Setting up a mother/clone room

[hot cheetos]

Hello everyone

I just had some questions regarding mother room set ups. I'll be using a 5x5 tent and put 3-5 mothers in there, undecided grow medium (recommendations?), with either a 600w MH or some T5s (recommendations?), and will be rooting clones in there as well. I just needed to know if the mother room set up is identical to the veg or flower room? Will i be needing intake and exhaust fans as well as carbon filters and osculating fans, dehumidifier, etc. The whole 9 yards?

Most of the mother rooms ive seen have zero ventilation or fans, no carbon filters. Basically just the mother in whatever grow medium, and a light.

Also, as far as cloning goes, what is the best way to start the clones off? Solo cups, rapid rooter, rockwool cubes, humidity dome, cloner box, etc??

 

[budsnblunts]

Hello everyone

I just had some questions regarding mother room set ups. I'll be using a 5x5 tent and put 3-5 mothers in there, undecided grow medium (recommendations?), with either a 600w MH or some T5s (recommendations?), and will be rooting clones in there as well. I just needed to know if the mother room set up is identical to the veg or flower room? Will i be needing intake and exhaust fans as well as carbon filters and osculating fans, dehumidifier, etc. The whole 9 yards?

Most of the mother rooms ive seen have zero ventilation or fans, no carbon filters. Basically just the mother in whatever grow medium, and a light.

Also, as far as cloning goes, what is the best way to start the clones off? Solo cups, rapid rooter, rockwool cubes, humidity dome, cloner box, etc??

Hey man I reckon a 600 MH will toast any clones you wham under that even with shade cloth, the temps will just be too high. I used a 250 MH or 400 hps for my mothers. I could get 20 good cuts per mother each week, also the warmth put off by both those wattages is perfect over a metres distance (shade cloth necessary), you'll want an oscillating fan in there to promote the lateral growth that much quicker to. I don't think a filter is necersarry with just mothers as they don't really stink while in veg unless those temps get to high, then you can kiss your clones goodbye to. Another reason to stick to a smaller light. Reason I haven't spoken of the t5's is because you will need a supplementary heat source for the bottom of your clones. Where the bigger lights (250 MH - 400 HPS) create a good humidity inside the clone domes. Hope this doesn't sound like a heap of rubbish I'm just typing what I'm thinking lol. I reckon stick with dirt for the medium as it is less work. Rockwool in my opinion is by far the best cloning medium, due to the fact that it improvises room awesomely, but jiffes are good aswell as just plain dirt. You can try a hormone if this is your first time cloning to help success rate, or you can try your hand at a honey with a little boiling water added to it then cooled. Maintaining mothers is really fun and I love cloning man. Wicked just watching them grow all the time. 24 hour light cycles aswell. If you think any of this advice is handy just let me know if I can give any more. Good luck man and keep safe.

 

[hot cheetos]

Hey man I reckon a 600 MH will toast any clones you wham under that even with shade cloth, the temps will just be too high. I used a 250 MH or 400 hps for my mothers. I could get 20 good cuts per mother each week, also the warmth put off by both those wattages is perfect over a metres distance (shade cloth necessary), you'll want an oscillating fan in there to promote the lateral growth that much quicker to. I don't think a filter is necersarry with just mothers as they don't really stink while in veg unless those temps get to high, then you can kiss your clones goodbye to. Another reason to stick to a smaller light. Reason I haven't spoken of the t5's is because you will need a supplementary heat source for the bottom of your clones. Where the bigger lights (250 MH - 400 HPS) create a good humidity inside the clone domes. Hope this doesn't sound like a heap of rubbish I'm just typing what I'm thinking lol. I reckon stick with dirt for the medium as it is less work. Rockwool in my opinion is by far the best cloning medium, due to the fact that it improvises room awesomely, but jiffes are good aswell as just plain dirt. You can try a hormone if this is your first time cloning to help success rate, or you can try your hand at a honey with a little boiling water added to it then cooled. Maintaining mothers is really fun and I love cloning man. Wicked just watching them grow all the time. 24 hour light cycles aswell. If you think any of this advice is handy just let me know if I can give any more. Good luck man and keep safe.

Appreciate the detailed reply brother! Informative. Guess I'll just stick to T5s with a heatpad for the clones, in a dome? Thinking of 2 T5s with one being weaker for the clones and the stronger one for the mothers. Would the tent need to be vented with exhaust and intake ducting?

 

[budsnblunts]

hey mqn two t5's of same power would be sweet. dependn on rm size no ventilation should b gud as well.

 

[jesbuds]

Same principle keeping a mom as keeping any other plant, just don't flower it.

As far as clones, dozens of ways to do it and will be a preference thing. I use jiffy pellets, some root gel/powder and a dome but varies by each grower. Seen some phenomenally easy aero-cloners that folks have used but wasn't for me. I require domes because of where I live, my humidity rarely goes above 25-30%, don't use a heatpad though.

With the lights, just use the same light for clones and moms, don't need much, this would be more than adequate (comes with bulbs as well):

T5 Lights

Or just some cheap 2 bulb T5 lights from Home Depot (maybe $50-60) but the Vivagrow lights are not much more and mine seem fairly well made.

 

[St. Phatty]

It's easy to forget to water them

and it also happens that you may go out of town and will not want to ask a friend to do the favor of watering them

so ... for the mothers -

* medium light with the right PAR
* attention to the temperature (heat makes the plants need watering more often, cold is bad for seedlings which are often in the same room as the mothers)
* big enough pots


Actually, right now I have a few fathers that are getting that same treatment. 40 watts of Do-it-Yourself LED for 3 plants, using a computer power supply 12 volt line and a resistor to help set the current.

Clones from a neighbor's summer grow. He had 2 female plants that were good and great, these are their brothers, in one gallon pots.


Normally if I have a plant I want to preserve I put it in a 4 gallon pot. If I go out of town, I over-water it a bit so that the pan it is in has extra water ... something I would not do with a flowering Cannabis plant.