My restart from seed

[Happyweedz]

Hey All,
The last group of clones/babies I prep'ed for a grow developed White Powdery Mildew before I could get them into my system!!! From what I read it is some nasty stuff and controlling it is the best you can do. This is why I decided to re-establish some genetics from seed.

My goal is to sprout, grow, and sex these plants to end up with two clean females to groom into Mother plants. I had some AK-47 seeds on hand, so that is what I decided to start with. I am trying this in a 4x4 grow tent, a DWC tub...Rockwool, Hydroton, Netpots....under a 357 Magnum LED.

Out of the first batch of sprouts I put into Rockwool only 2 came up. Dunno, but I must have mis-handled them, planted too deep or something. So I sprouted more and now I have 6 little babies raising their heads up to the light. The first two are only a week older and still small, with 3rd set of leaves...so I think the others can catch up.

I want to keep them small, hoping to get them all close to 5-6" and then flip them to 12/12 light until I can determine their sex.

The pic is the best I can do at the time...battery died in camera, more to come later.

Happy

[GrowTutor]

There are multiple ways to go from seed to mother; how are your planning on getting there? Will they be sexually mature, chronologically, by time they reach 5-6"? Are you going to take clones of the 6 and flip the clones, are you going to take clones of the 6 and flip the bigger plants from seed so the clones become the new permanent mothers? Are you planning on having 2 mothers from two different seeds or 2 cloned mothers from 1 seed?


PS. Try adding your attached pictures "inline" so you don't get the "attachment" box. You'll need less resizing (and there is no dimension size limit) here although there is still a file size limit. The file size limit is bigger here too.

[Happyweedz]

Well...the last Mothers I had, I grew from clones....so this will be somewhat new to me. I thought I read a while back that after a seedling has 4-5 sets of leaves, and ample roots, they can be flipped to determine sex, and then re-veg the females... That is kinda what I was planning.

Wouldn't a Mother from seed be better than a Mother from clone?? Double nodes vs alternating??

Hoping to be able to follow my current grow(about 51 days(+) of 12/12 to go) with clean, healthy clones....even if I have a small gap between.

Will this work? Is there an easier/better way?

I just know that I don't want to be starting with seed each time I turn over my Aeroflo... Longer term planning is to maybe repeat this process after 2-3 grows from clones of these Mothers, to introduce another strain....dunno.

Happy

[GrowTutor]

I'd imagine it would depend on genetics but usually plants aren't sexually mature for about 4-6 weeks. Flowering and revegging could make them prone to want to go back to flower while you're trying to keep them as mothers and the stress could make some strains turn hermaphroditic.

No, I don't think there is any real advantage and as a mother plant ages the clones will end up with alternating nodes anyway. Especially in your case, where you need multiple mothers of the same stain to take many clones for your hydroponics system you want them to be genetically identical so you don't end up with 2 different growth patterns. No two plants from seed are genetically identical but they are from clone.

With that said, when you find the plant (from seed) that you want to be the mother you should clone it and use the clones as mothers. Time wise, I think it makes sense to take several clones from the vegging plants (labeling each so you know which is which) and then flower the plants that came from seed. When the clones are fully rooted put them all in veg like you would any mother plant (24/0) and when the flowering plants get old enough you'll know which clones will become the new moms and they'll have several weeks of vegging to prepare for the next cycle. If you start with 4 clones of each, you can pick the best two to keep as the permanent moms and you should have enough to take cuttings to fill up your aeroflo. Then you can ALSO flower the ones that you don't want to be mothers or you can just kill those off. After that you clone and flip as needed...

[Happyweedz]

Hmmm, thank you for that info! Always interested in a better way!!

I didn't realize that the plants would go to alternating nodes as they age...so I agree, there would be no advantage that way.

The 2nd thing that stands out to me that makes your way better is to clone the Mothers from the same plant in order to get uniform plants... Guess I just figured if the seeds came from the same bud the genetics would be the same.

You know I have a lot to learn...thanx for the guidance!

Happy

[GrowTutor]

So, how are the new-moms-to-be doing this week?

[Happyweedz]

Well.....I was holding back on nutes until the last seedling got up and got some leaves...but I may have waited too long.

This week, a couple of leaves on the earlier sprouts started showing signs of deficiencies...so I did a water change, and added a light dose of nutes. Hoping that is what they need.

Happy

[GrowTutor]

Was it yellowing from a lack of nitrogen...or something else?

[Happyweedz]

Was it yellowing from a lack of nitrogen...or something else?

It seemed to affect the lowest leaves, on the oldest plants. And yes, a couple of leaves yellowed and a couple leaves got the purpley-brown leather look... I think I kept them on tap water a little too long, while trying to get the smallest to catch up a little.

Since adding nute all new growth looks good! I will try to get pics tonight.

Happy!

[Happyweedz]

OK, I'm back with a couple of pics...

The seedlings are looking good, except the couple of leaves that got discolored. Now that they are on some nutes the new growth is nice & green...