Originally Posted by Aztros

Ok so I've gone through the GrowFAQ and just can't seem to find a way maintain my mothers. I know how to tip and I'm learning/experimenting with the FIM technique, but I'm still having trouble with the overall maintenance of a mother to make sure it provides optimal cuttings every time.

So let me lay out my situation for you guys... I have two tents that together hold four 4x4 trays. One tent is for flowering and has two 1,000W HPS lights over two separate trays. The other tent has one 600W MH that resides over my 4x4 vegging tray and my 4x4 mothers tray. Outside of the tents I have turned my closet into my clone room. I just moved to a new place so though I have the whole setup to get a harvest every month from 25-30 plants, I'm just now starting out and it will take a while for me to be able to pull 30+ cuttings all at once.

I have my plants started... 2 White Widow, 2 ICE, 2 Northern lights, 2 Jack Herrer, 2 Diesel, and 2 Trainwreck. I just moved to a new house, and am currently keeping my financial means in tact with a mother plant I had at my old place that has donated 10 clones. I recently took 15 more trying to get the second tray started right behind it, but I think I took them too soon and may have hurt my plant. I've noticed a 3-4 leaf pattern on some of my recent batch of clones, which is kinda making me nervous (low yeilders with past experience... very low).

Anyway, with those different strands I have started, they are about 3 weeks old. I hope to turn all of the females that I get out of them into mothers that will hopefully replenish my garden month to month. Should I put them into flowering to determine the sex or should I wait it out and mold them into prosperous mothers then flower a clone?

Secondly, what is proper care for a new plant. When should I tip or use FIM technique? How often can you take a passing of cuttings from a mother without shocking it? I need to turn these plants into healthy mothers, any help would be appreciated. Thanks to anyone who throws me their input.

Originally Posted by Aztros

Dude, I checked out your grow and man... Impressive and helpful. I haven't gotten all the way through it, but plan to soon.
well thanks for checking it out, i'm pretty proud of it.

So yea, if you can't tell I was also inspired by Mr. Fuct.
he's my hero

I appreciate the information on the "mother issues" I'm having.
no problem, hope i helped

I'm doing the 1/3 of the bottom branches off/single stem method for maximum plants in my space if I ever get this fucking thing going.
your only doing the 1/3 on plants in flower, right? and dont worry you'll get it going in no time.

Where our setups are different is that I'm using rockwool cubes instead of loose rockwool. That loose rockwool is hard to come by where I am for some reason.
i get mine online ...my hydro shop dont carry it. Sea of Green - Urban Garden Store here's the link.

Everyone uses that Cana Cocoa grow medium. I hear it's great stuff, but not for us "generic" flood and drain people.
rockwool is superior for a couple of reasons...it's inorganic so no creepy crawlies in it.....and "generic" ...lol...i hear ya, but i'll let em' call us whatever they want as long as the mortgages are paid...nowaddamean?

With that said, I'm forced to root my clones in the small cubes and man is it proving to be a bitch. :/ I might be getting the hang of it, either that or I'm just telling myself I am to feel better about the situation.

albfuct has a cloning in rw cubes thread...it's perfect if you can figure it out.

Anyway, back to our topic at hand... How many cuttings can you typically take from your mothers and how many passings before you replace her with a new plant?
i have 6 mums and i take 6 from each, but i could take 10 or more so in order to prune them back properly i trash a hell of a lot of plant material....i built a 30 site aerocloner and i could fill 2 or 3 of them. and my mums have been goin strong for months and have provided 4 batches of clones. i will replace them 2 at a time and will take 4-6 passes from them before i send the old bitches into flower to get some extra bud

When I first start with a mother, is it best for me to use the FIM technique to establish as many shoots as possible right away?

nope, let that bitch get big and bushy, no training required at all.

I guess what I'm asking is... A plant that has never had a cutting taken won't have much to give when starting out.
you just have to let them get big enough

I need optimal cuttings per mother so I can keep lots of different strands. Or, should I put that out of my head as a stupid idea and just grow out three quality strands with like four mothers for each strand to take cuttings from?

i would keep it simple until you get everything up and producing, then tweak it as needed....dont overdue it at first.

Anyway, thank you again for the help...

your welcome

I look forward to hopefully many conversations, you seem to have a niche for this.