Mum chamber minimum height.

I'm trying to decide how much of my grow cabinet height to devote to the mum chamber. How tall do you usually let your mums get? I'd like to cultivate them bonsai style, so would 12" from floor to fluoros work?

bump

12 inches is a pretty small space. I was just thinking.. what about lst (low stress training) hang little weights on the stems to pull the plant over and make it grow horizontally.

lorenzo08 said:

bump

12 inches is a pretty small space. I was just thinking.. what about lst (low stress training) hang little weights on the stems to pull the plant over and make it grow horizontally.

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Thanks, I hadn't considered LST. Do you know what FIM is? I keep seeing it mentioned but haven't seen an explanation.

AgentX said:

Thanks, I hadn't considered LST. Do you know what FIM is? I keep seeing it mentioned but haven't seen an explanation.

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I found this on google. it sounds like topping, then LST method to get multiple colas. I might give it a try some time, but I think I'll like the SoG method better. it sounds better to have one plant focusing on a single cola. one person on there said it takes longer to flower if you FIM.

FIM method

considering your size restrictions I would avoid mother plants all together unless you are doing a decent sized sog grow. Just take clones from the lower section of your vegging plants each round, or if topping use the tops, and you can avoid the need for mothers all together. Mother plants are really only needed if you need to get lots of clones often and are not plannin on vegging for any substantial amount of time.

regrets said:

considering your size restrictions I would avoid mother plants all together unless you are doing a decent sized sog grow. Just take clones from the lower section of your vegging plants each round, or if topping use the tops, and you can avoid the need for mothers all together. Mother plants are really only needed if you need to get lots of clones often and are not planning on vegging for any substantial amount of time.

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This is a nifty idea if you only plan on doing it for a few cycles. The problem I see with it is in genetic degradation over time. Each time a clone is taken from a clone the plant loses genetic information, decreasing in quality. What I don't know is how many cycles it takes before you start to notice a difference. If it's less than five cycles, that would be bad. If it's upwards of 50 cycles, it may not make a difference. I guess it would be worth trying with one of the plants and see how it performs next to cuttings taken from the original mother.

So, could anyone explain FIM, please?

From what I have heard it takes a very long time (like years of continuous cloning) for the genetics to begin to degrade. Many people with pretty large set ups don't use mothers and just use this method. As far as fimming you were linked above, but basically it is just a form of toping where instead of taking the entire top node off you cut just above the top node which can provide an extra top or two, basically it is no different than topping just an optical illusion because the new top comes up immediately after the node that you have cut above.

regrets said:

From what I have heard it takes a very long time (like years of continuous cloning) for the genetics to begin to degrade. Many people with pretty large set ups don't use mothers and just use this method. As far as fimming you were linked above, but basically it is just a form of toping where instead of taking the entire top node off you cut just above the top node which can provide an extra top or two, basically it is no different than topping just an optical illusion because the new top comes up immediately after the node that you have cut above.

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Thanks very much for the input. I totally missed the link on FIM from lorenzo, sorry. That sounds like a pretty good way to go as long as nothing interrupts your grow cycle and you miss the opportunity to take a new series of clones. Much appreciated.