questions about mother plants

I've got two strains that i've decided that i want to keep as moms. most of the time i just cut clones before i flower but to me these two strains are very special. I'll preface this by saying that both are in very good shape at the moment, no problems and they've got plenty of cuttings to give.
the issue is that if i were to lose these strain i would be heart broken. I had them in the veg area and in my opinion they weren't doing great, so i moved them out of there and under just a cheapy blue floro grow light from walmart or somewhere. its like 40 watts or something rediculous, however the moms seem to be loving it, although there is the inevitable stretch.
so i'm asking first, if i start to treat them more as house plants (what i've been doing the last week or so) will they continue to thrive given proper nutes or is that wishful thinking.
secondly, is it true that under the right conditions i can keep them indefinatley? recently heard of cuts that came from a plant thats been around since '91.
or should i just take cuts from her, create a new mom and flower the ones i have?
and one last one, can i keep them from getting huge by topping or lst?(hope so already topped once) i don't have room for 2 six foot mother plants let alone one.
i'd rather keep them around as moms as long as possible.

Best not to clone a clone for mother plants. Sounds like you can keep your current mamas going...I have yet to put the dedication in keeping one, but damn I wish I did....I had a Diablo OG bagseed that was SICK! I can be a stupid ass sometimes....

Guess what I am saying is think before you drink.

But from what I have experienced from other growers is that mamas can survive with "minimal" care. House plant is a good way to relate to what the mama cannabis can be.

Now, depending on how many clones you intend to cut at a time, in whatever frequency, you wanna make sure you give her time to heal and steal nutrients, so be sure to give her what she needs at those times a little bit more.

hey i had a NL plant once and wen i put into flower it turn out to b male so i pulled it from flower room not wantin to kill it cux the fucker looked so good so wat i did was jus left it chillin a room near a window wit minimal lite. well the vertical growth slowed down but it was still healthy and green as fuck 1 month later and all i did was gave it water no nutes or nuthin, so i guess yea u can treat them like house plants and give them minimal and they'll still thrive

I have a mother plant i have been keeping for about 4 months now and am working on my second bloom cycle with clones from her, its under an 11 wat cfl at the moment. i switch it to better lighting before i cut new clones 2x 23 watt cfl's for 12 hours, then hps 150 for 12 hours.

there is a myth about keeping a mother from a clone you cut that its potentcy goes down.......its a myth. alot of people keep moms for a while then take one of their clippings from mom and create a new mom from it. a clone is a genetic duplicate of the original cutting, how could the potentcy go down? exact copy genetically to the mom.

you can keep a mom indefinetly, as long as you can keep it alive. treat it like a houseplant if you want.

I keep my mother small by giving it only enough light to keep it alive, then when i need clones i bump up the growth with more light.

A "Mother" plant, is just like any "other" plant. Whether it's from seed or a clone - what's the difference? If the "growth habits" of your Moms have become "Stunted", but they still produce good clones anyway - I'd just clone them and make some new, non-stunted, Moms. Then you can compare the clones from your "new" Moms to the clones from your "old" Moms and see which "Moms" you want to keep.

And, yes, under the correct conditions you can keep a Mom for a very long time, perhaps indefinately. Replacing a Mom with a clone of itself is just replacing with a "piece" of itself.

figtree said:

I have a mother plant i have been keeping for about 4 months now and am working on my second bloom cycle with clones from her, its under an 11 wat cfl at the moment. i switch it to better lighting before i cut new clones 2x 23 watt cfl's for 12 hours, then hps 150 for 12 hours.

there is a myth about keeping a mother from a clone you cut that its potentcy goes down.......its a myth. alot of people keep moms for a while then take one of their clippings from mom and create a new mom from it. a clone is a genetic duplicate of the original cutting, how could the potentcy go down? exact copy genetically to the mom.

you can keep a mom indefinetly, as long as you can keep it alive. treat it like a houseplant if you want.

I keep my mother small by giving it only enough light to keep it alive, then when i need clones i bump up the growth with more light.

Click to expand...

this is exactly the information i was looking for. thank you and +rep
asked on another forum i frequent and almost landed up started an arguement, i thought it was an innocent question

again thank you and +rep

my420meds said:

Best not to clone a clone for mother plants. Sounds like you can keep your current mamas going...I have yet to put the dedication in keeping one, but damn I wish I did....I had a Diablo OG bagseed that was SICK! I can be a stupid ass sometimes....

Guess what I am saying is think before you drink.

But from what I have experienced from other growers is that mamas can survive with "minimal" care. House plant is a good way to relate to what the mama cannabis can be.

Now, depending on how many clones you intend to cut at a time, in whatever frequency, you wanna make sure you give her time to heal and steal nutrients, so be sure to give her what she needs at those times a little bit more.

Click to expand...

this is blatant misinformation, cut clones from clones from clones and it will not matter. just keep your mothers as healthy as you can for good cuts.

Hey guys. I'd love to throw my 2c in here. I'm working in the wine industry and would like to run a comparison to you guys.

Let's say taking clones of clones reduces potency. Next, think about how many grapevines are grown from seeds in a commercial vineyard (usually 1000's of vines/hectare) in the world.
There is no way in the world you would be able to grow that many vines without taking clones, right? Let alone get a uniform crop if it were propagated with seeds given clones are all genetically identical.

My question is this: In the 3000 years of winemaking and growing grapes do you think the 'potency' or flavour of the fruit has gone down since there has inevitably been hundreds of clones of clones taken?

T.H.Cammo said:

A "Mother" plant, is just like any "other" plant. Whether it's from seed or a clone - what's the difference? If the "growth habits" of your Moms have become "Stunted", but they still produce good clones anyway - I'd just clone them and make some new, non-stunted, Moms. Then you can compare the clones from your "new" Moms to the clones from your "old" Moms and see which "Moms" you want to keep.

And, yes, under the correct conditions you can keep a Mom for a very long time, perhaps indefinately. Replacing a Mom with a clone of itself is just replacing with a "piece" of itself.

Click to expand...

THC is quite correct. I have a Blue Berry mother that is a 6th or 7th generation mother from a clone. I have to keep 15 moms going all the time cuz I need 100+ clones every month. I have 5 different strains going and have lost track of how many times I used a clone as a new mother. Also there has been no degradation as to the potentcy or yield.