I like to have several strains in my genetic pool. I’ve been growing for over 35 years. I’m not on a quest to try the next glitter strain. I have settled on 3 strains that I’ve gathered the last few years. When I grow I will develop 2 good plants of the same strain to move to bloom. The next cycle will be a different strain, and so on. This helps me maintain 3 strains for a variety stash. The above photo shows the mom in the tray that I establish my cuttings. She’s alone now because I just moved 2 vegged plants to the bloom chamber. This photo shows the grafted mom on the left and 4 Topanga Cookies cuttings filling the rest of the tray. This one shelf houses my entire propagation, cuttings and mom maintenance. Clone box on the right can handle 12-15 cuttings per run. I select the best 5 to veg in their first container then the best 2 from there go to bloom chamber. This is where my Micro grow stops. Visit my current grow journal. Blue’s Small Shed Grow If you would like to have a discussion on how I graft and bonsai just chime in.
Impressive work mate, you always have such interesting and wild techniques. I tried to do an orange / lime bush graft this spring, but just couldn't get it to work (the orange graft, the lime bush is still healthy at least). One of these days I need to sit down and give it some honest research and a better try. I do like to watch folks like yourself who can make it work though!
Thanks, look into ‘approach grafting method’ that’s the method that worked for me. Google the subject, there’s a lot of info out there. I studied grafting tomatoes when I found this simple method.
It’s been about 8 days since I checked in with you. It’s time to prune mom in order to keep her compact. At this time I will prune roots and shoots. Here she is. She looks good and for many growers it would be hard to do what I’m about to do. pruned down each shoot, cut above low nodes and remove the shoots leaving a node that has 2 growth points opposing each other. While I have the mom out of the tray I will prune the long roots. pruning the roots help keep the plant compact. Pruning the stem shoots down hard forces the future growth to have short internodes resulting in compact growth, that’s a big advantage in maintaining a bonsai plant. When I put her back in the tray it will for a while so I check and adjust the nutrient feed and flow. That’s it for a week or two. This mom provides cutting for my grows, current grow: Blue’s Small Shed Grow Thanks for visiting.
Teach me your way, sensei! I need to make mother plants in about 2-3 months. Thought about keeping up to 6 mum's but now I'm thinking about to make 2 mum's with 3 strains for each mum. Really like what I see here!
Last year I did this post 3-Strain Grafted Bonsai Mother Afterwards I dropped it and damaged it beyond hope. So I started another 3-way mom which is the focus of this current post you are reading now. With the approach method the main plant and the plants to be grafted stay rooted in medium during the grafting process. Only after the graft is complete do you sever the root mass off the graft stock while leaving the main plant’s roots support the new 3-way mom. Review the earlier attempt, then get back to me.
Last year’s grafting grafts on the vertical stem of the main plant. This year I grew out the side branches of each plant and did the grafts on the side branches on the main plant. Hopefully that makes sense.
Well explained. I think I have a good idea now how to graft a 3-strain mother. I might come back with questions when I will try it myself. You kept a mother up to 7 years, some large growing companies are changing mothers every 6 months or so, because they think the genetics are getting weaker. Did it had any drawbacks to keep a mother for so long? Would also like to keep them for at least 3-4y. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I read up on the theory of genetic degradation in long term mother donor plants. One thing that really stands is the researchers continue to use the word “may” as they describe causal effect in a long term mother used for repeated cuttings. There “may” really be a threat for some. When managing the possible conditions and causes of clonal degeneration from long kept mother one must observe each cycle of clones as the grow and mature. Do the plants exhibit a slight difference in physiology and appearance? If they do then maybe further efforts to control or eliminate the problem should be considered. For me in my small home grow, although very sophisticated, I have only observe consistent grows. Is a good discussion to have. Thanks for asking about my limited observation on the subject.
Mom update. I pruned her down 7 days ago. This update shows how small the mom really is. The whole point of this effort is to maintain multiple strains on a single small donor plant. In 2-3 weeks there is the potential of taking 20 cuttings from each strain. Truth be told, my bloom chamber is a 2 plant bloom room. Variety is the spice of life!
I just checked my records on this, I performed the grafting on 6/11/23. The photo was snapped 11/24/23.
Wow! Never expected her to be that tiny! This is great, because that means my two 3-Strain bonsai mums will need even less space. @CO BlueGreen : Do you give your mums less N about 2 weeks before cutting? So that the leafs get a bit yellow? I've heard somewhere that they root better when they're hungry.
Yes, “Wow”, the luxury of small plants is they require little space. I run a weak veg solution for rooted cuttings and early veg. I keep the mom in the same system. It’s the same year round. Change it every 3 weeks. Here’s my Solution: 5 gallons H2O 10 gms Jack’s Clone 5 Rhizoblast 10 Botanicare Tea 20 Silicablast 10 Hydrogaurd 7 gms Epsom Salt 390ppm 5.9pH New dunk Have you started your graft project? Keep us posted. I’m following your journal.
Also, the night before I take the cuttings I apply a foliar spray of a seaweed extract per label instructions. This introduces additional auxins. Auxins assist cells in the stem/nodes as they differentiate into root cells.
No, it even might never happen because of the law situation in Germany. When our politics will finaly do what they promised to us, I will for sure start the grafting project in 5-8 weeks. If not, I might do it a few months later in Thailand or everywhere else where I apply for a job in the cannabis industry. Unfortunately I cannot appy for a job in USA, because of law regulations.