Best method to create and store a bonsai mother

[raven6]

Hi guys,

 

Long time between posts but I have just got back into growing. I am just vegging a batch of feminized Big Bang seeds to do my indoor/outdoor winter grow and I was hoping to cut some clones and convert one of these clones into a mother. Basically so I don't have to go to the hassle of buying more seeds and so I can keep a mother over winter and use her clones for an outdoor summer grow next year.

 

Currently I am growing the Big Bang in coco under a 250w MH but I really want to simplify (idiot proof) my mother. I was just thinking of putting a rooted clones in a soil pot under a couple of fluro. Would this work?.....I want it to be low maintenance without a lot of watering, just feeding her a weak solution of liquid ferts and pruning back gronwth to give her a bonsai effect. Closer to summer I plan on increasing the fert strength and putting her under the 250w MH to start harvesting some clones off her.

 

Any suggestions/advice/ideas guys?......really just wondering about soil as a medium

[The Hash Nibbler]

Put the Mother in coco, feed it as per usual, but make sure you use an enzyme like multizyme or Cannazyme to get rid of the dead roots. Put under a 80w Philips cfl , and just keep trimming the top. Will need to trim the roots too if you want to keep it for years.

 

I suggest, take a mother clone, grow it, when it's too big, take 2-4 clones, and flower/or kill the large mother and keep one of the clones as the new mother. Keep repeating until your ready to grow again.

Tip- don't kill the main mother until you know the clones will DEFINATELY make it.

 

Nibbler.

[DoctorWho]

Yeah don't kill mothers until the clones are clearly rooted.  revegging plants is a costly and infuriating process when self inflicted through stupidity

 

I have found that limiting the pot size of the mother plants massively limits their rate of growth.  I have 100ml pots I use to root cuttings in and have kept mothers in them for weeks before transplanting them into bigger pots.  In the space I could keep 4 mother plants I kept almost 20 and have had no issues from it what so ever.  The second the plants get some leg room they go on a war path of growth and although the plant is smaller than it otherwise should be once you have a rooted cutting from the plant it will grow normally if put in normal conditions.

 

I recommend using the same medium for your mothers as you grow her cuts in.  You may decide to just flower the mother out instead of vegging up cuttings, you only need one set of nutrients, etc. If you keep her root bound the rate of growth will slow and the size of the new growth will shrink a little, keeping her under weak-ish light like a CFL will have the same effect and keeping her on a reduced feed until just before you want to take cuttings will help to keep her under control until you need perfectly healthy cuttings.

[Lenore]

Wrote a reply last night but the site went down.

Sooo....

 

 

Tis possible, and pretty simple too.

I have several mums at the moment (which I'll be reducing in numbers soon).
Mine are in square 2 lt pots in a roughly 60/40 mix of coco/perlite.

The live under a 130w CFL, and get fed every so often with Canna Coco A+B.

 

Good luck!


Lenny

[pegz]

You could keep a mother in a tiny pot, eg, 2.5 ltrs, taller plants can still grow to about 40cm in one of those. You can keep about 4 to 6 of these under a 80w CFL, the light will be sufficient to keep them healthy.

 

I'm not sure if you'll run into any problems long term, I've only kept plants in such small pots for about 10-12 weeks during a delayed veg.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Some strains will be OK, but some may chuck the shits and go to flower even though they are kept at 18/6. Had this happen in a cupboard of mothers, Chocolope wanted to flower after about 2 months.

I keep mine in 4.5-5LT pots and thats as small as I would go...long term.

 

Nibbler

[nibbler909]

oh this is awesome, saw this pic

http://ibudyou.tumblr.com/post/4389908492/budsai