Benefits of a Mother Over Cloning Perpetually

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by Distrex, Dec 12, 2014.

  1. When it comes to how your harvest for a perpetual grow, I've basically seen two schools of thought:
    1. Keep a mother plant in a separate area in a lower light veg state\t
    2. harvest all your clones right before you start flowing, and do the same next harvest
    One of the only benefits that I've seen one have over the other is that there are claims that your yield and vitality can/may go down after cloning for a couple generations.  I've yet to really see anything conclusive, but that's all I've been able to dig up. 
     
    Does anyone have experience with one or the other having an impact on your garden.  Which would you use?  Would you use one in one scenario and another in a different scenario?  If so what would they be?

     
  2. It's funny I see this post right now.  I have been using mothers the last 2.5 years, however those mothers have come from previous mothers.  Once they get big, nasty, gnarly, I just make a new one.  So my clones are probably easily 6-10 generations by now.  I am now actually going to cut my clones from my existing vegge.  All my mothers are gone.  I have not seen any yield or quality loss since I started.  I personally haven't seen any evidence in my setup that it's a real important factor.  I'm starting to think that take the clones from the healthiest plants is equally as important.  I will probably have 4 small mothers on hand just in case I need them, but I won't go to great lengths to make them last years, and I will probably replace them regularly.  Just my .02
     
  3. #3 Greasemonkeyman, Dec 12, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2014
    I get that question a lot, in my experience, it makes no difference at all, minus one thing, I have noticed my strains are getting a lil slower to clone, I have strains almost ten yrs old and none of the plants are over 5 months old (since cloning)
    every two harvests I flower the "mother" but I usually have between 10 and 20 different strains/phenotypes so I don't have room for that many mature plants..
    I've been doing it that way since the late/mid 90s, first it was the J1, and spiceyjack, then it was a nice sour diesel pheno, now I've been growing the bluedream and jack herer for yrs and yrs
     
  4.   hi y'all,  Pardon my lack of computer skills.  I've done both ways plus a third(sorta).  You can also regenerate a plant after a harvest. I've even done multiple regens. Just leave several buds on the plant and put it in long light immediately. As far as clones of clones system, one thing i've noticed is that baby clones can be very delicate easily damaged, even DNA wise, i believe. Even healthy plants in the wild can     and do incur chromesomal damage. I don't understand anything about cell biology, but I've read enough to be dangerous. I had a Grape God plant a couple years ago and traded clones with a neighbor and somehow the third generation (i think) didn't look or grow the same although it smoked ok but maybe not OK, y'know. The other thing is that keeping a mother plant requires space. The space that i devote to growing indoor has decreased so its easier to "keep 'em movin". I'm at the point now (old) where I'd rather just buy more seeds or clones instead of going at it all the time. Oh, and then the longer you keep a mother plant, the more vulnerable it is to everything from bugs to root rot. Just one man's opinion/experience. Good luck!
     
  5. #5 steak dinner, Dec 14, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 14, 2014
     
    This is a dumb weed growers myth. A clone is a clone.
     
    Under normal growing conditions a clone has the same chance of genetically differing from the donor plant than a branch has of differing genetically from a tree - i.e. not at all. The navel orange is an example of a longstanding sterile varietal that has been propagated for near 200 years.
     
  6. With everyone saying that there are no detrimental affects by taking perpetual clones, why does everyone go through all the trouble of having mother(s)?

    It seems like that's a lot of work for not a lot of return. Would having two separate grow areas (which you need for the mothers and clones anyway) and taking clones right before you switch to 12/12 be the best way to go?
     
  7.  
    Haas avocado and red delicious apple are clones a hundred years old.  Roman apples literally go back to Roman times.  Have you noticed a reduction in quality of these in your lifetime?
     
    Some interesting input so far.  I've got a few points that can be considered if you agree that a clone is just exactly that, a 'clone;'
     
    A mother plant can be a waste of real estate.  It's ugly, most likely going to be rootbound and takes up a lot of real estate.  IME flowering a mother plant yields very low compared to an uncut clone.  I've heard of growers who've kept mothers and eventually lost a strain because that mother plant died, this is pretty much impossible with a perpetual mother program. 
     
  8.  
    This is what I do, only take the clones a week earlier, and always have a plant or two already rooted just in case I mess up a batch of clones.  As soon as they root a week or so later, they go into the flowering room too.
     
    Obviously this method works best when your harvest is set up for perpetual as well.
     
  9.  
    What types of things would you need that differ from a regular setup for a grow?
     
  10.  
    Nothing, just can't run a SCROG
     
  11. Why would any of this prevent you from doing a scrog?
     
  12. #12 homer simpson, Dec 29, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 29, 2014
     
    My bad, I was referring to the exact method described that I use, a perpetual sea of green with some training.
     
     
     
    Firing clones into flower a week after rooting would not be optimal for a SCROG obviously.  For that you would want to veg the plant much longer.
     
    Many SCROG.s that I've run/seen need a vegetative cycle in the flowering room to fill the screen.  A true perpetual flowering set up never changes from 12/12.  
    I absolutely believe using a perpetual clone for a SCROG would be a fine idea.  Main reason I don't use a screen is
     
    -I like variety in small places indoors
    -Don't like trimming more than a few Oz's in one sitting
    -IME it can be tough to keep up with a mother plant running a 250w HPS for flower, they spit out a lot of cuttings.  
     
    I think this thread was a very topic of conversation so I listed in exact detail my thought process.  I was a bit ambiguous in my post and didn't want it to be misinterpreted.  Would be nice to see some other input in here rather than my rambling ass.
     
  13. #13 mjmama25, Jan 8, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 8, 2015
    I agree. Taking clones from the healthiest clone helps avoid passing on mutations that could effect yield or quality. If there were to be genetic mutations after generations of cloning, this would be the best way to avoid it.
     

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