Continuous Monster Cropping and Plant Degradation

Monster Cropping​

Monster Cropping or Flowering Clones is another method of growing that was brought to my attention by one of our members; JWP, who also was kind enough to provide the pictures for this part of the guide. This method involves taking clones of flowering plants and then forcing them to root and re-veg, which eventually leads to very bushy plants with a great number of branches and nodes. I named this technique Monster Cropping because that is what you will get, real monster plants, but also because this method was introduced to the scene by a grower named greenmonster714. He in turn credits a grower named Feral for discovering this technique.

Taking clones from flowering plants goes against all that has been said about cloning cannabis and might therefore seem a bit confusing at first but the science behind the technique is sound and the results speak for themselves. ​

You start by taking clones of a plant that is about 21 days into flowering. This seems to be the best time to do it but you can also take clones at a later stage with similar results. The lower branches make better clones as they have not yet become rigid and will also root faster and more easily than say the top cola. Move the new cutting into a glass of water and let it sit for a while in order to make sure that no air gets into the vascular system during handling, as this can be fatal to your new plant. You should make the cut so that it runs along the stem as this will increase the surface area for water and possibly nutrient uptake, depending on what method of cloning you use. Personally, I have found that using a small hydroponic setup or a propagation bubbler to be by far the best way to clone cannabis plants. I will not expand on the subject of cloning here, if you need more information on how to clone your plants, have a look at the official cloning thread by JJScorpio

In the picture below, you can see how the clone from a flowering plant been has placed in a propagation bubbler for rooting and re-vegging. This also means that you will have to put the clone back under a veg light schedule of 20/4 or even 24/0. Any less and the clone might just continue flowering. Clones do not need strong light so a small CFL will do. You can remove some of the buds and leaves at this stage in order to encourage the plant to revert back into its vegetative cycle but leave the topmost shoot alone.

It will take several weeks for the clone to root, some never do, so it is best that you take a great number of clones at the same time in order to ensure that at least one makes it on to the next stage. It might be a good idea to place the clones inside a humidity dome, which can be bought at gardening stores or custom built for your specific needs. The high humidity inside the dome will make sure that the plants do not dry out and die. Ventilate the dome every day just to make sure that the plants don't get attacked by mold.

Keep in mind however that the most important thing when it comes to cloning is to provide the fresh cuttings with plenty of oxygen and that is why the propagation bubbler is so effective compared to other methods.

The clones might be a sad sight at first but as soon as they root, they will also revert back into the vegetative stage and start growing again. Once the clones have rooted properly and started growing again, they will put out single unserrated leaves at first but the normal leaves are soon to follow. It might be a good idea to apply some training at this stage, tying down some of the tops will encourage even more branching. You can also provide some heat underneath the clones as this will speed up the rooting process considerably.



When the plant starts growing again, the incredible branching power of the flowering clone becomes apparent.

As you can see, this plant has grown into a real monster, and all this without ever topping the plant. That's the beauty of this technique; you can forget all about topping and FIM'ing since the flowering clone will sprout all these new branches all by itself.

This plant is now perfectly suited for a SCROG or perhaps even a SOG grow. This one plant can easily fill up an entire Scrog net in no time. Several of these plants grown in SOG will definitely give you a grand harvest.

There are other benefits from using this technique; it also removes the need for keeping mother plants. When the newly re-vegged plant is flowered, it can also provide more clones for a perpetual harvest. Recycling at its best. This might be of interest to those who need to keep down their number of plants.

Needless to say, this method is highly effective thanks to the heavy branching that occurs after a flowering clone is re-vegged. With further training and some patience, you will get some real monster plants and thereby also a monster harvest.

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highonmt said:

I have tried this but the time that it takes to bring the plant back to vegetative growth can be used to grow a much larger plant than any 'monster crop' in my opinion. The clones I used took like 3 or more weeks to sort themselves out and start growing well plus 2 weeks to root. In the mean time the normal clones were already 2ft tall, lst'ed, topped and ready for bloom. My point is that with 21 days of veg as you reported and longer rooting times you could get much larger root mass, plant size and yeild potential. We get close to 1 pound a plant at 4 weeks veg... There are much better ways to gain branching such as fim, lst etc. It is cool they way they replace bud sites with stems but inefficient and it seems stressful for the plants imo. Note that Oxidative stress is known to shorten telomere length much more quickly than aging and in plants that can mean loss of vigor and potency....I would recommend propagation in veg for maximum yield and long term genetic stability.HM

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humbleguy said:

I've done this on accident. It does work but the buds don't mature the same as a standard clone/veg/flower cycle. The plants will finish shorter with very little stretch but the flowers will contain more smaller leaves.

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Choc said:

didnt look at it in that way it would be a great idea to have one as a mum, the amount of shoots its throws off, its a no brainer....

Loving the pic's and general chit chat on this subject

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Choc said:

nice one Zenbee

Good tip Cyat 24 hours light and super close to floros

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