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I have only done a few grows in the past and never kept mothers, (read a lot about it though) and I'm pretty sure you have the first one right. Once you find a plant you are happy with, you can grow that into your mother then take cutting from that mother and flower those cuttings (aka clones). You can keep your mother as long as you like just as long as it is getting 18 hours of light or more. From what I understand, potency gets higher as the mother gets older.
From seed, once the plant is asymetrical, I typically take clones at that time while flowering the original plant. If original is male, clones are discarded (unless keeping for potential breeding purposes). If female, the original plant is left to flower out so an assessment can be made....if determined to be something worthy of keeping, then the orig clone(s) is/are your mother(s).
dg
*if starting more than one strain, be sure to label each clone as to the source.
Dutchgrown is exactlly correct i follow the same prosses. I used to take a clone of the original mother from seed then flower the clone to see if the mother was a keeper but I allways ended up with a huge bush of a mother by the time my clone was rooted and flowered. I have found it much easier to just flower the original mother. You get alot more bud and you don't have to worry about her outgrowing you room.
There is nothing worse then having to kill a big mom because she is just a tree and won't fit anywhere.
Just checking I have been doing it like Dutchgrown but I have read various sources saying to do it the other way. Logically it doesn't make sense to take cutting, root, then flower which takes alot more time. I was just maken sure i wasnt doing something totaly wrong.
I just flower em out first, then if they are good enough to keep, I reveg and get cuts. From that point, I just take cuts from cuts. I have heard this can promote genetic drift or deformities, but the only strain I have seen anything like that with is my LUI. It grows leaves that do not unfurl correctly, but as the leaf matures, it does grow out to be a full leaf, sometimes with a little crinkled edge here or there. But it still grows great buds, as long as it does, it's a keeper in my book.
I have kept mothers before when I had space to do so. At this point I am still searchin for genes, and space is crowded, so keepin mothers is not a priority. PEace...
i have tried to keep mother plants several times. i always end up losing them or having to flower them for one reason or other.
now i take clones a week or so before i flip them into flower. the downside is i have to veg for 60 plus days until i cut the flowering ladies. i have an area with a nice 4 bulb floro set up just sitting there. i might try the bonzai mother route once again.
I always like to keep the original mother...I find if there are any problems with rooting or if the strain is finicky it is much better to keep the original mother. Yeah, they take up a lot of room, but they will not degrade as quickly on you [ as a clone would], and from my experience her clones will grow faster and better than the clones from the healthiest clone you take off her. Point is my clones [from the mothers] have never produced new clones which have been better than the clones of the seed mother [unless the original mother became diseased]. It's quite simple. Take an original seed mum... from her take a clone...when it roots make a second mother. Then take clones from both mothers and grow them side by side....you'll see what I am getting at...better yields and I've been told better [more potent] taste. The person tasting was blinded as to which was which. They just asked why does some of it taste better? I would have personally never noticed. 'Cause I smoke too many f'in cig's.
That first cloning takes a toll it is like building a whole new person out of a limb. Copies of copies are always a little fuzzy...that's the price we pay for being able to replicate. We forget any genetic mutation carries on and amplifies. Mutations occur during the cloning process.
Coopdog: BTW that LUI leaf curl sounds like a possible genetic marker and not degradation, but one never knows.
Honestly, there are many a days when I wish I would not stick to these principles and as I set up another light for growth I cringe thinking of my security. Keeping plants healthy and transplanted properly for so many months can be very challenging, but in my opinion it is worth the hassle, because when I am done I have the original, not a very similar representation...I can always make a new mother from a clone, but hardly can I gain a mother back which has already been flowered. I find that degenerating genetic mutations occur during the re-veg, hence I do not ever re-veg.
All these "opinions" on how to keep a mother are from my own mistakes and blunders. I have tried both methods...particularly when trying to conserve space.
I find keeping the original mother to be superior, but also a big and I do mean very very big pain in the arse...
but honestly there has been a shift...herb is not what it used to be in many ways. It has degraded to an inbred level of liability....Storing and keeping annuals stable for many years is an ultimate challenge [and in a large part the cause of this shift]. Cross-breeding has allowed for vigor, but through time our noobish science techniques forged by mj illegality will eventually show. Mistakes made in the past will not be present till the future [p.s.- the future is today]. Our Bibles will be rewritten, as they have been many a times before. Our main goal should be to follow the path of the original landrace genetics. Instead, we keep the same "stud" or "mother"for years crossing and crossing and crossing....and the seeds sell like crazy while their clones drift around town. Eventually genetic shifts take place...and making matters worse the gems from these studs or super moms are crossed into one another leaving us with irregularities that virtually only the cannabinoid receptors of our brain can distinguish.
One might ask themselves how long is it safe to keep an original seed mother, let alone a clone of this plant, before we are introducing genetically unstable material into the cannabis gene pool...pls let's just give it a moments thought... I know I am going out on a limb with this y'all... but genetics can be pretty complicated...most human cells begin to mutate after a certain amount of reproductions and regenerations [hence the cancer in a smokers lungs]...genetic transcription can fail. No cloned annual that has lived for many years is without repaired damage, and so I implore; are we not damaging the cannabis gene pool by keeping such plants for so long....?
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One might ask themselves how long is it safe to keep an original seed mother, let alone a clone of this plant, before we are introducing genetically unstable material into the cannabis gene pool...
I like to keep my mother plants as small as possible ,so ill take small 2 or 3 cuts of the mother .Then keep one of the original cuts ,and put the mother and the new cut in with whatever else im flowering,keeping one rooted of the original in small form .I likr keeping the new cut,in a smaller thasn usaul pot and restrict pot changes to keep the new cuts growth to a minimum for space saving .
this method works well for me if you are running serveral new seeds / different stuff.But if yer gonna run multiple clones of the same mother ,then i keep her and let her get big so i can take multiple clones at once .