Mother plant health/tips

I figured I would get a thread started so everyone could post there tips and tricks to keep healthy mother plants. I’m pro but I for sure want to learn new things/ ideas.

I used to keep my mother’s in a pre amended living soil but I’m no pro with organic and hate that if you make a mistake that it takes much longer to get back into control vs straight coco.

I got new moms rooting and I’m going to give them a try in coco this go.

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Yes someone give advice. I have an issue indoors where at some point the moms are just too big. nodes everywhere and braches and HUGE Do you just cut it super short? I wind up rooting clones and making them moms. Ive never had ONE mom lasting more than 2 years.

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Iv’e had moms for more then 7 years, good soil i alway mix coco with earth 50/50i feed organic with mycorhiza so the plant goes in symbiose with the soil and just keep upping containers as she grows. And indeed just cut down or take a rope and bend it down defoliate the biggest fan leaves and she will be back bigger better and stronger. Greetings from the netherlands​:+1::netherlands:

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what size containers? and how tall/ im in a limited space and not selling clones so when the mom is filling most of a 4x4 its time to make a new mom in my situation. i dont need 69 clones.

I’ve read not to keep mothers more then a year max and less is better.

Last week I bought sterile blades for taking cuts to make sure I have no cross contamination.

I have a feeling we all have strains with hop latent viroid, I called a lab up here and they told me 25% of all samples received were infected.

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ive never bought clones until this year. Ill have to research that virus.

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this is wierd= i thought the one without the virus looked off like it was spiralling. the other is clearly less crystals but im sure they didnt have the exact clone and give one a virus and the other as a control. https://darkheartnursery.com/news/hop-latent-viroid-part-one/

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I start with 8 liter container and as time passes and i select out the best giving moms, and cutting away the less producing moms. I found that less produces more keep them short and bushy with is more importany for distance. To keep mom in good shape se needs a good trim at least every 10 days. Depending on climate and how hard u let her/want her to grow. Normaly i put 6 moms per square meter, and eventually il end up wit 2 max 3 moms in 25 liter containers. If u dont need much clones every weer i would recommend a samsung lm5630 lm301b bridgelux led light 3500 4000k there are not as expensive as they ised to be performace is good and a very nice spectrum for flowering and growing i find. But how much u need how much u produce is up to the total conditions, of youre grow room heat lighting humidity all factors that control youre plants and production rate, mothers domt need as much umol ppfd as for flowerimg 400 umol m2 is sufficient 800 is high for mothers u piyying them hard at work as for flowering this would be normall intensity. Greetings and hope i could help out a little. :+1::netherlands:

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Sterile is perfect, always work clean and if u use clonex rhizopon pour in cup never stick it in the bottle or cup and if u are done never throw back the left over clonex rhizopon in the original container contamination is always a huge factor i like to usetrichoderma in the rhizopon thats a root growing fungus, the theory behind this is when there are good fungus bacteria at place and work bad bacteria fungus will have less change at ruining youre hard work​:+1: as for the mothers the longest ones ive had so far 7 years then it abruptly ened not my choosing so to say​:sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sob::joy:

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I would probably go with soil if you want to keep them alive for months and months

Start em in like a 3 and just up pot as they get bigger

3,10,20

What we do right now is just keep em in 1 gals straight coco and remom them when they get unmanageable (5-6 feet) every 2 months of veg or so

You could grow a 10 foot plant in a 1 gallon pot of coco if you watered it enough and kept the medium in line (5.5-6.5ph and 1500 or lower ppm)

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Each time i transplant them to bigger container i add new soil with nutrients and bacteria works perfect over here for many years​:ok_hand::+1:

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Yes exactly I use roots original blend and they explode with new growth when you step el up like that versus a small plant in the massive pot

These were done 4”, #3 pot then to these 15 gals

Veg was at least 2 months though

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Those look great nice an healthy👍

https://darkheartnursery.com/news/hop-latent-viroid-part-two/ I also like all the SCIENTIFIC references vs any news about covid and nancy pelosi.

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Through micropropagation you could keep up the same genetic for your entire life… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Its a space competition goingnon there in the microspace… .

Ever pruned the roots as is a practice in bonsai growing? Could be usefull.

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I seen a video dark heart nurseries posted last week that they were plugging a whole tray of cuts then instead of dipping them in a rooting solution they were using a liquid solution and dripping a few drops around the stem after they were plugged.
I tried it on my last batch and half the tray had roots yesterday at 8 days, so it for sure is just as effective and you can reduce the chance of spreading viruses.

No i have never pruned the roots, just upping in container. plus new micorhizza and nutrients to reduce the stress of the transplant… :+1:

I have seen a greenhouse of trees in 2 gallon pots. With constant drip “fertigation” the roots will stop growing very much because the plant is getting fed all it can handle. At that point it is basically run to waste hydro.

Root spiralling at the edge of a container or in the planting hole in the ground will cause hermies. I know that from experience.

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