Kratose
Well-Known Member
I decided to make a thread of this. In my grow journal I did a post about this. Because it just happened to me, as you will see from reading the post. Now, before I get to this, I want to let you all know, there are many other ways to fix a broken stem, but I went with what I had to use in my house. The safest, easiest way for the plant. And also very easy for a new grower who has a accident in his grow room.
I am just going to copy everything from my post in my journal. I hope it helps some of you 1st time growers with common problems.
Ok, so your working in your grow room, and as your doing your daily maintenance, For instance, moving the lights up, and during that process, the light falls and breaks your flowering plants stem, Or vegging plant. Or, you bump into a fan it falls and boom, a stem breaks.
Since this just happened to me again, I will post what I did for a good quick fix. My situation was a fan. I was doing my daily maintenance when I bumped into what the fan was on, and it fell off injuring my afgani plant. That plant is unlucky. 3nd time something happened to it, but it still budded, and still kept going strong. The first was the transplantation, didn't go as smooth as I would like. 2nd was a light gave away and chopped it in half, that was the worse. Now a fan split on of the tops. Since this top has nice white hairs everywhere, I dont want to Top it. I am going to save it, let it heal.
So, say this just happened to you. What do I do? Dont panic, keep your head cool. Check out the situation, Inspect the plants injuries. How bad is it? Was it just bent? Was cracked? Was it bent cracked and torn? Mine was Bent, Cracked, and torn. So I will go with that. After you inspected the plant, I determined I wanted to save it and not top it. So my next step is. How can I save it? What household supplies do I have that I can use. Everything I used to save mine, Just about everyone has in there house. I can provide alternative things you could use.
So, I figured I would need, A tooth pic as a splint, Some long trash ties to twist together (this will be explained later). A straw, And some Scissors.
Now to the fix. Pull your plant out of the grow room to make sure no more accidents happen. Do it carefully. Take your plant to a well light area with good space.
This is what I did, Pictures provided.
Picture 1-3 The supplies. Those trash ties I mentioned, I took 4 of the long trash ties. I twistes 2 together of each, then I connected to two to make one long one. This will be used to support the stem bye twisting it around the plant. You can also used insulated copperwire if you had any. That would work better.
Picture 5-6, The damaged stem
Picture 7, The first step of the fix. I take the trash ties I twisted together and wrap them around the stem. Not too tightly. At the break, I use the tooth pic as a brace, the twist tie will wrap around that so its held in place. The picture shows how its twisted around the plant, but the tooth pic brace is on the other side.
Picture 8. The straw. I took the straw and cut it down the middle with the scissors. I cut one piece to go over the inter node where the break in the stem is. I cut another piece to go on the inter node above the break, for extra support. Now that you have done this, Let the plant do its job and heal itself. You will be surprised how bad of a break can heal. I am not sure if this one will, but if it does not, I will top it.
Picture 9 This shows how it looks after the fix. Not too bad huh? Has some support, and should be able to heal itself. Also the buds are getting the light instead of hanging over all broken, or loosing the top completely.
Picture 10. Picture ten is a group shot of some of my plants. Can barely tell what plant is injured. Not to shabby Sadly though, the Afgan use to be a good looking plant. Sorry somebeech, I know you liked this one! The others are still going strong tough!
This was actually done yesterday, and the last pic was today. Still looks good. Nothing dieing, or turning yellow. I am sure there will be some delays or problems on that top because of this, but I hope it can overcome this break. I figure I would post this, I am sure it will be helpful to many people in the future. It happens to everyone!
You can also use Duct Tape, and Electric tape as a fix. You can use a ziptie and a steak to create a cast too, this is easy, but most new growers do not have this available. I rather not use anything that is going to stick to my plant, thats why I did not use duct tape. But it works well. My friend Somebeech Informed me metal tape is also great to use. I was told it does not stick to the plant as bad like the duct tape would, therefor minimal damage. So I would check that out for future problems, and better fixes.
If the plant does not happen to heal itself, and you do loose the top. simply cut it just about the node under the damaged area. This will be your new top. But hopefully it will make it!
Thanks for any rep anyone gives me for this in advance. I don't do it for the rep, I do it to help you, but thanks for takin the time to show you appreciate the posting of my fix.
Thanks for following my grow, and I hope while watching my grow you learn something new.
Remember, if this happens to you, keep your cool and your might be able to save your plant!
You can check out my grow for more pictures of my grow. Link is in sig.
Happy Growing!
__________________
I am just going to copy everything from my post in my journal. I hope it helps some of you 1st time growers with common problems.
Ok, so your working in your grow room, and as your doing your daily maintenance, For instance, moving the lights up, and during that process, the light falls and breaks your flowering plants stem, Or vegging plant. Or, you bump into a fan it falls and boom, a stem breaks.
Since this just happened to me again, I will post what I did for a good quick fix. My situation was a fan. I was doing my daily maintenance when I bumped into what the fan was on, and it fell off injuring my afgani plant. That plant is unlucky. 3nd time something happened to it, but it still budded, and still kept going strong. The first was the transplantation, didn't go as smooth as I would like. 2nd was a light gave away and chopped it in half, that was the worse. Now a fan split on of the tops. Since this top has nice white hairs everywhere, I dont want to Top it. I am going to save it, let it heal.
So, say this just happened to you. What do I do? Dont panic, keep your head cool. Check out the situation, Inspect the plants injuries. How bad is it? Was it just bent? Was cracked? Was it bent cracked and torn? Mine was Bent, Cracked, and torn. So I will go with that. After you inspected the plant, I determined I wanted to save it and not top it. So my next step is. How can I save it? What household supplies do I have that I can use. Everything I used to save mine, Just about everyone has in there house. I can provide alternative things you could use.
So, I figured I would need, A tooth pic as a splint, Some long trash ties to twist together (this will be explained later). A straw, And some Scissors.
Now to the fix. Pull your plant out of the grow room to make sure no more accidents happen. Do it carefully. Take your plant to a well light area with good space.
This is what I did, Pictures provided.
Picture 1-3 The supplies. Those trash ties I mentioned, I took 4 of the long trash ties. I twistes 2 together of each, then I connected to two to make one long one. This will be used to support the stem bye twisting it around the plant. You can also used insulated copperwire if you had any. That would work better.
Picture 5-6, The damaged stem
Picture 7, The first step of the fix. I take the trash ties I twisted together and wrap them around the stem. Not too tightly. At the break, I use the tooth pic as a brace, the twist tie will wrap around that so its held in place. The picture shows how its twisted around the plant, but the tooth pic brace is on the other side.
Picture 8. The straw. I took the straw and cut it down the middle with the scissors. I cut one piece to go over the inter node where the break in the stem is. I cut another piece to go on the inter node above the break, for extra support. Now that you have done this, Let the plant do its job and heal itself. You will be surprised how bad of a break can heal. I am not sure if this one will, but if it does not, I will top it.
Picture 9 This shows how it looks after the fix. Not too bad huh? Has some support, and should be able to heal itself. Also the buds are getting the light instead of hanging over all broken, or loosing the top completely.
Picture 10. Picture ten is a group shot of some of my plants. Can barely tell what plant is injured. Not to shabby Sadly though, the Afgan use to be a good looking plant. Sorry somebeech, I know you liked this one! The others are still going strong tough!
This was actually done yesterday, and the last pic was today. Still looks good. Nothing dieing, or turning yellow. I am sure there will be some delays or problems on that top because of this, but I hope it can overcome this break. I figure I would post this, I am sure it will be helpful to many people in the future. It happens to everyone!
You can also use Duct Tape, and Electric tape as a fix. You can use a ziptie and a steak to create a cast too, this is easy, but most new growers do not have this available. I rather not use anything that is going to stick to my plant, thats why I did not use duct tape. But it works well. My friend Somebeech Informed me metal tape is also great to use. I was told it does not stick to the plant as bad like the duct tape would, therefor minimal damage. So I would check that out for future problems, and better fixes.
If the plant does not happen to heal itself, and you do loose the top. simply cut it just about the node under the damaged area. This will be your new top. But hopefully it will make it!
Thanks for any rep anyone gives me for this in advance. I don't do it for the rep, I do it to help you, but thanks for takin the time to show you appreciate the posting of my fix.
Thanks for following my grow, and I hope while watching my grow you learn something new.
Remember, if this happens to you, keep your cool and your might be able to save your plant!
You can check out my grow for more pictures of my grow. Link is in sig.
Happy Growing!
__________________
