Supercropping 8 foot plants

[Branchsnapper]

Howdy all! Quick question for everyone. I have a few purple kush plants that I got lazy with, and they are out the roof of my hoop house now. Hoop house was only for security reasons, and keeping the insane amount of grasshoppers outta my stash. Upper 2 feet of roof has been removed for full strength sunshine, and airflow. After walking into a 130°f growspace during a few weeks of heat. Anyhow, a few of the plants were just 6 foot tall main stems with a leaf every 2 inches, so figured they were the males, as all throwing pistils were very branchy from the get go. One that I know is male from the preflowers is growing this way so figured as always the tall sticks were male also, and neglected them a bit. Well. In a matter of 2 days they shot some of the quickest branching ever, and threw a bunch of pistils. Question is
Can I supercrop the uppermost 4 feet of growth? Stem is about the diameter of a thumb at that point, and pretty hard. I tested it on the male, and even though I had to use pliers to squeeze it, and it still splintered the hell out of it when bending, 3 days later its growing fine, and never missed a beat. Even if I chop the plants in half, they were not counted on, and were halfway into the trash

 

[Crooked8]

Most varieties imo are hardy and respond well to training. Ive cut plants down to more than half their size many times. As long as everything is optimal regarding nutrition, air and light, you should be fine. After hacking them back i like to either water w some fresh nutes outdoor or change my reservoir indoor same day. That way they get some fresh food/water to bounce back with. Seems to work well for me.

 

[Fixer]

I've never grown anything that tall but I cut healthy plants in half right into the first week of flower. At this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere you should be safe.

 

[Branchsnapper]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. These plants are probably gonna flower any day. One same strain, but a month younger, started flowering 10 days ago, and a blue dream started a few days ago. So I gotta do something pretty quick, and growth tells me they are either going through a fantastic spurt, or they are starting the stretch

 

[Creeperpark]

Tie the tops down slowly a inch or two a day until they are low enough. If you top a plant during pre-flowering the flowering will be delayed a couple of weeks or more and the flowers will be smaller. If you cut the plant in half you will fuck up the plant and the yield. Use a string and tie the top and tie that to the bottom of the plants base. It will flower like crazy and give you what you are growing far.

 

[Branchsnapper]

Thank for the replies. I went ahead and did both cut, and bend. I tried supercropping the smaller one, but halfway down the plant was just too woody, and after trying to bend it realized there was no way in hell it was ever gonna bend that far no matter how many days it was done over, and supercrop came out way to splintered/messy. Cut 3 feet off smaller plants main, and bent the rest to match. Cut 4.5 feet off bigger plants 2 mains, and bent the rest to match also. 24 hours later all is on track, and growth has uprighted itself fine. Wouldn't be surprised if it hermies up now though, so gonna just keep a close eye on em , and keep other plants protected

 

[therevverend]

Already discussed this in the outdoor 2020 growing thread. You should change your handle from Branchsnapper to Itiemyplantsover. When you chop off the top of a plant about to flower you're chopping off 3/4 of your yield. For the last month and for the next month I've been and I'll be tying my plants over. To increase the number of tops and more importantly to make them more manageable.

You tie your top down so it's the same height as the medium branches, if you do it right the top of the plant will be flat like a table. From the lowest limbs to the top the branches should be the same height. Then if the branches get too tall you can tie them over too. I tie towards the shade, usually towards the north but it depends on where the bushy center is and where the most room is. I've already had to re-tie and re-adjust a few plants because they're growing so fast they're pulling their stakes up and bending back towards the sun too far.

 

[therevverend]

Dug up a picture to show you what I'm talking about. From my buddy's garden, the plant in the picture is Sour Lemon. So far it's impressive, big vigorous plant with various combinations of citrus, sour, and sweet smells. It was about 7 feet tall when he tied it over. The top is in the upper left. Now it's about 5 feet tall.

That's all one plant. Now he's got a whole bunch of tops without hacking or breaking branches. Doesn't have to worry about delaying flowering, stunting the plant, the wound getting infected or any other potential problems.

 

[Branchsnapper]

I know how to train. All others are trained great, just these two I let go, because I was set on them being male. Same strain/conditions, but only single stalk with no branching until all of a sudden earlier this week. Already have way too many plants for my yearly smoke, But just couldn't bring myself to chop em, as good as they are growing.