Bonsai Mother May I

@StonedCold13 figured this was topic worthy. I see a little discussion throughout the threads but none that dig into how very much. Please tag anyone else you think would be interested. Didn’t want to clog up your journals with my many questions on this as a new growth.

I found the article I think you were talking about that provides a decent tutorial from clone, but if possible I’d like to keep the mother from seed after harvest.

I think that would be easy enough from a limb standpoint unless the chop over stresses her. I would also want to work her back down to a 3 gallon fabric pot eventually instead of up potting. It’s currently in a 5 gallon that is set into a 10 gallon. I read you should only take 30 perfect of the root mass at any given time, but hoping maybe taking that many limbs for harvest would increase the root mass you can take and maintain a healthy plant. Was thinking I could pull the 5 gallon bag out and let anything that grew to the 10 gallon air prune. Then downsize one more time after first set of clones since it would be about 30% to get down from a 5 to a 3. Then just let the fabric bag air prune roots and repot taking 20% of the roots in the process maybe every year or two.

Just super inexperienced with plants and especially with working with the roots. I’ve trimmed one orchids roots trying to winter her and she appears to be dying. And I only did a small amount of roots but also the main stalk. So also see how it’s more about a stress threshold than root to leaf mass ratio.

Does that plan sound feasible or is that just the method meets my own personal bro science? I’ll be giving it a go either way because nothing to really lose with the alternative being scrap her after harvest. I know that getting them to reveg can be slow but I’ve got another strain I plan to run from seed and will have a few of her clones going in the veg tent if I need more or fail to keep her. Just something about her though, I feel like she’s got years not months of growth in her.

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Sounds like a solid plan and I’m stoked to follow along :+1:t2:
I haven’t had good luck at keeping full size mother plants and why I’m trying the bonsai mother thing this year. My mothers always get to tall with no lower growth left to be able to prune tops down and shorten her. So outside the following season they go :wave:t2:
@Low I know will be interested and have info for us both :green_heart::metal:t2::sunglasses:

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If going to want to clone her from flower I suggest taking them now from lower non producing limbs. Reveg will be slow and UGLY but once they revert to veg they will fill out and be normal. Here are mothers I am currently holding. Had to supercrop as they are just going nuts.

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I have 2 of her clones in the dome now and was going to leave some extra growth on when pruning to grab hopefully 3-4 more right before the flip. Then I was going to try and leave some leaves on her lower side of possible but I’ve pruned most of that already. I need to look up more on how you make them reveg because that’s obviously key. I’ll be starting some other seeds during the wait though so the harvest will keep on rolling.

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Same as any clone. 18+light. Just slower and can be alarming how they look. Ignore it. As long as green and growing they will line out.

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Now I just have to figure out my drying tent without poking another hole in the house. I ran both tents through the existing 6 inch vent hole in the house using gate valves for back flow. Thinking about a 2x4 vented to my veg tent maybe since it should be low pressure anyways for slower drying.

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Still have to order the humidifier and heater for the veg tent first though. So probably that this month and the drying tent the next.

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To be honest controlling lung room over tent has better results for me… I transitioned to it a year or so ago. Quit fighting the micro environment and just lined out lung room. That allows your exhaust fans the ability to adjust the tent easy to match lungroom. Slow them down to increase humidity/temp…speed up to lower both. Has really helped my butt lazy style. Just my thoughts. A plus is no sediments from hard water in humidifier. No power to a heater. Space freed up etc.

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My lung room is also my furnace room so I try to keep it around 50% rh and it’s around 68 which the house is at. I didn’t dehumidify the room before and I was struggling with lights off humidity which is why I got the first heater. I do like the balance between it and the exhaust though for holding ideal day and night temps. I kind of dig the micro management too, helps with my OCD. A stable lung room definitely means way more though, just the heater didn’t fix the issue hence I’m dehumidifying the lung room now.

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Hola, what’s up, so you want to bonsai? Sounds fun! If after true bonsai, time will be your friend over light intensity. There is a sweet spot where plants can grow, slowly without stretch. I’d imagine this would be the place to be. Personally if I were to star, I’d take a mom and chop back to the lowest node that still has growth and go from there. Starting from clone or seed I think expected light conditions for a plant would work against the bonsai project. Too fast of growth. In my mind slow would be the way to go. Ambient light kind of slow. :man_shrugging:t3:

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Nice, so sounds like using a harvested mother switched to reveg might be perfect then. I think low light intensity is good for that process too. Just have to cross my fingers for some small branches to form a little lower, wasn’t planning this during the initial trimming.

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Well reveg causes chaotic growth but if the stalk is short enough and you can prune enough without encouraging fast growth, I’d imagine in the long run it could work. Some thick training wire, and constraint maintenance.

There are ways to do it fresh to keep it little, it is just really involved to get that iconic bonsai look. There are some awesome youtube videos out there on the subject.

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I’ve got one of the Cannabonsai books for training the look. I’m more just looking to support a small 3 limbed clone machine for more manageable mother’s so I can have 4-5 strains in rotation instead of 2-3.

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I use a 4x4 with 2 shelving units in them. 3 light fixtures. 20+ moms. We neglect the crap put them. The healthiest mom is one I been adding grafts to, and it sits on a shelf by itself with no lighting. Just working on ambient light. Hardly and vertical growth, but bushes out. Sweet spot to keep it slow.

Def not any bonsai projects in my realm, yet.

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I’m very new to plants in general and just received my first Japanese maple for stratification. So if you know any techniques that match they growth style that would be a huge help. Mainly worried about how to downsize the roots. Next time I’m probably do 3 gallon to start but started in 5 and it’s upsized to a 10.

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That’s super cool! I’d love to get something like that going in my 3x3 veg tent and then run hoards of clones through my 5x5.

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In terms of bonsai I can’t offer much. In terms of pot size. I use 1 gallon fabric pots. And in coco to boot. They are around a year old currently. Maybe older. I exercise nutrient and water deprivation, along with stress loads. I don’t think many could stomach my methods. I only get their health up when I pull cuts.

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Yeah, I’m trying for more a love shack not a Frankensteins laboratory. :joy: Sounds like you’re successfully using the same methods with great success. You start yours from seed? Then just keep very low light and nutes their whole life? I’m tempted to take my clones instead of the main plant after reading about it because they both have 3 even limbs already from how the light and bend played out.

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Edit
Coco should be fed daily. I feed the moms maybe once a week in their 1 gallon coco pots. I do a wet dry cycle, which is a big no no for coco. Or so they say. lol. They get whatever I’m feeding our main plants. So technically they are severely under fed. Once they grow to the light I grab them like you would long hair and cut back as low as I can in one shot.

So over several runs I collect phenos, not because I wanna re run them, but because I’m tired of buying seeds. So we’ll run a variety of plants see what pops, take cuts and turn to moms. Sometimes I restart moms by taking clones, but I try to clone as little as possible in terms of restarting moms. We typically do anywhere from 12-18 plants per run in a variety. Just recently pollinated our last run using one of our moms that we reversed for feminized pollen, chopped yesterday and will be harvesting fem seeds. We made about 12 varieties. We will keep moms on hand for a little longer in case we want to back cross to exaggerate certain characteristics of a parent. In the meantime we will likely collect and start our strains with a few new ones or throw backs. On the side reversing another awesome cultivar to collect pollen and make more crosses. Possibly in the same run. Idk. Kinda need some downtime. :joy:

These plants can handle a lot, and you can be told a lot on this forum. Hands on experience will give you gains you can’t read and I suggest experimenting your own way. :call_me_hand:t3:

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Nice, I am using promix HP for the clones which is supposed to work similar to coco. Thinking maybe 3 gal in the veg tent for the revegged mother’s but the limbs on my current clones are pretty perfect so maybe then instead. Then do quarter feed for them but same water and just keep clipping clones and shaping as needed. Maybe even raise the other plants in the veg tent to be closer to the light and leave mothers low. I like the shelving idea but don’t think it would fit with my SF4000 in the 3x3 and I’m low on allowable equipment budget so extra lighting isn’t currently an option unfortunately.

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