I assume if your reading this article you either want to grow a mother plant for the first time, or you want to improve on your skill and maybe learn a few new tricks. This session will be very basic, at this point I assume you know how to grow a Cannabis plant (if you do not, this is not a good starting point for you). Today we will be focusing on the first trimming of a new Mother Plant "No. 1978". Plant 1978 is seven weeks old and was started from seed. Always make a mother plant from seed, clones do not develop a taproot and for that reason alone they are not good mother plants.
1978 is vegged under HO T5's producing 432w and shared with to other mother plants. They are on an 18/6 light cycle and will be groomed to produce about a dozen clones a month. I keep all my mother plants in soil because I feel it's a more stable and natural environment. This plant will live it's whole life in a 5 gallon ceramic pot. Because I only want this plant to be two foot tall and bushy I start by cutting 60% of the top shoot off. This is called "topping" and will trigger the plant to halt vertical growth. There are many techniques which include bend or slightly breaking the top of the main stem. I find cutting works well and seems to have a better effect. Once topping is done I trim all leafs in half. This opens the inside that typically receives little light. Opening the plant to except more light in the critical areas you need to produce healthy vigorous clones!
Make sure to clean up and remove all trimmings because as they decompose they will attract unwanted pest. Now your done for a few weeks. Keep her watered, warm and full of light and in no time you will be producing your very own clones!
Please post all your questions and feedback and I'll make sure to answer them all back. For now keep up the hard work and grow something beautiful today!
Professor G
