Takin the plunge !!! Seed to Mother maintainence questions

[Dreamscape]

Hello everybody

Thanks for stopping by ... I've been cruising around IC for around 6 months or so soaking up info and evaluating the options and I feel i'm finally getting ready to take the plunge and pop my growing cherry... So of course i've been reading and reading and reading ...

However after searching the forums for the past couple of hours i've yet to find a moderately detailed step by step kind of thread for going from the seed to mother ... I pretty much understand where to go AFTER THAT but these first steps i'm not completely solid on ...

Could you guys possibly lend some advice and assist me in filling the gaps? I'm very much an analytical / weigh the pros and cons type of guy thats needs some type of explaination as to WHY X method is better than Z method so please be patient with me if you can ... I'm not a total noob but if I get annoying just tell me i'm an idiot and to stfu - I wont take it personal


THE PLAN ... ... ... so far

+ Eventually for my end goal - I'd like to have 2-4 bonzai'd mothers in a cab , each able to take around 20 cuttings every two months or so for a hydro setup that would run around 36 plants ... I figure with four moms eventually I could mix things up a bit between strains ... right now i'm just focusing on getting two mothers to start ...

+ I have a 10 pack of feminized dutch passion Blueberry beans and want to grow out the whole pack and choose the best 2 mothers (which I plan on doing both bonzai'd in the same cab) out of those ten. As a beginner what are the absolute core principles needed to keep these babies alive. I understand maintaining PH at around 7 and not under/overwatering them ... Keep the environment in check with heat / humidity and air flow regulation ... anything else off the top of your head ? ... I have plenty of material to thumb through ,I just want to make sure i'm on the right track so far.


+ I want to use fox farm ocean forest soil w/ 50% perlite for the medium and fox farm "marine cuisine" for the nutrients. At this point - since i'm starting from seed - and i want to plant 10 of them - what size pot should I start with for germination and what size should I transfer them too ? Should I go to 10 individual X oz. cups or each into 2 inch pots or what do you guys think ?

+ After they're grown out to a certain height / age ?? ... What characteristics should I look for when selecting premium mothers - thickest stem - most vigorous growth ?? ... Also in order to check the pheno's i'd have to flower them out right ? ... and then reveg them in order to pluck clones ?

+ After selecting the two primary mothers I want to construct / purchase a cab that i'll be able to house the pots , plants and lights in ... Considering I want to be able to take around 20 cuttings off of each mother once every 2 months which lighting should I go with - multiple CFL blues or a small MH ? Obviously the less maintenance the better , especially when it comes to heat so if possible to get that amount of cuttings from CFL's i'd prefer to go with that ...

+ What do you think would be an appropriate cab size for housing minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 bonzai'd mothers with pots and lights ?

I understand that i'm kind of asking alot of questions here so absolutely any help in solving these issues is appreciated. Thanks a million guys - KEEP GROWIN !!!

PS. Do mothers usually stink so bad that a carbon scrubber would be required ??

thanks

 

[Brastaman]

hey dreamy.

Well...I think you want a more acidic ph feed for your plants. They love it. I think certain vital nutrients are most available between 5.8 and 6.5;

If you plant all the seeds in one pot it will be difficult to differentiate between each of them. Also, the roots will get involved with each other; this can be a mess. One possibility is to sprout each seed in its own small dixie-type cup.

Remember your goal! You want beautiful flowers not beautiful plants.

Take clones before you flower. Mark them with precision and then flower the seeds. Re-vegetation causes a lot of unwanted stress to a plant. My experiments with revegetation resulted in potency loss and yield loss.

Cfl's can be sufficient for clones and their mothers. Add some extra lumens when you begin to flower though.

I usually use about One and a half square feet per plant.

 

[yes_i_cannabis]

yea man..don't reveg them...take clones when they are mature enough..take a few from each plant and keep them labelled...after you've taken the clones let the plants(the mature ones youv cut from) veg for a week or two more, then turn them by adjusting the light period (of course)..let them fully bud right out..you will have an idea of which ones are the best plants as they approach the end of there bud cycle...discard the the clones of the plants that aren't as good as the others (if room is an issue)..then...harvest and smoke the weed...the best plants will be obvious..by now the clones will be itching to be turned..so, choose the best of the clones(that corrispondes to the best plant) as your mother or mothers..and let the rest bud out in the 12/12 cycle..
the advanteges of this method are huge..
1.you get to smoke the end result before you choose a mother..
2. you can find the best pheno's and most vigerous growers (and you will already have thenm cloned before they turn, so by the time you know which plants are the best, you will already have clones vegged up and ready to follow)
3.you still get a pretty good supply of weed while your getting the system down pat.
4.you will have a large number of clones to choose the best, of the best..

Yea, have your ph more acid then 7.0..

About 1- 1/2 square ft per mum is good, so your mum cab wouldn't need to be any bigger then 4-5 sqaure ft..but remember..you will need more room for your clones..if you only take 3 clones per plant, thats still 30 clones..when they start to veg up they will need more room...thats why its importanrt to find the gpood pheno early and piss the clones that corespond to the not so good plants off..you only want the best dooers, of the best plants..

you could layer your cab..ie.mums on the bottom, then veg on top of them.and clones on the top..???

good luck anyway dude...first grow is fun (and frustrating)...
cheers

 

[Guest]

Choosing a mother plant is a decision that shouldnt be taken quickly,if you're like me you'll be growing that pheno out for years.I'd like to suggest that since you are new you may want to forget about keeping mother plants and do as I do which is take clones from clones continuously.The first thing you want to do is to flower out all your female seedplants,keeping a "copy" of each one.Its highly suggested you take your cuttings in veg before switching to 12/12 for a variety of reasons,this may mean you take a few male cuttings big deal.You can get a good idea of which pheno's are superior from the flowered seedplant but dont make your decision yet!!I found its important to grow a couple "generations" of clones before making that final decicion of which pheno to keep.Like I said the flowered seedplant gives a good idea,but its the flowered clone that you want to base your decision on,not the flowered seedplant.The 3 things I look for in a pheno are quality,yield and finishing time.You may find the finishing times of the clones to be somewhat different than that of the seedplant,another reason to base your decision on the flowered clone.I just dropped a pheno here and there over the course of maybe 3 "generations" until I was left with the pheno I wanted.I've been growing a killer pheno of blockhead this way for about 2 years now and the final product is every bit as good if not better than the first clones.If you take all your cuttings in veg before 12/12 starting with the original seedplant there's no reason you cant keep a pheno going indefinately

 

[Dreamscape]

Thanks for all the advice guys ...

I think i'm going to construct and or modify a cab for mothers and clones now ... it seems the most sensible.

Although i am a beginner i have enough extra time on my hands so that I won't neglect any steps neccessary to keep these babies alive ... its just getting the system dialed in ...

Question : Whats the need for greater acidity in the nutrient water - better uptake of nutes ??

Thanks again guys
~ Dream

 

[sproutco]

Best thing is to grow out your seed and flower. Before flowering, take cuttings and number each clone and the mother plants. You would pick your mother because it had a stronger high, bigger buds, better smell, squat size, etc... what ever you are after. Here's what you could use for your water ph. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31294&highlight=sulfuric+acid Here is a ph chart for mj. Potting soil like you plan on using would have the same ph as hydroponic on the chart. You can see availability of nutrients is influenced by ph. http://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/91934936ph-nutrient_chart.JPG

 

[OGDread]

Hello everybody

1 Should I go to 10 individual X oz. cups or each into 2 inch pots or what do you guys think ?

2+ After they're grown out to a certain height / age ??

3 ... What characteristics should I look for when selecting premium mothers - thickest stem - most vigorous growth ??

4 Considering I want to be able to take around 20 cuttings off of each mother once every 2 months which lighting should I go with - multiple CFL blues or a small MH ? Obviously the less maintenance the better , especially when it comes to heat so if possible to get that amount of cuttings from CFL's i'd prefer to go with that ...

5 + What do you think would be an appropriate cab size for housing minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 bonzai'd mothers with pots and lights ?

6 PS. Do mothers usually stink so bad that a carbon scrubber would be required ??

thanks

I numbered the q's for easy of reference.
1. Each in a jiffy, till roots show, then to the 5L, then to the final pot. 25L or bigger.

2. take em at least two weeks after roots show and repot, before cloning them.

3. -My- prime criteria for mothers would be smell/tase/potency, and then vigour. For cash crops, vigour is a must. Flower speed. Good stems is for hemp.

4. So theyll veg for 8 weeks? Go with fluo, that will do nicely. I have used 6 parallel 30 watters with succes. The 400wat HPS for speedier vegging.

5. One and a half meter minimum. But it depends on your bonzai skills and the type of plant.

6. Mothers are kept vegging, so they dont stink much. Keep other plants in the house, and they wont be noticed.

One more advise, you seem very well prepared for a first grow. Dont overdo or overplan it. Dont go too big, and throw away stuff that doesnt fit yer grow rooms or style.

And Happy growing!

 

[OGDread]

Oh, the bonsai mother dont need 25L pots.. my mistake.. bonsais need small pots and root ball trimming. Forgive me, I dont bonsai

 

[Dreamscape]

Thanks a million for the advice guys ... its greatly appreciated ...

Considering what i'd like to accomplish (4 bonzai'd mothers and a 40 cutting cloner) can you think of any good links to cab threads that could house this comfortably without being excessively big ?