Quick answer
A mother plant grow tent is a small enclosed space that holds one or more female cannabis plants in vegetative growth. The light runs 18 hours on and 6 hours off, or 24 hours on. There is no dark period long enough to start flowering. Cuttings taken from the mother become clones. A 2 ft by 2 ft tent holds one mother. A 2 ft by 4 ft tent holds two or three.
Best Soil for Cannabis Mother Plants: 5 Options Compared
Tent size
Match the tent to the number of mothers and the pot size.
- 2 ft x 2 ft x 4 ft: one mother in a 2 to 3 gallon pot.
- 2 ft x 4 ft x 5 ft: two or three mothers, or one large mother kept for many cuttings.
- 4 ft x 4 ft x 6 ft: four to six mothers for a larger clone program.
Height matters more than floor space. A light sits 18 to 24 inches above the canopy. Add 12 inches for the pot and 12 inches for the fixture. A 4 ft tall tent fits a mother kept under 2 ft tall.
Light schedule and intensity
Set the timer to 18/6 or 24/0. A dark period of 12 hours or more starts flowering in cannabis, so keep the dark window at 6 hours or less. Interrupted dark cycles cause stress.
how to keep a cannabis mother plant
Light intensity for mothers is lower than for flowering rooms. Target 300 to 500 PPFD at the canopy, or a DLI of 20 to 30 mol per square meter per day. A 100 W to 150 W LED fixture covers a 2 ft by 2 ft tent. More light pushes fast growth and thick stems, which makes cuttings harder to root.
Air, temperature, and humidity
Run a 4 inch inline fan with a carbon filter. Odor control matters in veg too. A passive intake vent at the bottom brings in fresh air. Exchange the tent volume every 1 to 3 minutes.
Keep the canopy at 70 F to 78 F. Relative humidity at 55 to 65 percent. Mothers handle higher humidity than flowering plants when air moves across the leaves. A small clip fan above the canopy prevents stagnant pockets.
Medium and containers
Coco coir and perlite, or a peat based soil mix, both work. Coco holds pH at 5.8 to 6.2. Soil sits at 6.0 to 6.5. A 3 gallon fabric pot holds a mother at 18 to 24 inches tall for 6 months or more.
Feed at an EC of 1.0 to 1.4. Mothers get more nitrogen and calcium than flowering plants. A runoff check every 2 weeks catches salt buildup in the pot.
Pruning and cutting schedule
Top the mother above the 4th or 5th node. This produces 4 to 8 main shoots. Each shoot gives one cutting. A mother at 18 inches tall with 8 shoots yields 8 to 12 cuttings per round.
Take cuttings every 4 to 8 weeks. Cut 4 to 6 inch stems just below a node, strip the lower leaves, and root them in cubes or plugs. Between rounds, remove lower growth and any branch that blocks light from the center.
Pest control
Quarantine each new plant for 14 days in a separate room. Spider mites, thrips, and aphids spread from a mother to every clone taken from it. Check leaf undersides with a hand lens each time you water. A mother that carries pests costs a full crop cycle.
Replacing a mother
A mother kept in the same pot for 12 months loses vigor. Roots fill the container and growth slows. Take a cutting, root it, grow it to size, and retire the old plant every 6 to 12 months. Keep the clone chain short to limit pathogen buildup and genetic drift.
Legality
Home cannabis cultivation rules differ by state. Some states set a plant count. Others ban home grow. Check state law before you buy a tent.