"breaking" your stems?

ok if i were to do this, would i do it on ALL of my branches at one time?

yes.....................

you know what makes my plants stems and stalks fat???? the good old Santa Ana winds here in So Cal my children love it

"AS it is true that a Bone Break when set properly will usually have a larger bone mass post heal i.e. density, the bone itself is weaker and lacking in years of calcium buildup until the equal amount of time you have been alive has passed minus bone age degradation.

In other words THIS IS A MYTH... there is no truth to the fact that breaking a bone will essentially make it stronger."
wow goddess you are an argumentative one.... im relatively new to growing but i have been doing mma for a while and am very interested in all of that. whoever brought up the leg kicks and the power breaks was right. those bones are fractured, NOT BROKEN, over and over until they get strong enough to withstand breaking a concrete slab, or withstanding a brutal leg kick. which is exactly what is being proposed here. he isnt snaying snap your stem over completly then sty and patch it up. that is like breaking a bone, it will usuallly leave a doposit and will be detrimental. but it is no myth. just watch sports science. there was one guy that could break through enough concrete that the force would have broken his arms 6 times over but because he had been power breaking for years his arm bones were ...at least 6 times stronger then the average arm bone. no myth... science

exactly, pinch or twist, not break to the point of needing to tape the stem up so it won't fall.

Down south in Tornado Alley my girls get plenty of wind !!! To much sometimes

im a little confused here. isnt this the exact same thing as supercropping?

No super cropping is done to be able to lay the plant over to allow the stem to sit sideways, this is a lesser degree of that where roughly the same pinching motion is done, but not to a degree of stem strentgh weakness, you want to basically just pop its inner fibers from the outer one on the plant.

I still think this would only hinder the flow of things up the plant and result in a lesser yeild above the "break" until the plants exerts energy to heal the wound and thus restore the flow....

Long story short you are stressing the plant and causing the plant to exert energy that it shouldnt need to otherwise.

In my theory people see larger buds under the break and lesser buds above the break because they have hindered the flow to higher buds, but yet they are thinking that because of the lower buds being bigger that they did sometime good. when in reality they did the exact oppisite.


Good wind is all that is needed to develop a normal "healthy" and thick stem, and all without hurting it.

I did the supercropping for a while and now only use the tec to even out the canopy if needed---really like the single cola lollipop method----people just love to see those 1 zip buds

single cola lollipop method? whats that?

This technique does work. Although I would say it is probably strain dependant as most things are. I actually tried a control and an experiment group of plants using this technique and it actually did increase yields a little. I did the experiment years ago after I had broken a plant and noticed vigorous growth. Needless to say, I have been doing this ever since. BUT like i said its probably strain dependant.

And unfortunately I have no pics to verify this, as it was done as a personal experiment. If I had known such a heated debate would have arose, I would have documented all my work LOL

yea i still believe in this stem "breaking" theory(even though breaking the stem would be bad, this is a fact) put it to you like this. a body builder lifts heavy weights that create small tears in his/her muscles. with proper rest and nutrition those small tears grow back to be bigger and stronger ie. more strength and mass for the body builder. now if the body builder over does it he she could sprain the muscle, leaving him/her unable to train for a while and hindering thier progress. if they completly push it to hard(much like actually breaking the stem) they could pull out ligaments, tendons, and blow out thier muscle which could end thier bodybuilding career(or end a plants life) That being said the bodybuilder still grows bigger and stronger by tearing the muscles down, in moderation. much like the wind does to stems, and much like this theory is proposing. why is it that with no wind stems are leggy and cant support bud? how is it that the more wind the stronger the stems? (to a certain point) I definitaly think that this theory sould work, and have read alot of journals where people claim it has. i wouldnt dare try it on my next batch of autos though =) anyway thats how i see it, not trying to be argumentative so please dont flame me, just my 2 cents. later

ganjagoddess said:

Theoretically the branches that grow bigger buds than the other could just be because the flow of nutrients and auxins to the other branches could be stunted by having to work there way through the scar tissue.

This could account for why you have bigger buds where you do this at, and smaller ones further up the plant.

So in essence you are stunting the overall growth of the plant branches above the pinch.

You could yeild more not doing so in my theory, and are hurting your overall yeild by doing this.

Just a theory, much like your theory of doing this helps.

Click to expand...

I agree with this opinion. I really can't believe that disrupting xylem/phloem transport is good big buds, or that hormones that efficiently move through busted up stems.

I thought breaking the stems just encouraged bottom growth

bump. hey anyone have this kinda documented info in a journal? ive read a couple where people claim it works...but ive probably read through over 100 journals, so anyone got a journal, some pics, anything to show either yea or nay? or anyone willing to do a controlled study...?

I've also tried this with mixed results. Someone needs to try it with a few cloned sisters grown together. Crush half of the stalks and leave the other half alone and record the results.

Well I would recommend topping or tying down rather than snapping. But sometimes with my mothers i snap them just to keep them even. No ill effects. I dont "crush" them, just enough to make it hang down. It's easier than tying and alot quicker. But as stated before different strains react different to different methods.

I absolutely swear by it..it turns them into marines! with bigger vascular systems, and can support more bud than is possibe to grow- in a gale! forget staking. if you grow horizontal, you don't waste time growing secondary branches...this energy goes into bigger buds, which all think they're the kona bud!

been using this method for 20 yrs,this is the best way too grow with amazing growth and lots of bud.