Are mother plants a waste of time?

I looked at this ( https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=190 ) after a friend had told me about his positive experiences with 'water cloning'. I assimilated the two techniques with the materials on hand and have had success with 10 of 13 cuttings on my first attempt. For details, you can view the details of my modest grow here ( https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/14103-opening-pandoras-box.html)

So if you can continuously produce new plants from any of the plants you have on hand, which you want to prune before they reach flowering cycle anyway.. what's the advantage of mainaining moher plants?

so u know that it is going to be a male or female... You take a clone and flower it so you can see the sex of the mother... then if the mother is female you keep it and keep making clones from her so you wont have to worry about sexing..

you know, that question is a bit of a waste of time, if you got the space to clone and veg and a second to flower in this is actually the way things are done dude

There are really important benefits to keeping a mother plant.

Anyone who has grown from seed knows that you always get a certain amount of variation between plants even on very stable ones, you seem to get the plants that just lag behind, or a plant that likes to branch out more.

By keeping a mother plant you grow your seeds out and pick the best genetics to clone from, then you have your mother plant growing and constantly providing clones of exactly the same genetics.

It seriously benefits sog growers, who would like to just "cola grow" have your mother cut the clones, veg for a week then straight into flower.

Sosure - if it's a clone I already know the sex.

Green_nobody - you missed the point thoroughly.

nongreenthumb - It seriously benefits sog growers, who would like to just "cola grow" have your mother cut the clones, veg for a week then straight into flower.

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Why not take the cuttings produced from when you trimmed those plants down for a cola growing and get them to root, producing your next crop?
Why keep unproductive plants around that are going to count against you in court when you can create a cycle that does not require them?

Good question.

His wording is subtle. He is saying to take clones from the trimmings of plants in veg. right before they go into flowering. then root and veg said clones until flowering and so on...

He is NOT saying the mother/clone techniques is no good. Just maybe a dedicated mother is unnecessary.

jazer said:

Sosure - if it's a clone I already know the sex.

Green_nobody - you missed the point thoroughly.



Why not take the cuttings produced from when you trimmed those plants down for a cola growing and get them to root, producing your next crop?
Why keep unproductive plants around that are going to count against you in court when you can create a cycle that does not require them?

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Because it would not really be possible to get decent enough cuttings with such a small veg time, cuttings come out fairly small and to grow them to a size where you get decent enough branching to make clones would slow you down, you just have a mother that keeps growing new tops continuously.

Thankyou my erudite friend!

It would only work if you took big enough cuttings though.. large enough to go straight to flower cycle.

Seems perfect for a SOG where you are only interested in producing colas. Putting all those cuttings to work could save the time effort space and risks in inherent in maintaining a supply of mother plants.

Worst case scenario is interruption to your supply. You'd have to lose use of your cloning tank for over 2 weeks or have all your plants slip deep enough into flower for it to be a problem. Wouldn't happen, and it seems a much safer bet than carrying a supply of mothers indefinitely.

Does anybody grow like this?

to grow them to a size where you get decent enough branching to make clones would slow you down,

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That's the tricky part there.

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The only cutting worth taking is from the oldest plant. No way that would work, but these cuttings are all from the same plant.. If you had 5-10 plants in your cycle and did your cuts late in the first - second week of flower.. you might be able to maintain an adequate supply of clones to safely dispense of your mothers. I haven't enough experience to say, but it seems the more branches you are dispensing of the better your odds are of needing less plants.

but your putting two weeks on to your harvest time because if you take off the difference in growth, you wont yield any more, maybe a slight increase but not enough to make it worth while. The key to keeping a mother plant is not to take the whole branch but take the top from the branch, down to the nearest node and then two ill grow in its place for next time.

jazer said:

Why keep unproductive plants around that are going to count against you in court when you can create a cycle that does not require them?

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The SOG grows I know of are done for commercial harvest, where the planned plant count is far above the current legal limits to start with. In that scenario its not an issue unless the 5-0 knocks on the door and your lawyer isn't doing what you pay him to do...

If you are only growing for your own personal usage (up to 6 flowering plants in CA), then it is totally feasable for you to germ seeds once (hopefully you get a female), and keep taking clones before each bloom period. Just don't stress the plants because any stresses will pass on to the next generation of clones taken, and the generation after that, and the generation after that, and the generation after that, etc.

Eddy Lepp had 35,254 plants going when he got nailed back in 2004, though I don't think his grow was SOG.... I am sure he had some mother plants!

take the top from the branch, down to the nearest node and then two ill grow in its place for next time.

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Good tip that.

Is there a consensus as to how big your plants should be before putting them into flower?
These are the smallest plants I've tried to bud, maybe I should have waited a bit but I'm
trying to set up a 2 week rotation.

up to 6 flowering plants in CA

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Nothing like that here, 10 plants or one ounce of Bud and the onus is on you to prove you
aren't a dealer. As one plant can yield an ounce of flower you are pretty much fucked from
the start.. Who's gonna worry about a few mothers with 35,000 plants on the go anyway?

hmmm wonder if I could grow a coca plant with my existing set up...