Clones Under Fluros

[Tom]

If you put in four seeds and two of them turn male you have wasted 50% of your grow costs, if one of the others turns hermie then you have wasted 75% of your time and grow costs and are going to end up with a poor possibly seedy yield and possibly having to buy your mj while waiting for the next crop. Using clones will ensure you have 4 out of 4 females at harvest time and it doesn't take much to keep a mum alive, check out the mother - clone set-up link in my signature.

 

[dwyndorf]

Thanks, I now understand the full benefits of cloning but I'm confused by the process

 

My plants are in the last week of veg. Should I,

 

(1) Take clones from each plant and grow them as "mother plants" and then take clones from these mothers to start my new crop?

 

(2) Take clones from each plant and keep them alive until my existing crop has finished budding and then start my new crop?

 

I suppose I'm confused by the whole mother plant thing. Is the plan to keep these mothers alive indefinitely just for the purpose of cloning?

 

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

 

dwyndorf

Edited May 1, 2004 by dwyndorf

[Tom]

Thanks, I now understand the full benefits of cloning but I'm confused by the process 

 

My plants are in the last week of veg. Should I,

 

(1) Take clones from each plant and grow them as "mother plants" and then take clones from these mothers to start my new crop? 

 

(2) Take clones from each plant and keep them alive until my existing crop has finished budding and then start my new crop?

 

I suppose I'm confused by the whole mother plant thing.  Is the plan to keep these mothers alive indefinitely just for the purpose of cloning?

 

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

 

dwyndorf

Actually, you can do either, but keeping a mother is a sort of insurance policy in case you have a disaster of some sort, you won't lose your favourite mj strains.

 

[dwyndorf]

Thanks Tom, its all becoming clearer now.

 

One last question, is it possible to keep my clones alive under flouros in an aero cloning chamber while my other plants are budding?

 

Cheers

 

dwyndorf

[Tom]

If you mean in the same chamber while in the flowering cycle, they would want to flower as well, if you mean in another cabinet using CF's then you shouldn't have a problem, there's a link to my old mother/clone set-up in my signature.

 

[F420]

I dont keep a mother plant,

I just clone off the flowering plant roughly 3 weeks before harvest and use a little branch at the bottom.

That way my clones are pretty much one week under Hid and then flower.

[Luke Skywalker]

If you mean can you keep motherplants in an aeroponic DWC or SWC type system, and then transfer these to a similar system for the flowering phase, heck yeah!

 

I reckon you'd be best served by having 3 or more of each particular plant that you wish to keep for the next generation of flowering plants. That way you've got a few more clones to choose from should one or two die in the process. And if they don't, you've got a couple extra to use or discard or keep as a mothering plant.

 

Mother plants are usually select clones which are kept small and stunted, almost like a bonsai, although it's not really necessary to shorten their size, it's more convenient to have a small room with small plants than growing large plants just for a few tiny clones.

 

The mother plants are kept small and then cloned out a few weeks under fluoros, and transferred into the vegging/flowering room. They grow on from there for a couple of weeks, or to whatever height desired under a HID light, (HPS or MH) and then flowered out. Remember that a flowering plant will finish between 2 and 3 times the finished vegging height, so you don't need to veg for long if growing from clones.

 

Hope that helps mate.