Taking Care of Mom

[Redbuddz]

High All

I have been growing for some 20 years now. Mostly just a few plants outdoors at my house that I would start from seed but I have also had some indoor grows too where I was running several 1000w fixtures. I have kept mother plants and made my clones when I grew indoors but because growing indoors can be so different and there being a lot to learn I never did really learn how to take care of and properly maintain my mother plants. I currently have 4 mom's. 2 that were clones from the original seed mother and then I have 2 that are clones of the first 2. I do have some specific questions but in general I'm just trying to gain some knowledge on keeping healthier mom's. One question I have is, what is the life expectancy of a grown from seed mother/ 1 year? 2yr? more? is there a proper way to prune a mother plant? Should I remove certain branches? or just let everything grow? Another question I have ,has to do with the pre flowers/ flowers my moms have and if that affects the way the clone will grow during it's life and ultimately will that affect the potency of the final product? lastly, is using 2nd and 3rd generation clones good practice for use as a mother plant?


I'm sure to get lots of replies and at times I can not keep up so I will thank everyone in advance for whatever info and input they add to my thread


Keep on Growing Y'all

Redbuddz

 

[Redbuddz]

Hard to believe that no one has any input on this highly important matter

 

[Jellyfish]

Never had a mother plant die from natural causes, so I always figured they never die unless you kill them.

Are you keeping said mother plants outdoors?

 

[vostok]

My mothers go for no longer than 1x year...maybe 18 months by rarely past 2 years, and never more than 1-2 plants at a time
at each plucking/cloning results in more and more tips, to the point that her canopy is full and smooth, as she gets old these nutes in the soil she begins to fade ...no matter what I do ...lol
as for potency ..if the mother is healthy, so is the clone, more so if the mother has great light and a fantastic grow space, ...the potency is consistent or should be

good luck
"V"

 

[Redbuddz]

My Moms are indoors under a 400wMH.

Does anyone have any thoughts on using 2nd and 3rd generation clones as mother plants

thanks for the replies guys

 

[5th]

My thoughts are its just fine. It's a clone.

As in it has the same everything that would make you want to keep the previous moms.

 

[Redbuddz]

Makes sense 5th, was just unsure

 

[carson]

better to keep them from autoflowering through root boundness if possible. People say you can keep mothers forever if you maintain them by cutting them back, repotting, trimming the roots, and feeding properly. Look into "Bonsai Mother plants" or "Bonsai moms"

 

[Redbuddz]

Good info, thanks Carson

 

[mtbazz]

I just prune mine every once in awhile to keep them small and either clone the cuttings or toss them if I don't need any clones. If I think I'd like to keep the mom for awhile but don't want/need clones, I'll just let it get rootbound.

Longest I've kept a Mom for was around two years...two reasons for that.

one, i just grew tired of that strain..

two, it could have been my imagination or i just got used to the strain, but the older the mom's got the more the quality of the product from the cuttings from that mom seemed to degrade....