Does a mother plant need a tent?
- Thread starter K81.UK
- Start date
Thanks for that. I’ve been watching YouTube videos and wondering why everyone uses tents? Then you see their sponsors.
I was thinking because the dark period would not be total darkness 24hr might be better and reduce the possibility of a hermie?
Yes I’m going to train and trim roots. I’m thinking that a bonsai pot might make this easier?
I will be taking clones every 9-11 weeks, but not many.
That is a LOT of work. I take clones off the plants I flip to flower about 2 weeks into flower when I clean up their skirts where light won't penetrate. If I'm not flowering I keep the smaller clones in veg trays and when they get to big or root bound I clone them. It's easier for me than keeping mothers.
Im sure it’s nonsense, but a friend who had been growing for years told me over a decade ago that cuttings of cuttings and so on, leads to weaker plants. I guess it just stuck in my mind.
Ive read on it forums a few times too. Im sure they are referring to plants with “weaker” overall health, because genes obviously don’t change when cloned.
Looking at YouTube videos, root trimming with a carving knife is really easy.
Im planning a small SOG so taking multiple cuttings from a mother will be easier.
Your approach makes sense though. I thought you couldn’t take cuttings when flipped to 12/12, so I’ve learned something.
RetiredToker76
Well-Known Member
Mom is a veg plant. That's about it.
Mom doesn't go into flower. I'm perseonally not a proponent of reverting back after flowering, but to each their own.
She gets 18+ hours of light, just like a veg plant. I've done everything from 18/6 -24/0 for veg, at the end of the day I landed on 18/6 and stayed there, I don't see a difference that impacts my space.
What space she needs depends on what you have and how long you keep her. I kill my mom every cycle. Run one seed for approx 18 months. I'm running a 10sq foot micro grow for my whole setup, I have no space to wiggle. So I grow a mom, take 25 cuttings and keep 4 after they root (that's just the size of my cloner, so I fill it.) 3 will become my flowers, 1 will become mom. After I take cuttings and get my next 4, I kill the old mom and start a new one. It's vicious but it works.
I've never had any hint of "genetic dropoff" but I don't think it's wise to what I do at a rapid pace. I split one seed maybe a total of 8 times before I change up genetics or pop another seed from the pack. Usually change up genetics, 18 months is a long ass time to smoke one strain.
Mom doesn't go into flower. I'm perseonally not a proponent of reverting back after flowering, but to each their own.
She gets 18+ hours of light, just like a veg plant. I've done everything from 18/6 -24/0 for veg, at the end of the day I landed on 18/6 and stayed there, I don't see a difference that impacts my space.
What space she needs depends on what you have and how long you keep her. I kill my mom every cycle. Run one seed for approx 18 months. I'm running a 10sq foot micro grow for my whole setup, I have no space to wiggle. So I grow a mom, take 25 cuttings and keep 4 after they root (that's just the size of my cloner, so I fill it.) 3 will become my flowers, 1 will become mom. After I take cuttings and get my next 4, I kill the old mom and start a new one. It's vicious but it works.
I've never had any hint of "genetic dropoff" but I don't think it's wise to what I do at a rapid pace. I split one seed maybe a total of 8 times before I change up genetics or pop another seed from the pack. Usually change up genetics, 18 months is a long ass time to smoke one strain.
MidnightSun72
Well-Known Member
No it's not none sense. A clone of a clone does eventually make the line lose its vigour. But like let's say you just wanted to run a plant for like 5-8 cycles (that's like a year and half) I don't think you'll notice any real degradation over just 5 generations especially if they started from seed.
some people keep moms for 10 years. And I think if you kept cutting from clones for that long eventually after a few years your quality would diminish.
So if you wanna mom for several years. Keep a mom. Otherwise you can get away cutting clones of clones for a while.
MoroccanRoll
Well-Known Member
No need for a tent. I kept one as a houseplant for a year and a half. My last 10-day absence finally did her in. Could have resucitated her but she wouldn't have worked as a decorative anymore. My daughter tells me my house doesn't smell as much like weed anymore...
RetiredToker76
Well-Known Member
I first started using reg seeds, they were Serious Seeds AK-47, still my favorite strain. When it came time to change strains, using regs again made a mess on the timing. Given my tiny space I work in it just made it much easier to get fem seeds at the end of the day. I don't think I've actually flowered a seed in about 8 years. Looking at some of the U.S. breeders I want to use, very few are doing fem seeds yet. I haven't found a new euro seed bank since my last order from Seedsman, everything I click on there since Brexit is "not for you, ya yank." Coming up on the 8th split here pretty soon. May borrow a friends tent to sex some reg seeds and get a mom, I want to try some of these Thugpug genes I've been hearing so much about and as far as I know they're reg only.
Edit: I just checked Seedsman, they now are letting me put things in cart again.
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Thug pug are sold out everywhere here.
I think Seedsman are in Spain and things have tightened up around seeds over there. I know dinafem are in a lot of trouble.
I think you will find most people who supported Brexit are pro USA/us trade deal. They just want free trade and no unelected EU governance. The EU is a closed market with super high taxes.
It’s because of the EU that anything we buy from to USA (or anywhere outside EU), has 20% vat added onto the cost of the item and shipping, plus import duty. It is/was ridiculous.
Thankfully for US consumers and German car manufacturers. You don’t do the same to when we export.
Nothing to do with being anti European as the media dress it up to be. We don’t actually make anything in the U.K. anymore so we need to import virtually everything. It wasn’t “nationalism” that lead to Brexit.
Many Germans, french etc also want out of the EU. It’s a badly flawed system.
I know a lot of Dutch seed banks won’t send their seeds to the USA now because they worry they will be used for breeding.
Archive and Cannarado have some good fem lines but they were all sold out in U.K.
Try Ali bongo if looking for European seeds. Really good selection and they ship to USA for free.
Syntax747
Well-Known Member
That's a good-looking setup. I like how you got them up off of the floor. I was looking for a 2x4 flood tray like yours, but everything seems to be outta stock. What brand did you go with, and are you using a drain setup?
Unlikely because a clone is an exact genetic replica of the mother plant.
Rurumo
Well-Known Member
Tents allow you to precisely control the environment, and block out the light if you sleep in the same room. They also allow you to turn their lights on at night, rather than the day time, if heat is a concern, plus the reflective wall really does make a difference. It's also FAR easier to keep out dust and dog hair by filtering the intake with pantyhose or something. I kept bonsai mommies for years, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are planning on keeping many different mommies, then keeping them in normal 4 inch square pots allows you to pack a lot of them into a small space. BUT BUT they are way more work than a mom kept in a 1 gal pot or bigger. You have to regularly prune the roots, and occasionally butcher the plant to keep it the correct size. Don't keep them in one of those shallow bonsai pots, it just doesn't work well for a fast growing plant like cannabis.
Now I keep 4 mommies in 1 gal pots in a 2x2 tent. They thrive in this setup. The longest I've kept a mom is about 8 years in a 1 gal pot and the only reason I don't have it today is because it died while on vacation. One of the many 120 watt-ish lm301b/meanwell driver lights tuned to 80% works great in a 2x2 for mommies. I keep them in Coots mix-any good soil will work-and feed them occasionally with Age Old Grow and either cal/mag or just epsom salts. One of them would probably give 20-30 quality clones every 10 days to 2 weeks. I take a clone of every seed I pop, and if I'm more impressed with a new plant than one of my mommies, I replace the one I like the least. That way, my selection keeps improving over time even though I just maintain 4 of them. If you keep selections of your best plants over time, you will eventually have a collection of "elite" mother plants and can become a famous Instagram chucker and sell seed packs for $130 each!!
Now I keep 4 mommies in 1 gal pots in a 2x2 tent. They thrive in this setup. The longest I've kept a mom is about 8 years in a 1 gal pot and the only reason I don't have it today is because it died while on vacation. One of the many 120 watt-ish lm301b/meanwell driver lights tuned to 80% works great in a 2x2 for mommies. I keep them in Coots mix-any good soil will work-and feed them occasionally with Age Old Grow and either cal/mag or just epsom salts. One of them would probably give 20-30 quality clones every 10 days to 2 weeks. I take a clone of every seed I pop, and if I'm more impressed with a new plant than one of my mommies, I replace the one I like the least. That way, my selection keeps improving over time even though I just maintain 4 of them. If you keep selections of your best plants over time, you will eventually have a collection of "elite" mother plants and can become a famous Instagram chucker and sell seed packs for $130 each!!
Unlikely because a clone of a clone of a clone is still an exact replica of the original clone. Weakened genetics is a theory not a fact, I've not seen any evidence for it. You can induce severe plant mutations (temporary) just by re-vegging a clone of a flowering bud, someone likely did that and blamed the plant.
C. Nesbitt
Well-Known Member
Umm, no. No offense meant to you, but this is bro science. Please don’t put out opinion as fact, it makes you sound much less credible. F5 is a breeding term, not a cloning one. Many on here including myself have kept plants going well past a 5th generation of cloning without the plant dudding. A virus such as HLV is a much more likely explanation than “genetic drift” for the observed loss of vigor you’ve seen.
To the OP, no a tent is not necessary for a mother but as several others have pointed out, it can make things way easier to grow and manage. Much easier to control temp, RH, ventilation, dust/dander, pests etc in the controlled space a tent provides. Also, if you’ve never had a big plant in your house, don’t discount how much they can smell if you don’t vent outside or use a carbon filter. Even little plants can stink up a whole house in veg, let alone flower.
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bk78
Well-Known Member
Do you have any data to back up this nonsense?