General Mother hunting strategy

So with 420 coming up I am thinking about the genetics I will use for my cloning experiment.
I recently added a secondary tent (2x2x4) for my spring garden starts, that I intend to use as a home for a mother plant and my starts.
More than anything, my goal for the project is to learn and add to my horticulture experience, I would like to parlay that into eeking out a little more value from the resources I invest into my grows, as well as improving the quality. consistency, and speed of my harvests, but that is secondary for this start.


Now this might have been a fever dream on my part, but I want to say I ran across a process where the mother was started from seed, then a clone was propagated, thrown into flower to sex and get a sample of flower, keeping the original plant.

I have also seen growers take cuttings from their current grow to start potential mothers from, assuming the final product of the original plant develops.

My understanding is that generally we want to start from seed for the mother plants, and that using non-femmed seeds would be even better.

Just trying to set myself up for success.
TIA

That's the way to do it. Sometimes during veg especially when a stressor is introduced such as taking cuttings the plant will show its sex before the light cycle is changed to flower. It's hard to tell what you got before you have grown it out and tried the finished product. But if you want to select a good mom before hand you can do the typical stuff like check for terps with a stem rub or by pulling a leaf off and rolling it up in your fingers and smelling it, and just comparing the vigor and internodal spacing to make sure you have the best of what your seeds have to offer. Desirable colors such as purple usually show up early on the stems, but they don't always mean that the flower will match. I also check for good root development and sometimes if you are transplanting the roots will even give off a dank smell, that's always a good thing. Good work. PIcking good mothers out of seed stock is something that needs to be done to keep good genetic variation in this special plant. You are definitely on the right track.

PopeCrisco said:

So with 420 coming up I am thinking about the genetics I will use for my cloning experiment.
I recently added a secondary tent (2x2x4) for my spring garden starts, that I intend to use as a home for a mother plant and my starts.
More than anything, my goal for the project is to learn and add to my horticulture experience, I would like to parlay that into eeking out a little more value from the resources I invest into my grows, as well as improving the quality. consistency, and speed of my harvests, but that is secondary for this start.


Now this might have been a fever dream on my part, but I want to say I ran across a process where the mother was started from seed, then a clone was propagated, thrown into flower to sex and get a sample of flower, keeping the original plant.

I have also seen growers take cuttings from their current grow to start potential mothers from, assuming the final product of the original plant develops.

My understanding is that generally we want to start from seed for the mother plants, and that using non-femmed seeds would be even better.

Just trying to set myself up for success.
TIA

Click to expand...

Doesn't matter at all if the mother is from seed or clone.

You can usually sex a plant that's about 4-6 weeks old, regardless of it's light cycle.

If your cloning game is good, take a few cuttings of each plant, right before you put the plants to flower.
Should be enough space to house and nurse the cuttings until your harvest is ready.

Then you have more identical plants ready and you need only to choose.

PopeCrisco said:

My understanding is that generally we want to start from seed for the mother plants, and that using non-femmed seeds would be even better.

Click to expand...

You can use Feminized and you can use a clone.
Though I do think there's some truth to taking a cutting from a mature plant.

Clone everything! Sounds like you trying to be frugal and buy 1 pack and keep a favorite and rerun it?

FmSwayze said:

Clone everything! Sounds like you trying to be frugal and buy 1 pack and keep a favorite and rerun it?

Click to expand...

Clone everything...true words

If I may be honest, it's not a lot of room to work with. Once you have a chosen mother there won't be room for much.

My own space I use for clones and starts is 2x3. I've always found it a bit too small. Can reasonably fit one mother plant + tray of clones or seedlings, but not much else.
When hunting myself, I've resorted to taking cuttings of the mother and put the mother to flower with the rest. So I could have the space to transplant the cuttings and get them ready to put in the 4x4.
This method isn't ideal as it comes with inherent risk of losing the mother plant. Instead of waiting until the clones are ready.

You'll have to get creative in a 2x2, I think.

Allocated space is an issue for me, as it may be for you. Though I've always thought having as much veg space as I do flower space would be ideal.
If you have the room, I say invest in more veg space.

Otherwise, you may find yourself following a similar strategy to my own.
If the dream is multiple mother plants, dream bigger.

You never know what a seed will produce...
Clone everything an nip those keepers

Stay orderly with clones so you dont mix genetics

I couldnt get rid of a 8wk seed plant. I decided to but its like an invisable force stopping me. Im growing it out. Could be life changing. I just want to have that experience again where I realize I got a keeper.

Man, I used to clone everything....then I realized that I get tired of the same strain after awhile. If I was doing a business, and I had customers that wanted consistency, then it would be different, but I just grow for my own use and I like to try and find new things. All the good OLD things are long gone.

FmSwayze said:

Clone everything! Sounds like you trying to be frugal and buy 1 pack and keep a favorite and rerun it?

Click to expand...

frugality is a big part of it. When a seed exceeds 10 dollars a pop, my brain is looking to justify its cost and extract as much value as possible lol.

long term though I would like to have a (traditionally) indica dom strain that anchors my medical needs, that I can always access, even if not quite the unicorn strain I might be looking for. Then I can grow those strains that I might find more recreational.
I love a nice sativa experience, but the wrong mix of terpenes and my anxiety can make for a less than ideal sesh. Kinda what happened with the Hulkberry from my first grow.

monocropping for a few grows to compare growing techniques and mediums with a similar genetics also seems like it might be valuable experience to a new grower, such as myself. I think comparing 3 plants grown in 5 gallon pots, vs 6 - 1 gallon pots under 12/12, with the exact same genetics, vrs a hodge podge of what is available would give a better apples to apples comparison.

Thanks everyone for the input, I love this place!

Its all about keepers...
Plants with excellent bud structure.
Plants with keys scents
Plants with mega potency

Find all 3 an you have the next it strain

You could always reveg a special plant for a mother . It takes a while but some of my best mothers were revegged plants .

The problem with the cost of good seeds is that most everything sold nowadays is a very complex hybrid that holds a bunch of different genetic traits and can present a wide variety of phenotypes. In some cases, the more complex the hybrid is, the cheaper the seeds will be. That's because there's no consistency in modern, complex hybrids. You might be looking for an orange terpene profile, but you might end up with a grape or a gassy terpene profile. You might want a purple, but you end up with a green....and so on.

It's only seed breeding lines that have been worked and worked for generations when you can start to expect some consistency. And, because of the time and effort it takes to run hundreds and hundreds of plants and then know how to select for specific traits among those plants, the seeds cost more. Those seed breeders can charge a lot more money for their work. I've paid a lot of money to Archive Seed Bank to get something predictable and comparable to their descriptions and had very good luck....but still haven't found the next "it" phenotype!

And taste change over time. One year, everyone wants "chemdog" flavors. The next year, people want blueberry. If you're a seed breeder selecting for certain flavors, you might end up finally getting something stabilized just in time for nobody to want that flavor anymore. And then you're stuck with a seed line that you can't sell.