What's the Oldest Non-Clone Mum You Know of?

[Douglas.Curtis]

Many of us have had clones of older strains. These are clones of clones, of clones of the original plant. I know if you keep the plant in veg, you could keep it alive for years without flowering. I do this with bonsai plants quite well.

What's the oldest "original plant" you know of?
What's the oldest known cannabis plant still growing today?

 

[GOT_BUD?]

I know there's a few members on here that claim to have 30+ year old moms.

Mine are less than a year after having to start over again.

 

[kickarse]

Gone 20 years with one

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Interesting, thank you. Myself I'm a "new mum after a year" kind of guy, though I've kept a few for several years as bonsai before.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Anyone have a photo of a 10+ year old plant?

 

[therevverend]

I know this isn't quite the same thing, but a buddy started a seed, grew a plant out and flowered it. It got huge, super super bushy with lots of tops. It was one of those strains that keeps producing more and more shoots. It had very thin leaves and an insane amount of frost so we called it the crystal sativa. Even though it had thin leaves it was still a quick finisher, 8 or 9 weeks. It was potent, one of the best highs I've ever smoked and tasted amazing. He revegged it and gave it back to me.

I put it in a really big container, by now it was producing way, way, too many tops. It was so vigorous I had to keep trimming tops off. I flowered it out under 1000 watt light, got a huge harvest, dozens of tops, revegged it and gave it back to him.

By now it was too big to grow properly indoors. He put it outside in May. He couldn't let it get much taller then six feet so he dug a pit, put it in there. In the ground. I have no idea how many tops it had by this point. It got huge. He started hanging bricks off the branches to keep them from getting too tall and seen by the neighbors. It didn't stop it, he had to hang more bricks. If the neighbors saw it they thought he was insane, this huge bush with thin leaves with all these bricks hanging all over it. Man he got a lot of pot that year.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Nice

 

[Lyfespan]

moms are kept till big enough for clones, then a clone becomes mom and mom gets flipped.

why risk having your mom root bound and stressed

 

[Dropped Cat]

The longest I kept a donor plant was way back in the
beginning of my cannabis growing journey.

Maybe 8 or 9 months, much maintenance, root pruning, etc.

I graduated to taking cuttings of the breeding stock every couple months.

Mostly flip the donor mums after cuttings root, healthy stock that way.

 

[budsicles]

Just a few years for me. I think the main reason that people have a hard time keeping an individual plant alive for more than a few years is because the core of the root mass becomes so dense that anaerobic conditions become inevitable. Nutrient imbalances, pH, and bacterial issues then manifest themselves as increasing difficulty in maintaining peak plant health. One solution to this is to prune off the bottom half of the root ball, then re-plant with part of the main stem buried. The theory is that the stem will sprout more roots and the root ball will basically migrate up the trunk of the plant. You could theoretically do this forever as the plant is regularly replacing old tissues with new ones. But I have found it to be more trouble than it's worth.

For me, the most convenient method is to root prune around the entirety of the mass. Just an inch or so...every 4-8 months. Then I replace her with a fresh clone after around 1-2 years.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Yep, everything being posted jives with what my experiences are. My hat off to anyone who's kept the original plant for 20+ years. Making a new mum once a year is significantly easier for me.