Mother Plant Questions

[DiamondJim420]

I have germinated 6 Northern Lights feminized seeds. They are 2 weeks old, and doing very well. But I have only 4 DWC buckets for flowering. So I'm thinking of making the other 2 into mother plants under the current T5 lighting.

They are currently in 3" rockwool cubes. What can I do? Should I put them in a soilless medium, and hand water them? If so, what soilless medium should I use, and what size pots? Can I use my Advanced Nutrients line of nutrients at the same strength as in hydro?

Thanks

 

[OGKushman]

You must clone them all in my opinion. What if you choose the two males? Or choose the worst 2 phenotypes?

I'd wait till they show sex to decide what to do, then I'd clone the females, bud the seeds and only keep the clones from the best plant.

Good Luck!

 

[ozzydiodude]

:yeahthat:

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Fem seeds, so hopefully all females.

I do not keep moms--I simply do not have the room. I take clones from clones. Given your space, you could probably keep moms, but you will probably need some more light if you want to keep moms and clone and veg in the 3.5 x 3.5 tent (is that your plan?)

 

[DiamondJim420]

Fem seeds, so hopefully all females.

I do not keep moms--I simply do not have the room. I take clones from clones. Given your space, you could probably keep moms, but you will probably need some more light if you want to keep moms and clone and veg in the 3.5 x 3.5 tent (is that your plan?)

Actually, I had planned to make a hommeade grow cab big enough to hold 2 mothers...under T5 lighting...

Do you mind explaining your "clone from clone" method? Sounds interesting as I too would like to keep my "operation" small...If I could get by with no mother plants, as you, that would be great...

Thanks THG

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Basically, you just take cuttings off the plants you have vegging and clone these. About 2 weeks or so before I put a plant into veg, I trim up the bottom 1/3 of the plant. Some of these cuttings will be stuck into medium and cloned. These clones become the new vegging plants and when they get old enough, I will trim them, take cuttings and clone those cuttings--hence the clone from another clone.

Many years ago, I had heard that you can get plant degradation if you keep doing this. However in real life, I have not found that to be true. If I have lost a strain, it is because I did something stupid or had some kind of equipment failure.

 

[Dan K. Liberty]

If you're only planning on flowering 4 plants at a time, you won't need two moms. One will be plenty, because every time you cut you double the number of growing shoots. Pretty soon there are dozens of shoots on it.

Also, you don't want to choose which one would BE the mom in seedling stage. Try to get a good clone from each plant - that way if one turns out to be a freak with a giant cola 6" in diameter, you can make sure that the clone from THAT one becomes the mom !! Label plants so you can identify the clone to the donor. Select the best traits and keep em goin !!

 

[NorCalHal]

Many years ago, I had heard that you can get plant degradation if you keep doing this. However in real life, I have not found that to be true. If I have lost a strain, it is because I did something stupid or had some kind of equipment failure.

I have found this to be true also. I have some strains that have been around for 10+ years. I have aslo lost them to being lazy.....

 

[Sinisterhand]

I have used moms started from fem seeds before. I found that the clones that came from these moms tended to have issues with late flower hermie. I discussed this with a friend and he believes that the seed company's create their fem seeds with this trait intentionally. Makes sense.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I have used moms started from fem seeds before. I found that the clones that came from these moms tended to have issues with late flower hermie. I discussed this with a friend and he believes that the seed company's create their fem seeds with this trait intentionally. Makes sense.

I don't understand this? Why does it make sense? And why would breeder's be trying to intentionally create seeds that hermie?

 

[Sinisterhand]

If you buy lets say chem dog ( regular seeds ) once you find a female you like, it can mother thousands of clones with no further investment. Now apply the same logic, if you used fem'd chem dog seeds but every time you tried to flower clones from you fem'd mother they went hermie you wouldn't do it. you would most likely buy more fem'd chem seeds. From a bussiness point of view it makes sense.