keeping a mother plant

i have 5 fem trainwreck babys and want to make mother plants out of the best ones. how do i make the best out of them, do i lst or just keep cutting clones from new branches. any help or advice is very apreciated

depends on how big they are. lst is hard when you have an older established plant because of the thick stem (assuming it has a thick stem). though not impossible it would probably be easier to just continue taking cuttings from the top branches to keep the plant at a manageable height.

cheers for the reply. should i lst them now then take cuttings when theyare big enough

if i top the a mother do i top the branches to make 2 more branches and use the tops as clones?

no answer then ??

yes, i would use the topped cutting as a clone. and yes, you can lst now and then use for cutting once they are old enough. lst is better when the plant is younger because the stem is maleable enough to be bent. sorry for the prolonged reply.

thanks very much stopcallingmedude

i have two very stout indicas i've been training to be mothers.
the first i topped after it grew it's fifth set of fan leaves, this gave me four big branches. i took one as a clone and tied the other three to the edges of the pot. after they were well established i topped again and each of them has four large branches developing. so now i have a small pot with twelve tops coming from it and i plan to take clones from these.
this seems to be working well.

the second plant i let get taller and i tied the single top to the edge of the pot. (lst) i then used sections of wire hanger to make little hooks and spread out the branches from the middle in an attempt to make a bowl shape and increase light exposure. this seems sound but the branches are still not growing all that much, in height anyways. maybe this way takes more patience but the multiple topping has looked really great the entire time.

either of these ways lend themselves well for longer term lifespan. i think it is helping for me to imagine how they will grow next and be prepared to arrange it optimally.

i haven't been doing this long but it's working.

thanks for the reply. do you have any pics? out of my 5 i have topped 1 fimmed 1 and lst the other 3