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Suggestions for seeds that will result in the longest living (perma-veg) plant?

R

-Rioht-

Member
I've gotten to the point where I can grow enough bud for my personal use without hitting my plant limit. As such, I am trying to find the strain with the longest life span so that I can keep the plant alive for as long as possible, purely as an ornamental houseplant.

Knowing that almost all modern hybrid strains have been bred for shorter lifespans, I am looking for true landraces to do this (hence why I'm looking for ace seeds :))

I have also read posts on reddit suggesting that some landrace strains, such as indonesian strains flower multiple over 2-3 years. However, I've found no evidence suggesting this.

Anyone have any ideas on what would be best? Dubi do you have any mothers that has thrived over the years?

Thanks in advance!
 
WelderDan

WelderDan

Well-known member
Veteran
People keep mother plants for years. Unless a strain is auto, or has semi auto traits like starting to flower when it becomes rootbound (Sweet Pink Grapefruit comes to mind), then it is a potential candidate. Using a 24/0, 20/4 or 18/6 light schedule, you can potentially keep most photoperiod strains in a vegetative state indefinitely. Even then, a cut can be taken and a whole new mother started.
 
B

burmese

Active member
try some longest flow. nepalese with longest flow. equatorial ,,f1 will do the job,, if yyou mean outdoor
 
f-e

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
I don't foresee a limit regarding how long a mum can be kept. Even cuttings off cuttings off cuttings.... has shown no adverse effect, >50 times later. Though most people do see some degradation over that sort of period.
 
Drewsif

Drewsif

Member
I have Cannabis in every room of the house. Both blooming bonzais and neutered full size males. Under ambient light they don't grow much. No special strain required.
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
f-e said:
I don't foresee a limit regarding how long a mum can be kept. Even cuttings off cuttings off cuttings.... has shown no adverse effect, >50 times later. Though most people do see some degradation over that sort of period.
Click to expand...

But there must be a limit no? I have heard of people keeping mothers for ~15years, but there's never any explanations about why they ended (whether they eventually flowered, were put into flower, died from disease or died from old age).

Thinking about it now, I think disease and pest resistance are probably important factors to ensure the plant stays health and disease free for as long as possible.
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
So far, after going through ace's catalogue I have the following:

Burma Myanmar
Ethiopian standard
Kashmir Baramulla Valley (have been farmed 8n region but are listed as a 'longer vegging plant')
Panama (already have 3 of these, and it has moderate resistance to pests/mold but has been inbred to F12)
Urgam Valley (farmed, but in an open setting year round, natural growing)






Things I looked for:
High pest (especially aphids which we get every year)/disease resistance
No or minimal breeding work done, especially to shorten flowering time. I even eliminated ones where local tribes had been known to breed the plants for harvest.
Slow-growing plants
Similar growing climates (higher latitude, high humidity, cold resistant to 15°C)
Plants with thicker stems for support
 
A

ArcticHerbsman

Active member
Hey Rhiot, cool project! The Ethiopian is a beautiful and elegant plant, quite hardy and also said to be tolerating to cold. They dont smell strong. Soft, friendly plants. Must be nice to have a giant lady in the livingroom. Good luck!
 
O

organicganjaguy

New member
I have the exact plant you want, I got it by accident though, lol, I started a seed in my window that a friend gave me along with a few other seeds, anyway the one my friend gave me never did anything, it got 2" tall with a few leaves and just stayed that way, this was in like june, so anyway fast forward to now and it is still 2" tall with about 2 hairs poking out, maybe I should breed it and sell you a seed, haha.
but to answer your question as to how long you can keep a plant alive clone after clone, seems to be forever if you grow it properly, if you aren't an excellent grower it will get weaker over time, as well as the other guy said, strains like grapefruit seem to auto flower based on being root bound, you can reset this by putting the plant outside during the summer and then clone it after it gets branches again
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
Update:

I have been doing more research into what the characteristics are of long living trees and what actually causes trees to die. I.e., do trees actually die of old age?

One review i found reports that:

"Longevity in trees is achieved by means of numerous behaviors and characteristics, some of which are unique to trees. These include the retention of stem-cell-like meristematic cells after each growth cycle; the ability to replace non-vigorous, lost, or damaged organs, both above and below ground, in the presence or absence of trauma; a sectored vascular system that allows part of a tree to survive where a whole one cannot; formation of clones; a mechanical structure that can react to forces tending to de-optimize it; a hormonal control system that coordinates the above behaviors; and synthesis of defensive compounds."

Of these, the following are potential characteristics that I can look for in a potential plant:
  • root regrowth (i.e. if root all is trimmed)
  • success rate of cloning
  • resistance to pests and disease
[/LIST]

Which means that so far I am on the right track with what I have been searching for to date with a focus on resistance to pests/disease.

Success rate if cloning is something that i may have to look into further, and hopefully growers here can provide feedback on their cloning experiences of the plants I have shortlisted.

Some other interesting findings suggest that in general plants do not die from old age, but instead die because of one or more of the following factors:
  • low site quality, such as poor drainage or compacted soil
  • improper location (i.e. jungle plants in the arctic)
  • changes in habitat (changes in wind, heat, rain etc)
  • competition from other vegetation
  • weather influences
  • human activity

Finally, I also looked into bonsai trees and old age as I have heard of trees living to over 1000 years. Infant, one of the oldest bonsai trees on the planet is a ficus tree that is over 1000 years old
. This is really interesting as ficus trees are reported to only live for a maximum of 20 years.

This latest round of research has given me alot of hope that as long as I can control the environment and reduce the impact of any of these factors, then the lifespan of the plant could potentially be indefinite.

Hoping to make a seed selection shortly once I review what strains I can actually secure domestically as it seems ace seeds doesn't ship to Canada unfortunately.

Thanks for reading everyone, and appreciate the feedback so far.
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
I have made my decision and will actually be going with erdpurt for a few reasons.

The strain has a high resistance to not only pests and disease, but also to colder temperatures which is a must for my climate. Obviously this will be indoors so won't get exposed to any freezing temperatures, but it does get down to 14°C inside in the winter, and incase we lose power or something I want it to be able to handle a bit of cold.

Additionally, the plant has a more compact size and grows predominantly in a single column with minimal branching. This was the main reason I chose this strain as I will have to prune it/cut it back which will result in potential opportunities for disease, stress and regenerative issues.

Finally, its also a strain I really wanted to try :). Also threw in some CBD #1 as a Christmas present to myself!

Will update again once I get the seeds.
 
B

Big M

Member
Hey Rioht, cool project idea! Just wanted to say that I'm pretty sure ACE ships to Canada still, but not the US. So you should be good there.

Nice part about your project is that you can always use your houseplant as a mother to take some cuttings off of. Maybe time your pruning with when you need some cuts.
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
Big M said:
Hey Rioht, cool project idea! Just wanted to say that I'm pretty sure ACE ships to Canada still, but not the US. So you should be good there.

Nice part about your project is that you can always use your houseplant as a mother to take some cuttings off of. Maybe time your pruning with when you need some cuts.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I forgot to mention in my last post that I did actually get this through ace. Maybe I was wrong about them not shipping to Canada or they updated it.

Got 3 more free panamas with the order too :).
 
dubi

dubi

ACE Seeds Breeder
Vendor
Veteran
Hi Right,

Thank you very much for supporting our work! :)

Yes, we do keep parental plants in our mother room that are more than 20 years old.

For your plan of having an indoor ornamental cannabis plant for long term, it's better to choose very tropical sativa strains like Oldtimer's Haze of very long flowering, late response to flowering and that can easily reveg, this type of equatorial sativas are easier to keep in long term. Just place a tropical sativa indoors beside a window where it can receive some direct light and expand the photoperiod over 12 hours per day with some room light while you are at home and will be enough to keep her alive permanently growing. Prune in case it gets too big.

I won't choose ErdPurt for this as ErdPurt has semi autoflowering tendencies and it tends to flower at some point (especially when it feels rootbound) and later it is quite difficult to reveg.
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
dubi said:
Hi Right,

Thank you very much for supporting our work! :)

Yes, we do keep parental plants in our mother room that are more than 20 years old.

For your plan of having an indoor ornamental cannabis plant for long term, it's better to choose very tropical sativa strains like Oldtimer's Haze of very long flowering, late response to flowering and that can easily reveg, this type of equatorial sativas are easier to keep in long term. Just place a tropical sativa indoors beside a window where it can receive some direct light and expand the photoperiod over 12 hours per day with some room light while you are at home and will be enough to keep her alive permanently growing. Prune in case it gets too big.

I won't choose ErdPurt for this as ErdPurt has semi autoflowering tendencies and it tends to flower at some point (especially when it feels rootbound) and later it is quite difficult to reveg.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dubi!

Thats amazing to hear you have mothers that are 20 years old! I also appreciate the advice with going for a tropical saliva.

I started to come to the same conclusion after I read the entire erdpurt thread and hearing about the plants starting flower based on container size. So sounds like, from my current collection (Erdpurt, CBD #1 and Panama), that Panama would be my best option?
 
R

-Rioht-

Member
Also Dubi,

Do you happen to know if there is any differences between keeping a male or female long term?

Are either one better genetically suited for keeping long term?
 
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