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Keep that mother growing - Mother plants explained |
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| Learn how to select grow and maintain a mother plant. Discover the benefits of a renewable source of stock and make the most of your mother with our growing guide. |
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The Life of a Mother Plant.
Why?
Growing from seed is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. There are down sides though, quality and quantity can be quite diverse and it is a very unpredictable way of growing. Often if you do get a great plant it's probably worth hanging onto it for a while and turning a good performer into a mother plant. It might save you a bit of money too, as new stock is not always that cheap and your new mother plant can provide good predictable cuttings for anything from 6 months to 3 years.
Choosing a mother.
Good genetic characteristics are what your looking for. These might be high growth rates, good yield, pretty flowers, easyness to root cuttings, resistance to rot, smell, or colour. The best approach is to grow a few plants from different seeds.
- If starting a few seeds you need to take cuttings off the seed grown while they are still under 18 hour light cycle and tag the cuttings to the seed plants. This way you can flower the seed plant off and grow the new cuttings into your new mother plants. You can gauge the quality of your “still growing” mother plant cuttings by the performance in flowering of the original seed grown plant - Hopefully before long you will have a good idea which of the new cuttings is worth keeping and using as a mother plant.
- Never let mother plants have less than about 18 hours light.
Growing a mother plant.
Choosing a system.
At the cutting stage onward the new mother plant can be grown in any media or system. A large pot of soil or cellmax is the most popular method, as in hydro systems mothers will get big quickly and produce large amounts of cuttings, unless this is what you want! The only medium you can’t use for growing your mother plant is coco, as after approx 6-8 weeks, your plants will no longer be able to take nutrient via this medium as it “locks out” essential parts of your nutrient after this point.
In soil, build a root mass in a small 4 inch pot for three or four weeks before moving the plant into a 10 Litre pot which should be big enough for most small to medium size mother plants (up to 5 foot).
Waterfarms and Aquafarms are very popular for people who want faster growth and more cuttings or just who just want an automated system for more hands off and dirt free gardening. Small grow tanks and other systems work well too.
Transplanting.
Grodan Cuttings Seed Cubes can be placed directly into pots of compost or rockwool (cellmax) or placed in Waterfarms and Aquafarms.
Try to use plant stress relievers like Superthrive or Rhizotonic when transplanting to help with the shock, and to increase the likelihood of success with your cuttings.
pH, Feeds and Additives.
In soil, don't adjust pH of nutrient/feed solutions, and just use good grow formulas like Bio-Bizz Grow and good additives such as Bio-Bizz Algamic to replenish micro nutrients and keep your medium well activated. Avoid feeds and additives designed for flowering plants.
In hydro, try and keep the pH of the nutrient solution between about 5.8 and 6.7. Use a good hydroponic Grow Nutrient. Products like Superthrive and Nitrozyme are useful to boost plants. Avoid feeds and additives designed for flowering plants.
Desirable Growth Patterns.
To stop the mother plant getting too tall over time and to make the best use of grow room space, you may want to take the tip out of the plant or take tips, branches or cuttings from anywhere on the plant to help utilise light and space. Over time the mother will get too big and bushy at which point you can take cuttings from it to make new mother plants.
Too get good growth and therefore good cuttings from the mother plant, light levels must be maintained at a reasonable level. Either a high output fluorescent Light-Wing system or a 250 Watt Halide or Sodium system should suffice and ideally a closet extractor fan should also be used to keep the environment around the plant nice and healthy.
Preparing to take Cuttings.
Cuttings can be taken anywhere off the mother plant, the lower branches are older and woodier (have less sugar and more carbohydrate) and may root quicker and be less susceptible to rot. The newer top shoots once rooted may grow quicker. Either will make good cuttings.
Products like Nitrozyme or Rhizotonic can be sprayed on mother plants prior to taking cuttings to increase your chances of success. These products contain boosters and stimulants that can shorten rooting times and bolster cuttings.
When to replace mother plants.
As your mother plant gets a bit big and bushy it may be time to replace it with a cutting from itself. This is especially relevant if it has spent a long time in the same pot or system as we don't want bacteria or disease to start or spread. You can keep a mother plant or replace your mothers this way 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 will need to find fresh new vigourous stock from seed and start the process all over again.
If you have any questions about this article, or would like to speak to one of our experts about mother plants, please give the technical team a call on 0845 345 5176 and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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