How much light / what type of light spectrum for mother plants?

[kdt15]

How much light / what type of light spectrum for mother plants?

Going to use these mothers for cloning, but could not find much info on what mother plants need in terms of what color spectrum is best for them (ex: LED flower/veg full cycle ~3000k is ideal, veg only ~5000k is ideal) or in terms of how much Watt / sqfoot (ex: for LED, 30-40W/sqfoot)

Any ideas on ideal color temperature and light wattage/sqft for mothering? Trying to trim every 10-14 days or so.

 

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Depends on your veg space.
What size and tent or open?
I’d probably do a 3500k qb132 per mother

 

[kdt15]

Depends on your veg space.
What size and tent or open?
I’d probably do a 3500k qb132 per mother

like 10x10ft for example room

 

[Slinging PAR]

Have you considered just taking the cuttings you need for the next cycle and flowering the mother out? Then when those clones reach maturity, take some cuttings, rinse and repeat. Keeps the strain going like having a dedicated mother but you don't have to worry about something happening to the mother and messing things up.

 

[kdt15]

Have you considered just taking the cuttings you need for the next cycle and flowering the mother out? Then when those clones reach maturity, take some cuttings, rinse and repeat. Keeps the strain going like having a dedicated mother but you don't have to worry about something happening to the mother and messing things up.

will consider, thanks for the tip. so im just taking the clones and treating them as new mothers essentially?

 

[WeedSexWeightsShakes]

Sounds like you start your seed.
Veg it to what size you want.
Take clones, then put it into flower.
Repeat that process with clones instead of seeds.

 

[down to.roach]

I wouldn't use anything higher than 4000k.
I currently veg under 2xQB304 5000k and they will give you tight internodes! I wouldn't want to clone from those plants. I had some of the clones strike out roots from a node half way up the stem above the coco puck. Weird looking clones
I no longer clone my vegging plants before flowering like slinging part suggested. I keep mothers, feed them differently than veg.

 

[kdt15]

I wouldn't use anything higher than 4000k.
I currently veg under 2xQB304 5000k and they will give you tight internodes! I wouldn't want to clone from those plants. I had some of the clones strike out roots from a node half way up the stem above the coco puck. Weird looking clones
I no longer clone my vegging plants before flowering like slinging part suggested. I keep mothers, feed them differently than veg.

ah, so you did the flower mother / clone out, and reuse clones as pseudo/backup mothers, but no longer like that method due to genetic variation? interesting!

what's the downside of tight internodes? just curious

 

[GroErr]

ah, so you did the flower mother / clone out, and reuse clones as pseudo/backup mothers, but no longer like that method due to genetic variation? interesting!

what's the downside of tight internodes? just curious

It's pretty common to clone the clone, there's no variation and you can cut clones pretty well indefinitely. You'll get sick of the strain/pheno before you have anything to worry about there. I run 15-20 strains/phenos that change up here & there depending what I find. I'd need a whole room just for mothers which seems like a waste of space to me that could be used for flowering. I'm typically super-cropping them in party cups until I can get 2-3 good clones, then start the cycle all over, even with my males.

 

[nfhiggs]

will consider, thanks for the tip. so im just taking the clones and treating them as new mothers essentially?

Well sort of, you just treat every plant as one you are going to finish, you just take cuttings from it a week or two before flipping it to flower, the cuttings become your next cycle. then you don't have to dedicate any space for a mother plant.

 

[kdt15]

It's pretty common to clone the clone, there's no variation and you can cut clones pretty well indefinitely. You'll get sick of the strain/pheno before you have anything to worry about there. I run 15-20 strains/phenos that change up here & there depending what I find. I'd need a whole room just for mothers which seems like a waste of space to me that could be used for flowering. I'm typically super-cropping them in party cups until I can get 2-3 good clones, then start the cycle all over, even with my males.

good to know. theres 0 chance that the cloning of the cloning will cause any issues ? Like mutation of cell growth or some crap somewhere down the line?

 

[GroErr]

good to know. theres 0 chance that the cloning of the cloning will cause any issues ? Like mutation of cell growth or some crap somewhere down the line?

I've run some for 3+ years with no noticeable change in potency or growth. There's people that have run some much longer cloning the clone. Like I mentioned you'd likely want a change up before you see any issues.