I've gathered as much info as possible.. now just a few questions for the experts

WWW.HASHBERRY.ORG said:

normally when u top ur supposed to give it a couple of weeks in veg before switching to flower

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ahh i see.. well i'll have each batch flowering for 6-8 weeks, which gives me enough time to root/top/recover my clones in my 24/0 floro room..
guess i'll just have to get my timing down!

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jondamon said:

one comment i would make is that the 24w HO will not be sufficient to light a mother and clones.

I use a 24w T5HO for seedlings and clones aswell as a 200w ECO CFL (actual wattage) for mother


J

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markybuds said:

i'd like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent noob.. lol
so i've been reading and reading... and reading to figure out what my best options are and i think i've got a plan.
there are just a few areas where i'm not as comfortable as others and i'd love some help from some of you expert growers out there.

so here goes...

i've got a fairly large closet space that i'll be splitting up. one side will be for germs/clones/mothers and the other will be my flowering room. i've got a hydrofarm jumpstart 25w HO floro for my clone/mother room. i'll be using rockwool cubes in a propagation dome with a seedling heat mat underneath to try and help stimulate root growth. i'll be starting by germinating 5 ak-48 feminized seeds and choose one to be a mother.

my flower room is 2' x 3' x 8'H. i'll be using an aeroponic/DWC system in a 25gal tote that will house 6 plants in 3" net pots. 250 gph water pump that will aerate the roots via 1/2" pvc and EZ clone sprayers. im sure you've all seen this type of setup. and i'll also have an air pump with an air stone in the res.

my plan is to do a perpetual grow (sog?) from the clones i get from the mother and send them right into 12/12 as soon as i feel the clones are well rooted.

now here come the questions..

once i choose a mother plant.. what would be the best medium for her? she doesnt necessarily have to get old and big because i can replace her with one of her daughters after a few months. i've heard you can keep a mother in larger rockwool cubes.. is this true? if so i'd think that would be my best bet as i'm not too familiar with soil.

once i put my clones into 12/12 i plan on changing my res every 2 weeks or so. do any of you have any recommendations as far as nutrients? brands? nutrient n-p-k variations for every 2 week stage?

and my final question is about SOG.. i'd like to top my plants and grow 2 main colas and try and cut down on all the bushyness. when is it OK to cut branches off of your main stem? can this possibly damage the growth of my plants because of recovery?

thanks a million for taking the time to read me!
and any info or comments about my grow plan will be very much appreciated!!
you guys rock!

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i keep my mothers in bubble buckets but since u don't care how big or old they get i'd just get some grow bags and some good soil or coco peat.

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Encomium said:

I think choosing the medium for your mother plant is in part going to be decided by how you start her off. I couldn't imagine being able to transplant an aeroponically grown plant INTO rockwool. I'd figure your best bet would be to move her from your existing system into another aeroponic system with a slightly larger capacity so transplanting would easy. You could go from your aeroponic system to say a DWC system easily too I'd imagine.

Coming from a beginner's standpoint myself (22 days into flowering my first grow), I can say General Hydroponics line of nutrients is solid. I started my girls with the Botanicare line that came with the system I had purchased and after reading into what the Lucas Formula was I decided to go with that just for the ease and minimal maintenance of the program (Using GH Micro/Bloom).

Anyways, cheers and good luck on your first crop!

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markybuds said:

thanks for your input!
i'll be starting my mother in 1.5 inch rockwool cubes.. but kind of wanted to shy away from setting up another aero/DWC system.
mainly because of the electicity factor and the $ i'd have to spend on all the parts. if i can get away with using soil i'll probably just take that route instead.
my flowering system will be housing 6 plants for 6-8 weeks.. so i'm not in a high demand for clones every rotation. i'm guessing i should cut at least 8 in case a couple don't make it, or i can choose the best 6 of the bunch.

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Encomium said:

Hey no problem! Guess I figured you'd be starting your mother just like any other plant and picking the best one for future cuttings (what if the one you pick as a mother is the runt of the litter?). What I did was germinated 6 seeds (A-1 Haze) of which 5 sprouted with no problems. Right when I thought I'd start flowering I picked the plant that was the strongest and most healthy looking as a future mother. That way I'm assured that any clones taken from her will have strong genes.

While soil is technically your cheapest option making your own DWC involves very minimal costs (airstone, tubing, bucket) and makes it so your mother/clone room and flowering room don't have completely different mediums. You might also want to check out Hempy buckets (search this site) as it would be a cheap soil-less alternative.

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markybuds said:

i'm going to be germinating 5 ak-48 feminized seeds.. then transplant them (hopefully they all make it lol) into rockwool and house them in a propagation dome. when i feel they're rooted well enough i'm going to transplant them to my flowering setup, with the exception of (like you mentioned) the strongest looking plant to be kept as a momma
i'm going to go check that site out tho.. i'm always open to new ideas!

hey... i was just thinking.. even if i have feminized seeds nothing is 100% right??
i might want to clone every one of my germs when big enough and mark them just in case... it would suck hairy monkey balls if the one i kept as a potential mother ended up being hermie or male! hmmmm

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Encomium said:

Lol too true on that. Yea I ordered a bunch of feminized seeds too. Thankfully they all turned out female though they did say on the seedbank site that female isn't guaranteed (I think).

To tell you the truth I'm still a bit confused about the sexing and flowering times. I had started my grow thinking that I could switch to 12/12 when my plants had 4 sets of true leaves (and minimum of 6 inches height). Another part of the same book (Cervantes' Medical Bible) stated that plants grown from seeds should be vegged until preflowers exist or when the plant has reached sexual maturity. Luckily again, the one I picked did show preflowers about a week after I had moved her into her own room and the plants I had in the flowering room did as well and seem to be going well 22 days into flowering.

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Pipe Dream said:

I'd say you can't really choose a mother plant until you've ran them all. In flower the plants really show their individuality so run them all and keep clones of them all and keep your favorite at the end.

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