Hi. I’ve only been growing outdoors in soil. If I pull a couple clones and start two moms, can I just keep them inside like a house plant? All the videos I’ve seen on this topic has people keeping them in veg rooms and that’s not an option for me.
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Yes if you have ambient light for at least 16-18 hours a day. Less than that it will try to flower. Flowering in low light with an extended dark period will be a mess. Low enough light will slow growth to almost nothing. However there is a fine line between ambient light and low light levels. Low light directly over a plant will cause stretch and spindly like growth. Where as ambient light will keep it alive, healthy but very slow growth. From here you will have to figure out appropriate nutrients. As the demand will be super low. So ultra low feed, and the feeds will probably be once a month. Light intake has a direct correlation to nutrient demand. This will also have an impact on how fast the medium dries, so over watering is more likely than a typical grow, which means higher chances or root rot or stem rot. You gotta play, and find out. It’s kind of advanced, but it’s not the hardest thing to do if you take the time to understand the plant.
Ideally you have a space and provide appropriate light and keep it pruned. I prune mine at least once a month. But I do use a 4x4 and shelving. All I can suggest is that you try. If it fails you will have gained experience. Even if it were to stretch out of control, you could always clone again and start over if you keep it healthy.
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Thanks. I’m definitely going to give it a go. I can make adjustments with lighting as needed, depending on the stretch. Keeping it in the living room or the dining room with the lights on at night until 9 or 10 o’clock will hopefully be enough to prevent flower. If I can keep it in veg, and reasonably pruned, then, fingers crossed, I can keep it happy.
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Yeah I encourage it! The goal is to get it to “stall.” You’ll learn a whole bunch about the plants behavior and reaction to nutrients going this route. Good luck to you!!
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Keeping a healthy mom around isn’t for the faint of heart. You need resources and space to do so, and you need to keep her healthy.
In my experience i wouldn’t know how to stall a plant. Clones taken from a non-vigorous mother will be non-vigorous clones…so you really can’t just throw her in a dingy corner and expect a vigorous mother.
I’ve worked in several commercial cannabis settings, and the mothers are given as much attention…if not more attention…than the flowering clones. Not that commercial cannabis practices automatically represent anything to aspire to, but commercial growers do produce a ton or product at regular intervals so their practices are something to at least consider.
I’ve seen people keep a single mother around for many years (myself included) and I’ve seen people repeatedly clone a mother into a new mother when shes spent. Epigenetic stress concerns me with the “clone down the line” approach, but its new science and i dont profess to have a deep understanding of it.
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I often stall moms through near death experiences, lack of feed, lack of light. Finding balance in input is key. And in coco to boot. If they can’t take it, they probably shouldn’t be a mom. 
it’s not an overwhelming experience, just a learning one.
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True…what’s the worst can happen!
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It really is a weird place in terms of light to find that “stop growing point” I’ve done it more with males than females, but the first time I experienced it was an accident. Removed from tent, neglected to chop and they rode it out for a good month in a dim lit spot without being fed. To my surprise they didn’t droop, or grow. However, it is a risk and for a good cultivar it might not be a risk one is willing to take. If it doesn’t matter I encourage the experimentation. 
Bansai root binding and aggressive top trimming to keep them at 6-8” works well too.
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Love the epigenetic mention! Time to nerd out! 
I have a limited understanding of epigenetics. Something to consider, and I’m not saying this is true or not true, is that epigenetic changes will occur whether it’s a 3 year old mother (taking clones over time from the same mother), or been cloned six times over the same 3 years (cloned down the line).
Epigenetic changes are constantly happening. Happens during stress, during optimal growing conditions, during night, day, always.
A three year old mother has experienced ‘unnatural’ growing conditions - as in it’s an annual plant kept alive for much longer that it would ever live in nature. I think it’s fair we could consider that to be a form of ‘time stress’.
A 6th generation clone also experienced ‘unnatural’ growing conditions - As far as I know, plants aren’t repeatedly cloned in nature. A different form of stress, I’m not even sure what to call it.
I think it’s fair to assume either stress will have epigenetic reactions and changes in the plant. Who knows which is better. Maybe staying in perpetual veg stage helps regulate epigenetic stability and prevent drift. Maybe cloning stimulates an epigenetic ‘reset’ back to factory settings to erase any ‘bugs in the code’
I think for us growers - either method can work, and work well. Probably more important to know which method better fits our set up, style, and even strain/cultivar of you want to get super into it!
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All very interesting stuff. I certainly won’t be “throwing her into a dingy corner”. We’ve got a ton of house plants and floor to ceiling windows in the living room. My wife “rescues” (what she calls) negelected house plants from the grocery store. She’d never allow mistreatment of any plant or animal lol! Im eager for the challenges.
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