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Franco's tricks on mother plants


darko.gh

This is the second article in a new series where I present some selected tricks and advanced growing techniques. My name is Franco, and i work at Green House Seed Company, in Amsterdam, since the year 2000. Over the last 10 years I have learned from Arjan countless tricks and advanced techniques, and I developed a few of my own as well. And now it’s time to share some of this knowledge with growers worldwide. If we share the knowledge, everybody wins.

Last month I explained some of the best tricks to take strong, healthy cuttings, and to speed up the rooting process. This month, I give you...

Franco’s tricks on mother plants

Maintenance of a healthy, productive mother room is the basis for a high-output cannabis farm. Mother plants require good care if they have to keep producing cuttings for a long time, and there are a number of tricks, besides normal maintenance operations, that can help insure a smooth flow of production.

Mother rooms are often kept at an 18-hrs light cycle, sometimes at a longer one, to promote vegetative growth. Depending on the strain(s) present in the room, light cycle can be adjusted to prevent flowering. Some strains, when kept on vegetative growth for longer than 2 or 3 months tend to start flowering, or to show pre-flowers and to slow down their vegetative growth. A good way to prevent this from happening is to increase the photoperiod from 18 to 20 hours per day. An uninterrupted light cycle of 24 hours per day should only be used to revert to vegetative growth plants that have started flowering already, and must be brought back for sake of conservation. If applied healthy plants in vegetative growth, a non-stop light cycle will produce stress and eventually be harmful to plants and cuttings.

The medium in which mother plants grow is a key factor in determining the length of the plant’s life. Soil, coco fibre, clay pebbles, and rock-wool are the easiest mediums to keep mother plants. In soil the micro-life and enzymes will die after a period of 2-3 months, so it is advisable to freshen-up the medium periodically by chopping the outside of the root-ball and re-planting using some fresh soil. Using this technique it is possible to keep mother plants in soil for longer than a year. Coco-fibre, clay and rock-wool are easier to keep clean by implementing regular flushing. The trick when flushing is to apply at least 2 times the volume of the container in litres, and slowly pour the flushing solution avoiding that it runs off on the sides of the medium, making sure that it passes through. The temperature should be around the 20-25 degrees Celsius, to increase salts solubility.

After flushing the medium, it is vital to let it rest until it becomes light and full of air, creating a sponge-like effect that brings oxygen to the root system. Then feeding can resume, with the addition of some extra enzymes, or bacterial micro-life. A good way to feed plants if the medium is still too heavy with water is to apply foliar feeding (specific products can be used for this purpose, although a mildly-diluted synthetic feeding solution with an EC inferior to 1.4 will do the trick just as well).

The logistics of each mother room are different, but in most cases it is a good rule-of-thumb to divide the grow-space into a “boost” area and a “parking” area. The plants that have to be used to take cuttings in the following weeks can be put in “boost”, while the ones waiting to be used in the future can grow at a slower pace in the “parking” area. This system comes particularly useful in rooms with a large number of genetics, where a rotation in production is part of the logistics.

I like to use different lights in a mother room, because this helps creating a “boost and parking” setup. For example, in a mother room of 2 square meters it is advisable to use 1 metal halide lamp for a boost area, and some fluorescent lights for the parking area (the output of fluorescent tubes has more than doubled over the last few years, and there are excellent products on the market that use very little electricity). Plants can then follow a rotation pattern, to optimize growth, avoid stress, and produce many healthy cuttings. Ideally each mother plant should have a period of frequent cuts (every 2-3 weeks for a few months) and then a rest-period of a few months, with less frequent cuts.

Temperature in a mother room is very important to ensure smooth conditions for growth. Compared to a flowering room, a mother room should be few degrees cooler (23-26 degrees Celsius). This prevents micro-life in the soil from perishing, as well as lowering the chance of fungi and bacterial infections. The metabolism of growing plants is optimal around 25 degrees during vegetative growth, allowing for a higher clone-to-plant ratio.

Feeding mother plants is a relatively boring routine: the trick is to keep the plants in “parking” at a low-feeding regime (I normally feed every 2 or 3 watering sessions), then increase N intake during the boost phase, and stop feeding about one week before taking cuttings. Moreover it is very important that the plants are well watered when cuttings are taken. These simple tricks can considerably reduce rooting time and increase root strength in young cuttings. The feeding needs of mother plants include a monthly dose of enzymes (make sure the bottle is fairly new and the shelf-life was monitored, or the enzymes will be dead before you open the bottle. Never keep an open bottle of enzymes longer then a month, and make sure it is stored in a dark, cool place); and some extra micro-nutrients (especially Mg, Ca, Zn) every 2-3 weeks.

Trimming plants is another major routine task in a mother room. Plants should be trimmed according to the needs, trying to split branches as much as possible and to keep the plants low by boosting low branching. A properly trimmed mother plant, at 6-7 months of age, should produce at least 50-60 cuttings per session.

Finally, a mother room must be clean, neat and well organized. Always remove trash from the room, and disinfect tools with a water peroxide solution (90% water and 10% H2O2-35%). The room itself should be emptied and sprayed with the water and H2O2-35% solution once a year.

The solution can be sprayed all over the room, including lamps, ventilation equipment and grow-tables. After the treatment ventilate until the room is dry, then turn on the lights for 6-8 hours to clear every residue of H2O2. Then plants can go back, in a very clean environment.

Mother plants are the key to a productive cannabis farm, and they need to live longer than any other cannabis plant. They demand, and deserve, the most care.

Franco – Green House Seed Co.

This content is copyright of Green House Seed Co. © Green House Seed Co. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.


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This article is so good!

Thank you also for this one, Franco!

Respect bro!

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great article very nice,

I am passionate about reading it.

I do not understand the reason why we must stop

feeding the plant a week before cutting.

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Very jusfull information , especialy the divided motherplants room boost and parking and the jus of growlux sylvania fluorescent lights example , and metal halilde or i jus 1 h.p.i.t. 1000watt and 3x 600watt h.p.s. in 3 square mrts .grow pre/flower and flower and motherplants that ar very bushsy like bansai .

Good job Franco clear and focused !

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great article very nice,

I am passionate about reading it.

I do not understand the reason why we must stop

feeding the plant a week before cutting.

there fore the cuttings will take on roots faster because its looking for feeding ! N primerly Nirto spray the cuttings whit foliar feeding the first time and the will make roots faster .

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Great article. I have mother plants and it seems as if I have to spend some time with them.

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