Huge "pre-flowers"? on mother plants

[u4r1k]

Ok so I built this Mother/Cloning box:
 

 

at the beginning of last year and I started a Freeze Cheese '89 mother plant in July 2012. Since then I have grown out 4 clones and had two successful grows. But a couple of months ago I noticed the pre-flowers had started growing quite rapidly

 

 

Some of these are huge:

 

 

 

I have taken cuttings and they seem to be doing fine in the DWC

 

Also the cuttings I took two weeks ago are starting to grow healthy roots

 

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it strain specific? And what I really want to know does it have any negative effects in the grows outcome?

Because the clones are so sexually mature it may be an advantage for my Scrog grows, perhaps there will be less transition time from veg to flower (stretch)?

 

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

 

[louise]

They don't look like 'preflowers' anymore... what's the lighting cycle?

[u4r1k]

18/6 always has been since day 1!
That's why it's confusing!

=)

[u4r1k]

All good!

 

I found other growers that have experienced this on-line, like I originally thought it is just a sign of sexual maturity as it is only pistils (white hairs) which are growing like crazy. It will be interesting to see how fast the transition to full flower takes though! ;-)

[Frank Reynolds]

mate it seems like they are full blown flowering at the moment!!

[u4r1k]

Yeah I know, my first thought was the seed supplier sold me auto-flower seeds but I don't think they even exist in this strain and a year is a long time for an auto-flower to wait to go into flower if that's even possible when the lights were on a consistent 18/6 cycle the whole time. There doesn't seem to be any calyx stacking/swelling or anything like that they are just chucking pistils not actual buds! 

Since I posted this I have found other growers who have experienced the same thing, I guess it is a strain thing, just freaked me out because I have never seen it before ;-)

[Frank Reynolds]

I've never kept a mum mate, but if i remember reading correctly you will have a very tough time keeping a female in veg for that long no matter the hours on your timer!!!

[u4r1k]

Maybe, but when I initially researched keeping mothers the general consensus was you could keep them in a vegetative state for up to around 10 years. These ones are comparatively babies! And they still look really healthy, barely even any die off on the very bottom branches. The small seedling in the box is a feminized "Super Lemon Haze" it will be interesting to see what it looks like after a year of veg.

[Frank Reynolds]

I think it comes down to how they have been treated whilst vegging, if you consistantly taking cuttings from it it may not last very long. eg above^^^

[u4r1k]

???? ....It's in veg not stasis? It's not like they're gonna stop growing, you need to consistently take cuttings or prune otherwise it would be a huge mess in there