is plant rotation really necessary?

MrMeanGreen said:

I agree to an extent but being able to rotate depends on the grow method you apply. My last grow was a single (silo) cage approx 12" around the bulbs and my plants growing into the cage. No chance at all of rotating, This time round I have caged each plant individually and the plant grows out of it. I find this very easy to manage and rotating takes all of 2 seconds per plant.I try yo keep the middle of the cage bald for greater air circulation and tie back any unruley growth outside the cage, This is giving me a perfect cylinders of growth, uniform growth and very easy to maintain. I can also move branches about during the early stages to maximise light use and stop branches encroaching on each others light making training very easy. It also makes for easy management of a perpetual system.

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Your approach does indeed make it easier to rotate the plants. I'm still wondering if we're getting anything from the exercise, or just fooling ourselves because it just looks like it.

I wasn't happy with my own results of rotating, so I built a system that takes full advantage of being trellised and shaped instead of using rotation.

ttystikk said:

Your approach does indeed make it easier to rotate the plants. I'm still wondering if we're getting anything from the exercise, or just fooling ourselves because it just looks like it.

I wasn't happy with my own results of rotating, so I built a system that takes full advantage of being trellised and shaped instead of using rotation.

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There are a few reasons for trying this set up, most of them to answer questions that come up during the many stoned hours that me and my babies share when the kids go to bed.

1. Does a branch/ plant have a light saturation point? I now have a 5ft stack of 3 cool tubes (plus 600w extra external) and my plants are 6" away from the bulbs. Does the plant / branch "max out" so to speak at the closest point to the light source? Does it get to the point where such a high level of light is having a detremental effect or the light is simply going to waste. Put a cup under a dripping tap and it will eventually fill up, put a cup under a fully open tap and it will fill quickly but excess water flows over the top and to waste. Does the same principal apply?

2. Is there a stage in a buds life where good light lays the blocks for future bud production. ie.... good constant light during weeks 3-4 lays building blocks for weeks 5-9. During my last grow I exposed a lower branch to good light that was heavily shaded during first 6 weeks and developement over the next 3 weeks was poor, actually it was shit and a waste of time. So I came to the conclusion that if a part of the palnt is light deprived early on then the damage cannot be reversed towards the end. From this the question I can draw other questions. "Does good light earlier on in flowering developemant that will allow for reduction in light later in the grow without too much loss of quality and quantity". I have almost 2.5k watts in my flower room which is 600w over my safe point where I can control the heat and energy use without worry, so I only ever have 3x600w burning at any one time (1 light is always off). Is swapping light sources to expose buds to light worth the effort?

I have got to say though, so far it seems to be having a positive effect.

Those are excellent questions, and the best answers myself and my friends have come up with are as follows; the time to give your plants the very best head start is VEG. ONLY strong, healthy, vigorously growing plants are going to provide top quality results. Think chess; strong opening moves set the stage for dominating the board later.

You are right about late light not being enough to play catch up. The branch needs lighting throughout the blooming cycle, EVEN IF IT'S INTERMITTENT. Heath Robinson himself ran a 'checkerboard' experiment, where he alternated between two 600W bulbs, each on opposite sides of the plant. Each side got six hours of light per day, then the whole thing would be dark for 12 hours. Heath showed impressive pics of healthy bud grown this way and claimed serious grams per watt improvements.

I've done something similar with an old overhead design light mover... Which leads to your next question, about there being an upper limit to light pressure; yes, BUT. LOL

There is no magic number, because the ability of the leaf to transpire water and avoid bleaching of course changes with the local conditions. In addition, duration matters as well; from personal experience (that is, I've seen the phenomenon but I can't quantify it) I know that a plant can handle light pressures temporarily that are well beyond its ability to tolerate continuously. This leads to some interesting possibilities, ones I have yet to investigate in more depth.

There is a kick ass PhD thesis in there if someone wants to do the work of quantifying this phenomenon, thus making it more available to those who would try to take advantage of this property of plant resilience.

Sir.Ganga said:

Rotating you plants does two things for any room, 1st. it allows for a more even plant all the way around and second and most important IMO is space. Clones may all come from the same mom but will all grow differently depending on where you took them, by rotating them equally you will eventually know how many actually fit in your grow and be able to max out the area every time without overgrow. Good Luck

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MISINFO... and .. no.. rotating your plants doesnt help anything .. it makes your flowering period extend. because your leaves / solar panels for light.. need to keep turning to the light every rotation.. its a waste of time.. if u have the right amount of light for your grow.. just staking them up.. and training your plants will allow for a much better harvest.. then rotating.. tried this wen i first started growing. kuz of people like Sir. GANGA.. said oo ya it helps.. then. i tried it.. and got a worse yield.. and then i tried it again a few years later to see if it was grower error.. and the same thing.. it added like 1-3 weeks to flowering time.. nothing ripened up like it normally did.. and instead of being able to harvest and start a new batch.. i had 3 weeks of veg room overgrowing the size i wanted to flower them out as..

just all around bad idea.. y do u think so many people use SCREENS.. u cant move shit.. and they get the best yield out of everyone.

if u want big yields.. VEG.. to a certain size.. have your flower room screened up.. and then veg them until they fill the screen. and flip.. best yield for bigger plants..

if u want big yields .. and as many crops a year as possible..
go with a SOG. as many plants as u can fit in 1-2 gallon pots.. flowered out after 1-2 weeks of veg..

thhink about it like this.. your plant will spend more energy turning the leaves toward the light.. when they are supposed to be spending there time soaking up all the light.. so that wen the lights go out.. the buds can SWELL.

good luck.,. but after years of trying different techniques.. SCROG. SOG.. Vert trees. or horizontal trees.. all produce the best buds .. no rotating.. u can top.. LST.. or put in screens for the best yields. or use plant count.. plus light for a sog.. for great yields. but lots of work .


heaths method of doing 1 side .. then the other.. proved to work great for some strains of mine.. but not others.. i think genetics play a role.. just like flowering under MH or HPS..

hyroot said:

You don't have too if you scrog or have multiple bulbs on either side. You don't have to if you don't want. Rotating should be done with all lighting methods. To get the best over all coverage and yield and quality.

Fyi lumens doesn't mean anything to plants. Lumens by definition is visible light to the human eye. Plants / chlorophyll absorb wave lengths that we don't normally see. Its par you want to measure. Umole/s / watts2

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Few light makers publish par ratings. So we use what we have, imperfect as it may be.

It goes without saying that rotation reduces the overall light quality to a given part of the plant, but it's all swings and roundabouts. Riddle me this....

A 5ft diameter silo (5ft height) gives approx 16ft circumferance, total surface area is 80ft square. Lets say you allow your plants to grow into the silo about 6-8 inches, your silo radius is now approx 11ft circumferance and 5ft high giving a 55ft sq surface area.

Now then.... I have a 6 plant setup all individually caged with each cage having a 18inch diameter or 5ft circumferance, total surface are 25ft sq. Now multiply that by 6 plants = 150ft sq.

Rotation is giving me triple the surface area using the same light source. In simple terms, I am tripling my surface area but halfing the amount of light to any given branch. Only time will tell if it was worth the effort, just passed mid point so about 4 weeks to go.

Makes them lean side to side working there way up,Its mostly a personal prefrence.

i always thoght it was helping the side of the plant that dont get no light to get some but hell if it dont help im going to stop cause it does make sense that the plant use energy to refocuse its leaves where the light is when u rotate

rotating does allow you to visually inspect the whole plant.
I hate not knowing what lies on the dark side of the moon.
Keeps me up nights

I run a perpetual harvest of 12-16 in two tiers around 1K HPS and 2 400 MH. I ran for about two years rotating roundish shaped plants. If done as part of watering not much more added work. Once I accepted the concept of pruning for multiple colas 3 or more sticks in a pot became a pain in the butt. Almost injured an eye bending down not seeing one, So I decided to try an inverted "A" frame two verticals and one or two cross braces. This has worked well and I will flower most of my plants this way now with no rotation. The harvest off the first few have been impressive.

I vertical ScrOG, no rotating.

i will say.. if u need to do this go for it.. but i found a long time ago.. that it made my flowering times.. longer.. and for me. 2-3 weeks of flower.. is not worth the extra yield.. when i can use a screen or SOG and get the same yield in less time.

I am a stubborn fuka and unless I see it with my own eyes or documentation showing proof, I will try it myself. I am not saying those who have tried it are full of shit but there are many paramenters that can affect the outcome.

All you fella's that tried rotation but it didn't work for you, were they caged or simply free standing plants with V lighting and rotated? It is very significant if free standing. If they are not individually caged then as the plant developes and widens (from the bottom up) you are pushing the majority of the plant away from the light source. When caged, ALL plant matter is no more than 6 inches away from the light sourse for the duration of the grow, apart from when the plant has been rotated away from the light. A free standing plant if grown to 5ft will have a base diameter of 4-5 ft. The bottom ring of growth (widest point) is spoilt for light but each subsequent ring of growth is further and further from the light source. The main cola will be 2.5 - 3.5ft away from the light. All this will masively effect the outcome.

Another thing i am really liking is no pruning required at all. If planned and spread well through the cage, the whole plant gets high quality and even light. Other than the occaisional yellowing leaf, I have never pruned a thing which can only be good.

bigworm6969 said:

i always thoght it was helping the side of the plant that dont get no light to get some but hell if it dont help im going to stop cause it does make sense that the plant use energy to refocuse its leaves where the light is when u rotate

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Why do you think plants have the ability to move and follow the light..... Because it's what they do all day long, they chase the sun as it crosses the sky. It is what they are designed to do so in my eyes it's not really much of an issue.

I usually rotate my plants but i also have very long flowering times, usually around 66-70 days even for Indicas (maybe 80 days or so if i count from 12/12). Could that be he issue then? I won't be doing it for this grow..

I never rotate and I've been growing vertically for almost 10 years. It's not worth the trouble.[/QUOTE]

I've been growing from 5 to 20 plants outside every year since the 1990's, even before that, and I always move them here and there to get direct sunlight...I even turn the containers around 180 degrees to get direct sun on the other side, but I know that it's a fukin' plant, not a stripper sunbathing her monkey and titties. I'm sure if one side of a plant gets more direct dead-on sunshine than it's sister branches on the other side who only get ambient light...like, the bud from the sunnier side is not going to be way more potent...but I still keep doing it...OH, it's another hour of sunshine left, I better turn the pain-in-the-ass bitches. LoL I'm old eh...stuck in my ways. LoL Happy Harvest Budz.

NanoBrainz said:

I usually rotate my plants but i also have very long flowering times, usually around 66-70 days even for Indicas (maybe 80 days or so if i count from 12/12). Could that be he issue then? I won't be doing it for this grow..

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Do you age your buds from when you 12/12? Some say to start aging from when you first see signs of flowers...stigmas...I disagree with that, because you may be off by near a week...plus, with clones, you always see signs of sexing, like the odd hair, even when in veg state...so there's too much room for error in harvest picking time...THC may degrade into CBD or some other stuff aftewr the prime time to harvest. I always cut it short rather than let them go longer than i should, although I've done that too...end up with sleepy sticky way too resiny bud...I prefer the head high, so i harvest with some near clear trichome heads...but not too early.

MrMeanGreen said:

Why do you think plants have the ability to move and follow the light..... Because it's what they do all day long, they chase the sun as it crosses the sky. It is what they are designed to do so in my eyes it's not really much of an issue.

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Yep, you darn near convinced me...wait, gotta go and turn my plants. lol

If you rotate a big plant in not good conditions, e.g. too much heat, it can shock the plant because of the time the plant needs to adjust to the new circumstances.
I find that plants benefit from homogenous conditions greatly.