Motherplant question.

jpbeach28

Active Member
I have a motherplant that I have had in a dwc bucket for about a month now. Its a liberty haze clone I took while the plant was a couple weeks in flower. I had it in my little bubble cloner for the while it took it to revert back to veg. The growth finally took off and nodes are EVERYWHERE! but vegetative growth seems to have slowed up after its first burst. Like I said its been in the bucket taking nutes for a month. Yesterday I switched it to 12/12 which I will only do for 2 weeks just to get her to stretch, then put her back to veg to take clones from.
I have never had a mother plant nor done a sea of green before, but as far as this side of it goes is this a good practice since clones dont grow with same vigor as seeded plants?
As always any help from experienced growers is always welcome. I have 3 hydro grows using the scrog and a bunch of outdoor under my belt. New to dwc which will hold mums.
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
the reason clones don't grow as vigorously is because seedlings have a tap root. however well vegged clones quickly catch up and can yield just as much as plants grown from seed. think about lst and tying stems down. you'll get more bud sites and more sticky icky at harvest time.
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
I am going to lst, still figuring out the way I'm gonna do it tho since I'm not going to drill holes in my net pot. The plant itself is short and bushy which is how I want it. Im not going to flower it b/c its going to be a mother plant. The reason for going 12/12 for two weeks is to take advantage of the stretch to give it even more nodes and foliage to take clones from and then put it right back into veg. I was just wondering if anyone out there had any experience and advise with this practice. This is my first mother plant. Ive taken clones many times before, but never grown a straight up mother plant strictly for the purpose of clones. So I'm looking for good solid advice on growing the best mother plant I possibly can. This strain is a light feeder at 250ppm's. Anymore then that and the ppm's shoot up over night and I get nite burnt tips.
 

hermex

Active Member
I ended up turning to a 24 hour veg because of a low temperature issue. I'll grow out a plant tying it to itself to bend it (right now I have a canopy with over 20 equal tops on a plant that has been in veg for a little over two months) and also leaving one or two branches alone to grow out a clone. Basically, if I'm going to flower it then I'm training it and only growing out the very top leaf group. If I'm going to use that piece as a clone, then I don't trim it at all until I cut it.

While I can see your logic in using the 12/12 to get some stretch and make cloning easier, I'd never reinvent the wheel if I was already rolling down the road. When I've had 2 inch clones and when I've had 12 inch clones they all finish about the same once their root base is established. Personally, I never keep a mother plant, I clone her and see established roots before putting her in flower, then I clone her baby before flower and I continue the process for generations on end until I introduce new genetics to the garden.
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
This plant has very well established roots and has actually been two months since the cut, but it just doesnt seem to be getting any bigger at this point. Its like its plateau'd off. Thats why I'm trying the stretch trick I read about. But even at 2 months I could only take like two clones from it. Ill post pics when I get home. How are you able to not keep mothers and run a sea of green garden?
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
Also I'm having trouble starting a seed in dwc. How does one do this once the seed terminates. Do you put it in Rockwood and cover the hole by pinching the rockwool then just cove the whole thing with hydroton or what? I have one seed left which is og kush from hso and I dont want to fuck this one up too. I screwed my og#18 and was quite upset.
 

midnitetoak

Active Member
A few hints to help yo:
1) foolproof germination method- ph a cup of water(drop or 2 of ph down to 6.0), soak rockwool cubes for 5 min, put cubes in a salad spinner & go it around til excess water is removed from cubes, stab cubes with a toothpick on all sides to add air holes & open up the middle for your seed, put in your seed, then put the seeded cube in a ziplok bag( I like ZL marinating bags due to their flat bottoms that stand upright), blow in some air to fill up the bag & seal, put in a dark warm place(room temp or slightly higher) like a kitchen clipboard -use a seed blanket if you have one...4-5 days to sprout move to veg area low light first week...works every time

2) ez LST- I use a very simple SCROG net made out of cheap nylon clothesline or cord($3 @Walgreens) and knot up a net tied off to the four posts in my tent..loop it 4 to 6" apart to form a grid that is adjustable to changing height... Save those little wire bread ties to tie down your tops when they get big enough to lay down & then watch the lower branches become new colas increasing yields- can also work to LST in a SOG style hybrid grow

3)put your mamas in dirt- your mother plant will eventually root rot in a DWC no matter what you do to mitigate it. Funk occurs no matter of you keep a lo res temp & use bennies but you can stave it off with hygrozyme, chiller/ice to keep low res temps, and frequent res changes & regular cleaning (see hiesenberg tea sticky- a wealth of info on this). For this reason you might find it easier to put your clones in the DWC once rooted and keep your mother plant in soil indefinitely for a perpetual grow
 

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
I have a motherplant that I have had in a dwc bucket for about a month now. Its a liberty haze clone I took while the plant was a couple weeks in flower. I had it in my little bubble cloner for the while it took it to revert back to veg. The growth finally took off and nodes are EVERYWHERE! but vegetative growth seems to have slowed up after its first burst. Like I said its been in the bucket taking nutes for a month. Yesterday I switched it to 12/12 which I will only do for 2 weeks just to get her to stretch, then put her back to veg to take clones from.
I have never had a mother plant nor done a sea of green before, but as far as this side of it goes is this a good practice since clones dont grow with same vigor as seeded plants?
As always any help from experienced growers is always welcome. I have 3 hydro grows using the scrog and a bunch of outdoor under my belt. New to dwc which will hold mums.
Don't put your mama into flower to be able to get more cuts. Thats crazy! Dealing with re-veg growth(which you will if you do that)sucks! It takes a long time to FULLY revert back to regular growth. Besides, it's just not good for the mama's stability down the road....genetic drift, it happens.
As far as mamas in dwc: i've tried it in the past, it's a pain in the ass. Soooo much easier growing mothers in a pot full of dirt, or coco, or even soil.
Here's what i do these days: I always snap extra cuts. I start vegging all rooted cuts. Peel off one or two or three ;-) of the best clones, put them into pro-mix or coco for new moms. And once those new mamas start kickin ass, bye bye old mamas
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
Ive never heard of that(scrogging a mother) before. I dont plan on keeping each mom longer than 5 months or so, which is only a couple past normal hydro plant life.
 

FilthyFletch

Mr I Can Do That For Half
Your doing just about everything you can to stress the hell out of your mother plant it would seem lol. You need to plant it in whatever permanant home it will have. makes ure the lights are on 18/6 or 24 hours on. Make sure you went back to a heavy nitrogen feed to stop the flowering wants and begin the feeding again. Flipping back into 12/12 your gonna be lucky if every cutting isnt a hermie.
 

midnitetoak

Active Member
No I SCROG the girls I intend to harvest buds from during late veg & flower phase... Moms just chill in dirt-cups no need to train them really....just tape a leaf to the side of the pot if you want to LST mama plants for even light penetration. I think scroggin your mom is illegal in some states anyways
 

midnitetoak

Active Member
Yeah not sure that 12/12 switch back & forth will work to your advantage. I've stressed out plants doing this before & they hermed out on me
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
So switched it back to 18/6. It was on 12/12 for like 36 hours so hopefully the plant will recover quickly. These are a few pics of her. How the he'll do I get her big & bushy?!?! Its in a small cab w/ a 250w cfl. I have a bunch of 100watt cfl's and i'll add more light I guess but every other plant grown in this box got very big to where space restriction became an issue. So why is this one staying so small. Ive kept the ppm's where she wants em, kept res temps right and all that good stuff. So what gives??
 

jpbeach28

Active Member
Sent from my SCH-L710 using Rollitup mobile app

Says I'm either not logged in, which I know I am, or I dont have permission.
I dont know why, but this seem to happen to me quite often. I also cant view pics half the time. Maybe ive watched too much porn on this phone and shes just messed up??
 

Garden Boss

Well-Known Member
No I SCROG the girls I intend to harvest buds from during late veg & flower phase... Moms just chill in dirt-cups no need to train them really....just tape a leaf to the side of the pot if you want to LST mama plants for even light penetration. I think scroggin your mom is illegal in some states anyways
"I think scroggin your mom is illegal in some states anyways" LOL damn that's funny...
 
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