When To Start Moms

Okay im getting antsy for next years grow and this outdoor board is moving pretty slow so i needed something to do

For my next grow i want to grow my own mothers and take clones so i dont have to fuck around and waste time and energy digging holes for males

I want to get about 20 clones ready to go out by May

I plan on planting 5-10 seeds to get a good amount of females to choose to be mothers

Now when should i start growing my mothers?

I need to grow them to 2 feet tall or so, and sex them, and the clones need to have established roots by May so they can go out as soon as possible

Also what is the best way for sexing plants? I am planning on taking clones of each plant and then flowering each clone to determine sex of the plant

Would it just be easier to flower the whole plant instead of flowering a clone? Or is the flowering and re-vegging going to cause to much stress?

How do you guys grow your moms? I need em bushy to get plenty of clones. Do you lst, top, or fim your mothers?

Im planning on starting the mothers in early February, lsting them, let them veg (under 400watt mh) for 6-8 wks (now its mid-late march) take clones, flower clones to determine sex, toss out males, then take clones and let clones veg for at least 4 weeks. Sound like a solid plan?

I started vegging from seed in march last year and that was about perfect for me

ok first ,u wanna plant early for the mother ,as in end of march begining of april this way u get the most out of the sun while it is headed toward summer solstice which is around June22 mostly,the after June22 or summer solstice light decreases slowly until around Dec 22 which is the winter solstice,light starts returning or amount of light hours.

As for sexing the plant u must wait it out ,there is no way to tell beforehand unless u have feminized seeds then chances are great for females but not absolute typicaly sex shows around 4-6 weeks old.
U can top as long as she is past her 3rd node of growth then wait for the two tops that come from that to grow out enough so that u can top them at a respectable growth node,.U basicaly already have the timespan right for planting a mother,I dont know to much about cloning i havent messed with them much.

i started mine. but i plant on putting out alot more then you

lol. In the "jonesin for spring" thread posted I drove to Seattle and bought clones to use as mothers before Christmas. Have no idea whether or not it was a sound idea or not, just an experiment because I was bored. Would have started seeds, but leaving for 3 months, and sexing seeds can't be left to my grow partner.

But...the female are thriving, a definite upper in PNW winter! Plan to clone the end of January; ideally will be ready to go into a hoop house in May. Probably at least a month earlier than necessary, but can't see any harm and it's fun. Even worth it if I have to start over...have spent lots more money on much worse diversions.

As long as we outdoor types and shuffling around with not much to do... I wish some of the masters would explain how they "over-winter" favorites and what they do when the urge to grow overcomes their innate good sense and experience!

mountaingarden, You can always start a post with your question.

Green Dragon 2011 said:

mountaingarden, You can always start a post with your question.

Click to expand...

Excellent point, and were I not toasted on last year's bounty, might have.

Here's what works for me.

I use the free lighting from outdoor growing for all my connoisseur strains that have long flowering periods or low yields and also it's a great time to propagate. This would work for planting all female clones like you want as well.
Start your program a couple of months prior to putting them outside, veg them until about 3-4 nodes then put them on a 12/12light schedule and give them bloom nutes to flower. Weed out (pun intended lol) the males and choose your best females for your mothers. Now just change the nutes and lights back and re-veg. Start your clones after they recover and are ready.

But you might want to take the opportunity to keep 1 or 2 primo males and cross your favorite strains, plus you can make some free seeds, this is what excites me the most about outdoor growing and get's me jonesin for spring! LOL

Good luck bro.
Good luck bro.