# how do you keep a mother plant in veg for year or longer



## growforgood904 (Feb 26, 2009)

How exactly do you grow a from seed to create a good mother to keep for long time.

Also, can keep it in with the mother until ready to flower? please help. starting in a few days from seed.


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## stonerman (Mar 6, 2009)

Try to keep the light on all the time for up to a year. Many plants will start to flower even if the the lights arnt on 12/12, so after a year or whenever the plant starts to go into flowering, just take some clones and grow them. Also finish the mother's flowering, get some decent bud off of that, plus have some nice size clones to keep vegging. hope that helps, peace


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## DrBrutus (Mar 6, 2009)

Keep the nitrogen going.


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## Chiceh (Mar 6, 2009)

I keep them on 18/6 under a 1000 watt m.h. now and feed it every other watering. Keep cutting it back, before ready to flower it take some clones to make a new mom. I have also kept moms on 24 hour light under a T12 flouro, same feeding, every other watering and cutting it back. They kept fine almost a year. You may have to re-pot it if it is getting to big though, just watch for that.


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## Brick Top (Mar 6, 2009)

I have read of people keeping mother plants for years and years  in some cases I have read of a decade or more. They just keep her in a veg lighting cycle and give her everything she needs and repot if needed and just like people can do with houseplants you can keep them alive and happy for years and years *IF* you know what you are doing.


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## thchero (Mar 6, 2009)

i have a mother that i have had for about 7 months all i did was after the plant was month and a half old i sexed it at first signs of sex i put back into 24 hour light cycle it took about 3 weeks for it to start to grow again.


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## DrGreenFinger (Mar 8, 2009)

Brick Top said:


> I have read of people keeping mother plants for years and years &#8230;


it seems like they would end up dealing with massive roots, as well as nutrient uptake. i considered this a few months ago and started a thread asking if it would cause the strain to degenerate (and at what point) if you continually exchanged a mother for her clone. i didn't want to have to support a thriving mother. the responses i got were that the strain would never lose quality, so it seems more efficient to just keep a thriving clone.


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## Nocturn3 (Mar 8, 2009)

DrGreenFinger said:


> it seems like they would end up dealing with massive roots,


I trim the roots on my bonsai mother plants every few months, then re-pot into the same size pot with fresh soil. I have had a couple of strains for well over 18 months, and they have never needed to be put into pots bigger than 5" square.


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## DrGreenFinger (Mar 8, 2009)

Nocturn3 said:


> I trim the roots on my bonsai mother plants every few months, then re-pot into the same size pot with fresh soil. I have had a couple of strains for well over 18 months, and they have never needed to be put into pots bigger than 5" square.


good info!


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## growforgood904 (Mar 17, 2009)

View attachment 356846

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i started a journal . hope everyone likes.. let me know if i could do something diff!! 
now excuse me while i light my


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## panta (Mar 17, 2009)

is it possible that my plant /white russian/ started flowering under 18/6,its about 2 months old,it has some big preflowers got me thinking that its maybe starting to flower


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## T.H.Cammo (Mar 19, 2009)

Anyone interested in keeping "Mothers", long term, should get hip to the concept of "Root Trimming"! I'm speaking, strictly, of conventional "soil in pots" gardening.

Root trimming is a technique that is used in Bonsai gardening to control the overall size of the plant - and it's not as complicated as you might think! As Noctern 3 said earlier, I would also suggest using square pots (it's just a lot easier, and less messy, that way!). Whenever the plant becomes "a little rootbound" (not severly), pull it out of the pot, gently, and trim off about an inch, or so, on all four sides and the bottom. After you have killed a couple of plants you will soon begin to realize that removing more than about 25 or 50% of the rootball is _*not*_ recommended. I have found that "slicing" the rootball with a good, sharp, serrated knife works best (something like a breadknife, to be exact!). Then repot, in the same pot, with additional fresh soil and carry-on!


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## Greyskull (Mar 20, 2009)

^^^ ROOT TRIMMING/PRUNING IS A MUST^^^

I like to keep my production moms in big containers of soil.... the bigger the mom the more quality shoots to take to fill my tables. And soil moms are easy to maintain. Whenever a mom has outgrown its container (rootbound) I'll take it out of the old home (ex 3g/12" container), and then with a big knife slice the rootball into about a 6" square. Just cut the roots like a pice of bread. Then I "pot it up" (ie move it into a bigger container... so from 3g to 5g, 5g to 7g). The pruning really helps the plants take off once they settle into the new homes. 

My current moms of pre 98 bubba & SDxSB are 7mos old.... keep the lights on at least 18/6 (which will give you slower growth) but its ideal IMO/E to keep moms and vegging plants 24/0 (which will give you faster growth)..... if you root prune your moms its have been documented that plants can stay in a veg state for as long as 7 years (and this was a banzai mo in a 4" square pot)...


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