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Plan for selecting and keeping a mother plant

ocgreen

ocgreen

New member
I'm growing some feminized Cookies Kush by Barney's Farm and I have some questions about how I can/should go about getting a good mother plant.

Here is my current plan:
1. Let current plants grow to the point where they're ready to flower
2. Cut a couple clones from each and label them so I know what plant they're from
3. Care for the clones under 18-6 or 24-7 in veg tent while I watch what happens during flowering
4. Select a mother from clones based on "parent" plant's performance during flowering period

Can someone help confirm that's the right approach?

Also, I don't really know which light to put the mother - and some clones, from time-to-time - under. Looking for something as low actual watt as possible to keep the energy bills down. What are your mamas under right now?
 
hey, I don't know the answers to your questions but I do have questions for you if you don't mind.

How will you take care of the mother once you have her? do you have a dedicated small tent for her? and what light do you plan to use for the long haul of keeping her? I know that's part of what you asked but in general, is it just a low wattage LED array type of thing or should it be a full on grow light or do Home Depot LED or CFL bulbs do the trick? I was thinking a small 2x2x4' tent would work for this.

Can you describe the setup you are working with now for veg?

Thanks
 
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I'm going to go with a 2x4 veg tent -- half for the mother and half for starting seedlings/young veg.

When it comes to lighting, I'm on the fence about a few different options at this point:
- some type of T5 light (see below)
- 240w kingbrite or meiju led from alibaba
- 238w true northern lighting plate

Here's one article I was reading to help better understand best practices:
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/article/types-of-lighting/

I don't know much about T5 lighting at this point but it seems popular.

Hope this helps. Take it all with a grain of salt because I'm really at a planning stage/don't have a veg tent setup right now.
 
ah, thanks. T5 seems like an affordable option. I used to be a lighting designer and T5 was the go to back then for high color rendering, high lumen, low consumption. THis is before LED was mainstream.

Seems like I could get a 4-6 tube 12" T5 fixture for little money..
 
Hey ocgreen, that is exactly what you would do to select a mother plant. Keep "starters" of plants you like. You can even streamline a little bit by taking cuttings from other friend's top performers. Once you get good at propagation, you could have quite the library.

I'm of the unfounded opinion that you should start with regular, non-feminized seeds, and weed out the males. That way, your mothers are true females, not feminized.
 
Did some more research. My concern with these t5 lights is they only pump out about 10k lumens. More lumens and you're getting into higher watts/more tubes.

Somewhere I remember reading that plants in vegetative stage need 15000-50000 lumens, so I guess I'm concerned that the small t5 setups won't generate enough light.

What do you think given your previous experience with t5?
 
Thanks for bringing this thread to my attention. The concept of a bonsai is very interesting but also a bit daunting (to me).

I liked reading everyone's thoughts on lighting. Helped me feel like the small t5 light which pumps out about 10k lumen may be just enough --- not enough for usual vegetation but should prevent the mother from growing too rapidly.
 
Hi DingusKhan, thanks for your reply. Long term I would definitely like to do as you suggest (selecting a mother from non-feminized seeds).

What type of lighting do you use for your mother(s)?
 
The funny thing is that I think mothers do best with lower power conditions. On the other thread that @Mr furley mentioned, they talked about keeping clone mothers as bonsai plants. That means something different than what we are usually doing with our plants in veg stage around here.

To keep a clone mother, you don't necessarily want to drive her to heavy growth unless you are planning on taking a whole bunch of clones all at once. All you need to do is keep a healthy plant in veg, even if it's growing slowly. If you're in a legal state where stealth is not important, you can keep a plant in veg in a window sill with a CFL bulb for supplemental light in your living room. If it's the part of year where the window sill will provide more than 16 hours of light per day, or if it's winter, you can put a CFL in a desk lamp on a timer from 5 to 10 morning and about 4 to 11 in the evening to keep your mother from going into flower. I've kept a plant in a flower pot with some happy frog soil and it grew from about the size of my hand in November to size of a bouquet of flowers over the winter, at which time I cut more clones, and started over again.

The mother was "retired early" and got transplanted outside for my first real outdoor grow. I regret that decision, a Barney's Farm Vanilla Kush. She was freaking awesome, now she is gone because I had an extra outdoor grow spot. I should have kept her in veg and grew out one of her clones in that spot. BAD POT HEAD!!
 
This really helps. I was debating between a 238w actual (dimmable to 50%) QB LED 4000k for ~300 CDN or a 2ft 4 bulb t5 ho 6500k setup I can get for ~120. But keeping her by the window sounds nice and simple. Do you think it would stink up the whole room? First grow so not really sure how much a single plant would smell.
 
Excellent! One of the most important lesson this pot grower learned is that not every light that you point at a plant has to be maximized for growth. Seedlings and early veg THRIVE on less light, my favorite is my T5 2ft x 4. It's not so harsh that you need eye protection, cool, doesn't fry your sprouts.

Most plants don't smell much unless they're in flower. Some do, but you will be able to tell before you set her out. I kinda like a faint scent in the house. But I'm in a legal state.
 
Well you just convinced me to go 2ft 4 bulb t5 ho. Appreciate that because I have a tendency to run into "analysis paralysis" sometimes. Much cheaper and just the right amount of light.

Will be fun to see how they smell. I really like the idea of having one by the window in the bedroom.
 
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