Purpose of a mother

I am planning for my first grow and i have a few questions. My plans are to start a small scale Sea Of green set up. 4 plants in flower at a time under CFLS. How many and of what wattage will i need for 4 plants. My box will prob be about 3ft x 3ft. Also what is the purpose of having a mother for clones? Can i not just get a clipping from one of my flowering plants and begin to clone that in a separate area? And lastly with the ebb and flow system, all 4 plants will be in different stages because i will be switching them out regularly, can i use one reservoir with nutrients for all of the plants?

1 - mother plants is more better because you can take clones when ver you want
2 - takeng clones from a flowering plant is usaly not what people perfer to do

There is nothing wrong with cloning from a flowering plant though right? with the SoG i am cutting the lower branches off the plan anyways i do not see why i would need an extra space to store a mother when i am only growing 4 plants at a time.

cutting clones from flowering plants is a much more difficult process than just cutting from a mother. The clone will take longer to turn back into the veg cycle. and most the time you have a higher chance of bugs / fungus because of the already preflowered clone. Best thing to do imo, is get a good plant going, dont harvest but pick a good one and let that be your mother. A mother only needs like 2 CFL lights to keep it going healthy. I would recommend 3 CFLS per vegging / flowering plant. Most easy to buy CFLs come in 26w, 3 of those per plant if you are doing a semi-small grow IMO. But if you can afford it, the more lights the better, but a minimum of three. Cheers ya digg