have to start getting rid of some strains?

 

[jesbuds]

Used to keep 8-10 moms in my tub but have since moved on to more seed grows since I have so many and breeding. Now only keep 2-3 moms.