Looking After Mother Plants

Mother plants are stock plants specifically raised to provide cuttings for starting new plants. The cuttings, also known as clones, are genetically identical to the mother plant, and if grown in a controlled environment, will develop into daughter plants with the same superior characteristics as the mother plant.

Since cuttings take time to develop roots, the clones must rely on stored water and carbohydrates in the stems and leaves to provide the energy necessary to develop vigorous new roots. Therefore, the nutritional status of the mother plant is critical to the rooting and recovery time of the tender clones.

Nutritional requirements of mother plants

The nutritional requirements of mother plants are significantly different from plants raised for optimal yields. Mother plants require balanced nutrition specifically formulated to slow down excessive vegetative growth and increase the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio stored in the shoots. If a mother plant is fertilized with too much nitrogen, it will grow quickly, but it will produce soft tissues with poor carbohydrate reserves.

About 25 to 30% of a plant’s energy is used to change nitrates into an organic form of nitrogen used for vegetative growth. An overabundance of nitrates will deplete the sugars in the shoots and leaves, reducing the amount of fuel available to stimulate new root growth. Therefore, a good mother plant fertilizer should provide just enough nitrogen to support a healthy root-to-shoot ratio, but not so much nitrogen that the plant has to burn up most of its stored sugars just to assimilate the nitrates.

A good mother plant fertilizer must also be formulated to strengthen the plant’s cell walls and improve its water-holding capacity and stress tolerance. Excess nitrogen fertilization, as found in many standard grow formulas, produces large plant cells with thin cell walls. Cuttings taken from the new growth of overly vegetative plants tend to be weaker and more susceptible to wilting and fungal infection.

Try using half-strength nutrient formulas whenever possible, preferably with about a 1:1 potassium-to-nitrogen ratio. Excessive potassium tends to translocate the nitrates to the shoots, which can make the nitrate imbalance worse, so try to keep nitrate fertilization just inside the adequate range.

When in doubt, it’s better to err on the side of caution. If the mother plant starts to show signs of a nitrogen deficiency, it’s easy to spoon feed the plant with a little nitrogen supplement. The plant will start to respond in just two or three hours. But overdoing it with nitrate-nitrogen weakens the whole plant and could take weeks to correct.

The ideal mother plant fertilizer should also be formulated to stimulate the uptake of calcium. Calcium is taken up through the roots and transported to the new growth, where it forms calcium pectate glue that bonds the cell walls together. A calcium-rich mother plant will produce thicker stems, stronger cell walls and a healthier vascular system. The stronger the vascular system, the more efficiently a mother plant can take up water and nutrients, allowing more sugars and nutrients to be stored for future use.

The use of amino acid supplements in a mother plant nutrient formula can dramatically improve the mother plant’s uptake of calcium. In conventional hydroponics, calcium ions are dissolved in the nutrient formula and are taken up into the roots through simple osmosis, one ion at a time. But if a blend of specific amino acids are added to the nutrient solution, calcium ion channels in the roots are opened, allowing calcium to be taken up thousands of times faster than simple osmosis.

The calcium is then used to build strong, new cell walls and improve the plant’s natural resistance to environmental stress and disease. Higher levels of calcium also tend to restrict the transport of excess nitrates to the shoots, producing plant cells with smaller, but thicker cell walls, ideal for vigorous clones

Since cuttings taken from mother plants are under extreme stress, the heightened levels of plant protection agents accumulated in the tissues will help ensure the survival of the clones until they can develop their own root structure. The extra antioxidants will also help the mother plant recover faster.

Seaweed extracts can also be used as a foliar spray for mother plants. Seaweed extracts are rich in cytokinins, the growth hormones that stimulate cell division. Research shows when cytokinins are applied to shoots as a foliar spray, nutrients are attracted towards the growth hormones and are drawn into the leaf tissues. Cytokinins also help keep the plant tissues in a juvenile state.

For example, if you add a drop of water containing cytokinins to a leaf, then cut the leaf off and lay it on a table, the whole leaf will turn brown except for an island of green where the cytokinins accumulated. Mother plants treated with seaweed extracts will accumulate nutrients and stay green longer, and cuttings taken from the new growth will root much more quickly.

Seaweed foliar sprays for mother plants work even better when combined with fulvic acids. Fulvic acids are small organic molecules that chelate iron and other trace elements and help transport them into the plant.

The fulvic acid molecules surround the metal ions like a claw, transport them across cell membranes and release them inside the cell where they are needed the most. Once inside the cells, the trace elements activate enzymes that can do thousands of chemical reactions per second.

The combination of seaweed extract with fulvic acid is a powerful one for mother plants. The hormones in seaweed extracts stimulate the development of more lateral branches with tighter internodal lengths and the trace elements in the fulvic acid amplify the effects of the seaweed and activate essential growth hormones.

If you can grow bushier mother plants with tighter nodes, it will produce many prime candidates for cuttings. Misting your mother plant with a seaweed/fulvic acid combo a couple of weeks before cuttings are to be taken will ensure you have many viable cutting candidates to choose from. For best results, also add a wetting agent such as yucca to the mix.

Wetting agents allow the solution to spread out in a thin film on the leaf surfaces, providing better coverage and more effective absorption by the plant. Foliar sprays, when used in conjunction with a well-formulated mother plant fertilizer, can be thought of as stage zero of plant propagation from cuttings.

If you want faster rooting and healthier, more vigorous clones, pay close attention to the nutritional needs of your mother plants. Stored energy is the key. Once the cutting is removed from the mother, it will have to rely on the stored water, minerals and carbohydrates contained in the excised plant tissue.

So treat your mother well with balanced nutrition and high-quality supplements. Healthy moms, healthy clones!

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Fighting BORG / Spider Mites In The Grow Room

BORG/SpiderMites in an indoor garden are one of the most challenging pests to conquer and can be easily overlooked in the early stages of an infestation. Those who have battled the twospotted mite (Tetranychus urticae) or other mite species know exactly what formidable enemies these pests are. Minuscule in size, rapid breeders, and capable of destroying a crop, mites are best prevented from the outset. However, infestations can be dealt with if caught early and treated correctly.

Mites, often called spider mites, are difficult-to-see eight-legged pests usually less than one millimetre in length that cause extensive damage to a wide range of greenhouse and grow room crops. The twospotted mite is the most common species, but the carmine mite, broad mite, tomato russet mite, and bulb mite also occur in protected cropping.

Adult mites are difficult to see without magnification. Those with good eyesight may be able to detect small, pale yellow, orange, brown, or black dots on the underside of infected leaves and the later stages of fine webbing. Adult mites that infect a new crop rapidly lay eggs on foliage. The newly hatched mites pass through a six-legged larval stage and two eight-legged nymph stages before going into a resting stage from which the adults develop. Mites are active under warm temperatures, prefer drier conditions, and go into a dormant or diapause stage once day lengths fall below 12 hours accompanied by dropping temperatures or a lack of food source. Mites are common and highly active outdoors under hot conditions. During winter, they’ll hibernate in cracks and crevices, on plant debris, or in soil. In a warm, protected growing environment, mites will be active throughout the year and don’t need to enter a dormant phase.

The Infestation Process – How do Mites Get In?

Infestations are typically started from the inadvertent transfer of a small number of mites from other plant material. They could be on new transplants brought into an indoor garden from other sources and, while a close inspection may not show the initial signs of pests, are extremely hard to detect in the early stages and their presence is often missed. If the adult mites have been controlled in the nursery, no sign of leaf damage or older mites may be seen. However, mite eggs, which are difficult to control and almost impossible to detect, can still be on the foliage, ready to hatch and start a fresh infestation. Quarantine of any new plant material is always good for small indoor gardens. Initially holding new plants in an area separate from the main hydroponic system allows any pests and diseases to develop to the point where they can be detected, identified, and treated. This process is particularly useful for pests and diseases which grow rapidly, however, mites developing from eggs may take some time to show symptoms and careful inspection with a magnification lens is required. Apart from new plant material, mites can make their way into an otherwise clean and pest-free hydroponic system through other methods. They are the ultimate hitchhiker; simply brushing against an infested tree will transfer enough mites onto clothing which could then be transferred into a clean indoor garden. Mites can travel on shoes, clothing, skin, hair, pets, equipment and tools, in composts and organic growing media, in dust, on soil debris, and may even be carried by other pests such as whitefly. While mites technically can’t fly, they do travel on parachutes made of the fine webbing they spin, carried on air currents through doors and ventilation systems. 

Often greenhouse crops and indoor gardens that have persistent problems with mite reoccurrence have an outdoor source of the pests in the surrounding area. The source could be outdoor crops or ornamental gardens with species particularly attractive to mites. When outdoor conditions are favourable, massive population explosions of these pests occur. Under these conditions, mites are particularly persistent and will readily infest new areas, particularly those that are sheltered, warm, and dry. To help prevent infestations, commercial indoor hydroponic systems take precautions such as having employees change clothes, or wear coveralls, shoe coverings, hair nets, and gloves before entering the production area. Foot baths with sanitizer at the entrance and a double door entry system are also used. Smaller indoor gardeners may not be so keen to undertake these types of precautions. However, not entering the indoor area directly after working outside in the garden, washing hands before touching the plants, and not using outdoor tools, composts, or containers in the hydroponic garden will help prevent infestations.

Mites travelling through vents on air currents are a possibility if outdoor vegetation is harboring this pest. This is most common in late summer when infestations have built to the level that adults will spin webbing and float to a new home. Filtering of air intakes can help prevent this, but door entries may also be a point of infiltration, particularly when they lead directly outdoors.

The next line of defence is regular scouting of the plants and knowing exactly what the early signs of damage are. Mites need to be controlled before they get to the stage when they spin vast quantities of super-fine webbing which is impervious to spray control compounds and provides an unsightly home for more rapid population growth.

Early Signs and Symptoms of Mite Infestations

Inexperienced growers often miss the early, and sometimes even the later stages, of a mite infestation. This is because the adults are tiny and difficult to see, thus many growers who are new to mite infestations will miss these signs until the damage becomes severe. Those who have battled mites before become well-accustomed to the first signs that include small white or yellow flecking, often on older foliage. This occurs from mites feeding on the leaf epidermis, sucking out cell contents. As the mite population grows, the entire leaf becomes stippled or light in color and may eventually develop a bronze appearance under heavy infestations. Mites then produce the characteristic fine webbing, slung between leaves, over buds/flowers, or the growing points of plants. Mites use this webbing as protection from predators. If left untreated, mites will eventually weaken plants to the point of defoliation. Even milder infestations will significantly reduce yields, quality, and overall productivity.

 

Control Options for Mites

Control of mites has become increasingly difficult over recent years, largely due to the development of pesticide resistance which occurs rapidly in these pests. It’s also likely there have been other genetic changes in mite populations which have led to their persistence. There is a range of cultural, environmental, and natural control options for long-term successful control. An integrated approach is often required since there is no one easy fix. Greenhouse growers have had some success in retarding population growth via misting, fogging, or damping down to increase humidity levels. However, increasing humidity to levels which deter mites opens the door for fungal diseases if taken too far. Weekly scouting for the initial signs of foliage damage and mites on leaf undersides should become habit.

When mites are found, there are a few different courses of action which may be taken. These include insecticide sprays, oils and other smothering agents, biological control with predators, and physical removal of infested plants.

Insecticide sprays need to be used with caution. While they can be highly effective in the early stages, mites can build up genetic resistance if the same spray is used repeatedly on the crop. There are several spray compounds and products used for mite control (acaricides) in commercial horticulture, however, on a smaller scale, the main miticide compounds contain the active ingredients abamectin (a derivative of a toxin originally found in soil bacteria) or synthetic pyrethroids. These may only be used for a limited number of applications per year and chemical control compounds should be rotated within a spray program to prevent pest-resistance development. Azadiractin (derived from the Neem tree) is a botanical insect growth regulator available in a number of products that can work with other control options to help reduce mite numbers, but it does not destroy mite eggs. Various horticultural oil and soap sprays are often used as a smothering agent for mites. Excessive or repeated use of oil or soap sprays can cause crop damage, particularly on sensitive plants and those grown in highly protected conditions. Oil and soap spray damage typically shows as irregular brown spots with a darker border or water-soaked appearance that is often mistaken for a foliar disease.

Biological Warfare Against Mites

Biological control options include the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis, Amblyseius californicus, which has more tolerance to lower humidity, and Amblyseius fallacis, which is resistant to some pesticides. Predators need to be introduced when there are already some mites present for them to feed on. If there are no mites present, the predators will rapidly die out, so there always needs to be a carefully controlled balance between predator and prey maintained for biological agents to be successful. P Persimilis also requires specific conditions to control mites, including temperatures between 20-26˚C. Once temperatures reach more than 30˚C and humidity is less than 60 per cent, the predators become ineffective, but mites will thrive under these conditions.

If a mite infestation becomes uncontrollable, removal of all infested plant material is essential, with cleaning and sanitation of all surfaces. Mites can survive on non-plant surfaces such as walls, floors, around heating pipes, and inside vents, so a thorough cleaning is required to prevent infection. Mites may hibernate in an empty indoor garden area for many months, only to re-emerge when warmth and new plant material is available again, so regular scouting needs to be carried out once a new crop has been established.

Mites in an indoor garden may seem like a formidable foe, but some knowledge of their life cycle and infestation methods, as well as simple prevention measures and effective sprays, make this pest controllable in many cases. Scouting and early identification, as soon as the first signs of damage is visible, are essential for successful control. A wide variety of control options, combined with careful application of spray compounds to prevent pest resistance, is vitally important when dealing with mites.

Why Are My Leaves Turning Yellow

Yellowing leaves can be caused by just about anything that’s a little out of whack in a growroom: low light, overwatering, nutrient deficiencies, nutrient toxicities, root diseases, viruses…or it could just be a symptom of the plant’s natural aging process. Who knows? But when it came down to nutrient deficiencies, I could usually narrow it down to one of three things: magnesium, nitrogen, or iron deficiency.

It could be a number of things so lets run down a list 

Magnesium Deficiency

By far the most common nutrient deficiency in hydroponics is magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is a mobile element, which means if a magnesium deficiency starts to develop, the plant can pull the magnesium out of the lower leaves and transport it to the top leaves where it is needed the most.

Since magnesium is the central element in chlorophyll, the bottom leaves develop interveinal chlorosis – the veins would remain green, but the tissue between the veins would begin to turn yellow.

Plants need plenty of magnesium when their energy requirements are highest, so during times of rapid vegetative growth or heavy fruit production, sometimes plants can’t keep up with demand for magnesium. In this case, adding a little cal-mag to the reservoir, or spraying a little magnesium sulfate on the leaves will green up the plants in a hurry.

Read More: Cal-Mag: A One-Two Punch for Plants

Sometimes there is plenty of magnesium in the reservoir, but the plants still show signs of a deficiency. In that case, too much potassium may be the problem – a potassium toxicity shows up as a magnesium deficiency. That’s why I ask what stage of growth the plant is in. If it’s in the fruiting and flowering stage and the grower is adding lots of P/K boost, a magnesium deficiency might develop.

In that case, I’d recommend backing off a little on the extra potassium. Otherwise, you are only treating the symptoms and you could actually cause more problems by using too many additives. When it comes to plant nutrition, it’s all about balance.

If you’re growing in hydroponics and you start to see signs of yellowing leaves, don’t panic. Check your pH, check your EC and change out the water with fresh nutrients on a regular basis.

Most of the time, the plant will fix itself! But get to know your plants. During times of rapid vegetative growth, transition periods between grow and bloom, or during heavy fruiting and flowering, giving your plants a dose of extra magnesium could be rewarding.

Iron Deficiency

If yellowing starts to show up in the new growth at the top of the plant, I usually suspect an iron deficiency. Iron is an immobile element and once it’s assimilated by the plant it can’t be easily moved to other parts of the plant. That means that an iron deficiency first shows up in the new growth at the top of the plant. The new leaves start to turn yellow, usually from the stem outward towards the tip of the leaves.

When I suspect an iron deficiency, the first thing I check is my pH levels. Iron is one of the first elements to become unavailable to the plant once the pH rises above 6.5. Once the pH exceeds 7.5, all of the trace metals become unavailable, including iron, copper, manganese and zinc.

So, the first step in correcting an iron deficiency is to reduce the pH to somewhere between 5.8 and 6.4. Once the pH is in the correct zone, the iron will become available again and the leaves will start to turn green.

Iron deficiency is particularly prevalent during times of rapid vegetative growth, when plants are taking up more nitrate-nitrogen. Nitrates are negatively-charged ions and when a plant takes up a nitrate ion, it has to get rid of another negatively-charged ion such as a bicarbonate ion. The more bicarbonate ions leaked by the roots into solution, the higher the pH.

I once tried to grow sweet corn hydroponically, but it was such a heavy nitrate feeder that I had to adjust the pH and EC twice a day. Once the pH rose above 6.5, the leaves would start to develop yellow stripes, but as soon as I lowered the pH the yellow stripes would start to fill in with green again.

To help prevent iron deficiencies during periods of fluctuating pH, the best hydroponic nutrients include iron in a chelated form. Chela means claw, so a chelate attaches to an iron ion like a claw, helping to keep it soluble in the hydroponic solution.

To know which chelate is used, check the label. The three most common synthetic chelates are EDTA, DTPA and EDDHA. EDTA is the weakest, DTPA is stronger and EDDHA is the strongest. EDDHA remains stable even at high pH levels, but it is much more expensive than the other forms. Most hydroponic nutrients include the iron in the DTPA form.

Nitrogen Deficiency

I saved nitrogen deficiency for last because it is fairly uncommon in hydroponics, unless the EC of the nutrient solution is much too low or if carbohydrate additives are used. Most hydroponic nutrient formulas include nitrogen at luxury levels, so even using half-strength nutrients provides adequate nitrogen for most plants.

In fact, nitrogen toxicities are much more common in hydroponics than nitrogen deficiencies. Too much nitrogen promotes lots of lush, green top growth, but restricts root growth. Nitrogen toxicity can also delay or prevent flowering, so make sure that you properly diagnose nitrogen deficiency before arbitrarily adding extra nitrates.

In hydroponics, avoid using sweet carbohydrate products in the reservoir, especially during the vegetative growth stage. Hydroponic nutrients have a high nitrate-to-ammonium ratio – usually about 90% nitrate to 10% ammonium.

If you add carbohydrates to the nutrient solution, the sugars feed micro-organisms, but a competitive advantage is given to the microorganisms that also feed on nitrates, converting them to toxic nitrites.

In some of my lab experiments using added sugars, the nitrate levels were reduced to zero in just a few days. Even the plants that didn’t show yellow leaves still performed poorly compared the plants that weren’t given any carbs.

Nitrogen deficiency is much more common in soil. Nitrates are water soluble, so overwatering can easily leach nitrates out of the root zone. Microorganisms in the soil can also compete with the plant for available nitrogen, especially if the soil has too high of a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio.

Since nitrogen is part of the chlorophyll molecule, the leaves will start to turn pale yellow as the nitrogen deficiency gets worse. Like magnesium, nitrogen is a mobile element, so the first signs of nitrogen deficiency will show up in the lower to middle part of the plant.

But generally speaking, nitrogen deficiency is more of a general yellowing, while magnesium deficiency is more strongly interveinal. To know for sure, take a leaf sample test. Easy-to-use tissue sample test kits are available for nitrogen and reagents will indicate high, adequate or deficient levels of nitrogen in the leaf tissue.

If there is a true nitrogen deficiency, you can try using a general-purpose grow formula to correct the problem, but to be even more precise, specific nitrogen-based fertilizers are also available.

Nitrogen fertilizers can be used at the root zone or as foliar feeds. Just make sure that you only use ammonium-based fertilizers on leaves. Nitrate-based foliar sprays may produce carcinogenic compounds, but ammonium-based fertilizers are safe, just make sure to carefully follow directions to avoid burning the leaves.

Natural alternatives such as amino acids are also effective foliar sprays, but they usually take longer for the plant to respond.