Lets start with the basic WHY...
Once you have gone to the trouble of growing out a bunch of seeds to find that awesome plant, why would you want to let it go...
What I do is germinate a bunch of seeds and number the pots. veg them untill they are a decent size, then cut clones from each one... Number the clones to corrispond to the plant they came from...
Once the clones are rooted firmly then the seed plants can be flowered. as they show sex you can eliminate the males and keep or kill the corrisponding clones.
flower the females untill they are done to perfection ,chop and dry them seperatly (this is important or you are wasting your time)... now you get to compare quality.
Compare yield, taste, quality of smoke ect
If you find one plant that stands out then a Clone from that plant now becomes your Mum.
Now you can continue to grow clones from that Mum that will be identical.

Mums can be any size... It all depends on how many clones you need and how often.
For a small personal grow
Light can be kept low... a couple of CFL's is perfect, and ferts are kept to a minimum...

Word of warning... The larger the Mum the easier it will be to keep her around without killing her.

When I grew in a fridge I needed very few clones and was very tight for space... so I developed Bonsai mums in tiny 4" pots.
These plants were very delicate and could die if I left for a weekend
Here's an example of one that I managed to keep around for several years... note the beer on the right for a size perspective




I have since given up on trying to keep them quite so small.
My Mums now live in 2 gal buckets.
They are fed mostly plain water as fast growth is not required. once a year they are removed from the pots, roots are trimmed and they are transplanted back into the same size pot for another year.

These two girls can each produce 20 clones a week and take up very little space
This is my Apollo 11


and this is my Napalm



Both of these trees are aprox 3 yrs old...

I had to add this stem shot... I love this tree



Feel free to ask any questions... I love to talk about my bonsai trees

This post was last modified: 08-01-2008 02:22 AM by Shaggy.

That's really smart Shaggy!

Do you trim the roots to keep them small?

yes... aprox once a year to18 mnths i trim the roots and transplant them back into the same pot. By watching the plant, you can tell when it's time... once it is rootbound, growth slows and the leaves actually miniturize.... that's where I want it...
eventually it gets to the point that it just can't hold any water and starts to look weak...