Opinions on supercropping in flower. Bad idea?

[AOD2012]

Hey people. I'm currently ten days in, and a few of my plants have grown so much that they are actually above where the light can reach them. I kind of let all the ladies go a little longer then I should have so things are pretty over grown. Can I supercropping these, or will it mess them up. Right now the tall ones aren't getting barely any light to the main top, and was thinking maybe supercropping might help , or would it just bring all the other tops higher then needed. Also i just bought a few 150 watt cfls and I am gonna hang those bad boys on the side next to my 600s to get more light the plants on the outer part of the room. Thanks for any input people.

 

[Hank Hemp]

I'm new to supercropping too and am interested in replies from experienced growers who have tried this in flowering. Ten days doesn't seem to long into 12/12 but I don't know.

 

[treefrog]

At ten days in I'd do it. In your situation, I'd do it even if I was 21 days in.
Do whatever you have to do to get an even canopy. In the end, you will have a better yield because of it.

 

[MojoRisen]

do it

do it

Its not a problem. I accidentally super cropped mine 15 days in while I was doing some training and now at 44 days it looks great and is actually going to become a nice long cola due to all the extra exposure.

 

[AOD2012]

nice people, yea hank, that was another reason i posted this, to see any other experienced growers have done anything like this. thank you very much everybody.

 

[AOD2012]

does anyone else out there have any experience with this? i know somebody has to have done this at some point. lets hear it people

 

[Hemphrey Bogart]

I just did it last night for the FOURTH time since inception and we're almost at the end of 4 weeks of flower now. Ojd's sssdh really like to stretch and I'd rather just bend them down than tie them down. They like to be bent anyways . I should have topped 'em earlier on, but oh well.

I'm lazy and lacking ceiling space.

 

[AOD2012]

yea bogart, same thing with me, i let the ladies go a little too long in veg, and it is just a straight jungle in there right now, im a little disappointed that i did that because this is a test grow and im trying to pick two momas from the two strains im growing, and certain plants that are a lot taller arent getting as much light as needed. im gonna throw some cfls in there to help out, so hopefully that should help

 

[grapeman]

I had a situation just like yours and super cropped a week or 2 into flower. worked out great and I think some of those plants actually out-produced the non super cropped ones.

 

[Diiirty]

i believe supercropping is ment for the flowering stage..

 

[Lazyman]

Yeah the rule of thumb for pruning in general is trim/prune/pinch whatever at the flip and again two weeks later. As Frog mentioned though, if you've got a big problem a smaller problem is the lesser evil. If you haven't already I'd recommend thinning the bottom branches up too, I like to clear about the bottom half of the plant on bigger bushes.

If you can get to it earlier next time, only the top foot of canopy is gonna grow good buds, so if you just leave the budsites on the top foot and clip off everything else it's best. I wouldn't thin too much at ten days at they won't have a lot of time to recover.

 

[AOD2012]

awsome grapeman, im syked. i have been stacked with school work, so im gonna crop the ladies tomorrow night, on day 13. im kind of excited now. haha i only need to hear from one person that it works and im sold, such a sucker.... no but really thanks grapeman, hopefully i have the same experience as with you. ive supercropped in veg, i was just wondering. do i just do it once on the main shoot? sometimes i have had the main shoot and another large one that i have supercropped. should i do this in flower also if it calls for it? ithanks a lot for the input

 

[AOD2012]

yea i have been gradually trimming everything from about halfway up the plant down lazy. are you saying the plants wont have time to recover and it may delay the harvest? or is it gonna mess up my yield? ive been talking about this for a little to a few people, and i was a few people have been telling me that i should prune up until like the second week of flowering. what do you think about this? thanks a lot lazy

 

[dev0n]

What Lazyman said. Ten days in you should have no issues. If you were already showing big buds there are other ways to deal with that, but your situation isn't that extreme yet.

 

[blynx]

If the plants are stretching, you can super-crop.

It's not needed when they aren't stretching.

If they are stretching, they are spending energy growing and not budding at that point. You aren't hurting any budding production at that stage by super-cropping.

Once the plants stop stretching, stop super-cropping.

 

[AOD2012]

Thanks blynx. I supercropped like 11 out of the 20 ladies I have right now. I have never done this in flowering before and I could almost hear the plants scream as I twisted the stem. Well hopefully in a few days things will be good, the canopy is finally even and no plants are blocking any light from the others. I also added a few cfls in there for some extra light.

 

[TexasToker]

I supercrop all the way to harvest (less the final 2 weeks or so). Once they get into flower I usually do more of a pinch and roll and less bending right below bud sites... I can keep a generally tall Sativa super short and squatty by doing this. This is in a SOG.

If anything I have noticed increase in yields. I don't keep weight data around, but my eyeball is calibrated pretty good.

 

[AOD2012]

Tex, when you do your regular supercropping, are you pretty forcEful? A couple of the plants I pinched a little harder and I noticed I had actually broken the stem somewhat, and I was just wondering if how hard you are on the stem. Thanks.

 

[TexasToker]

I abuse the crap out of them. Sometimes if I am careless I do break the stem open. It is not that big of a deal unless you have bug/disease problems already. they just heal up and have a little wound.

I try not to bend so much as just rolling/pinching the stems or branches in my fingers and let it fall naturally from the weakened tissue.

i have noticed decent gains, way more plant control, way less of a PITA than LST. If one plant is getting a little taller, I start pinching where I want it to have retarded growth a little. It also allows your stems to hold up HUGE buds.

 

[TexasToker]

I was going to take some pics of wounds, but it appears the buds have concealed them all until harvest. If you look at my plants the stems look like a snake eating a few mice. Big bumps every few inches, and stalks/stems so hard that they CANNOT be pinched anymore.