How do you keep your strain collection?

Breeder's Lab
#41

Thanks @Mr.Sparkle! Do you have a thread about your bonsai mothers? I´ll look for your DIY grow bags post, that sounds very interesting. It never occured to me to make fem seeds, but you make a good case. I´m a bit swamped with projects now, but took note of this post.

Did you make the switch to autos because of being a micro grower? I´d always preferred to be able to veg my plants to a desired size, train them with no rush. Hearing that Ruderalis reduces potency does not help as well.

@ReikoX I live almost 9,000 ft closer to the stars, in the Andes! So its a year round 70f - 50% humidity “sauna”… pretty pretty nice climate (although with frequent thunderstorms).

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#42

No i don’t have a thread on the bonsai mothers, but if you do a search for “all about bonsai moms” on google you will find the re-posted thread over on icmag, it was one of those old threads “circa 2000-2003” that got saved from the original Overgrow by a member named Oldtimer1, i wasn’t around then or even years after it was posted on icmag, but the info is all still relevant today.

And yeah i could make up a new grow bag tutorial for here, don’t need any extra bags though… actually i might anyways we will see.

As for the switch to Autos, i made the switch just because of a couple of factors, but i wouldn’t say it was because i was a micro grower, i was originally a photoperiod grower only and prefered only standard seeds, running mothers and clones for the plant’s i liked and seeds when doing crosses and or hunting for genetics i liked, now were talking quite a few years ago but there was a lot of talk about how feminized seeds are bad, and how all auto’s lack potency and are just runts and so forth, which at the time was pretty true, now fast forward a good chunk of time with me wanting to re-approach everything with an open unbiased mind, so i picked up some new age autos to run in my Veg/Mother box to help fill in the space as it was only running about half full for the most part and i felt that it was a waste so i decided to run a couple of autos to see what they were all about.

Well some of those plant were just blah in general and definitely compared to my photoperiods i was running at the time, but then a one or two of them blew my expectations and thoughts on autos out of the water.

Results were that i was getting plants finishing in 8-9.5weeks from popping soil vs 10.5-13 for the photoperiods due to the veg time, comparable and even higher on yields when comparing lights on time over the length of the grow " 8.5weeks at 18/6 vs 2.5weeks of 18/6 then 8.5weeks of 12/12" which works out to be roughly the same amount of light hours, but some of the autos were yielding no joke 25-35% more in that time, and the potency for me was no different that my photoperiods.

So with that it kinda smacked me upside the head, with the whole hey there onto something here and couple that to the fact that it allowed me to run more seeds due to the quicker turn around time which allows me to hunt for genetics i like and want to cross, need less to say i was sold at that point.

Disadvantages of course are you can’t keep mothers, and you have to have your grow go pretty smooth as you don’t have that buffer time like photoperiods that if something goes wrong you can just veg longer, but if your making your own seeds and starting from them anyways, and don’t mind a little bit of variability in end products there awesome, and as far as potency goes that’s a false point now a days for sure.

Saying that there are a bunch of junk autos out there but then there are a lot of good ones too “Mephisto Genetics, Sweet Seeds, and some Dutch Passion”

They are definitely worth a try now adays for sure.

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#43

Thanks! Very good post brother. Please write down the grow bag tutorial in your to-do list! And autos now go into my bucket list.

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#44

For the folks that have been continuously cloning the same strain for years, have you noticed any degredation at all? Any loss of vigor? Smell? My oldtimers swear by keeping moms vs continual cloning to avoid strain degrading, but would love to hear other people’s experiences here. I’ve done both, but I’ve not continuously cloned a keeper long enough to say from my own experience. Will start to do so this year, so just curious about the best approach to take.

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#45

A clone is a complete and non-degraded copy of the genetic material of the donor plant. Degradation is not possible. Poor crosses will cause degradation from the original genetic material. Darwin in motion.

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#46

I hear ya, that’s where I was leaning, but I respect my oldtimers. Never hurts to ask!

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#47

i imagine if you take a clone from an unhealthy or sick mother it could cause some degradation maybe but i do not know from personal experience. i would only take cuttings from plants when they’re happiest though

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#48

I’ve had the G13 cut for 20 years, some people here for much longer I’m sure.
I do find it takes a few more days to root cuttings than everything else I have tried. I assumed it was from a loss of vigor due to age, but it could also be a natural trait of this plant.

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#49

impressive… skills acknowledged… I’ve got some that will root in 7 days and others like to sit around for a month or more… I did improve my times with a heating pad… but getting them to root fast isn’t always the goal…

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#50

I string clones along, sometimes for years at a time and I don’t notice any degradation.

#51

I’ve got a 19 year old Blueberry plant, a 15 year old C99 from the original seeds. I’ve seen hundreds of cuts that still don’t hold as candle to my old gals.

Picture is not the greatest, but gives an idea.

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#52

So much frost! Sexy Cindy

#53

Wait, are you saying that the original seed plant is 15 years? Or that the seeds stock was original?

#54

Yes this particular pheno was hunted 15 years ago by an old friend of mine. I have had it for 7 myself.

#55

any chance of some g13 fem seeds ? or someone grow out a cut and turn it to seed i live in australia and seed only resrictions can not find a pure g13 ?

#56

Wow, color me impressed! I have clones that are about a year old, then I usually replace them with fresh clones. Keeping a plant alive for 15 years is impressive.

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#57

Here is how I keep my mother plants. This area is about 20x20x24. For size reference, the light is a 4-bulb 2’ T5.

20171129 - Mothers.jpg1024×768 169 KB

The fabric pots are made using eco-felt, a material made from recycled water bottles. I used a solo cup as my pattern for the height and diameter. They get fed a combination of Superthrive, Shultz 10-15-10 and Fish fertilizer. I make my own fish fertilizer and can probably replace the Superthrive with kelp. I have yet to successfully replace the chemical fertilizers in such small containers. Maybe co-planting in a large no-till @lotus710? I may need to do an experiment in a 5-gal smart pot. :thinking:

Every couple of weeks they need to be trimmed. I usually take about 1/2 of the foliage off the top as well as anything that looks yellow or damaged. I cut out anything in the middle to make a bowl shape, this improves air flow. With the fabric pots there is no need to root prune. After about a year or so, I will take a fresh clone and replant them. Most of these are approaching that age now.

I have only lost a plant once doing this. I didn’t water for about five days and lost my Tahoe OG (RIP). In retrospect, the thrips I didn’t know I had probably prevented the rcovery. Needless to say, I now have a weekly IPM schedule.

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#58

Having great luck vegging under a T5. Gobbles up the juice, but the lush green growth takes away the pain.

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#59

Look into the QB 120. I find it perfect for this purpose, and this quite less expensive to purchase and ship than other quantum board setups.

#60

Where do you source your Ecofelt and nutes, if you don´t mind me asking?