I am just making thru the first cycle and selecting mothers of LSD and Bogbubble. I have a Orange Kush clone a buddy dropped off today. I want to keep it as a mother also (the smoke kicked my ass).

I veg and flower in a E&F system and am moving to an all clone perpetual supply setup as soon as I sex this batch of seeds.

Now the question:

What is the best for sustained vegging for the express purpose of supplying clones? Soil, Aerobucket, DWC, combination of a couple?

I don't think I would keep them for more than a year or so but how knows. I could always make a clone a new mother plant at some point and start over. I want to have 5-7 killer mothers in a closet with agrosun flouro's in the four corners and a round halo flouro above. Maybe that's to much light and wouldn't give good stretching that makes it so easy to take clones fronm side branches.

I was thinking about a double 5 gallon bucket setup (ala Krusty)adapted with lava rocks in the bottom of the top bucket to promote drainage but a soil mix on the upper 3/4 of the top bucket. Put an airstone in the bottom of the second bucket for drain off water and eventual root growth. Not connected to a central rez system, each independent may eventually add a timmed water cycle but that's it. These are mothers so I just want fairly slow, steady, healthy growth.

Always heard soil for mothers. It retains more moisture for less frequent waterings, more forgiving as far as nutes, creates healthier mother plant inviroment.

I haven't ever warehoused mothers, any advice?

What's everyones mother storage methods?

Thanks in advance

Texas KId

[Thing_Fish_]

--My mom's been around for a year and a half! -Coco chor's what we use. -Im just now getting to where shes too big and we have to grow out a clone to replace her. -!.5 years in coco chor. -We just flush it once every nute change or 2 and thats it!

[Sugar]

Soil for sure, put them into 3 gallon pots, and just cut them back when they get to tall (pressuming they will be bushes)
if they get rootbound then you can pull them up and trim the root ball/zone to half size, refill pot 1/2 way with new soil, and off you go again with the same mother! soil is a lot more forgiving, and imo yeilds the best results anyway! in 3 gallon pots they will need water not more than every 10 days or so.

-oh...and orange kush....you want that as a mom!!!

Hope that is some use, weve been doing it for years, and it works perfectly!

[teddynugent]

I also use strictly soil for my mother plants. I use the Fox Farms soil, mixed with perlite and earthworm castings. I do put Lava Rocks at the bottom of the bucket (1 to 5 gallon buckets depending). I do use 2 buckets, but the second is really only there to catch the water. I also put a bit of polymer crystals right under the root ball. They hold water forever so I'm able to go longer without watering. So far, this method has worked great for me. I had a Brother's Grimm C99 mother for 3 years I think (give or take). I took a few clones off it a couple/few years back and threw the mother outside. It was way too bushy to even fit in the space I had it in. It took over the whole room. I yielded over a LB. of that one plant outdoors though. I don't know the exact yield, but I know it was 18+ oz.'s. It was in a friends backyard, and got sunlight from the time it rose to the time it set. Man, I thought the cindy was good indoor, but it was even better outside. There ain't nothing like sun-ripened bud though

Anyway, good luck with whatever method you choose.

Oh ya, you might want to chck out a product called Blumat. You stick this little cone in the soil and run a tube to a reservoir and it automatically waters itself. No power required. So, you'd only have to water the plant once in a while when it needed nutrients. I plan on buying some for my mother plants.

-Teddy