Stem splitting test

Hey there ho there

I’m doing an experiment on 3 tweed argyle strains all inmid to late 7th week flower, harvesting Tuesday mid day and decided to try something. One is almost done and hairs are 80% brown, one has started foxtailing, and the other it’s like 60-70 brown haired. The almost done one I’m leaving alone, foxy I split the stem on 2 Out of 3 of the stems (I know highly controversial) and the almost done one I split the main stem before the branching out of stems, and I’m going to add ice to the last one tomorrow for about half the day. During all this everything will be going into 72 hours dark. If I feel like it I might turn them on in 24 hours for 12 and then go for another 48 just to add some photosynthesis in there we’ll see how it goes.

here’s the pictures of the tricomes now on the split foxtail followed by the regular split.


An update will follow Tuesday at some point on if these tricks or whatever they claim to increase mad amounts of trics really work. The pictures will all be taken in the exact same place as these and will be posted here. Let me know what you guys think as a case study I guess you could call it. Don’t be an asshole because no one gives a shit about your opinion.

Here are some pictures of the splits in explaining first pic is foxy and the second one is the 60-70% brown haired one
I also decided to lengthen my night coming up to 16 hours then 12 hr light followed by 48 darkness, with ice added only to the one that is 60-70% brown haired in both night periods

Here’s a quick update 12 hours before I harvest, it’s been 36hrs dark 2 ice feedings on the single stem split one.

here are some pictures comparing the nearly done one I haven’t touched other than these pics, vs the single split stem with ice.This is very Interesting.


The untouched almost done one is the first picture, followed by the single split stem with added ice. I’m not sure how to explain this to people who don’t believe these procedures but this is my first time attempting these things. And it looks like the stem split and ice are absolutely working making these bad boys frosty af.12 hours I’ll post more pics on the trichomes and each individual plants frostiness

My flower has more trichs at day 40 then yours does at harvest time.

Stem splitting and ice is bro science bullshit.


Also your plant is nowhere near ripe, still 3-4 weeks away FYI

bk78 said:

My flower has more trichs at day 40 then yours does at harvest time.

Stem splitting and ice is bro science bullshit.


Also your plant is nowhere near ripe, still 3-4 weeks away FYI
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Congratulations, maybe if I grew a frosty genetics as well I could go around making fun of every one who is growing a less potent medical strain too. Tweed argyle harvests at 8-9 weeks Which currently am at just over 8. For this genetics these buds are frosty, but you wouldn’t know that because instead of reading like most people do who are curious about these things, you, like to whip out your little sausage and swing it where it doesn’t belong. So thanks for your useless information.

So because some trash LP tweed harvests at 8 weeks you should too? Your plant still has 3-4 weeks at least.

I stand with my statement that splitting your stem and ice is bro science bullshit.

aya! thanks for doing this test. i'm kinda confused because both plants look about the same level of frost to me. your saying 2nd is frostier than the first? also how does this ice thing work?

bk78 said:

So because some trash LP tweed harvests at 8 weeks you should too? Your plant still has 3-4 weeks at least.

I stand with my statement that splitting your stem and ice is bro science bullshit.

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One plant is easily 50% Amber, another about 30% and one is hard to tell due to the foxtailing, maybe the images with the trichs don’t fully show the areas that are amber but I would say they are decent for harvest at these ratios, and considering I’ve never tried stem splitting or ice and thought I would give it a whirl so other people can see my individual conclusive evidence is just helping the growing community of these endless reads of useless words that don’t actually have a study to back them. This is my study with my views with what I am getting based on what I am doing to these specific plants.

raggyb said:

aya! thanks for doing this test. i'm kinda confused because both plants look about the same level of frost to me. your saying 2nd is frostier than the first? also how does this ice thing work?

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I will post pictures on the trichs tomorrow before I harvest just to conclude if they are indeed or not larger or more of them, I’m hoping it’s not all jokes and wives tales but we’ll see I guess. The ice thing is just feeding the plant ice cubes the last few days/ weeks before harvest in hopes of "tricking the plant to think the growing season is ending" thinking it’s colder and will die soon the more trichs it’ll produce to try to pollinate before it dies. Will update with my evidence tomorrow to conclude these myths

Those trich pics you posted earlier were of the sugar leaves. Those don't tell you when to harvest and trichs on the calyxes only guide you once your in the harvest window. I agree that the plant looks like it has several more weeks to go before I would even be checking the trichomes.

It's likely too late now but I would consider holding off to see the buds really develop on your next grow.

This obsession with trichome pics is really one of the major reasons why alot of plants get cut far too early.... calyxes haven't even begun to bulk up yet lots of folks stress their loopes... and then there's are so many flaws or errors one can make with this... best just to look at the plant itself...

I also think that to drive a nail through the mainstem won't affect much what the3 plant is doing... at all... both xylem/phloem will still work.. except the openings could be used by pathogens to infiltrate the plant from within....

OP you know what "girdling" is? that's actually something usefull, so if you like to torture your plants

Looks like maybe slightly more resinous. It's good that you're doing this experiment though, because when you do a search to try to find out if it actually works or not you can't get a straight answer. All the threads that come up in Google are people asking others if it works, not showing us if it did or not, and the others always don't know either. Everybody was talking about it, nobody actually doing a side by side to find out. Shouldn't be that hard, only takes a week to find out. I'll try it myself next time I get to that point in the grow cycle. Why only a week before though? Why not like a month before?

Ok harvest update, everyone mentioning my buds have 2-3 weeks these pictures (I didn’t mention till now) are sub canopy buds ones that have been in ambient light. I thought pictures of those would be more conclusive because they are closer to the bottom and have no risk of light damage or anything due to my slight issue with a little heat. Here’s pictures of my bud on the top end.
Now with the trichomes and seeing if the stem split or anything was actually worth the time here’s a picture of the trichomes in the one I didn’t mess around with vs the ones I split and split and ice
This one here is the foxtailing one

this one here is the split stem and ice

take these photos as you will and come up with your own thesis, because I guarantee itI’ll just end up with people telling you it’s bro science. Could have been alot more pictures for you guys, but I got a little greedy with harvest took me like 10 hours. So take these photos as you will and if you hate on it try to find a study or something Better to prove this study any better, cheers!

i might even post pics on the separate ones in a bit after a dry a little let me know if you’re interested

Honestly the top buds just confirm that those plants were cut at least two weeks early and probably closer to a month. They calyxes have not swollen, 50% of the pistils are still white, and they're all standing on end. I hope you're happy with your havest though. I have no skin in your game, just offering advice.

Side note, trichomes on sugar leaves mean nothing. Trichomes on calyxes guide when in the harvest window you should cut. They tell you nothing about whether the plant is in that window yet. Yours was not close.

B|uDreamer said:

Honestly the top buds just confirm that those plants were cut at least two weeks early and probably closer to a month. They calyxes have not swollen, 50% of the pistils are still white, and they're all standing on end. I hope you're happy with your havest though. I have no skin in your game, just offering advice.

Side note, trichomes on sugar leaves mean nothing. Trichomes on calyxes guide when in the harvest window you should cut. They tell you nothing about whether the plant is in that window yet. Yours was not close.

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All about that learning curve, thanks for the info. Hard to gather anything from the internet, so much contradicting information, I also just went off of the growers recommendations, but if anything atleast it’ll be a good head high

Just intuitively, I wouldn't think a hole in the middle of the stem would do much. The water and nutes travel through the green layer on the outside of the stem, not the white woody part inside. A vertical slit wouldn't impede water and nute flow at all really, though a horizontal slit would. Maybe do a variation of "ringing" where you don't cut all the way around but like a short slit on each side to cut the flow in half. About ringing, I read that in other plants, like trees, all it does is make sugars build up in the parts above the ring, because they can't be transported down to the roots anymore. I can't see having a bunch of sugar built up in the buds as being a good thing, probably be pretty harsh, might add weight though. No idea what it would do in regard to resin, might increase it, might not.

This "white" is called xylem and consists of dead cells which enabled the massflow of water which gets sucked towards the leaves by the transpirational pull. As the mainstem expands in thickness the inner xylem withdraws and creates an empty "pipe" where pathogens could travel throughout the plant if they find intrusion.

The outter layer is the phloem and its main function is to transport energy-rich photosynthetic assimilates throughout the plant, including the roots, the apical meristem and all other side shoots as well.

Plants water-transport systems differ greatly from us animals as they do not have a circulatory system in place, but instead source-sink mechanisms, and one needs to further differentiate between apoplastic & symplastic transport.

Anyway, your conclusions about the hindrance of waterflow and the function of girdling are true.

I contend that a vertical slit in the stalk would do next to nothing, other than maybe causing some water loss by evaporation because it's exposed to the air from the stick holding the slit open. Simply withholding water would do the same thing, I would think. Some vegetables get split stems as a disease, like cucumbers. Not completely through but like somebody ran a knife down one side of it and pulled it open so only the back of the slit was still together. No reference said it increased yield or quality.