Mother Plant

What Does Mother Plant Mean?

A mother plant is a plant that is grown specifically to take cuttings from to make clones. Mother plants are generally considered to be special plants with unique characteristics that gardeners want to reproduce. Cuttings taken from a mother plant will contain many or all of its mother's desired characteristics.

Cuttings, or clones, from a mother plant grow much quicker than seeds.

Maximum Yield Explains Mother Plant

Mother plants are often grown from seeds and are selected because of their unique and desirable characteristics. For example, a cannabis plant that produces large, high-quality flowers, has a high yield, and has strong physical characteristics would be an excellent candidate for a cannabis mother plant.

Cloning plants, rather than growing them from seeds, is considered a faster and more economical way of propagating plants.

Cuttings taken from the mother plant will grow to have the same genetic qualities as the original plant. This is why the plants resulting from these cuttings are called “clones”. When a stem cutting is taken from a mother plant, the piece of stem will produce new roots if it is properly hydrated. Additionally, some plants can be grown from leaf pieces, or leaf cuttings, and these will produce both stems and roots. In cannabis plants, stem cuttings are preferred.

Some advantages of growing and maintaining a happy mother plant are that its clones will have several positive aspects over plants that are grown from seeds. Growers will know the exact type and amount of crop the plant will produce, and, when cut and grown properly, growers can see a 100 percent success rate in propagating new plants.

When selecting a mother plant, be sure to avoid ones that have ever been infected with pests or plant pathogens. Also, be prepared to change up your mother plant after a year or two because eventually she will experience enough cellular degradation that the survival rate of her cuttings will decrease.

Mother plants can be cut and cloned during their flowering cycles. Before you begin, research cloning methods before snipping from the mother plant to ensure your cuttings are big enough to produce roots, yet small enough that the mother isn't negatively affected.