First of all I grow hydro in bubble buckets, and Have just made my first seed purchase. I would like to grow a mother from each strain that I am going to have but know nothing about soil. My questions are: What type of soil should i use for the mother plants? Should I use straight soil or a mixture of soil and perlite? Do I use nutes other than what the soil contains to feed with, or do i feed at all? What size pots should I keep my mothers in? Any help with these questions will be appreciated
Pot size....bigger is better for keeping a mature plant. 5 gallons is good. I start with small rooting pots, then replant the whole pot into a larger peat pot (I don't disturb the roots that way) and then the larger peat pot into a final container when the roots show at the bottom. Soil....I use Miracle-Gro, and start supplementing nutrients at 3 weeks, 1/4 strength, and get it to full strength over 2-3 weeks. I use Miracle-Gro there too. Prepared potting soil has perlite and nutrients. Submitted for your approval, Tyg
Check out this thread about Bonsai mothers. I think that this is the most convenient and coolest way to keep a mother plant. http://forum.grasscity.com/advanced-growing-techniques/291687-bonsai-mums-guide.html
+1 for Bonsai moms. Being realistic, you could have 2-3 mothers in 4 inch planters, in a PC case under 24/0 cfl lighting and see results like are mentioned in the thread linked above. Where every 2-3 weeks you could potentially take 10-20 cuttings from the 3 mothers. A bonsai mother can be kept to about 8 inches in height which if you're tight on space, works great. I am planning to run 2 pc's. 1 mother/veg chamber which will carry 2 bonsai's and my clones as they grow their roots for the first few days before going into PC 2 which will be my sog case in gatorade bottles. We're only 1 week into establishing the system at the moment.