First time with a mum, help please

[Gaijin]

That's not strictly true, the thread title; been with many a mum  

 

Moving on, I have these three mums below, all the same strain as I am too nervous at this point to get rid of any of them  

 

They've been potted up into 3L pots a week or so ago. Plant Magic Soil Supreme. Fed nothing but water and Biobizz root tonic. And they've hit the lights already. There's 2 x 42W propagation LEDs. Maybe it's 48w. Yeah it might be

Soil temp 24, air temp 25

I'm thinking that they'll have used up whatever nutes are in the compost fairly soon. 

How much can/should I prune them back to? How much should I feed them and how often? Plain water in between? Is root tonic necessary? Are the 3L pots big enough? Is 96w enough? Too much? 

There's no extraction, I just leave the tent door panel open a little at the bottom and there's a port in the roof of the tent that I leave open a bit. 

 

Any words of wisdom will be much appreciated  Thanks 

 

How much should I cut back? They are about 19 inches from top of pot to tips 

 

 

One's grown past the lights  

 

 

Thanks for looking in  

[GSZZ]

Just now, Gaijin said:

How much can/should I prune them back to?

 

As long as there are leaves, and shoots, they'll grow back. As long as you leave something to draw water, and grow, go as heavy handed as you like. As per your picture I'd probably go to 5 or 6.

[sweettooth]

@Gaijin the mum banger, u dirty dog

[Gaijin]

Just now, GSZZ said:

 

As long as there are leaves, and shoots, they'll grow back. As long as you leave something to draw water, and grow, go as heavy handed as you like. As per your picture I'd probably go to 5 or 6.

 

 

That's reassuring, thank you  I thought I could be pretty heavy handed with the scissors but wanted a more experienced voice to confirm. I'll get chopping 

 

 

[Gaijin]

Just now, sweettooth said:

@Gaijin the mum banger, u dirty dog

 

 

Someone's got to  

[sweettooth]

1 hour ago, Gaijin said:

 

 

Someone's got to  

I love an older bird mate, keep peeking on the 50 year old across the road, I can see when she gets out the shower, I reckon she's seen me peeping through the blinds,  mainly cos I keep knocking them

 

[Gaijin]

@sweettooth I was practically raped by an older woman when I was 17. Completely against my will. For almost 18 months  Terrible, it was 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sweettooth]

back to your mums, what about bending her

over and tieing her flat and then topping? get some crazy shoot actions and a lot more cut sites?

[Gaijin]

38 minutes ago, sweettooth said:

back to your mums, what about bending her

over and tieing her flat and then topping? get some crazy shoot actions and a lot more cut sites?

 

I just got back from cutting them down   But that's a great idea for when I do need more cut sites. Plus I already took cuttings from the best looking girl in the big tent (same strain from same mum but this one just looks better than the other 9) so I'll start off a couple MORE mums and maybe try and shape them right from the start. It's all new to me, so may as well experiment and take loads of cuttings, try a few different things and see what works best for me  

 

 

[Pepe Ramon]

If they are destined to be Mams then cut to 6, also look for OTs Guide to Bonsai Mums.

[Gaijin]

@Arbre Medicinal I chickened out, cut to 4 last night. I just want to see what they do next and how quickly they do it. Hopefully I'll learn enough playing around with these that I'll have a good idea of when I'll need to start prepping a mum for a new set of cuttings. 

 

Although by the looks of things, you're taking cuttings constantly whether you need them or not. I found out that I'd already bookmarked OT1's thread some time ago, thank you  

[Pepe Ramon]

@Gaijinyou'll soon get the hang of it. They'll be fine.

[Darknight420710]

If you want to check a clone out, have a peek at my mandarin panties clone in seedstockers thread, she's like a Bush and getting bigger by the day, ive spread her horizontal and done as others suggested and bent her right over, her structure is unreal beneath her canopy and all I did was mix 20L of soil wirh biotab and just give plain water and no PH or EC messing, she's over 3ft wide and no even in flower yet

Edited July 11, 2023 by Darknight420710

[mysticriver]

15 hours ago, Gaijin said:

How much can/should I prune them back to?

think about how many cuttings you'll need at any 1 time - I have kept my mums in 0.7L pots iirc, & now I cut them short, as I only need 10 - 12 cuttings each couple month, a small plant can easily yield that number so keep it small is what I would say

thats if you end up keeping it. with 3 mums on rotation ill only need cutting every once in a while so most of the time it will be getting trimmed back, the less work at that time is desirable as there many trim- backs I have to do through veg, when im only taking cuttings to root very infrequently 

 

 

mystic

[BilgePump]

Im with Mr Syrup, a №6 trim would be my go to on them if I wasn't planning on running them again soon but having said that there's a lot of cuttings from a 6er so yeah as I've said previously, don't be shy