"Torture" of plants before harvest

#1

Hi growers, I am new in the forum but has been smoking since 1976… In the past I had some small projects for growing some good medicine, but in the old days technology was not so advance as now. I even had one of the first versions of te Phototron … that’s was fun.

I remember that in the 80’s some growers use to “torture” the plant several weeks before harvesting. to induce the formation of more resin. Specifically I want to ask tow of those:

1- To introduce a wood wedge in the trunk of the plat.
2- Crack the base of the trunk with the plant turn to one side, and laving it like that for several days without water, and then harvest.

Any comments? Experiences?

Thanks

Angel

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#2

Phototron, I remember oogling over the pictures of those in the back of high times. Never saw one in real life because they cost so much $ even back then. Imagine what they could have done back then w today’s LED lights in those phototrons.

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#3

I remember doing all that stuff…inserting a chopstick through the stem, bending, cracking, bud clipping (when we used to trim off 1/8 or 1/4 inch of the buds to make them fatten up), etc…With the technology we have today, all that is no longer necessary. We did that to increase growth and terpines which we now see are better produced by using the best lights. Full spectrum, far red, low blue…green, yellow, UVA, UVB, IR…
We also have autoflower that we did not have back then…If you do this to an auto, the stress will stop them cold in their tracts pretty much. There are a few strains that can handle training and manipulation but most just stress out. With only 9-12 weeks of life, we just kind of “let them grow”.
With photo periods, we still train…so LST (low stress), HST (High stress), topping, fimming, lollipopping…that still happens.
We pretty much still FLUSH and dark store a few days at the end but the stuff around today is strong enough without getting fanatical. We do not want to spend so much time at HOME GROWING that we burn out
Welcome to the community, welcome back…we (the older ones) love those flashbacks… :smiley:

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#4

I don’t think most people today torture their mature plants in the home stretch anymore. I have heard of the wedge method in the stem and a modified version with an iron spike. No one that tried this I know ever reported it be revolutionary. I have heard back that bunnies love it when you do this because they love chewing cambium layers. (They do this to fruit tree whips all the time too at grafts, but that’s another story.)

The second method you mention I have used a lot. Popping the inner stem. But never on mature ladies in the home stretch. I have done this a lot in veg and early flower.

I wasn’t sure if you meant crack the stem open.? I do not. I am careful to just crack the inner stem. The purpose of this is to fatten or strengthen the stem on floppy plants that tend to overgrow their stems. Not on plants finishing up. I think the grow trend now is to torture in veg (tie down, lst, scrog, fm the tops, top the tops, etc. All the “torture methods” work best (most benefit) early because the plants can heal. Once they are finishing you don’t want the torture. It could impede the last floral growth.

The only exception to that, I hear people use a lot, is perpetual darkness a few days at the end. For the reasons you stated. Add more resin to swell the trichomes. I grow my harvest outdoor so I have never tried this myself. But it makes sense. I am sure there are people in here who could add more here from their experience about dark endings.

My torture chamber of whips and chains is reserved for seedling and new strains I am trying to figure out. I torture new seedling from breeding projects to see how stable they are. Specifically you don’t want the backbone of a 5 yr breeding project to be an intersex plant if it stresses.
Or if I get a lovely clone only cut of a girl I just have to try and breed with. I will take a clone of that clone and get it flowering. Then I leave it in the dark. Then leave it in the light 3 days. Then dry it out till it almost dies. Then leave it half submerged in a bucket 3 days. Then crank it up in the 90s (f) a couple of days. Then leave it out in a snow bank a few hours or in the fridge. Etc. just waiting for a nanner to get some pollen. Anything you can do to stress it out during flower.

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#5

sticks and stone may break my bones but whips and chains excite me
Instead of stress, which can cause herming and then give you seeds with hermies as a tendency under stress (like gg4), why don’t you use silver or GAcid? With CS of 30 or >, photo development chemicals and gib acid so readily available, I do not know why people would stress for male flowers.

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#6

Yes they where pioneers in grow boxes, now days with have the tents and some advance and really expensive similar systems.

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#7

Thanks, very good comments. Autoflowers are great for those of us that do this for personal use and for fun… I called it my therapy. And with the variety of stains it is amaizing

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#8

Thanks!!! very interesting torture…

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