Something to ponder on mother plants

Drella

Well-Known Member
I have two mother plants, (two different kinds of indica,) and they're in their fourth week of veg from clones. They're sitting in a veg closet/mother plant closet right now. the other plants that started with the mother's are sitting in a bloom room right now, max capacity. I want to keep the mother plants for clones, but if i veg them too much longer ill run into root bound problems, I've been just feeding them ph6.5 water. I guess my question is can you stunt or slow their growth, (by changing light cycle, depriving them, etc,) without hurting them or the overall yield? or is this a dumb thing to do? any insight is appreciated, I know this is a dumb problem to have, too much green to play with!
 

NeedMoreHerb

Active Member
I have two mother plants, (two different kinds of indica,) and they're in their fourth week of veg from clones. They're sitting in a veg closet/mother plant closet right now. the other plants that started with the mother's are sitting in a bloom room right now, max capacity. I want to keep the mother plants for clones, but if i veg them too much longer ill run into root bound problems, I've been just feeding them ph6.5 water. I guess my question is can you stunt or slow their growth, (by changing light cycle, depriving them, etc,) without hurting them or the overall yield? or is this a dumb thing to do? any insight is appreciated, I know this is a dumb problem to have, too much green to play with!
Well you could probably just get a shitty light for them. Keep the same light cycle, just use an incandescent light or something that wont promote growth. That will make em slow down real good.
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
I have two mother plants, (two different kinds of indica,) and they're in their fourth week of veg from clones. They're sitting in a veg closet/mother plant closet right now. the other plants that started with the mother's are sitting in a bloom room right now, max capacity. I want to keep the mother plants for clones, but if i veg them too much longer ill run into root bound problems, I've been just feeding them ph6.5 water. I guess my question is can you stunt or slow their growth, (by changing light cycle, depriving them, etc,) without hurting them or the overall yield? or is this a dumb thing to do? any insight is appreciated, I know this is a dumb problem to have, too much green to play with!
I don't advise depriving them. You can try GH Diamond Nectar. It is a fulvic acid supplement that also has the added benefit of slowing down vertical growth. You can top, LST, or supercrop them. You could also take and root cuttings from each of the mothers and restart your mothers. Look at all other options before you go depriving your mothers of anything. You wouldn't treat your own mom that way.;-)
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
Well you could probably just get a shitty light for them. Keep the same light cycle, just use an incandescent light or something that wont promote growth. That will make em slow down real good.
Good idea! i'll look into that!
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
Well you could probably just get a shitty light for them. Keep the same light cycle, just use an incandescent light or something that wont promote growth. That will make em slow down real good.
I wonder if a weaker light won't hurt it in the long run, should i still feed them veg nutes?
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
I don't advise depriving them. You can try GH Diamond Nectar. It is a fulvic acid supplement that also has the added benefit of slowing down vertical growth. You can top, LST, or supercrop them. You could also take and root cuttings from each of the mothers and restart your mothers. Look at all other options before you go depriving your mothers of anything. You wouldn't treat your own mom that way.;-)
Great advice, what's a root cutting, a cutting at the base? how do you restart a mother?, do you mean clone her and bloom the og mother?
Is just giving her water, depriving her? thanks for all of the help!
 

DirtyPirate

Active Member
I don't advise depriving them. You can try GH Diamond Nectar. It is a fulvic acid supplement that also has the added benefit of slowing down vertical growth. You can top, LST, or supercrop them. You could also take and root cuttings from each of the mothers and restart your mothers. Look at all other options before you go depriving your mothers of anything. You wouldn't treat your own mom that way.;-)
I agree. Depriving the mothers is going to produce weak clones. Your mothers should always be well taken care of.

:bigjoint:
 

DirtyPirate

Active Member
Great advice, what's a root cutting, a cutting at the base? how do you restart a mother?, do you mean clone her and bloom the og mother?
Is just giving her water, depriving her? thanks for all of the help!
He was saying to take clones from the mother, root them then use them to replace the mother.

Yes, just water would deprive her of nutrients required for her to sustain life.
 

woodsmaneh!

Well-Known Member
Cool them down. Keep the temperature in the low 60's and they will slow down, cut food back by 60%. When you want them back just turn the heat back up for a few days and increase the food back to full pop in a couple of days.
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
Cool them down. Keep the temperature in the low 60's and they will slow down, cut food back by 60%. When you want them back just turn the heat back up for a few days and increase the food back to full pop in a couple of days.
good idea with the temp! defn gonna nute like 1/4 strenght till ready for bloom.
what about a weaker light?
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
there under 4- 4't5's. I got 2- 2't5's they could go under. Or i could even buy a cheak shop light, like a t12, or would this be too extreme! I'm excited on the feedback guys! hope this helps anyone with mother plants they're gonna keep for a while, but are worried about "root bound" or "too tall!"
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
there under 4- 4't5's. I got 2- 2't5's they could go under. Or i could even buy a cheak shop light, like a t12, or would this be too extreme! I'm excited on the feedback guys! hope this helps anyone with mother plants they're gonna keep for a while, but are worried about "root bound" or "too tall!"
The weaker the light the more they may want to stretch. Don't go with weak light. You don't need super dooper freakin' Metal Halides or anything. Some good CFL's or T5 are good. You have to keep fluoros closer to the plant tops to prevent stretch and maximize your light penetration. It really depends on how big they get and how many mothers you are going to have. Use your light correctly and you can achieve what you set out to achieve. Everyone's situation is unique so you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. ;-)
 

super2200

Well-Known Member
there under 4- 4't5's. I got 2- 2't5's they could go under. Or i could even buy a cheak shop light, like a t12, or would this be too extreme! I'm excited on the feedback guys! hope this helps anyone with mother plants they're gonna keep for a while, but are worried about "root bound" or "too tall!"
They dont get rootbound if your regularly trim the roots and its easiest from what I read if you use the Square pots. I agree with previous posts in that you do not want to do anything to slow or reduce the growth rate, then the clones will not be as strong as mentioned so its not a good start. With the square pots when you think its time you take out the entire rootmass and trim about 1 inch from each side and then replant in same pot with a bit of fresh soil replacing what was trimmed off. Make sure you grow into a nice big pot and they wont get too tall if you keep taking clones
 

Lokee

Active Member
allow her to get close to being rootbound then take her out of the pot and cut about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the outsides of the roots off then pack fresh dirt around the edges of your pot. root pruning is a common practice with mothers that are kept for long periods. some people will keep the same mother for 10-15 years in the same pot. this will not hurt the plant as long as she is kept healthy, nutes, light etc.
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
They dont get rootbound if your regularly trim the roots and its easiest from what I read if you use the Square pots. I agree with previous posts in that you do not want to do anything to slow or reduce the growth rate, then the clones will not be as strong as mentioned so its not a good start. With the square pots when you think its time you take out the entire rootmass and trim about 1 inch from each side and then replant in same pot with a bit of fresh soil replacing what was trimmed off. Make sure you grow into a nice big pot and they wont get too tall if you keep taking clones
thanks man, should look into this!
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
allow her to get close to being rootbound then take her out of the pot and cut about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the outsides of the roots off then pack fresh dirt around the edges of your pot. root pruning is a common practice with mothers that are kept for long periods. some people will keep the same mother for 10-15 years in the same pot. this will not hurt the plant as long as she is kept healthy, nutes, light etc.
wow, gotta look into this!
 

super2200

Well-Known Member
thanks man, should look into this!
you may want to go with the 1/4-1/2 inch as mentioned above and not a inch like I suggested. An inch may be too much if your not using a large pot. This way you want to keep the plant growing as strong and fast as it can, creating strong fast rooting clones. Good luck man
 

Drella

Well-Known Member
I cut the lighting down from 4- 4't5's to 2-4't5's and I see drooping! this might be because they're thirsty, man theyre getting thirstier and thirstier! or it's because of the cutdown of light, anyway Im, done trying to deprive them of anything, doesn't sound like a good idea after all. gonna go back to full nutes, full light, and look into root pruning. thank you everyone so much for your insight!
 

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