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Couchlocked
15-07-08, 08:11 AM
There are a few different ways of supercropping, this is one that I find most beneficial. An alternative name for this technique I’m going to describe would be Tie and Train, and I find it to be a lot like a scrog, but without the screen, and they are similar in the way they create a mostly flat even canopy of buds. This allows us to move the grow light closer to the top, obviously reducing the loss of lumens through distance. Also, this technique cuts in half the amount of plants needed to cover a given area.

Supercropping relies on far fewer lateral buds growing vertically and more on multiple colas in a small space. Yield on a supercropped plant will be gathered from the length of the stem, light size dependant. My 400 HPS that grew the plants in this thread will give me 10 to 12" of bud down the cola. Bigger lights, bigger buds and more of them further down the stem.

There are several ways to achieve a room of multi-cola plants forming an even canopy. The current description in the GrowFAQ uses topping only. I agree this is one way to the end result, but the book is still out on if it affects yield or not. Other disadvantages to topping are the continuation of vertical growth. 12 full inches taller than tied plants with training techniques performed at the same time and at the same node. Keep in mind, these plants are from seed, so genetic vagaries are expected.

Another way is to tie the plant’s tip to base for a week to induce lateral growth, as I like to do, and a third way is to simply tie the plant over 45 degrees early in the vegetative stage of growth. I’ve only topped six and tied six (my way) in this thread.

Once lateral growth is achieved, and the tieing method is the only way to nearly cease horizontal growth from the mainstem, the branches are observed over the course of a week or so to see which ones grow faster. These branches are gradually tied to the outside of the planter. Smaller growing shoots either get tied to the inside or made into clones or discarded. Obviously, we're tieing the faster growers to the outside so the smaller shoots can keep up with them height wise.

12 Rosetta Stone plants from seed at 3 weeks..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc1.jpg


Grown in MG Prefertilized potting soil cut with 1/2 perlite. No chemical fertilizers were added during vegetative growth, only 1 tsp. of kelp extract per gallon of water.

I do employ the snapping of the hurd technique, but only to lessen the possibility of the stem folding or snapping when the tip is tied to base. So, pick your spot in the middle of the plant. Using the thumb and forefinger from each hand, slightly above and below the spot, counter-rotate your hands till you feel a light breaking inside the stem. It may or may not happen. If it doesn’t, don’t worry. Twist back and forth a few times to create a general loosening in rigidity of the plant. It should lean a bit, like this.

Take your tying material, I use a 10,000 foot roll of twine from Wal-Mart, and circle it loosely around the base and top of the plant. You want to pick a top node with some decent sized leaves (1"+) on it to prevent the plant from slipping its bond. They do try hard to do this.

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc2.jpg

Slowly compress it down to the shape you see here and cinch the tie. A bit of pressure at the top of the circled stem will help prevent folding. If the stem does fold, don’t worry. It really doesn’t appear to make a difference in the plant, except for the ease of tying it later. The plant WILL recover as long as its not severed, sometimes even to spite you, it seems.

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc3.jpg

You can see she badly wants to turn that grow tip towards the light. The week in tie, through hormonal responses, forces the plant to stop primary growth from this tip and focus on growing out all the branches at the nodes just above and below the tie. Until it is released of course, when the meristem once again begins to receive a share, though not the main share anymore.

This is just before release..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc4.jpg

This is shortly after release, and it has already almost resumed its vertical stance. It’ll grow like this for a week and then we'll begin the tying for training. See where the damage is and look at the growth from the nodes under it compared to the growth above it.

You can clearly see my goal with this one..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc5.jpg

I start with the countertie down low. It should be opposite of the way the stem is leaning from the tie for training. Far enough over that it is leaning in the other direction. Put the next tie on the stem, above where the hurd was snapped. Pull the plant over like shown. These ties will remain in place for the duration of the grow, and may have to be adjusted if the plant grows too far off of one side of the planter. Several inches of movement in any direction from center is possible. These two ties will also have to be watched carefully to make sure they don’t constrict the plant as it thickens. I use the twine because it has a lot of friction against itself and a single 1/2 knot is all that’s needed for most branches.

The first two ties are pictured here..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc6.jpg

Already adjusting to the new shape..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc7.jpg

Its has some ties in place already, but when I’m done there will be a ton more. All the flower tops you see are at different heights before training.

This plant is several weeks older..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc8.jpg

After..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc9.jpg

All tops that have been pulled over will reorient themselves toward the light in a matter of hours. They’ll also be at the same height.



I tied down the six topmost branches that resulted from topping, but that only succeeded in making the top so broad it was like an umbrella. Eventually I had to build a platform for the tied plants to be even.

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc10.jpg


Sexing of the plants was certainly interesting..
The results were:

- 2 out of 6 topped plants were female
- 5 out of 6 tied plants were female

I draw no conclusions from this until the next time I grow plants from seed, but the results are something to be researched for sure. Perhaps the stress of topping has some effect on expression? Maybe the different stress of tying has some effect in conjunction with keeping the main grow tip. I did end up with 7 of 12 female, so that’s right in line with the law of averages.

After seeing them at the finish, I would have kept only the top flowers you see here and not much else. The topped plants wasted too much energy on growing stem compared with the tied ones.

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc11.jpg

Here is a side by side from a couple of weeks ago. See the difference in the internode spacing? Some on the topped plants are 4" apart! The tied ones clearly have nodes all the way down the stem only an inch apart. You can also clearly see where the topped plant was cut. Had I allowed the branches to grow unfettered, they would easily be a foot or more taller than the tied ones. Keep in mind these all had their training technique performed at the same time.

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc12.jpg

They do grow up to be pretty similar even from seed..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/medium/sc13.jpg

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc14.jpg

The reason for doing all this..

https://www.thctalk.com/gallery/data/502/sc15.jpg

An even canopy of buds just a week from harvest. That’s it, another viable alternative for small space and/or small light growers that want to maximize yield.

PTB
15-07-08, 09:13 AM
I'm trying LST for the first time with my current grow. I'm liking it alot, it's great to have an even canopy and use up all the space that is available to me. Mine are currently 3weeks into flower, got a few pics at the end of my grow diary if anybody wants to see. It's only two plants, they were both topped and then tied down, hopefully I'll see good results with the yield :)

munkman
15-07-08, 09:25 AM
good write up man, just what i need for my cfl grow!!

Muller
22-06-09, 05:44 PM
No one has specified The hight or how early or late you can start doing this? So any help would be much apreciated.
Peace & Blaze it up! :toke:

Dredlock
22-06-09, 06:28 PM
No one has specified The hight or how early or late you can start doing this? So any help would be much apreciated.
Peace & Blaze it up! :toke:

You can tie down or bend your plants at any time in veg, All depends on how you are setting up... and first 2 or 3 weeks of flower, Personaly I leave them alone after that :)

wicked post Couchlocked!!

dirty dude
21-07-09, 07:40 PM
cool, very helpful thanks ;)

Darko
22-07-09, 11:50 AM
Can i ask wy people do this to plants and what are the advantages. To me it just looks like a hell of alot of work.

GrassMaster
22-07-09, 05:25 PM
Am I mistaken or is this write-up about LST and not supercropping, or is LST a form of supercropping?

Jah Bless
GM

BuddyBoy
26-07-09, 11:41 PM
Am I mistaken or is this write-up about LST and not supercropping, or is LST a form of supercropping?

Jah Bless
GM

This is a bit of a combination of both. Supercropping means that you bend the stem over, compress the stem and loosen it, and it collapses on itself, LST is tying down, but you might not normally loosen the stem for that technique.

However this technique is extremely interesting - good topic author :)

When the stems are broken over in the sc way the stem repairs itself, but it also modifies the stem as a result. The new 'repair growth' forms new, and more numerous capillaries, and general highways throughout the plant, normally it produces 1. The growth is expedential as a result of the increased intake of water, and nutrients.

I have sc'd for years, and tied down also, plant depending, i have also topped a plant all the way through see what happens. As a result of my findings, i top twice in quick sucession on the whole, and then after that its sc all the way. My POTM entry is an example of what can be achieved in secondary bud growth as a result of sc.

I also tie down some of my plants as well, i get good results strain dependant, the plants that love branching love being tied down, i have a severly tied down plant in my current grow, she will be a sea of colas as a result. However best results are achieved if you trim and prune with tying down, removing the lower, and less developed branches will aid your uppermost growth almost twofold., and if you get it right, boy oh boy :D

BB

PhilZenMaster
18-01-12, 11:09 PM
Thank you for posting this, excellent information and a lot of food for thought!