How to grow and care for mother plants?

Mother plant, simply the mother. In this post you will find out what this term means and we will also focus on the practical side of things.

• A strong, vital plant of the preferred variety is carefully selected and then used as the mother. It is subsequently kept long-term in the vegetative stage for the purpose of providing cuttings (clones).
• A proven “functional” period for using a mother for successful cutting is approximately one year, although the average mother plant lasts longer and the most persistent ones even several years.
• You care for a mother plant practically the same way as plants in the growth phase, whether it concerns fertilizers, prevention, or lighting, where you choose growth-spectrum discharge lamps, or preferably full-spectrum LED lamps, which perfectly mimic sunlight for the mother plant. For a single mother you can also use quality TLED growth lighting.
• Mother plants require a lower light intensity. The important factor is the vegetative light cycle, that is 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness.
• For cultivating mother plants we recommend hydroponic systems, with which you no longer need to repeatedly deal with complications associated with spent substrate or soil.
• For growing mother plants choose larger round pots.
• Mother plants do not form flowers, so you do not need to worry about mold infestation.

• The ideal growing environment for mother plants is characterized by slightly increased air humidity.
• Watering doses should be as precise as when irrigating regular plants in the growth phase.
• Moderation is needed when fertilizing, because mother plants will remain in the growing medium for a very long time, and therefore it is appropriate to cautiously dose growth fertilizers to eliminate the risk of substrate salinization.
• At least once every quarter it is advisable to replace the substrate by carefully removing the mother plant from the pot, and from each side around the root ball gently cutting away the outer layer of spent substrate (1–2 cm) with a sterilized knife. Fill the remaining space in the pot with fresh substrate. If the mother plant was not sufficiently vital, a careful repotting should give it new energy. If even replacing the substrate is not enough, it is time to let one of the cuttings grow into a new mother, which you will again maintain using an appropriate light source, light cycle and nutrition in the vegetative phase.

• Be careful not to overwater mother plants. If automatic growing systems do not handle watering for you, we recommend watering mothers only when the substrate is practically dry, but the plants have not yet started to wilt, which would of course be undesirable.
• Hydroponic systems offer growers an indisputable advantage during the cultivation of mother plants in that, unlike manual watering—which in practice you would need to entrust to someone precise and regular when you are away for a few days—they allow long-term and independent cultivation with optimal irrigation without the risks associated with water and nutrient deficit or, conversely, overwatering.

So much for the care of mother plants, which you have been asking us about recently. We discuss taking and rooting cuttings in a separate article. If you would like to ask us anything, we look forward to your questions at the known address info@higarden.cz.

We recommend these products:

• BioNova Bio Soilmix 50L (279 Kč)
• BioNova Veganics Grow (od 269 Kč)
• Provzdušněný květináč HERCULES - kulatý 20L (89 Kč)
• Hydroponické systémy (od 2 599 Kč)

What to read next?

• Cloning / cuttings
• Reverse osmosis (RO)
• BioNova Veganics – fertilizers not only for vegans