The Best Equipment Choices for Your Mother Plants
In recent years, manufacturers and cultivators alike have worked to develop cultivation solutions for mother plants. As seen in other facets of indoor gardening, new technologies have made the process of keeping mother plants more convenient as well as less labor intensive. In essence, new technological innovations in cannabis have given growers the tools to more effectively hold on to their favorite genetics.
Due to the increased expenses and additional labor required to maintain an extra growroom, many cultivators opt to not keep mother plants. Yet, its very possible these people simply aren’t informed on what types of tools are available to make their lives easier.
What are the Biggest Challenges with Mother Plants?
There are several challenges for keeping mother plants that can be alleviated with the right cultivation equipment.
One of the biggest deterrents for growing mother plants is available infrastructure. Importantly, most indoor growers are already maxed out on available square footage with rooms for vegetative growth and flowering. Even without over-arching spatial constraints, the prospect of building a new growroom just for mother plants is beyond the realm of possibility for most.
Other growers choose not to have mother plants due to the extra labor required to keep them healthy. As seen in all other cannabis growth phases, mothers need to be watered, sprayed, and fed. Even more, as the clones taken from these plants are the future of your operation, you want to ensure your moms are robust. This also means you need to spend ample time maintaining our cultivation environment.
Using Grow Tents for Mother Plants
Grow tents offer excellent solutions for many of the pain points associated with maintaining mother plants. As cannabis is a photoperiodic plant species, it has very specific light requirements. This simple fact can make it quite inconvenient to house mother plants as they need growrooms of their own. Luckily, grow tents are a convenient and affordable solution for these spatial demands.
Not only are grow tents easy to set up, but they are easily broken down and moved when not in use. Grow tents are also available an array of sizes, which will keep you covered no matter how many mother plants you decide to keep. If you are unsure about different grow tent brands, AC Infinity is a great choice. Their grow tents and accompanying technology lead the market in both usability and durability.
(Read also: 10 Tips For Gardening in Grow Tents)
The AC Infinity Cloudlab 733 is an amazing choice for a single mother plant. Sized at 36” x 36” x 72”, this top-of-the-line grow tent will give you ample room to grow a bushy mother plant that will produce great clones. Even more, the Cloudlab 733 provides ample room for cultivation equipment, as well as room to work.
The AC Infinity Cloudlab 811 tent is a big step up for square footage. Coming in at 120” x 120” x 80”, this grow tent is large enough to house adequate mother plants for a commercial operation. Utilizing a tent of this size and quality is a surefire way to keep all your favorite cannabis genetics intact for future use.
Additional Equipment for Healthy Mother Plants
There is some amazing cultivation equipment available which perfectly compliments a mother plant grow tent operation. For the most part, increased automation in cultivation technology lessens the overall labor needed to care for plants.
Inline Fans
An inline fan exhaust system is your best bet for maintaining optimal heat and humidity levels for your mother plants. Automated exhaust systems are available which ease much of the work involved with regulating your grow tent’s environment. In fact, the T Series inline fans from AC Infinity automatically adjust heat and humidity levels through smart controllers.
(Read also: How To Perfect Your Grow Room’s Ventilation System)
LED Lighting
LED grow lights are the best choice for successfully cultivating mother plants in a tent. Because they are engineered to work within just 18 inches of a garden canopy, LEDs are great for the tight confines of a tent. In addition, as LEDs operate at extremely cool temperatures compared to most grow lights, you can use them without extra air-cooling equipment.
Irrigation Systems
Another technology to consider for keeping mother plants is a drip irrigation system. Many cannabis growers avoid mother plants because they don’t want to be “tied down” to a garden all year-round. While watering a few plants isn’t a huge job, it can be a real headache if you are heading out of town on vacation. As such, setting up a simple drip system is a great way to keep mother plants watered without having to sacrifice flexibility in your schedule.
Summary
In the end, strong genetics are the primary motivator for maintaining mother plants. As most experienced cannabis growers know, it takes a good deal of trial and error to find genetics that mesh well with your cultivation setup and feeding schedule. Once you have finally found a winning strain, it’s a great advantage to be able to hold onto it.
By keeping your genetics “in-house,” not only do you retain your favorite strains, but you don’t have to risk brining pathogens into your garden with new plants.
While some growers are turned off by the extra expenses and labor required to keep mother plants, others realize the unequal value of great genetics. Luckily, cultivation technology companies like AC Infinity have stepped up to help you keep your favorite strains. Using grow the right equipment, you can circumvent many of the inconveniences commonly associated with keeping mother plants. In the best-case scenario, you will retain a living library of your favorite cannabis strains to be utilized throughout the year.
AC Infinity is the foremost name in air delivery systems, designing and developing the latest innovations in cooling and ventilation technology. They offer a suite of quiet inline fans that automate the growing progress and track key metrics. Visit acinfinity.com or contact [email protected] to learn more.
