How do you store over a dozen mothers long term?

firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
Im working on gathering a sizeable collection of mothers. Right now i have only 4 so I keep them DWC as thats what I know.

Over the next few months I will be keeping over a dozen. This no longer makes sense to keep DWC as it will be months before I can run some of them..

Was thinking of coco and then as they get too big just cut new clones and trash the mothers for new mothers.

Looking for a system that grows slow but still keeps the plant healthy.

Was thinking of using T5s
 
Rdubz

Rdubz

Well-Known Member
I honestly been thinking of this for some time now and what my plan is so far will be to use Mesh pots in a 4x4 table sitting on the ground with a auto drip feed and sitting under an LED Mars hydro tsw2000 and Most likely I’m going to stick with a pro mix for medium unless I end up making it more of a hydro set up not sure yet right now since I just started doing DTW with my grow I’ll be using my run off to feed them.
 
Rurumo

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I keep bonsai moms, all under a foot tall. 4 inch pots is fine, don't use coco, dries out too fast in small pots. Use good potting soil or Cootz mix. They still require daily watering most of the time. Trim them often and thin them out so they don't get too bushy-promotes disease. Spray regularly with neem, silica, potassium bicarb, and a biofungicide to preserve your collection. Feed them on the very low end, then up their feed a week before you want clones. I just feed them age old grow or neptune's harvest, and a little epsom salts (my water has lots of calcium.) The smallest air pots work great for this, but any 4 inch pot is fine, you'll need to trim the roots and repot twice per year, possibly more if they start looking poorly.
 
firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
spliffendz said:
Yeh what I just stated should be plan B tbh as I remember when I tried to keep half a dozen thinking I was a hero to the masses but then they all died from pm and I was devastated
Click to expand...
That sucks. I have never gotten PM and been perpetual for 4 years now and growing for 10.

This may change since im taking in clones from people on the internet. Hope not. But its a very real possibility. To me the reward of having new strains outweighs the risk. Everyone is pretty safe in the clone sharing group im in.
 
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
You looked into keeping clones in stasis for a month after cutting? This is a good way to pro-long the life of the clone.
I used this method to do a perpetual grow. Week 1 of 12-12 take cuts, put in fridge. week 5 of 12-12, take cuttings out of fridge and clone like normal.
By the time the clones have established, and getting too big for my small veg box, the original plants are finishing up week 10 of 12-12. I harvest, then move the clones from the veg box and into my flower tent.
This saves me from having absolute monsters after 9 weeks of veg. This way I only have 4-5 weeks
 
firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
Rurumo said:
I keep bonsai moms, all under a foot tall. 4 inch pots is fine, don't use coco, dries out too fast in small pots. Use good potting soil or Cootz mix. They still require daily watering most of the time. Trim them often and thin them out so they don't get too bushy-promotes disease. Spray regularly with neem, silica, potassium bicarb, and a biofungicide to preserve your collection. Feed them on the very low end, then up their feed a week before you want clones. I just feed them age old grow or neptune's harvest, and a little epsom salts (my water has lots of calcium.) The smallest air pots work great for this, but any 4 inch pot is fine, you'll need to trim the roots and repot twice per year, possibly more if they start looking poorly.
Click to expand...
Im a 27gal tote DWC grower who has been learning about soil as you may have gathered from my organics section posts.

Small pots because they wont grow any bigger?
 
firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ said:
You looked into keeping clones in stasis for a month after cutting? This is a good way to pro-long the life of the clone.
I used this method to do a perpetual grow. Week 1 of 12-12 take cuts, put in fridge. week 5 of 12-12, take cuttings out of fridge and clone like normal.
By the time the clones have established, and getting too big for my small veg box, the original plants are finishing up week 10 of 12-12. I harvest, then move the clones from the veg box and into my flower tent.
This saves me from having absolute monsters after 9 weeks of veg. This way I only have 4-5 weeks
Click to expand...
Ill look into this method. Would be good if I had the space and lights to run all of the plant varieties.
 
Rurumo

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
firsttimeARE said:
Im a 27gal tote DWC grower who has been learning about soil as you may have gathered from my organics section posts.

Small pots because they wont grow any bigger?
Click to expand...
Small pots to keep the plants small, that way you can pack a ton of mothers into a small space. You could easily keep 20 mothers like this in a 2x2 tent. Bigger mothers are better in general, but they take more resources. A mother in a 4 inch pot can produce 2 dozen clones or more every couple of weeks though, which is enough for a lot of people. I'm keeping a mother of any special plant I find, from here on out, but only the best of the best quality.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
Rurumo said:
I keep bonsai moms, all under a foot tall. 4 inch pots is fine, don't use coco, dries out too fast in small pots. Use good potting soil or Cootz mix. They still require daily watering most of the time. Trim them often and thin them out so they don't get too bushy-promotes disease. Spray regularly with neem, silica, potassium bicarb, and a biofungicide to preserve your collection. Feed them on the very low end, then up their feed a week before you want clones. I just feed them age old grow or neptune's harvest, and a little epsom salts (my water has lots of calcium.) The smallest air pots work great for this, but any 4 inch pot is fine, you'll need to trim the roots and repot twice per year, possibly more if they start looking poorly.
Click to expand...
4” pots for mothers? I find this very hard to believe.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
Rurumo said:
Small pots to keep the plants small, that way you can pack a ton of mothers into a small space. You could easily keep 20 mothers like this in a 2x2 tent. Bigger mothers are better in general, but they take more resources. A mother in a 4 inch pot can produce 2 dozen clones or more every couple of weeks though, which is enough for a lot of people. I'm keeping a mother of any special plant I find, from here on out, but only the best of the best quality.
Click to expand...
How many bonsai mothers do you have currently? Any pics?
 
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