re: Xlr8's Psychedelic Bloom Party Extravaganza
I have read some of the same stuff Xlr8, I was doing the shake thing. Then after I harvested, I had piles of trichs. falling underneath my tray after cutting up a nugget to smoke. It was so thick, it looked like i couldve line it up and snorted it. lol!! Im pretty sure this was a direct result of said shaking them. plus I also had an accident were one main cola stem was broken slightly 30 to 40 days days into flowering. I repaired with a splint and it repaired itself and was covered in trichs, twice as much as the other colas on that plant! surely a sign of what they are saying has truth!
Yeah I have a friend who snaps all his main colas 2 week into flowering to make a big nuckle on the stem. He says because the plant needs to repair the snaps it throws all its nutes and power up the stems to fix the problem, resulting in a massive nute ball as he call it Supplying the tops with max nutes.
This is his theory anyway and his last plants were amazing!!! I may try this.
yep thats exactly what mine did after I removed the splint there was like a knuckle there. really strong to never tipped over after that and it was super dense like a rock!
Hey guys - thanks for the feedback, and great topic you brought up!
The technique you guys are describing is also known as "super cropping". Basically, it involves damaging the stem by (bending it, twisting it, pinching it, combination of the 3...). Essentially, you are crushing the inner pulp of the stem so that it is weakened and "flops over". Ideally, you try to keep the damage as "internal" as possible, so that the outer stem is not as susceptible to outside pathogens. But, it's usually not a problem if it splits/cracks/etc.
There are a lot of theories on what super-cropping actually does or accomplishes. Without question, it helps to slow a taller branch down, or level the canopy. Indoors, it's good to have the plant "tops" close to the light, and the easiest way to do it is keep them the same height. Super-cropping does this, but additionally, exposes more of the cola and tier below it to the light source. There are also other theories similar to what JBC mentioned that people have regarding plant energy being redirected - I've also heard this explained as the plant heals itself in such a way that it improves the stem in some way. I hadn't thought about this, but I would imagine it could help with trichomes development, especially if the bend happened later in bloom.
I can't say for sure what or how it works, but the stems I've done this to
have typically had bigger, fatter colas on them. In the last round, and this one, I used this technique into the first few weeks of flower, too, where I'd mostly done it only in veg prior to that. It's a great tool during the "stretch" phase, and it's part of why my canopy has so many tops at roughly the same height. As mentioned, they end up with a big ole' knuckle on them when they heal.
Some strains are said to respond to this better than others. Indicas are supposed to respond to this better than sativas, for example. Also, OG Kush is a strain many people swear benefits especially from super-cropping.
One thing I've discovered with experimenting in the last round: If you do this prior to the end of stretch... say up to about day 22-25 or so, you'll still get a nice knuckle on the stem (remember it takes a few days to a week to fully heal). Once the plant starts to focus nearly
all it's energy on flowers, at around day 25-28 (at end of stretch) the stem may not heal fully. HOWEVER, the cola will probably still be fine - the stem may not heal or knuckle, and it might need support. For example, I had some in my last round that I bent over at around day 26-28 bloom, and the resulting colas were still large, nice and healthy - but the stem never really healed/knuckled.
Here is a knuckle from a bend I did on the Pineapple Express, this round (from a week or two ago). If you look close, you can see where it was bent and twisted, but has since healed and knuckled a bit:
for the kind words. 
