how long to keep a motherplant,whats your oldest?

[duke]

hi all just wondering how long folk who use motherplants for cuts and clones tend to keep them working?i only ask because i have my 2 fave barneys farm mothers both getting rather old one is the vanilla kush from 2015 and other tangerine dream from 2014 and so far been cloned many many times and next mother grown from the same genetics i have noticed no lack of vigour in rooting or growth infact it seems the older the genetics get the quicker they change to flowering after flipping lights to 12-12 so is the old tales about genetic integrity fading in an aged mother true or fake news?whats the longest you guys have kept the same strain mother?thoughts welcome,peace

[MrMan]

i have noticed mothers degrade over time my longest living "mother" was 3 years old when i noticed reduced flavour and smell but i would periodically flower the mother and take a fresh cut to be the new mother so that might of been a contributing factor

[Captain Beefheart]

keep ya mums as long as ewe want duke bach...ive had a few yrs old just reboot a clone from the mum when tiered bach no loss in vigor high or anything else....this myth purely a myth that the clone gets weeker is utter bollox bach trust me ive cloned a few.

[GMO]

personally i dont think its cut and dry

rolling clones ie not holding a mother plant and cloning off a clone, has a risk to mitochondrial DNA as i understand it, but that doesnt always result in a grower visible mutation of change in the plant

Most common issues mentioned with old age mothers is as MM mentioned but this is usually attributed to the collection of pathogens IE hop latent viroid but then counter to my first point, some use apical meristem clones to try and out pace systemic infections as the idea is the newest grow MAY not yet have been exposed

but then if you have kept a mother in tip top health this shouldnt be needed

the changes to DNA apparently happen on average every 10th cycle of recreating DNA ie every 10th revegged mother ON AVERAGE

ive a mother thats been in my care nearly 4 years and ive had to cycle her twice due to health concerns of the mother stock. in my head i have 10 cycles to use over the life of the plant before expecting to see some possible variation

[Sage]

Cycling might be the answer (playing the devils' advocate) then. One could argue that's the way to find a unicorn though couldn't they. But I don't think those keeping mothers are rolling clone off clone, they're going clone off mother. Meh I'm high i'm out.

[2-Scoops]

I had a sensi seeds > jack herer it must have been like 8 or 9 years old from when i first started growing, it was all i grew at one point. Well it weren`t exactly same mom but i took cutt from cutt each grow, i can`t say i noticed any difference in strength or vigiour of the plant it was same as it was from day one in my mind.

Fake news