Mother of all mothers, please help.

hello all I have 8 mothers that were under a 400 watt metal halide. I have since switch to 4 T 12 lamps eats of these lamps holds 4 - 4 foot bulbs. I got them for $10 a piece. in each lamp I have 2- 6500 Kelvin bulbs in 2-4100 Kelvin bulbs. I have 2 lamps overhead and 2 lamps shining in from the side. do I have enough light for all of the mothers?

What size pot should they be in? I have all of them in #2 nursery pots. 5 gallon pots? They are all currently between 3-4 ft tall and I would like them to get bushier than they are now...

as always any help is greatly appreciated

Addendum: they are watered regularly and receive guano and other ff nutes and reside in ffof.

8 mothers andyou don't know what to do with them.... personally I would stop keeping mothers and just clone, clones over and over but if you want them to be bushy cut em in half and let them grow or take 8 clones and keep topping them. it doesn't take much light to keep mothers alive or vegging plants alive.... whats your cycle like how many clones how often

Your T12 lights will not be anywhere near enough to veg decently.

Sounds like you have plenty of light to keep mother plants just not 8 effectively. More like 3 or 4 IMO.

I personally would want a little more light, but for mothers I could see it keeping them alive. I see the purpose of the mother plant but with plant count ect ect I clone clones. I very seldom will keep a strain for long as my patients like variety and often become bored with the same strain.

Have you ever done the grafting? You could take each of your strains and infuse them into one plant. Then the lighting would suffice for sure and have all your strains just one plant minus on your count. I'm just throwing that out there for yas. I've grafted before but just to see if it works and it does. Other than that I have no clue what it may do to the genetics of the plant you grafted to. doesn't seem like it would hurt it but don't want to say because I don't know. I guess I'm just trying to throw some suggestions ideas your way.

Lol. You guys are funny.....not enough light for mothers ha ha ha keep doing what your doing kid mothers don't need much to live. And again explain your cycle

I am working towards being able to take 10-20 clones a week, ambitious I know but I am willing to mess up and learn and get a better medicine. I have 3-WWBB, 2-Cali Dream, Pineexpress, Skunk1, Lemon K mothers. I am trying to grow out some clones to find the better genes/phenotype/production, etc on the WWBB and CD and then clone those...I hope that makes sense.

I was not quite sure on the T12 lights, but they were cheap and if they did not work I could use them in my shop. I have a friend that is an electrician and told me after the T12 purchase told me he can get T5 4 bulb lamp for ~$38. How many T5's would I need to this many mothers?

Cloning of clones, I know that it is possible but I do not know the steps or process. Any direction or advice would be appreciated.

Grafting, heard of it, not sure that it is for me right now, but I will research into it.

Again all of the comments are very helpful, THANKS!!!!

MOAB420 said:

I am working towards being able to take 10-20 clones a week, ambitious I know but I am willing to mess up and learn and get a better medicine. I have 3-WWBB, 2-Cali Dream, Pineexpress, Skunk1, Lemon K mothers. I am trying to grow out some clones to find the better genes/phenotype/production, etc on the WWBB and CD and then clone those...I hope that makes sense.

I was not quite sure on the T12 lights, but they were cheap and if they did not work I could use them in my shop. I have a friend that is an electrician and told me after the T12 purchase told me he can get T5 4 bulb lamp for ~$38. How many T5's would I need to this many mothers?

Cloning of clones, I know that it is possible but I do not know the steps or process. Any direction or advice would be appreciated.

Grafting, heard of it, not sure that it is for me right now, but I will research into it.

Again all of the comments are very helpful, THANKS!!!!

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clonong clones is just that you clone a plant veg it and then take a clone off of that vegged clone then veg that clone and clone a plant from it on and on and on... unless you are going with no veg than I would just grab 2 clones off the bottom of each plant in vegand cycle like that then rather than keep mothers use that space for rooting clones... I wouldn't get into grafting if you need that many clones each week it's a lot to ask weekly. you don't need 10-20 clones a week to search out a pheno so what is it your trying to do. thats a lot of labling and keeping track of shit to not even know if you got the right pheno....

i would hope i have a good grower friend if i was/were you

jesus of Cannabis said:

i would hope i have a good grower friend if i was/were you

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It would be nice to have a grower/mentor buddy

Moab? Behind the Zion curtain?
Hey man I've kept many a clone mother under t12 arrays, pumped out many of clones from them. You should be fine and dandy, if thats what you have available right now. If your area is not lit up and you have dark spots add more lights, or up grade your lights.
BE thinking of upgrading to t5 when you can, pricey basterds they are.
Later. as your ambitions grow so will your set. Be looking into a switchable ballast (400 watts or better). The switchable ballast because its more vesitile. 400 watts because its enough of the right spectrum to keep a pretty large population of clone mothers in an 6x6 area, in 5 gal pots. It will be enough light to keep them producing donations.

tusseltussel said:

. you don't need 10-20 clones a week to search out a pheno so what is it your trying to do. thats a lot of labling and keeping track of shit to not even know if you got the right pheno....

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I would like to produce as much medicine as I can, I know that I have lofty goals, but I am not afraid to make mistakes and to learn.

Getting the right pheno, I can already tell that one of the WWBB mothers produces more than other WWBB in SOG. I would like to take that mother and clone her a bunch and produce a bunch of WWBB SOG

melungeonman said:

Moab? Behind the Zion curtain?
Hey man I've kept many a clone mother under t12 arrays, pumped out many of clones from them. You should be fine and dandy, if thats what you have available right now. If your area is not lit up and you have dark spots add more lights, or up grade your lights.
BE thinking of upgrading to t5 when you can, pricey basterds they are.
Later. as your ambitions grow so will your set. Be looking into a switchable ballast (400 watts or better). The switchable ballast because its more vesitile. 400 watts because its enough of the right spectrum to keep a pretty large population of clone mothers in an 6x6 area, in 5 gal pots. It will be enough light to keep them producing donations.

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Zion Curtain....HA HA HA!!!!!

Over my new clones I have some small 43W 6500K CFL's that sit above the hyrodome. One I get the T5's I will use one or two of them to light the new clones....(Damn just when I thought I had enough space....I am running out).

Could I use my 400W MH overhead and the T12 lamps for the side?

I added some pics on that last post. Anyway thats my clone and mother room, It's become a little more than anbitious. The table hold 90 in 1 quart pots, then I put them on the floor and veg 66 per run. This allows me to keep ten mothers in 5's and as many as 500. in domes on the bakers rack at the far end of the room.

melungeonman said:

I added some pics on that last post. Anyway thats my clone and mother room, It's become a little more than anbitious. The table hold 90 in 1 quart pots, then I put them on the floor and veg 66 per run. This allows me to keep ten mothers in 5's and as many as 500. in domes on the bakers rack at the far end of the room.

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Cool man thanks for the pics, they really help. Damn that is a great setup and it is giving me some ideas!!

What is the burlappy rug looking thing for?

For small clones just out of the dome. I think I would only run the t 12s. Veg after you transplant, under the 400 watt lamp. Use at a min 3 gal pots to veg in. I run organic soil to veg then organic botanicare to finish veg. I find way more clone sucess with Just good organic soil. I let them get at least 12 inches and f. i. m. once. After they start re-veging at this topping point, I will transplant them and start giving them Botanicare Power Plant with, silaca burst, and cal mag. 3 weeks of this. Then I re f.i.m. and just give water. for one week. A week of bloom nutes, "then" they bloom under Hps. I don't rush them with a bunch of nute programs. I let the plant consume the organiclly composted nutrients in the soil. When I transplant prior to giving them veg nutes, I transplant into recycled soil. Pre- flushed, from the last bloom.
And at that time I will start feeding them the nutes they need to achieve "MY' desired results.

I'ts a rag wool rug, you can find these for about $5.00 at most truck stops. I cut them to fit the dome then place the jiffy pots or rockwool cubes on Them . This rug lays across a propagation mat, Then soaked with water. The dome is a wal mart storage tub with a couple of holes drilled in the bottom to regulate evaperation. The tray is a Doe- tray. I Ordered Them from nicholas foods, These interlock and create a seal when stacked. They make great ebb and flow resevoirs and trays, just add a pump to the bottom and drill a hole and add a straw to determine the water depth when pump is on. The higher the straw the more it will fill before pouring down the straw back to the res. Anyway if you know someone who works for a restraunt, or better yet a pizza place give him the $ and have him order ya a couple, They cost about $8.00 each last time I checked and they are even comercial dishwasher safe!
All the cloning devices in the world won't improve your cloneing success ratio. I cut 45 clones and in about 3 days most show roots in 5 days all will gen be in 1quart pots with a typical 100% success rate. The fancyest airo- cloner won't produce any better clones than this. This is my fancy HYdro cloner and roots after 4 days. As you can see I spent a fortune on it. Ya see It's not what you Buy It's what ya know, and how you utilize that information. The crazy cloning hormone used to do this in a cup of tap water? A couple of drops of organic hive honey mixed with just run of the mill tap water. For lighting a dome not much more than a chicken brooding light $9.95 at Ace hardware, is needed use a very low watt bulb for this, as not much light is needed. I get more success out of low light in cloning than high.
Cloning is all about sterility. Not much more than that is needed. GReat cloning practices, makes great clones. Not equipment. I read people touting how great there clones look after rooting for 10 days in their $100 cloner. In 6 more days that cup will be "packed with roots" In fact I may have to seperate them soon to keep thm from all becoming entagled.

hotrodharley said:

Your T12 lights will not be anywhere near enough to veg decently.

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How many idiotic posts can you make in a day?

3 ignores in a row. HRH must be having one of his tantrums again. I can promise your garden will be much happier if you DO NOT listen to this guy. Claims to be an old hand at growing. In reality he is just a noob at trolling. He is a poser not a grower. Polly aka HRH want a cracker?