mothers vs. clone flowering rates

Hi all

I've got two big females and clones from each all at day 60. The clones are significantly ahead of the mothers to the point where I'm going to chop them today as I'm seeing almost all cloudy trichs and they are very sugary. The mothers by comparison look as though they are about 5-10 days behind the clones and still waiting on that "final push" while a few cola's appear to have stopped maturing altogether in a large yet not fully developed state..

The clones have weathered some heat problems and an extended "dry-out" better than their mothers due to their lower water/nute requirements during the same time period, and the mothers didn't start their lives in super soil like the clones, but aside from that they've pretty much all grown up together side by side.

Is this simply the age/size of the plants affecting flowering rates or am I looking at something else going on here? I've considered being root bound and have upgraded to 5gal smart pots from the #10's and #12 plastic pots I'm using which are roughly 3 gal as far as I can tell.. The clones are in #10's, but are only maybe 15" tall while the mothers are closer to 35" yet only in a slightly larger container, a #12..

Couple pics to show what I'm talking about..

Sugary clone


Not so sugary momma

mothers never seem to bud out properly for me. Maybe I wear my moms out befroe throwing them into the bud room? I've gotten to the point I just hackem and tossem when they are done being mothers. never worth the space they take up in bud room.

ilikecheetoes said:

mothers never seem to bud out properly for me. Maybe I wear my moms out befroe throwing them into the bud room? I've gotten to the point I just hackem and tossem when they are done being mothers. never worth the space they take up in bud room.

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You should put them outside unless of course your a city boy.

but clones do flower a little quicker its actually recommended for haze's the genetics are mature so flowering sets in quicker unless your seed plant is 2 months or so.

Well, I can't speak for ilikecheetoes but I am a city boy w/ tall fences, so my current girls are outside until it's too cold/dark and then they come in.. but for this run, the momma's and babies are/were all inside a tent. Finishing the younger plants outside while the weather is nice. Trying to understand the room, conditions, requirements, etc as I head into a long winter (and hopefully a couple cold weather harvests..)

I did take the clones from the mother at about 5 weeks, let her veg another 3 while the clones got up to speed, then flipped to 12/12 for both the clones and the mom's.. Now I have two big bushy momma's, and 3 small bushy babies.. 3 Sativa dom, and 2 Indica dom each. And now they're producing seeds so I don't know if they hermed or simply pollinated. Dank smoke plus (hopefully) new pheno's = happy hakish..

bluntmassa1 said:

You should put them outside unless of course your a city boy.

but clones do flower a little quicker its actually recommended for haze's the genetics are mature so flowering sets in quicker unless your seed plant is 2 months or so.

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outside? what? theres sun and bugs and rain out there. no thanks

ilikecheetoes said:

outside? what? theres sun and bugs and rain out there. no thanks

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so whats the problem? you don't think you can't grow killer buds outside? if you know how to grow its not a problem and well worth it the sun is better then any other lighting.

Clones doing better? Yeah, when you think about why plants can do that... say a plant falls over and gets buried in the dirt. A little bit of the top is still sticking out. The top continues to grow while the rest of the plant turns into a root system. The plant knows it needs to concentrate on growing the top cone and finishing, when this happens... Same thing when you take a cutting happens, that's one of the reasons clones are more desirable then a mother plant.

Basically the forced pressure on root development combined with already larger foliar structure results in a healthier root system all other things being equal (veg time, etc.) in a clone vs. from seed? So then does veg time and thus overall mass have an effect on the rate of flower where smaller equates to shorter faster flowering period vs. bigger being longer slower?

Tend to agree with bluntmassa1 here, unless stealth is the issue, full sun and good weather permitting, outside is a far better environment than in, to a point. Until you can afford to exceed natures conditions ie lots of full spectrum light, spectrum changes over daylight period, and temperature swings, it's hard to out do the sun.

I've noticed my clones seem to do better than the mother plant also....interesting

bluntmassa1 said:

so whats the problem? you don't think you can't grow killer buds outside? if you know how to grow its not a problem and well worth it the sun is better then any other lighting.

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in other words i dont want to go outside. I like my indoor grows. I concur the sun is better than lights.