A mother plant should be a minimum of 3 1/2 months old before it is strong enough for a small harvest of clones.
If you want to keep a mother plant alive after taking clones from it, only remove clones from the bottom 1/3 of the plant. Only take what you need. Don’t cut off more of the branch than you have to. With modest removal, the plant will stay alive and regenerate afterwards. If you don’t plan to regenerate the mother, strip off the entire bottom 3/4 of the plant right to the stem. You can use the top 1/4 as well, but it will produce weaker, slower growing clones.
If you are planning to reuse the mother, at 3 1/2 months you should be able to take 6-9 clones, and at 4-6 months, 12-28 clones. These numbers are approximate. The exact number depends on a variety of factors, such as pruning techniques, transplanting techniques, and the genetics of the mother.
A mother plant can be re-used many times, repeatedly producing and regenerating clones again and again. After harvest, a mother will take 2-3 months to fully regenerate back to a state where more clones can be harvested.
For smaller mother plants, a 10″-12″ sized clay pot works well. For mothers that need to produce bigger clone yields, a 24″ pot will result in a much larger plant.
For small indoor farms, it’s easiest to work with smaller mother plants. Smaller mothers don’t take up as much room and offer the flexibility of maintaining several strains.
Motherplant Lighting
Mother plants must be kept in a perpetual state of vegetative growth to produce clones. Maintain daily light levels for 12 hours per day or higher, 16 is recommended.
Use a full spectrum light with emphasis on blue wavelengths, 400 nm – 500 nm. Blue light discourages stem elongation and encourages root growth. A large root system will lead to greater branching that can be harvested for clones.
Vegetative, moderate growth:
310 PPFD
15,000 – 40,000 LUX
Vegetative, heavy growth:
620 PPFD
40,000 – 70,000 LUX
Motherplant Water & Nutrients
To feed motherplants use a standard mineral fertilizer intended for vegetative growth.
Motherplants benefit from enhanced uptake of minerals, especially calcium. Amino Acid opens up ion channels, dramatically increasing how much calcium mother plants are able to absorb. Calcium makes plant cell walls thicker with more stored energy. More stored energy make cuttings more resilient with faster rooting. Amino Acid is an excellent bio stimulant choice for motherplants.
Motherplants Early Vegetative:
600 – 700 TDS
1.2 – 1.4 EC
Motherplants Late Vegetative:
700 – 800 TDS
1.4 – 1.6 EC
