To supercrop or not?

[Therealzemi]

Hi all

I have these 16, 10 liter pots, under a 600watt hps. Each plant has been topped and lollypopped to have 4 main colas each. As i am still somewhat of a novice with indoor growing, i have lots to learn. The idea was to have them as they are now, and it will probably turn out quite okay. But my training isn't perfect. As you can see, theres too much open space in the center area of the pots. So the question is, is there anything to gain by bending over all the main stems, to even out the area better? I know the strain pretty good, and they are just about done streaching (day 18 of 12/12). They will add another couple of cm, and that's it.
I apologize for the poor picture quality. My daughter took the good camera on a summer trip.
Thank you for taking the time to read

 

[Baron Greenback]

It's a contentious issue really. Bending branches to train a plant might be slightly different to super cropping, I think it inhibits an enzyme which makes flowers form on both sides of a branch thus lessening internodal distance as all flowers are now on one side of the branch (I think - there are many better qualified people here than me who can tell you the actual reason).
As far as supercropping (breaking the branch so it repairs etc) goes - I don't see how it can work (my opinion; see other brackets for my blah blah etc ); it's like squashing a straw, they don't work as well afterwards as there's less passage for the liquid.
I understand the idea but the rest of the branch stays the same width so how does a knuckle help there? It may be stronger but it cannot help with the transportation of nutrient.
Bend, don't break is my opinion (I once more stress that this is only my opinion before this degenerates into the usual difference of opinion slanging match )

 

[Therealzemi]

Hehe.... Don't worry, it's opinions i'm looking for
I use both LST, pinching and supercropping. To get the most of any of them, i guess it requires experience. I try not to be too harsh on the plants.
I could also try to do it on just a few of the plants. To see what the difference (if any) is on yield and bud quality..... Hmmm. Decisions, decisions

 

[oti$]

Your canopy is really pretty uniform and you shouldn't need to bend or super crop any branches is f a top stretches too close to the light. Since stretch is almost over you probably won't have that problem.
One of the reasons for using this tech is to create an even canopy and to initiate growth of lower branches without removing tops all together. Knowing your strain well helps because you know how much you can crush and bend without breaking it completely off hopefully doing as little tissue damage as possible still achieving your goal. I've also read that crushing the stem causes the plant to send more of its energy to the damaged stem which as a result sends that extra energy to the bus above the damage making it bigger and producing more trichs. I'm not sure if this is bro science or not, but it kind of makes sense.
Any way, nice canopy! You should have a good harvest.

 

[oti$]

I have used the technique, but for a horizontal garden, I like to uses a trellis or screen and weave and tuck the branches every two or three days until the canopy area is 3/4 or more full before flipping, then continue to tuck and weave until stretch is over. This causes minimal stress as opposed to crushing branches or topping.

 

[Therealzemi]

Thanks for the input Otis
Ive done a couple of scrogs with a screen. But both times ive ended up being annoyd with it. Simply because it's in the way when i want to work on the plants. That, and the fact that i needed to cut down on my electricity bill (some of the highest prices in the world here). And the easiest way to do that for me, was to cut down as much as possible on the veg time in the big room. So more plants instead. And so far i like how easy they are to work on. The training does take some work in the start, but after that, it's just easy pruning here and there
And thank you for the kind words. My only reason to bend them down, would be the fact that i topped at the wrong times, and left a large part of the center area open