Cranker's Experiement: Cranking a plant

[cranker]

I've been working on a new type of combination topping and LST. First off, this started as a mistake that I ran with. Starting about week 4, I tied the main stem and slowly pulled it down to the side of the pot, then in successive weeks, tied the main stem loosely to the side around in a half moon shape. This put the stem to where there was a branch that was to the side and one going straight up. The branches that went straight up became colas, the ones to the side I lst'd to the other side of the pot. At the end of veg I left the main cola and 2 sets of side nodes grow straight up. At this point I had What looked like the main cola which was the bottom branch, and a very short bushy foot plant. I cut some of the middle lower side branches that had grown into the dirt, like I was going to clone them, and they rooted! So basically, I'm sitting here with a stem of Colas and secondary root systems growing all over the plant. This ended up resulting in a root lock out which I later fixed by trimming some of them, but if I had been in a larger pot and knew I was gonna do this, I think it would have turned out well. Alternatively, it could have been nute burn from over feeding itself from such a large root system divided over all the plant. I have yet to determine which exactly but it's stabalized now, granted it looks like it had some issues, but can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. So far the plant is 7 weeks into flowering and I will show pics when it's done and when it's trimmed, because I'm going to try and regen it. I'll also put up some pics in a few hours when she wakes up. Here is a pic from end of the veg stage, where you can see how bushy and compact it is. Lemme know what you think and if you wanna see anything in particular, I'll let you know the yield. Strain is Exodus Cheese by World of Seeds I believe, it was a UFO,


P.S. I refer to this as Cranking a plant

 

[bigbillyrocka]

that sounds rad. i think im going to try this too. maybe with one of the clones even.
thats crazy they rooted when planted yet still attached. thats awesome. good job. cant wait to see and hear more.

 

[cannawizard]

*ill follow along cranky

 

[cranker]

I'm not gonna lie, the plant is ugly as hell. Trying to figure out how to feed it was a bitch, not to mention I think some of the roots were competing for food. A lot of the leaves show spots or burns where they were getting nutes from like 3 different places, but for the most part it's healthy. I have to count how many heady nugget spots there are, but it's all but eliminated popcorn buds.

 

[amrcngror]

hey thats pretty sweet man, im curious how it yielded and the end results, awesome +rep

 

[bigbillyrocka]

im sure it is ugly. kinda like an ostrich with its head in the ground. lol
but im just thinking of all the possibilities with something like this done on a purposeful level.

 

[woodsmantoker]

Sharing images at soil levels?

 

[cranker]

Sharing images at soil levels?

Got lights out for another 4 hours, then I'll take some. I took the ties off about 2 weeks ago, basically I slow pulled it when the stem was thick enough to not snap, every day pulled it more, usually at the node beneath the top node. Every time it grew longer I'd repeat. Like I said before the plant shows some signs of nute problems, I think I only chopped about 4 branches in total. You'll see what I mean when I get some pics up. If you get past the spotting and basic ugliness of the leaves the yield looks to be good for a plant of this size, and unlike topping it keeps all the branches/colas basically coming from dirt level. The biggest issue is that the way it played out I have nodes EVERYWHERE. I'm gonna try this again, I think it'd only work with a sativa cuz you need good height, but for an experiment on a ufo I think it has turned out pretty well.

 

[cranker]

hey thats pretty sweet man, im curious how it yielded and the end results, awesome +rep

She's not done flowering, close though, half milky. I'm just waiting for the final bud plump and a lil bit of amber.

 

[cannawizard]

*sup cranky, wheres the pics you promised!? huh huh uh huh uh huh huh?? Lol

 

[cranker]

Here's the pics. I circled the spot where I had it tied at one point, also you can see where I pruned one side of the branches. The other side you can see partially in a few places where I had the other branches rooted, but as you can see this was giving me problems late in flower, they are plumping, I tried to get every big nugget cluster. If I knew what I was going to do before hand I think the colas would have been a lot bigger, but I think it definately shows progress. Also I think using a 2 1/2 gallon pot was part of the problem.

Cheers, I'm gonna try it again with a NLxBigBud see how it goes.

All the wires are loosened now, I had it tied almost directly to the side most of the grow. There are several off shoots with new flowering growth coming out that I should have taken pictures of, I'll try to get one of the whole plant but it's hard to move around in there. I think it's already regening where I broke off the branches in a few places and there are some good 1-2g buds in that one pic of the middle, well the bubble in the middle, of the plant. Like I said, could have done better if I wasn't making it up as I went along, and I was working with CFL's (my hps is sitting ready to go in when I get the cool tube) so take that into consideration.

 

[cranker]

*sup cranky, wheres the pics you promised!? huh huh uh huh uh huh huh?? Lol

Light timer is off by a half hour I think, and my camera takes gigantic pics. Here's where I tried to get a bunch of tops in the pic, looks shitty I'll have better looking ones after harvest it'll be easier to tell wtf is going on. Wish I'd taken some during the grow, or before I quit feeding them.

 

[cranker]

Anyone? Questions? Comments?

 

[cranker]

mmk guess I'll just go back to my regularly scheduled program

 

[kevin murphy]

subbed......

 

[pandan]

Burnt tips and curling does seem like nute burn.

Interesting you chose to wrestle it down like that

 

[cranker]

Burnt tips and curling does seem like nute burn.

Interesting you chose to wrestle it down like that

Yeah in retrospect I don't think I'd try to root other branches, but funny thing is I had new growth even now coming up in the weirdest places.

 

[bigbillyrocka]

id like to do this. maybe make 5 main stems/colas. itll look like a hand crawling.

 

[cranker]

id like to do this. maybe make 5 main stems/colas. itll look like a hand crawling.

I keep wondering what would happen if I added extra soil and kept the main stem buried the whole time. It looks like the plant itself can't tell where the main colas are. If it weren't for the various issues I had I think I would have had about 10, I was going to reveg but my dog's love of bringing moths into the house bit me in the ass now I'm picking caterpillars off them all day, they haven't done much damage but I swear this has been the roughest grow as far as ridiculousness goes lol.

 

[kevin murphy]

new update on mi thread pal take a look mate...