why a mother plant?

I am 8 weeks into my first hydroponic grow and just performed my first round of clones. I took one cutting from each of the 10 plants currently in veg for the next generation. I was first going to keep a mother plant in the veg room under the light with DWC but now I am realizing how easy it is to cut a clone from a veg plant a week before I put them in the flower room. Is there something wrong with taking one clone from each plant before putting them in the flower room rather than taking the cuts from the same mother plant? I am a licensed medical grower so I have a limited number of state 'legal' plants. If i keep a mother plant in veg than it sucks one number from my flower room.

keeping a mother plant is a very good idea, if you grow on a regular basis. it can cut your grow time by a good 2 weeks or more.

I see your point because I could take clones from the mother plant 3 weeks before transferring the previous generation to flower and have some clones already past rooting and ready to grow some mass. Hmmmm....

I have no idea how to clone. Is there a good thread on here that explains everything one needs to know about cloning?

Another reason for keeping a mother is if you have one plant that outperforms all the others you would want to grow all of that one in the future.

There are plenty of folks here that don't keep mothers and run a perpetual grow like you are doing. I think that Stink Buddy has the most detailed thread about this in the Hydro room. Harvest a pound every 30 days or something like that, he is also medical grower. If you haven't read it check it out I think that you will get something good out of it.

moobyghost said:

I have no idea how to clone. Is there a good thread on here that explains everything one needs to know about cloning?

Click to expand...

In the GrowFAQ:


https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=category&id=63

Lots of good stuff in the GrowFAQ.

In terms of hydro grows, many choose to keep a mother in soil...or some other system that isn't totally dependent on a constant supply of electricity.

For example, if you're growing exclusively with aeroponic setups and your pumps lose power for a few hours during a power outage, you'll lose everything. If you keep a few mothers growing in soil, a power outage won't affect those plants enabling you to get back on the road much quicker...assuming you don't have a reliable outside source for clones.

Of course, a UPS battery backup system can run pumps for quite a while and save your grow. You don't need the lights to run during a power outage and can recover from the lack of light, but if your roots aren't getting fed, well...

I don't keep a mom, I have only one main light in my veg room which is a 400. With a mother plant I needed to keep the light high enough for her and still find a way to get enough lumens to my smaller vegging plants. Was not working out well. So if you can dedicate a light say at least a 250 just to your mom than go for it, but you also said space was limited so that is probably not feasible.

I run a perpetual setup without a mom I just do as you sasid and cut clones just before flowering. The key is to find a good strong donor plant, one that clomes always root from. These clones will be an exact genetic match of the donor and if treated properly will produce predictable results. I got a clone from a friend Shiva Skunk/ Northern Lights and I was going to keep it as a mom. I trained it into a masive bush. This was an awesome plant with nodes every 1/2 inch on all of its multiple branches. Anyway I cut some clones from it 24 of them from one plant and barely put a dent in the dense vegetation. I was expecting about 2/3 to root well all of them did and prolificly. I was happy I had a strong mom. When it came time for my babies to join mommy under the bright light I realized my dilemma (The one light and varying plant heights problem). So I decided to flower mom Seeing that all her babies were growing up just like her, I felt safe knowing I can keep the family lineage going from her babies offspring. And right I was, It has been five rounds since and all the clones cut from all the plants have rooted with the same, and show the exact same characteristics. I don't have a problem with any delay due to not having a mom with my perpetual setup. So get some strong genes and watch them multiply.

moobyghost said:

I have no idea how to clone. Is there a good thread on here that explains everything one needs to know about cloning?

Click to expand...

Deffently google it you will find alot! Search man Search!