Best system for a mother

Hi, I'm just about to take cuttings from my best 5 Master Kush regulars to eventually have the best one as a mother (just about to flip 12/12)

Im just wondering on what system to use for her as I'm full hydro NFT .

I have never used DWC & have been looking at that but am open to anything ...all suggestions appreciated

unless you need huge numbers of cuttings, and are okay with the extra monitoring, I’d stay away from mothers in hydro. It can be done though.

I suggest soil or coco, more forgiving with less maintenance. But slower growth

NFT is fine if that's what you're comfortable with, use a Hugo block and change out the mother regularly, so use a mother for 1 harvests worth of clones then replace her with another clone, I've kept them in rock wool Hempys, dirt, Hugo blocks both drip and flood.

You don't mention how many clones and how often you'll be taking them, this is a factor cos if you need 4 cuts every 2 weeks u might wanna have multiple smaller mothers in a rotation in Hugo blocks, or if you need 100 every 3 months you might wanna have 1 or 2 in big pots on drip or flood

Blue brother said:

NFT is fine if that's what you're comfortable with, use a Hugo block and change out the mother regularly, so use a mother for 1 harvests worth of clones then replace her with another clone, I've kept them in rock wool Hempys, dirt, Hugo blocks both drip and flood.

You don't mention how many clones and how often you'll be taking them, this is a factor cos if you need 4 cuts every 2 weeks u might wanna have multiple smaller mothers in a rotation in Hugo blocks, or if you need 100 every 3 months you might wanna have 1 or 2 in big pots on drip or flood

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I was hoping for 1 or 2 mothers for a 42 nft system

kpunk said:

I was hoping for 1 or 2 mothers for a 42 nft system

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How often will you need clones, that's gonna dictate the size of the pot you're gonna need to keep ur mother in,
I'd just go for a simple drip system with 2 pots, there's loads of tutorials on how to set one up, 2 pots ontop of a tote, drip ring for each pot, pump on a timer, pretty simple stuff

Blue brother said:

How often will you need clones, that's gonna dictate the size of the pot you're gonna need to keep ur mother in,
I'd just go for a simple drip system with 2 pots, there's loads of tutorials on how to set one up, 2 pots ontop of a tote, drip ring for each pot, pump on a timer, pretty simple stuff

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Once every 10 weeks

If you're taking cuts before flipping for use after drying you'll have months of caring for plants growing vigorously to then put 60/80% in the bin.

If you wait until they're around 4wks into flower then clone them you can save yourself a ton of work while they're re vegging.

I had 1 plant in 20L dwc and it needed checking up every 2 days but pot was full of roots.if you have a smaller plant maybe less work. But if you use a huge pot you could if you have luck with ph do it weekly

Organics and dirts the best for your mother's if you wanna do hydro for production then fair doos but it is just easier especially if you gonna collect and keep many more mothers over time it's less hassle to run em all in dirt imo

Star Dog said:

If you're taking cuts before flipping for use after drying you'll have months of caring for plants growing vigorously to then put 60/80% in the bin.

If you wait until they're around 4wks into flower then clone them you can save yourself a ton of work while they're re vegging.

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But then the mother wont be big enough for my 50 clone target. Im growing master kush with 7 - 8 week flower time. So the plan is to take cuttings from my best 5 then choose the mother after about a month into flower.... & have clones ready as soon as i harvest.

This will be my first ever mother though so any advice is welcome! Also are there any downsides to taking cuttings during flowering ? Obviously a bit of stress but anything else ? Thanks

kpunk said:

But then the mother wont be big enough for my 50 clone target. Im growing master kush with 7 - 8 week flower time. So the plan is to take cuttings from my best 5 then choose the mother after about a month into flower.... & have clones ready as soon as i harvest.

This will be my first ever mother though so any advice is welcome! Also are there any downsides to taking cuttings during flowering ? Obviously a bit of stress but anything else ? Thanks

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I've had a few taken late flower that didn't root other than that I've not had problems its my standard procedure now, ime 10 wks is nearer the mark for flowering plus the dry time etc its 3+ months.

What you could do is take them as you would normally then around wk 4 take a couple of testers and keep one and see how it grows, you'll get a ton more cloning material from a re vegged plant, if you flower said clones its referred to as monster cropping, I don't but each to there own.

Edit...
@Fatjoe has nice examples of monster cropping.

I have my clones ready for transplant in the next few days. 3 taken from my best 5 plants.

Im planning on keeping 2 mothers .

I would rather keep this automated & hydro.

I have a load of clay pebbkes, a pump & an air stone spare...so DWC or RDWC ( never used either ) or something else. Got a few days max!

Will post pics tomorrow of my NFT system

Growth rate of DWC/RDWC is too much in my opinion, but you'll need to experiment and find the right size/method for you. I've never kept a mother but am looking to soon, so doing research as well, but I've run some dwc before and I reckon you'll have mother's going out of control and you'll be trimming them back midway through your flowering period. You kind of want to avoid having to do too much maintenance on them if you can. Like Conor C suggested, I'd try soil first. You can have them in suspension almost, especially if the soil is spent and they are under a weaker light. Then when you want to clone up, a few weeks before hand you can give a light feed of hydro nutes and get an increase in growth. That's what I'm planning to do anyway. When they get too big you can apply bonzi techniques and cut the roots away by a 3rd and repot with fresh soil

You can keep moms however you like, but some ways are more work than others. I like to keep my moms in my soil mix and just cut them back and thin them out as needed. I take top cuts for “new moms” every 6 months or so, depending on how the plant is looking and how spent the soil is. I transplant the new cut to fresh soil and compost the old mom. The plants get woody and really bushy if I don’t keep up on pruning them. I find it’s easier to keep em healthy by periodically refreshing em like this, and it helps keep my cloning game sharp.