Mother Plant in Danger! Please Help

[KIEFFER]

I have no idea what happened to her. She was a full bush about a week ago. She was given to me to start my first grow about 3 months ago. Her conditions haven’t changed since I got her and she flourished for the last 3 months. From what I was told she is about 1 yr and a half old. She has been on a teaspoon of FF Big Grow about every other watering and she requires water about every other day. Temp conditions are consistently around 78 deg fer she has good airflow and she at least gets lightly sprayed with water daily. What would cause such damage to ½ of a plant? If you look close the stem at the base has 2 sections one that goes to the damaged side and the other to the side that is all green. What can be done to save her?
Big time

 

[PoorPaul]

I have had two mother plants about that same age that suddenly went bad in a short amount of time. It definitely sucks.

I can't tell from the pictures how big your pot is, but that may be a factor. If your pot is not big enough you might have had your roots lock up due to not having enough room. You might want to transplant it into a larger pot to salvage the still healthy side.

If the leaves are brittle at all on the sick side then I don't think there is much you can do to save it. Last time this happened to me I took clones off of it before it was too late and used one of those as my next mother and grew out the rest.

Good luck with it.

 

[GET MO]

Poor Paul said it, probly super root bound, Transplant and give it some root juice. I'd say chop off the dead matter, its like removing a tumor, make it feal better and let it consentrate on the side thats good. Make sure you take a couple clones just incase for a replacement mother.

 

[KIEFFER]

Hey there PoorPaul........... WOW that sucks I was afraid that was the answer. I heard the similar response in the grow forum as well. It is what it is I guess

It is a small pot, that was what it was given to me in and I didn’t know better to get it into a bigger pot.

I had Plans on cloning her tomorrow and I went out and got a 5-gallon to put her into tomorrow. So you think I should repot that may save the good side?

Yes the leaves on the sick side are dry and brittle. So my question is what do I do with that side IF it is totally lost. I fear that the dry leaves will be another problem to the environment.

I guess if you don’t make mistakes you don’t learn.

 

[PoorPaul]

I would re pot her and chop off the sick part. Get Mo is right about that being like a tumor. From the looks of it the side that is good is big enough to take over as the main stalk. You could train that stalk after it has recovered from the transplant and the cut to grow a little bushier.

You might want to hold off on taking clones from her for a while if you think the healthy side will make it through. Don't add any more stress than needed. Wait until she has fully recovered before taking any clones from her. That may give you a month or more of down time, but in the end patients will only reward you.

But if she looks like she may not recover take clones from her before she gets too bad. Keep taking pics and posting them for advise on the recovery.

Also, how often where you taking clones from her, and how many do you take? I only took 8 clones from mine every 8~9 weeks. Not really sure about how much recovery time you should give your mother after taking clones from her, before taking another round. Maybe someone else can put some input into this question. Would be nice if there was an easy equation such as 1 week/clone, but I am sure it varies.

 

[bud_me]

Yeah i have to jump on the bandwagon here and go with the pot size. You can't keep them in that small of a pot size without keeping their foliage limited. The idea is to bonsai, not to grow a bush out of a shot glass. Don't bother with the 5 gallon that's huge, get a good one gallon container and trim back the roots.

 

[KIEFFER]

I would re pot her and chop off the sick part. Get Mo is right about that being like a tumor. From the looks of it the side that is good is big enough to take over as the main stalk. You could train that stalk after it has recovered from the transplant and the cut to grow a little bushier.

You might want to hold off on taking clones from her for a while if you think the healthy side will make it through. Don't add any more stress than needed. Wait until she has fully recovered before taking any clones from her. That may give you a month or more of down time, but in the end patients will only reward you.

But if she looks like she may not recover take clones from her before she gets too bad. Keep taking pics and posting them for advise on the recovery.

Also, how often where you taking clones from her, and how many do you take? I only took 8 clones from mine every 8~9 weeks. Not really sure about how much recovery time you should give your mother after taking clones from her, before taking another round. Maybe someone else can put some input into this question. Would be nice if there was an easy equation such as 1 week/clone, but I am sure it varies.

I will be doing all of this tomorrow I have to see if she can be saved. I heard in the Grow forum that not only chop the dead side but it corresponding roots as well. I am not sure if I am confident to know what those are. But there is a 1st time for everything. Any opinion on that as well?

She is cloned about 5 weeks apart but she hasn’t been cut in going on 6 weeks. I would take 15 and that would still leave me with plenty to cut. She was a pretty big bush before this happened.
I will definitely keep this updated. I just hope I do all these things correctly

 

[RetroGrow]

It appears to be in a 5 gallon pot already. Sure looks like spider mite or other infestation-although it's difficult to tell without a closer look. Check the underside of the leaves.
What size is the pot?

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

I always kept my moms in 4x4 pots but I kept the growth trimmed back. yeah that plant almost looks like it just dried out. If she does hang on, don't plan on taking clones any time soon.

 

[KIEFFER]

I am learning that they need to be trimmed back and kept at a managable size. When i got her she was on the bush side and being "green" myself I didnt know better. Now I Know, And Knowing is 1/2 the Battle.

Also I know now that the pot is too small for her size. It is a 1 gallon pot that she is in and will be moved to a 3 gallon in about 40 min when light on happens. I do thank everyone for the input on my problem and hopfully I will be posting some pic of a revived mom..... We will see.......

 

[PoorPaul]

Your GI Joe reference made me giggle. Good luck with the transplant. I will be checking back to see how she does.

 

[KIEFFER]

[

Your GI Joe reference made me giggle. Good luck with the transplant. I will be checking back to see how she does.

one of the best cartoons ever




Hope I did it right guys.

We all remember what she looked like before. I am posting the advice that I received in the indoor soil forum by Albert Hofman that pretty much was in line with the census. The only part of the process that I got conflicting data was to clone her during the transplant. I made the executive decision to take the clones. If she isn’t going to make it then I have 10 other opportunities to keep my “mystery strain in my possession. So I took these instructions and ran with them.

Looks like you have a couple backup clone mothers in case of emergency so this isn't totally necessary but is good experience. First, pull some clones and then prune the plant way back (8-12" tall) Once the plant is out of the pot, cut all dead plant mater and roots away leaving a large grapefruit sized root ball hanging from the still viable stem, transplant and water w/hygrozyme. I suggest hygrozyme because not only does it help the plant more effectively uptake nutes but it also breaks down dead roots... It's good to see what this amazing plant of ours can really do

albert

1. Clone (the ones in the round peet cups are from her and the square ones ore from the other 2 Moms)





2. Remove dead matter and reduce roots to grape fruit size taking from the bad side


3. Repot into larger pot. The 2 other are my other moms and they are getting new pots in a day or 2





All I can do is wait. I am assuming if she is going to go downhill she will do it fast. If anything this was a great learning experience (even more so if it works). Like Albert said I hope she amazes me

I got pic happy and this one here is a few weeks from picking, still a little was to go. I am going to be doing an update to my grow thread if you wanted to peek in.

 

[Brother_Monk]

Good job everybody! That plant will survive I'm sure of it! K++ to everyone.

 

[KIEFFER]

Well almost 3 weeks later and I had to get on and let you all know that the advice I received did the trick. As I expected My mother is doing superb

So here she is. I am so glade that I didn’t just give up on her. The pic isn’t the best bust boy what an improvement.



Also I am so glad that I opted to take clones, out of the 21 I took from her and 2 other plants I ended up with 19 strong ones. Here is a quick pic



Again thank you everyone that had input I learned a lot through this experience.