I’m looking to keep a couple mother plants. I normally run everything in hydro setup. What are the pros a cons of keeping mothers in hydro vs soil. I’m thinking the soil might be easier to maintain for the longer period, but I never have great success in soil. What are your opinions?
Does anyone else keep mothers in hydro instead of soil?
These are 3 Peyote Forum photos all started the same time, ones in soil will go outside when ready. But look at the size difference, my hydro stuff always seems to do better.
I have done both, but I just find it easier to keep my mother in dirt, just because they need a lot less maintenance. It’s true that they don’t grow as big or as fast, but for the most part I only need half a dozen clones so the size is not really an issue for me.
As mentioned above, soil is just so much less maintenance for keeping mother plants. I would think you really have to stay on top of the maintenance if you are going to try and keep a mother plant around in hydro long term.
I’ve run a lot of hydro/aero but never tried keeping mother plants in hydro. I always used soil or soilless media.
I would be worried about the risk of water-borne pathogens being higher over time, trying to keep a hydro system running indefinitely - unless you can swap the mother into another DWC bucket (or whatever hydro method you’re using) and give the one it was in a good scrub/deep cleaning, maybe.
Maybe frequent water changes and using some type of microbial additive or sterile rez additive would be enough? I can’t really say.
