farmergiles

Selection

Mother and father plants are kept to provide cuttings.

A lot of people buy feminised seed so that they don't have to waste time and resources selecting female plants and culling males. Personally I find it easier and better to keep a mother plant and use cuttings from her. The main benefit is the uniformity- all the cuts will grow at a similar rate and provide the same quality of bud.

Normally I'd germinate the seeds, then when they have shown preflowering, take cuttings (see this section of the FAQs) and then flower the seed plants. (You could flower a cut instead and keep the original plant vegging)
The cuttings are kept under a vegging light schedule (18 or more hrs per day, 24 hrs may be best) and rooted.

The original plants are flowered. If you want to discard the males then do so as soon as sex shows, likewise discard the male cuttings if you don't want them.

The remaining seed plants are flowered through to the end so the bud can be smoked and assessed. This assessment is fairly easy- you are looking for the one (or ones) which you enjoy smoking the most. It's your plant, so your opinion is all that matters. Taste, smell, effect, duration, whatever your favoured criteria are.

Other factors to consider when choosing Mothers
- Vigour and health. We want sturdy fast growing plants. Anything which is susceptible to mould, pests, or any other form of pestilence should be discarded.
- Yield.
- Flowering times- generally shorter is better.
- Leaf to calyx ratio. Anything too leafy will be a pain to manicure.
- Hermaphrodism. Any female plant which grows male flowers should be discarded. Unless of course herming was caused by light leaks or other stress. Even then, plants which show the most resistance to herming should be chosen over those which herm easily.
- Growth patterns. Depends on the intended use and the environment the plant is to be grown in.
If headroom is limited then avoid plants which stretch and grow too tall.
Avoid plants which have weak stems; when the buds grow heavy they may snap off the plant unless they are supported somehow (generally a hassle).
- Ease of cloning. If the cuts are reluctant to root then this will be a problem. Also reluctant rooting tends to indicate lack of vigour.
- Aesthetics. This isn't really that important, but you might as well choose a plant you like the look of. Often the healthiest plants look the best anyway.
- Aesthetics of the finished bud. Personally I couldn't care less about bag appeal but some do.

Choosing father plants is a bit more tricky. We are interested in the female expression of the genetics- this is not always obvious from the male plant without progeny testing.

A few extra factors to consider when choosing Papa plants
- Smell. It is nearly always the case that a good smelling plant will produce good tasting bud. Or rather a good smelling male's female offspring produce good tasting bud.
- Hollow meristem (main stem). Don't ask me why but plants with a hollow meristem usually produce more potent bud. You can only really assess this with the seed plants, clones will usually have solid meristems in any case.
- Resin production. The more the better.

You can smoke the leaves (don't bother with the fan leaves) to give an idea what the bud would be like if the plant was female.
There is some debate whether hermie males are suitable for breeding. I wouldn't use them myself but some respected breeders say otherwise.
Generally you will get a better idea how a male plant will turn out if you let it flower through to the end. Of course it (and it's pollen) should be kept isolated from any flowering females unless you want seeds.

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farmergiles

Care of Momas and Papas

So now the plant(s) have been selected the cuts from the plants which did not make the grade are discarded.
You might think that all this cloning is a lot of effort if most of them are to be discarded but the costs are low and the more you practise the easier it becomes.

Pot the chosen cuts up into a small- medium sized pots. Soil is fine, as is any other medium. You can keep them in hydro systems but I wouldn't bother. Soil is easy.

Lights
Any light which is suitable for vegging is fine for keeping momas and papas. Fairly low light levels are best- if they grow too big they take a lot of room and resources, if they grow too fast then they need frequent maintenance. Most people use fluoros as they are cheap and effective. Also- if a plant is vegged under high intensity light it will tend to autoflower if it (or a cutting from it) is moved to a lower intensity light.

The lights should be left on 18 hrs or more per day (24hrs is ok). If the "day" is any shorter they will start flowering eventually.

Flowering is undesirable because when cuttings are taken, rooted and vegged they will be slower to root and start veg growth.
Confusing the plant by messing it around will only stress it and slow things down.
This is more important with male plants than females- once a male plant starts to flower hormones are produced which will tend to keep it flowering even if the "days" are long.

Pruning
If a mother or father plant grows too big just cut bits off. This is fine in veg.

Feeding
Use low concentration veg nutes. The aim is not to grow monsters, but just to keep them ticking over. They don't need much.

Long term care
Eventually the roots will occupy too much space and they will become rootbound. Trim the roots back and give them new soil to fill the space in the pot. As the roots grow back into the new soil the plant will recover just fine. This can be done again and again.

However, every now and again it is wise to take a new cutting, root it and pot it up. This way all the plant tissue is renewed- this will aid plant health and minimise the likelihood of disease.

If you are planning on keeping a plant for years and years it is wise to let it have live under natural light in the summer (when days are long). They tend to get a little sad cooped up indoors for years.

Be extra careful with prized mothers and papas to keep them free from pests and diseases. If you receive any cuts from outside your grow quarantine them away from your mother and father plants. The best way to keep them healthy is prevention, not cure.

Insurance
Even the most skilled gardeners do suffer disaster from time to time. The best way to ensure survival is to give out your prize cuts. Even if you are stealth concious and no one in real life knows you are growing, you can send them to contacts made on the internet. If you send a cut out there is little risk- no one has to know your location for you to mail them out.

The most serious of breeders maintain many separate grows with all their prize cuts tended by different people across the globe. This way if disaster strikes in one location there are back ups.

Some plants have been kept alive using these techniques for upwards of 20 years.

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farmergiles

So now we have excellent plants that can be used to make thousands of identical cuttings for decades with minimal cost.

Still want to buy those fem seeds ?


As the years go by it is more and more likely that problems will occur. In nature, cannabis plants rarely live for more than a year.

Over the years, some strains will tend to autoflower more and more. The aim of a plant is to reproduce. It does this by flowering.

Some plants will eventually lose vigour and die, even if separate cuts are kept. G13 is one legendary strain which (it would appear) is no longer existent in pure form, all the cuts having perished.

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Pharm Girl

that's why i went looking...and i found out that they are not reccomending any of the early outdoor fems...they are all telling me that they are not early at all and don't do very well outdoors.

here's an early grizzly (short stocky stuff eh?)

Attached Images

 

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fenderbender

great thread

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