Monster Cropping

Quick question. When taking cuttings from a flowering plant, should you leave or cut off the top bud? Most sources say leave it and it will just kind of separate, but I've also seen people cut if off along with the smaller buds on the sides.

Leave it and let them root.

Be advised that rooting of a flowering clone can take twice as long as would a vegged clone. And once they start vegging again, those first few leaves are gonna look real weird - but eventually the three finger leaves will start.

Monster cropping can produce a mass of branches that can make a plant a bit unruly. Once they start showing normal VEG growth, you might want to remove some of those branches to make the plant a bit more manageable.

Thanks for the reply. I've opted for this method because I wanted my current grow to finish and come out of my tent before the clones are ready.
Taking them while the plant is still vegging would have left me with 2 months of not knowing what to do with the clones.

The bud sites is where the new branches will come from, so don't cut them off.

Also, the chances of rooting go down the longer the plant has been in flower. For example at day 20 of 12/12 I usually have them all root, just takes a little longer than vegging cuts from the same strain. At day 30 I generally have 20 - 30% that just don't root (or might if I gave them a month).

Yea, well i wont need them for about another month. Hence the timing. I took 6, if half of them make it, that's all I need because i want to also buy 1 or 2 new clones.

Grow311 said:

... Thanks for the reply. I've opted for this method because I wanted my current grow to finish and come out of my tent before the clones are ready ...

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Interesting ... the only two times that I monster-cropped was because the VEG clones didn't take. And even though they did clone after something like 24 days (as opposed to the normal 12 - 14 days with VEG clones) monster cropping isn't high on the propagation method list.

The first time, it was my doing as a clone noob. The second time it was my dog's doing as apparently dogs like the taste of the small fan leaves on the clones. But with the humidity dome now, neither one is a problem anymore.

What do you do with your clones for 2 months if you take them at the end of veg? Or do you have 2 tents?

Grow311 said:

... What do you do with your clones for 2 months if you take them at the end of veg? Or do you have 2 tents? ...

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Yeah. Separate VEG area (in the open) and 2 x 4 BLOOM tent with mobile SCROG nets that fit in both areas. I am able to spread them in VEG and move the SCROG-ged ladies into BLOOM.

Nice. I'm not that advance yet (first time ) I did think about trying to take them on the last day of veg next time and maybe try to keep cutting them back if they grow too fast. I would keep them under a T5 fluorescent light for 2 months... Thoughts?