Feeding cannabis mother plants Since all mother plants are kept under a constant growth photoperiod, their nutritional needs are covered if we use a fertiliser rich in nitrogen and micro elements. In this way, we prevent plants from suffering nutritional deficiencies, something important if we want to keep them during months or years.
Full Answer
What nutrients do marijuana plants need to grow?
Throughout your marijuana plants’ life cycle, they will need different amounts of nutrients during different growth stages. That’s why a cannabis feeding schedule is so important. The most essential nutrient during the vegetative stage is nitrogen, while phosphorus and potassium are critical in the flowering stage.
What should I Feed my mother plant?
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.
How to feed a cannabis plant?
A plant growing with just a little added nutrition will develop better yields than a plant growing in over-fertilized soil. Add nutrients to water only every other watering, and if you are in doubt about the doses, just cut them in half. These are the most simple and valid rules for feeding a cannabis plant.
What to look for in a cannabis mother plant vigour?
What to Look for in a Cannabis Mother 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.
What Should I Feed My mother plant?
It is better to feed a mother plant minimal nitrate nitrogen, and then if you notice a general yellowing of the leaves, feed the plant a little nitrogen boost fertilizer. Another essential element in a mother plant's fertilizer regimen is calcium.
How do I keep my mother plant healthy?
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 nutrients do mother plants need?
Nutrients for your mature mother plants 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.
Do you top mother plants?
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 can you have a mother plant?
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. At this point you need to find fresh, new, vigourous stock from seed and start the process all over again.
How many hours of light do mother plants need?
18-24 hoursThe quality of light is also an important aspect to remember. It is more important to provide a full-spectrum light than a very intense light. The goal is to maintain health, not make the mother plants vegetate vigorously. The duration of light for mother plants should be 18-24 hours of 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.
How big should a mother plant be?
Growing space requirements for keeping mother plants A 80x80cm grow tent is perfect, although we can also use built-in closets, etc. It all depends on the number of plants we want to keep. A lighting system.
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.
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.
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 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 do you trim a mother plant?
Grab your chosen clone or clones and top them, which is essentially pruning the top of the plant. Once they grow out their branches you'll need to cut the tips off the branches just once, leaving two other sprouts underneath wherever you prune to make sure that two more branches can grow from where you've cut.
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.
How big should a mother plant be?
Growing space requirements for keeping mother plants A 80x80cm grow tent is perfect, although we can also use built-in closets, etc. It all depends on the number of plants we want to keep. A lighting system.
How many nutrients does cannabis need to grow?
The higher the number for each value, the higher the concentration of that particular nutrient. However, cannabis needs more than just three nutrients to survive and thrive. It also counts on secondary nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and sulfur to play vital roles in plant growth:
HOW TO READ A FEED CHART: HOW OFTEN SHOULD I FEED MY WEED PLANTS?
Most fertiliser brands provide their customers with feed charts. Understanding these charts is the key to providing your plants with the right nutrients at the right time.
What happens if you overfeed your plants with nutrients?
Going overboard with nutrients can result in chemical interactions or nutrient burn, which can significantly impact the size and quality of your yield. Once you’ve nailed feeding your plants with these core nutrients, feel free to move on to a more complex feeding schedule to produce bigger, more potent harvests.
How to treat nutrient deficiencies?
Nutrient deficiencies are treated by increasing/introducing more nutrients, or by first remedying nutrient lockout.
Does cannabis change nutrient requirements?
Cannabis’ nutrient requirements change depending on which stage of life it’s in.
Can nutrient slip ups thwart harvests?
A potential nutrient slip-up, after all, can completely thwart your harvest. But feeding your cannabis plants can be very straightforward. Just follow these steps:
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.
How to keep mother plant roots healthy?
To keep your mother plant’s roots healthy, grow her in a fabric pot that will trim her roots naturally. These pots cauterise apically dominant root shoots with a thin film of air as they search their way through the growing medium. This prevents the roots from reaching the edge of the pot, and thus allows for more weeks in a single pot—rather than root-trimming once a month or so, as with regular pots.
What Are the Requirements for Growing a Healthy Mother Plant?
While keeping a mother plant might sound like it requires a lot of space and gear , it is actually quite simple. Here’s a list of all the things you’ll need to grow a healthy mother plant:
How many clones of a plant can you take?
You can start taking clones from a healthy mother plant roughly two weeks into its vegetative cycle. While the plant is young, we recommend only taking 2–3 clones at a time. As the plant grows larger, you can gradually start taking more cuttings from it every time.
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 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.
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.
What is the best fertilizer for cannabis plants?
Phosphorus - Alongside Nitrogen, Phosphorus will aid in healthy root development and allow the plant to grow thick branches that will support the weight of the flowers to come. Phosphorus is one of the main requirements when flowering Cannabis plants.
What are the elements that are needed for plants to grow?
Cobalt - A trace element that is required by the plants, however, many nutrient brands do add a great amount. Copper - Acts as a fungicide and also benefits the root zone with enzyme production. Molybdenum - A major player in the enzyme production and function of plants.
What is the back of a nutrient bottle?
On the back of the nutrient bottle, you will also find the analysis of trace elements next to the primary nutrients. As the name suggests, these smaller nutrients are required by Cannabis plants in much smaller ratios. The right ratio of trace elements is extremely important and can be the difference between an imbalance and deficiency or lush healthy growth.
Why flush cannabis?
There are many benefits to flushing Cannabis and they are: Dramatically improves the flavor of the flowers once dried and ready to smoke. The ash will become a light, fluffy, and soft grey quality when smoking. The plants will have the opportunity to have used up all reserve nutrients.
How many parts of nitrogen are in organic food?
For instance, you may have noticed on your organic feed the numbers 5-1-4. This will inform you there are 5 parts Nitrogen, 1 part Phosphorus, and 4 parts Potassium. Nitrogen - Used to develop foliage, leaves, stems, and branches.
Can you grow cannabis with only water?
Hard Foods. When it comes to growing Cannabis using strictly organic substrates, most beginner growers will choose to feed only water. This is seen as true organics and will allow primary and trace elements to be utilized when required.
Can you use liquid compost for cannabis?
Oftentimes there will be a liquid feed to use with the living soil, however, using only pH stable water is really required. Compost that was made from organic waste will slowly breakdown over the duration of the Cannabis plant’s life cycle.
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.
What is the best way to keep your mother healthy?
Generally, a typical vegetative growth solution, preferably organic, is sufficient to keep your mothers in a consistently healthy state. Microrhizomes and root stimulator can be used in soil from day one to give young roots a boost and improve soil microbiome.
Why is auxin important for plants?
As auxin and cytokinin are natural plant hormones, it is possible to supplement your plants’ baseline levels so that they produce stronger, healthier roots and achieve a greater degree of branching. Ideally, a higher ratio of cytokinin to auxin is desirable, as this encourages lateral branching, while a higher ratio of auxin to cytokinin restricts lateral branching and encourages upward 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 does it mean to have access to a mother plant?
Any grower who has stumbled upon great genetics must know how to maintain and utilise a mother plant. It means always having access to and a supply of fine cannabis. This removes the need for constant searching for the perfect seed or phenotype. Enjoy the many possibilities once you have found the perfect candidate for a mother plant!
Why is it important to prune your mother?
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.
Can you harvest mother plants all year long?
Benefits of cultivating mother plants. If you can get your timing right, you can be planting and harvesting all year long, especially if you are growing indoors. Essentially, by the time you harvest, it will be time to take new clones from your mother plant. Clones taken from mother plants are homogenous in terms of size, ...
Why is cannabis feeding important?
That is where having an ideal cannabis feeding schedule helps you prevent growth problems. As the plants grow in size, they would need more sustenance. Once they enter the flowering period, you will have to change the nutrient mix.
Why Grow Marijuana in Soil?
For sure, there are a whole host of reasons to grow marijuana in soil. In the wild, cannabis grows in soil, always has, and always will.
What is EC in cannabis?
What is EC? The Ideal Cannabis Feeding Schedule for Marijuana Plants Grown in Soil. For marijuana plants to grow healthily, they need the right amount of light, carbon dioxide, and water. They also need the right nutrient mixture and feeding at the correct time in accordance with their growth stage.
How to control pH levels of plants?
Another option is to compost your soil. Composting, incidentally, is an excellent way of controlling and ensuring you have the correct nutrient and pH levels for your plants.
Why don't plants need nutrients?
Note: In the seedling stage, your plants don’t need additional nutrients because they still have their energy source from the seed.
Why do plants need more potassium?
Your plants will require more potassium now to help the buds ripen and harden.
Can you add more nutrient mix if your diet is low?
Conversely, add more nutrient mix if too low. Just keep in mind that commercially-available nutrient mixes are highly concentrated – a little goes a long way.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How to keep plants alive for extended periods of time?
A second option is using tissue culture to keep plants alive for extended periods of time without the risk of attack by insects or diseases (when done correctly), although this process requires expensive equipment, a lot of time and some training.
How long can you keep plants alive?
One option is to try to keep plants alive for countless years.
What is a Cannabis Mother Plant?
A mother plant is a female cannabis plant primarily maintained for ongoing clone production. It is kept in a static vegetative state, on a strict light schedule.
Why do we need a mother plant?
A healthy mother plant guarantees healthy and vigorous cuttings. Special lighting, nutrients, and indoor space are required to support a mother plant.
How big of a space do you need for 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.
Can you clone a mother's cannabis?
Cuttings taken from cannabis mothers with the intention of cloning rely on specialty nutrients and carbohydrates to kick-start the root development. Keep in mind the capacity for growing strong roots comes from a healthy mother. You'll need the right balance of nutrients to promote strong roots and vigour, but not legginess.
Do mother plants need a grow tent?
Mother's require a designated indoor grow space. That usually means a grow tent, which reduces the risk of light leaks and veg disruption. Through careful application of Low-Stress Training, Sea of Green, SCROG, and other pruning and training techniques, you can keep the mother plant as small or as large as required for your clone needs.
Can you use straight veg for clones?
Straight veg-nutrients won't do. You'll need to supply mother-specific nutrients for maintaining your new clone-factory. Look for brands with specially formulated nutrients or even nitrogen to potassium split, with added calcium. Too much potassium may lead to nutrient deficiencies, and too much nitrogen promotes poor, leggy new growth (which is not suitable for clones). The added calcium boasts strong stems, branches, and structure, which is valuable for clone cuttings.
What are the Differences Between Marijuana Fertilizer Brands?
Besides the obvious different nutrient ratios that each manufacturer believes to be the best for each stage of cannabis plant life and the fancy packaging, the main differentiator is ingredients .
What is NPK in cannabis?
NPK can come from many different ingredients and compounds and the combinations each of which will react with cannabis plants in different ways. This means that competitors could have the same NPK ratios on the label, but the products could act very differently on your cannabis plants.
Why don't you use Miracle Grow?
No matter what, don’t use time-released nutrients like Miracle Grow because it will deliver far too much Nitrogen for the flowering stage which will reduce bud growth , and who wants that?
Do you need a nutrient system for a bud?
The short answer is no, you don’t need a nutrient system, but it will hurt your yield not using one and can also make measurement and mixing of nutrients more difficult. You can get away with just NPK in the right amounts but don’t expect photo-worthy buds in return.
Can you grow cannabis indoors?
There is no question, if you are growing cannabis indoors or out you should be using marijuana fertilizer to increase the speed of the plant’s growth but also to increase the bud yield. Without the correct nutrients at the right times, your plants won’t be big producers if they survive at all. Growing indoors under grow lights for 18-hour periods ...
Can you burn a cannabis plant?
If you give your cannabis plants the right combinations at the correct time your plants will thrive but get the mix wrong and you can burn your plants or even kill them. Two of the cannabis plant life phases require marijuana fertilizer while generally, plants in the seedling stage don’t require additional nutrients.
Can hydro plants grow organically?
If you are growing hydro you must rely on chemical nutrients instead of organic. Soil and Coco use the same nutrients just at different mixture ratios.