Ideally, we recommend feeding mother plants with organic fertilisers (like vermicompost or compost teas) to promote healthy microbial life in the soil, which in turn will help clean the plant’s medium and prevent salt buildup in the root zone. You can feed your mother plant like you would any normal vegging plant.
What nutrients do mother plants need to survive?
Your mature mother plants need to receive sufficient nutrients to stay alive and healthy. The nutrient ratio must further be optimized to favour vegetative growth and abundant branching. Plenty of nitrogen is essential for vegetative growth.
What type of fertilizer should I Feed my mother plants?
Many growers feed mother plants a standard vegetative fertilizer, which is not ideal for a donor plant. Mother plants should be on a nutrient program that minimizes the use of nitrogen, especially nitrates.
How do I Feed my mother plant?
You can feed your mother plant like you would any normal vegging plant. Some growers, however, opt to feed their mothers specific fertilisers that contain a milder concentration of nutrients. Maintaining a plant in vegetation for months (or even years) takes some work on behalf of the grower.
How can I improve the health of my mother plants?
Mother plants should be on a nutrient program that minimizes the use of nitrogen, especially nitrates. This will increase the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, allowing for greater storage of carbohydrates and a healthier rooted cutting.
What are the best additives for mother plants?
How are cuttings treated?
Why do annuals need to be kept as mother plants?
How to preserve a plant's genetics?
Why are mother plants raised?
What is the role of fulvic acid in plant cells?
What happens if a plant is fed too much nitrogen?
See more
How do you maintain a mother plant?
You can keep it manageable by keeping your mother plant small. Pruning branches regularly will encourage new branches to grow. The more branches your mother plant sprouts, the more clones you have to replant in your garden. Pruning the top will also keep the plant from growing too large.
What is mother plant fertilizer?
MotherPlant nutrients are a two-part nutrient line that provides the ideal diet for mother, or stock plants. Mother plants do not need excess nitrates, and MotherPlant nutrients account for this. They contain the nutritional needs of mother plants without excess nitrates.
Should you top mother plant?
Topping is essential for managing the size of your mother plants. Top your mothers early on, roughly two weeks into their vegetative phase. As its new branches grow up towards the light, use pinching and LST to bring them down towards the soil and create an even canopy.
How long should you keep a mother plant?
Remember, the larger the plant, the more clones you can harvest. A typical mother plant is happy within a 2.5' by 2.5' space, but this is flexible. While it is possible to keep a mother plant for several years running and harvest clones for dozens of new grows, the older the plant gets, the lower her capacity.
What Should I Feed My mother plant before cloning?
Foliar feeding mother plants a mixture of fulvic acid and seaweed 2-3 times per week for a couple of weeks prior to taking cuttings also makes for stronger clones.
How long can a mother plant live?
You can keep a mother plant for anything between 6 months and 3 years before the plant starts to break down and lose its vigour, yield, smell or other characteristics.
How much water does a mother plant need?
Mother plants are typically kept in large amounts of growing media, usually 5 to 25-gallon pots, and are watered infrequently, one to four times per day if they are lucky. Having large mother plants in larger volumes of the substrate has some benefits and drawbacks.
What kind of light do mother plants need?
Lighting for the Mother Plants Therefore, a good full-spectrum lighting system with a fair amount of blue spectrum light works best for mother plants. Most growers opt for a metal halide or fluorescent lighting system as both technologies contain a good amount of blue spectrum light.
What is the best light for a mother plant?
Mother Plant Lighting Long light periods are recommended, for many species an 18/6 (on/off) lighting schedule maintains vegetative growth. Although you can use LEDs or HIDs (HPS/CMH), it's far more cost-effective to use CFLs or fluorescent lighting.
Do mother plants need CO2?
Healthy plants need a supply of carbon dioxide (CO2) just as they need nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, or any other required nutrient.
Can a clone be a mother plant?
Clones can be mother plants. They are no different from the mother plant they originate from, to begin with. Genetically they are identical and will be able to produce several clones every couple of weeks. Clones as mother plants will guarantee the reproduction of your crops stay consistent.
How old should a mother plant be before cloning?
Take clones from mother plants that are at least two months old and in the vegetative growth stage. Clones from mother plants that are less than two months old may develop unevenly and grow slowly. Clones taken from flowering plants root quickly but require several weeks to revert to vegetative growth.
Can a clone be a mother plant?
Clones can be mother plants. They are no different from the mother plant they originate from, to begin with. Genetically they are identical and will be able to produce several clones every couple of weeks. Clones as mother plants will guarantee the reproduction of your crops stay consistent.
How old should a mother plant be before cloning?
Take clones from mother plants that are at least two months old and in the vegetative growth stage. Clones from mother plants that are less than two months old may develop unevenly and grow slowly. Clones taken from flowering plants root quickly but require several weeks to revert to vegetative growth.
What is vigorous mother plant?
Mothers are usually strong, vigorous plants which are artificially kept in the vegetative state so that grower could cut parts of them. These cut parts are called cuttings or clones and they tend to grow faster than plants grown from seeds.
What is the best light for a mother plant?
Mother Plant Lighting Long light periods are recommended, for many species an 18/6 (on/off) lighting schedule maintains vegetative growth. Although you can use LEDs or HIDs (HPS/CMH), it's far more cost-effective to use CFLs or fluorescent lighting.
🌱 How Many Clones Can You Take From a Mother Plant?
This depends on the size, health, and age of your plant. We recommend taking only 2–3 clones at a time from small, young mother plants. Large, bush...
🧫 How Many Clones Can a Mother Plant Produce?
Mother plants can produce a virtually unlimited number of clones. However, it is important to allow a plant at least two weeks of rest between clon...
🌲 Can You Clone a Plant Too Many Times?
The genetic profile of a mother plant won’t change over time, so there’s no real limit on how many times you can clone her. As long as she’s health...
💡 How Many Watts Does a Mother Plant Need?
Mother plants don’t need much light. We recommend giving around 150W of light to keep her growing healthy. Some growers opt to give their mothers l...
What to look for in a cannabis plant?
Vigour: Pick plants that germinate quickly and show vigorous, healthy growth during both their seedling and vegetative stages. Root health: A healthy root network is the heart of a healthy plant.
How many clones of a plant can you take from a mother plant?
This depends on the size, health, and age of your plant. We recommend taking only 2–3 clones at a time from small, young mother plants. Large, bushy mother plants, on the other hand, can easily tolerate having 6–8 clones taken from them at a time.
How long does it take for a cutting to grow?
Rooting potential: Check to see which of your cuttings rooted the quickest. Vegetative growth: As your cuttings veg for 2–3 weeks, see which cuttings grow the fastest and develop the healthiest foliage. If you’re growing indoors, you’ll generally want plants with short internodal spacing.
How to repeat a discovery?
The easiest way to repeat a favourite discovery is by taking clones from a mother plant. Using mothers has a number of benefits. Strain characteristics are known and repeatable, females are guaranteed, and growth is more or less standardised. Mothers can be kept alive indefinitely when well-maintained, and enjoyed for years.
How much light does a plant need to grow in a permanent vegetative cycle?
Mother plants need to be kept in the vegetative phase of growth indefinitely. This means they need to receive more than 12 hours of light every 24 hours. If they are in a vegetation chamber, they will be getting the standard 18/6 day/night vegetation cycle.
How to grow a mother plant?
Topping is essential for managing the size of your mother plants. Top your mothers early on, roughly two weeks into their vegetative phase. As its new branches grow up towards the light, use pinching and LST to bring them down towards the soil and create an even canopy. Continue topping the plant regularly to train it to grow within the confines of your grow room/tent.
What happens when you germinate cannabis seeds?
When you germinate a batch of cannabis seeds, the plants you end up with in your garden or grow room will likely show a wide variety of phenotypic variation. Despite being sold as the same strain, some plants might grow large with wide internodes, while others grow smaller and bushier.
How to keep clones from growing too big?
The more branches your mother plant sprouts, the more clones you have to replant in your garden. Pruning the top will also keep the plant from growing too large. Keep in mind that when you cut a stem near its top, two new, divergent stems will grow from the point at which you cut.
How to keep a mother plant from growing too tall?
The more branches your mother plant sprouts, the more clones you have to replant in your garden. Pruning the top will also keep the plant from growing too large. Keep in mind that when you cut a stem near its top, two new, divergent stems will grow from the point at which you cut.
How to grow clones?
As a grower, working with mother plants and clones can help you improve your crop. Even if you’re a beginner, you can make growing mother plants and trimming their clones part of your grow strategy. In this guide, you’ll learn: 1 The process of growing a mother plant for clones 2 How to trim a mother plant 3 How to keep a mother plant small 4 Mother plant care 5 The mother plant life cycle
What is a clone branch?
These branches are known as clones. By replanting and growing clones of a mother plant, you know exactly what to expect in terms of size, quality and harvest yields. Working with clones also enables you to significantly shorten the grow cycle, so you can harvest repeatedly, even continuously.
What is the vegetative stage of a plant?
The vegetative stage is the stage of a plant’s life where it does the bulk of its development. Appropriate nourishment at every stage is key to a successful harvest, but the choices you make while your plants are in this stage can make or break the crop.
How to keep plants in the vegetative stage?
To keep your plant in the vegetative stage, keep providing that amount of light. This is a lot easier to do if you’re growing your plants indoors, because you can control the exact amount of light it receives.
What is a mother plant?
A mother plant is a plant from which a grower cuts clones, which are new plants that are genetically identical to the mother plant. To create a clone, the grower cuts a branch from the mother plant and places it in a substrate, where it develops roots of its own.
What hormones are produced by the apical shoots?
For example, auxin and cytokinin are two plant hormones that work together to boost root and branch development. The apical shoots produce auxin, which is then delivered to the roots via an intracellular pathway to boost root development.
What is the most important nutrient for vegetative growth?
Plenty of nitrogen is essential for vegetative growth. Other important nutrients include calcium, which is important in maintaining hormonal balance, and magnesium, which facilitates photosynthesis and production of sugars vital for growth.
What is the best light for vegetative growth?
The best light for vegetative growth is in the blue spectrum. For this reason, metal halide lamps are preferable for mother plants. This mimics the natural daylight in spring, when plants are typically undergoing vegetative growth.
How long can a mother plant live?
This means they must consistently receive more than 12 hours of light per 24 hours. If you would like your plants to vegetate quickly to maximize the number of clones, mother plants can be left in an 18/6 day/night regime.
What is the basis for selecting mother plants?
Selecting your mother plants. The basis for selecting your mothers should always be health, strength and vigour. Beyond that, you may have various considerations such as terpene and cannabinoid profile, flavour and aroma, yield, drought-resistance, and height and branching characteristics.
Why is it important to prune your mother plants?
It is always important to prune your mothers regularly, and to be selective about how you approach the task so that the maximum number of healthy, vigorous new branches are produced. It is very important to ensure that your mother plants grow short and bushy rather than tall and spindly.
Does cytokinin inhibit apical growth?
On its way, it inhibits auxiliary bud growth and lateral branching. Thus, when the apical stems are removed, the auxin level drops off and lateral branching is uninhibited. Presence of cytokinin at this stage also encourages apical dominance to shift to the lateral branches so that they grow more vigorously.
What is a mother plant?
A mother plant is a cannabis plant that you keep in the vegetative stage, from which you can get cuttings or clones and these clones will grow identically to the parent.
Do all plants need fertilizer?
So, first of all, all plants need to eat and with mother plants, it’s the same; There’s no such thing as the best fertilizer for mother plants because they are kept in the vegetative stage for a long time.
Can autoflowers be kept?
Now that you’ve found the perfect mother plant, it’s a good idea to top them, have in mind that autoflowers cannot be kept like this so you will have to use photoperiodic strains to do this.
Can you cut clones when growing plants?
Now that you have decided if you’re growing 20, 10, 5, or whatever you can fit in your grow space, you have to grow them like you normally would and cut some clones once your plant has grown a bit , you don’t want to take the clones when they’re too small.
Can you run out of weed from your mother plant?
There are several benefits to selecting and having your own mother plant, the most important of all is that if you time it correctly, you’ll never run out of weed.
Why do cannabis plants have yellow leaves?
Cannabis plants with magnesium deficiencies usually display yellowing leaves. Excess amounts of magnesium can cause calcium deficiencies in plants.
What is the role of manganese in cannabis?
Manganese. Manganese is, like sulphur and magnesium, also plays a key role in the production of chlorophyll in developing cannabis plants. Plants with low amounts of manganese will display yellowing chloroplasts and white or grey-spotted leaves which eventually die off.
What is cloning cannabis?
Cannabis cloning involves making copies, or clones, of a single cannabis plant in order to preserve its distinct characteristics. These clones are made from plant cuttings; a piece of a parent plant that has been cut and allowed to grow its own roots. By cloning plants, cultivators are able to preserve the unique qualities of one ...
What is the main nutrient in cannabis?
Sulphur is another key nutrient for developing cannabis plants. It is responsible for the production of proteins in the cannabis plants, as well as the formation of chlorophyll. Plants with sulphur deficiencies usually grow slowly and develop small, mutated leaves that curl upwards.
Why is calcium important for cannabis?
Calcium is very important for cannabis plants as it forms parts of the walls of the individual cells in the plant, making it a vital nutrient for the plant in it its growth phase. It also helps plants develop strong stems, branches, and roots. Plants with calcium deficiencies will usually display distorted leaves with yellow/brown spots.
Why are mother plants kept in their vegetative state?
Cannabis mother plants are usually strong, vigorous plants that are deliberately kept in their vegetative state in order to produce cuttings that grow and develop quickly.
Can cannabis seeds be different from humans?
Cannabis plants, just like humans, have different traits, even if they boast the same genetic blueprint. This is essentially why seeds from the same batch and seed bank can sprout completely different plants. To learn more about plant genetics, we recommend checking out our previous post on cannabis phenotypes and genotypes. ...
What is the best organic material to use for fertilizer?
Banana peels can be a source of up to 42% potassium and up to 25% phosphorous. There’s also the additional calcium, magnesium and sulfur in banana peels, which is why it’s among the best organic material to use to make a homemade fertilizer.
How to make banana peels into fertilizer?
What is a good idea is to puree the banana peels, or soak the peel in water inside a sealed mason jar for a week, then drain it with a sieve and use that water as fertilizer. Alternatively, you can bake the peel and then grind it down to mix into your soil. The video below shows you how….
Can you put eggshells in mulch?
Mostly calcium, but they’re also sources of selenium and nitrogen. You can add eggshells into your mulch, but a faster way to get the same benefits is to crush the eggshells up and boil them. To make an eggshell brew, you only need a pot large enough to boil a gallon of water and just 30 grams of crushed eggshells.
Do weeds have nutrients?
Weeds are the envy of many a gardener, but they can all be put to a greater use. Think about it… they are living and growing, so they have nutrients there that are suited to the plants you want to grow.
Can you use coffee grounds in soil?
Using coffee grounds in your soil isn’t as simple as some green and eco tips you might learn about online would have you believe. You see, used coffee grounds have had some of their acidity reduced to nearly neutral, sometimes lower, other times higher. It depends on the brand.
Can you use gelatin in indoor plants?
3 – Gelatin as Indoor Plant Fertilizer. Gelatin will only be effective if it’s unflavored. Flavored gelatin has added sugars, which can be damaging to plants. Unflavored gelatin is used to make low-calorie recipes, and if you have this in your kitchen cupboard, you have packets of nitrogen rich fertilizer ready to go.
What are the best additives for mother plants?
Other beneficial additives for mother plants include amino acids, humic and fulvic acids, and bio-stimulants like kelp or seaweed extracts . Amino acids can open absorption pathways in roots, allowing for increased absorption of elements such as calcium, which can increase absorption a thousand fold.
How are cuttings treated?
The cuttings are treated with a mixture of hormones via cloning gels or powders to promote root growth and then they are planted in a suitable growing media, where they take root and become genetic copies of the mother plant. Mother plants are raised solely to provide cuttings.
Why do annuals need to be kept as mother plants?
Keeping annuals as mother plants for extended periods of time can result in less robust cuttings that are more susceptible to diseases. As plants grow, they keep track of their cellular age with an internal clock based on their circadian rhythms.
How to preserve a plant's genetics?
There are several ways to preserve your plant’s particular genetics, but the best way is to clone it. To give your clones the best start possible, you’ll want to ensure your mother plant, or the plant you are taking cuttings from, is healthy and happy. Here are some tips to help you maintain your mother plants. Source: Marcio Eugenio/Dreamstime.com.
Why are mother plants raised?
Mother plants are raised solely to provide cuttings. Since cuttings take time to develop roots, the clones must use stored carbohydrates and water to provide the nutrition necessary to grow a new root system. Consequently, the health of the mother plant is critical in ensuring the most healthy and vigorous clones.
What is the role of fulvic acid in plant cells?
The fulvic acid acts as a chelation agent, transporting metal ions across cell membranes inside of plant cells, where they are most needed, and stimulates enzymes, increasing the rate of chemical reactions within plant cells.
What happens if a plant is fed too much nitrogen?
If a mother plant is fed excessive nitrogen, then it will grow quickly , but the growths will be soft and leggy with little carbohydrates, leading to cuttings with soft stems and a greater susceptibility to diseases.