wheelchair
Member
Is it true that you have to wait until the plants are mature (showing sex) to take a mother plant? I know you can take cuttings before maturing but will it affect the plants potency, yield or growth in anyway?
plant maturity
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LadyLargely
Member
No, but you have to wait till the plant matures to know that you have a "mother" at all! If you take a cutting off an un-sexed plant you don't know what it is. It could be a 'father', haha! 
No, but, you can take a cutting, put it into 12/12 and find out if your vegging plant is M or F.
There are stories that older mothers give better weed, Ed Rosenthal stated you need to be minimum 2 months old [vegging] to achieve max potency. I have never smoked anything excellent from a week/month old seedling, so I just tend to believe him and carry on using cuttings from mature mothers.
Take a cutting and root it under 12/12.By the time it roots it should also show it's sex.
If it's a male throw it out (unless of course wanting to dabble in some breeding).
Now,you can either take more cuttings from your female "mothers" and place them in 18/6 till they root and veg a bit,all the while putting the donors into 12/12 and use your cutting(s) as the new mother with no drawbacks.Or you could take a bunch of cuttings,let them root and flower them out while keeping the donor plants as the mothers.
The cutting/clone is an exact genetic replica of the donor/parent plant so even if the cutting has only had roots for 2 weeks it is still as old as the parent/donor plant.
If it's a male throw it out (unless of course wanting to dabble in some breeding).
Now,you can either take more cuttings from your female "mothers" and place them in 18/6 till they root and veg a bit,all the while putting the donors into 12/12 and use your cutting(s) as the new mother with no drawbacks.Or you could take a bunch of cuttings,let them root and flower them out while keeping the donor plants as the mothers.
The cutting/clone is an exact genetic replica of the donor/parent plant so even if the cutting has only had roots for 2 weeks it is still as old as the parent/donor plant.
lloyd
Member
You can take clones when ever you want. taking clones doesnt mean it is a mother. usually a mother plant is obviously a female and continue to take clones off of her and never flower her. it doesnt hurt the plant if you clone correctly. Peace
wheelchair
Member
I will be taking clones of all my plants and keep them vegging in a seperate cab, labeled from which plant they came from. Then When I switch to flower in my flowering cab and the males show I can cull them and the males in my veg cab.
Then after a smoke report decide on which one I want to keep as a mother and grow her out bonsai style.
Because of height restrictions I'll switch to flowering quite early on so the plants never reach maturity and if clones are exact genetic replicas any clones taken of my mother plant will not be "mature"
Then after a smoke report decide on which one I want to keep as a mother and grow her out bonsai style.
Because of height restrictions I'll switch to flowering quite early on so the plants never reach maturity and if clones are exact genetic replicas any clones taken of my mother plant will not be "mature"
When the plant starts to alternate nodes (branches are not right across from each other any more but staggered) it is a sign that they are sexually mature.
But, don;t fret the maturity thing...it is overrated, IMO. Many folks will flower out from seed, and produce killer weed. Plenty of threads around here to prove the worth of flowering from seed.
By the time you have a mother plant, the sexual maturity issue will be moot.
In fact, it is pretty much moot now.
The issue may come into play if you are wanting to sex your plants from the veg state. Once plant mature in veg, they will often throw out pre-flowers that show what it's sexual orientation is. But be aware that many strains will not want to throw any pre-flowers until it has grown for a good while, and some not at all.
But, don;t fret the maturity thing...it is overrated, IMO. Many folks will flower out from seed, and produce killer weed. Plenty of threads around here to prove the worth of flowering from seed.
By the time you have a mother plant, the sexual maturity issue will be moot.
In fact, it is pretty much moot now.
The issue may come into play if you are wanting to sex your plants from the veg state. Once plant mature in veg, they will often throw out pre-flowers that show what it's sexual orientation is. But be aware that many strains will not want to throw any pre-flowers until it has grown for a good while, and some not at all.
