Mothers and Fathers

[baqualin 4,841]

Hello Peoples! I thought this might be an interesting topic to generate a discussion.

Mother and Father plants,

Do you have a particular technique (pruning pattern) for taking cuttings?

How long do you keep your mothers before taking a new cutting to replace her?

How do you handle genetic drift in a strain you want to keep going??

Are Father plants handle the same as moms?

Feeding Mothers and Fathers as they get older.

How often do you repot?

When repotting do you use same pot or increase in size and how often do you repot?

 

 

I have personally kept a mother going for almost 2 years, until she got so brittle the limbs fell off, so I was wondering if there's a way to prune to extend this.

 

These are just some general questions to start, feel free to add too!

I have my ideas on these questions, but it's always best to gather opinions from others with the same passion for growing kick ass weed, I've been popping seeds since 1971 and still learn something new everyday, mostly thanks to OG!

Best,

BQ

[Weederstand 471]

Great topic, thanks for that, baqualin!

I would like to know more about male plants because they are underrated, imho.

I saw sannie´s male in his new photogallery, since that I´am into male plants.

[Mr Goodfellow 12,402]

Good choice for a topic. OG readers are an enlightened bunch and we always want to learn more! Excellence is what we seek!

 

peace

 

mrG

[Hamme Hydro 4,837]

Since i grow mostly cuttings, i hardly come across male plants. The mother plants i don't keep very long, usually every second generation i make a new mom and throw the old one out. The way i do it works, but it isn't without flaws. Bugs keep coming back no matter what i do, namely thrips.

[gardenartus 13,805]

Couple things I do, I use exacto blade to cut the clones, when the mother is about 3 foot, I take a clone and replace her, 3 to 4 months, sometimes longer. I use T5 and mh in veg, I don't want my plants to get large due to grow space in the flower rooms,. So my veg plants stay smaller without over growing the room I think I have like 25 moms right now.

[baqualin 4,841]

Since i grow mostly cuttings, i hardly come across male plants. The mother plants i don't keep very long, usually every second generation i make a new mom and throw the old one out. The way i do it works, but it isn't without flaws. Bugs keep coming back no matter what i do, namely thrips.

I use diatomaceous earth mixed in the soil and Mosquito bits in the top inch of soil, say bye to Fungus Gnats and Thrips, makes life real hard for Spyder Mites too!

BQ

[Stringy Pete 188]

I'll preach neem and karanja oil for pest control all day long. As for keeping parent plants, I'm just gonna kick back and take in the information.

 

My technique is pretty rudimentary "Plant get too big, Stringy take new cutting. Unguh Unguh!" lol

[gardenartus 13,805]

I'll preach neem and karanja oil for pest control all day long. As for keeping parent plants, I'm just gonna kick back and take in the information.

 

My technique is pretty rudimentary "Plant get too big, Stringy take new cutting. Unguh Unguh!" lol

lol funny ga hut ga hut

[Gardener 2,161]

My third grow was composed of clones from my second grow. That's my entire experience with cloning. That said, is there an advantage to keeping a mother going for years, and seeing her go brittle? I don't see an advantage over continuous cloning.

 

But then, i have never given much thought to breeding strains, either. Keeping father clones is not in my plans. Just wondering.

[gardenartus 13,805]

I think you risk getting genetic drift if you keep cutting from the same plant and not rotating it out. I;ve had one for seven years, I think she is finally starting to pooter out, last few times she is not the same.

 

I do not flower out the mother plants, I just toss them, I've found the yield is less and the plant does not have the vigor, so I don't waste my time on flowering the moms, when I replace with a new clone, I toss.

[baqualin 4,841]

I think you risk getting genetic drift if you keep cutting from the same plant and not rotating it out. I;ve had one for seven years, I think she is finally starting to pooter out, last few times she is not the same.

 

I do not flower out the mother plants, I just toss them, I've found the yield is less and the plant does not have the vigor, so I don't waste my time on flowering the moms, when I replace with a new clone, I toss.

7 years wow! I thought I was doing good at 2yrs. How often do you re pot, do you trim the roots and use the same container or go up in size? I do Bonsai Trees and I've been treating my mothers the same way, root prune and back in the same pot (cleaned of course ).

BQ

[MiNdLesS 2,696]

great thread!

 

I keep mothers for up to a year and keep them in 2 liter pots. in that time I don't up pot but take the plant out of the pot, cut away about half of the rootball and put it back in the pot with a fresh organic soil mix. after about 3-4 days u see the plant exploding with strong fresh shoots. worked for the last years.

 

for pest control I mainly use neem oil, yellow cards and predators, works also pretty good so far. I once had to use some chemical shit because spider mites drove me nuts for a long time.

 

I kind of regret sometimes when I discarded a mom but then I look in my seed collection and it's not so bad anymore

[Stringy Pete 188]

I'm curious though, if genetic drift is a real phenomenon, how do people keep get consistent results with older cuts? Chem '91 for example.

 

I know clones can lose vigor over time being repeatedly grown indoors, but I've always been skeptical about genetic drift.

[gardenartus 13,805]

I should have written that different Same breed from the original plant, but I replaced every few months with a new cutting or clone. I did not grow the same plant the whole time, took cuttings. Mine go into 6 inch pots, sometimes 12 inch if clones not taking. So I took the Cali dream, every say 4 months I took a new cutting and make a new mom, toss the old mom.

 

I'm curious though, if genetic drift is a real phenomenon, how do people keep get consistent results with older cuts? Chem '91 for example.

 

I know clones can lose vigor over time being repeatedly grown indoors, but I've always been skeptical about genetic drift.

I believe it is more how strong the genetics are. I've had a couple drift on me, but that is all.

[Crimson Fart 705]

I would like to know more about male plants because they are underrated, imho.

 

I agree with this;

They are very intriguing, I think.

 

A couple of males crossed my path, but I never saw this :

 

(PIC of AMSTERDAMMER)

 

Didn't knew you can find them as solid as an OG nug.

[Stringy Pete 188]

As Joe Dirt would say... "Dang!"

[Justcozz 6,681]

Maybe one day, I will have to set up another flower room. A guys only spot...it would be interesting to grow out a bunch of males and see the diffences. Instead of keeping pollen from that one that looks nice...you could actually select just like we do females. It would take quite a bit of space. But pollenate several buds on the same girl with different male pollen. You could really find that perfect match.

[Mr Goodfellow 12,402]

I have a good link about selecting males. Really cool info. I can't find it now, but I'll look. It's really interesting. Of course, different breeders will have different methods but it is a process.

 

peace

 

mrG

[gardenartus 13,805]

Shoot I would just like one small room with attempt at one! ha!

 

That is one radical male now.

[dieseldog381 2,622]

Great topic!!! I only have a small space to grow, so generally no place to keep Mom's, at least not for long, BUT, I've found a pineapple pheno amongst Mosca's C99 that I plan to keep, and getting ready to polinate her clones with a Sannie's Jack F8 dad.

 

Like Gardenartus said, I just keep cloning forward, until I get bored, and toss the strain. I always make seeds of a strain, so I can start it again. Man, 20 moms? That would be sweet to have, I'd have Chucky's Bride, Holy Princess, Sannie's Jack, Silverfields, KO Kush, heck, they'd all be Sannie's strains!

[FoolOnTheHill 3,040]

How do you handle genetic drift in a strain you want to keep going??

 

 

Genetic drift is something that can happen to a population, over generations.

It does not apply to individual motherplants.

[Hempyfan 4,152]

Fool on the Hill is correct. Genetic drift does not work that way in a single plant.

 

What someone might be seeing is degradation but from stress of the mother causing inferior dna transcription and seed development even if the seeds look healthy to the eye. Get the mother happy and this degradation in dna transcription will vanish.

 

 

It can also be that expression is different due to environmental differences in grows and this can be seen by some a degradation.

 

Hope that helps,

Hempyfan,

Jah Bless!

[FoolOnTheHill 3,040]

Thanks for clearing this up, Hempyfan.

 

Shantibaba (MrNice seeds) has a method for revitalisation of old motherplants.

Growing them outdoors for a while in summer, is his trick.

[gardenartus 13,805]

I think something is missing on info there, because I had Jilly Bean and Agent Orange change on me, I firmly believe you have to start with good genetics and you can get drift from unstable strains.

[Poldergrower 6,514]

For us @NAW, we both have just about 30/40 mothers and over a dozen fathers.

 

We always keep our original mom and dad's, and in the mean time you recieve some from fellow growers.

 

A very few stay in the nursery but most of the time we search tru the genetics our selfes, and sometimes find multiple pheno's that are well worthy to work with.

 

We have our Silverhaze clone 'Shaze" wich dates back to '96, Knutsel's Jack Hammer mom is with us for for 7/8 years already.

Several moms are kept in little containers there whole life time till they get cut again.

 

T.P.R mom, 14/15 months old and still going strong.

 

 

 

The stem is as thick as my pinky, some can go forever in a small container, some need a re-pot after a while.

It is all up to the power of the individuel pheno if they survive, with us they need to just to fit in my 2 mammoth nano's (baby tents 60x40x60 lol) and a small cupboard.

 

Green Manalishi, Headcandy, Strawberry Blues, Shaze, Blue Shaze, Jack Hammer, Blue Hammer all are tru survivors, many years are they under cfl lightning and show no genetic drift what so ever. Every pheno has different needs just like a human being.

 

That being said, i let them recover in the summer under tru sunlight. They get a boost and are ready for another year indoors. I use the same techniqe as Knutsel and Shanti.

 

Poldergrower and RhinoCbd