Tutorial on Crimping Tops for a bushier plant instead of cutting them

[kushkommander]

very good explaination and walkthrough, I agree with you on this.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

this has been discussed many times on many forums. its called low stress training except you arent tying them down after you crush the stem.

 

[Littleleaf]

It works well on monsters to keep them below the fence line.
The cross is Trainwreck S1 X Sourbubble 4. She just a little lanky.

 

[temunator]

nice would be some before/after pics

 

[Mist]

Ok, here are the same mother plants that I started with on this thread. It is now 4 weeks later under floro lights and you can see how thick the inner growth is. These are hard to photograph like this because of them being so thick.
But I am sure you will get the point from the pictures.

I had planned on showing a run all the way through and that will start happening in just a few days when the current grow comes down and the rooted clones go in.

So all you can see right now are the mother plants, sorry.

 

[diamondmine]

I would like to know if there is a higher chance of the plant turning hermie from constantly supercropping. I know this depends on the plant and if it already has the tendency to hermie but what about an otherwise healthy plant. For example a plant is growing fine and a couple female preflowers have shown about halfway through the plant cycle, then a lot of supercropping is done to keep it low and balls start to show, how would you know if it's because it's a natural hermie or if it's the supercropping that caused it?

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i think the plant will be fine as long as you dont start trying to supercrop after the stems turn woody.

i only had 1 plant hermy on me from this and that was because the stem had already turned woody and when i bent it, it snapped, sure enough about a week later it went full on hermy.

 

[Greyskull]

i have been using the supercropping/stalling technique for some time now, on a lot of different plants - and i 'work them' until they are in full bud (2-3 weeks in).
no hermie issues have popped up for me as of yet.

 

[Mist]

I would like to know if there is a higher chance of the plant turning hermie from constantly supercropping. I know this depends on the plant and if it already has the tendency to hermie but what about an otherwise healthy plant. For example a plant is growing fine and a couple female preflowers have shown about halfway through the plant cycle, then a lot of supercropping is done to keep it low and balls start to show, how would you know if it's because it's a natural hermie or if it's the supercropping that caused it?

I do this all the time and have never had a hermie develop from doing this. I can't think of any reason that it would turn a plant hermie either.


So you got a hermie and are trying to figure out if it was enviroment or nature?

 

[diamondmine]

i think the plant will be fine as long as you dont start trying to supercrop after the stems turn woody.

i only had 1 plant hermy on me from this and that was because the stem had already turned woody and when i bent it, it snapped, sure enough about a week later it went full on hermy.

So when the plant goes hermie like you said your did, does that mean only the branch that you broke developed sacks or does that mean the whole plant does?

I don't have a hermie yet, I'm just scared I will cause it to hermie because I've done a lot of pinching, bending and crushing, and granted it was done with love and from necessity.

 

[cocktail frank]

u can beat your girls down all day and they will recover.
anything short of snapping the stem off will heal.
grows a fat knot.

pinchy pinchy all day!

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Thats just supercropping

 

[Mist]

Ok, as promised I am going to take this thread through a complete vegg cycle and show how to bush them up with this technique. As I said earlier in this thread, I don't use this in flowering. By that time there shouldn't be any more need.
For those of you who do use this during flowering. Maybe you can take over this thread when I am done, LOL!

So here we are with 12 nice clones. Not all of them were ready yet, but I did the ones that were.
I will take pictures every few days as things move along and show the where, when and why of it.




These are two of several plants that I started on. I have just done the tops at this point.

 

[moses224]

Very informative especialy for phenos of ice or cheese that no matter what you do the keep a dominant leaqder i do this as well and it allows my side branches to bcome additional tops in lieu of breaking central leader of plant

 

[Mist]

Things are just starting to get interesting now. The tops that I did a few days ago have recovered and the clones have just really started to get going so things will move faster now.




I think that I should pick one plant and take a daily pic of it like a time lapse sort of thing. That would probably be more effective.

 

[ItsAllOver]

I've coincidentally just started doing this, so I'll be seeing the effect. Thanks for the tute.

 

[Haps]

I agree that this is supercropping, but with a productive twist, I will try it. It will fit a few gals getting ready now, thanks, good thread.
H

 

[Mist]

Just a few progress pics. You can see where the limbs have been crimped, bent over and then healed. It is also obvious that the lower branches and inner branches are making their way to the top of the canopy. I will be criping them as they get up to the top and then their lower branches as they reach to the top too. The objective is of course to get as many branches up to the top of the canopy before switching them to flowering. I like to get a dome top plant in the end as opposed to just flat across the top, but that is just my preference.




http://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=6907&pictureid=157097

The whold garden is looking like little bushes now.

 

[Owl Mirror]

Hi Mist, thanks for the tutorial
I have gotten in to the habit of topping my plants.
I do this above the fifth node always and it produces two cola's.
SEE PIC:

I may have to try it your method next time around to see if I get better results.

 

[Mist]

Yep, 6-10 top colas would be better than 2 right?