Yes, I stabbed my stalk with a wooden skewer

Splitting Stems: Should You Take A Knife To Your Cannabis Plant?

Taking a knife to your cannabis plants a few days before harvest seems pretty counterintuitive. However, many growers say stem splitting can produce bigger yields and more trichomes for tastier, more potent bud. Read on to learn more.



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20 Jun 2019
Stem splitting is a very aggressive grow technique that’s generating a lot of discussion in the cannabis cultivation community. Those in favour of this technique argue that it stresses the plant in a beneficial way, forcing it to take up more nutrients and produce bigger, more potent buds. Could this be true? Keep reading to find out.
THE THEORY BEHIND STEM SPLITTING
Most grow techniques that involve stress work on the same principles; stressing a cannabis plant encourages it to take up more nutrients, which in turn results in more vegetative growth and heavier harvests.
The theory behind stem splitting is no different. However, it’s a lot more controversial than other high-stress techniques such as topping, fimming, or super cropping. After all, taking a knife to the stems of your flowering cannabis plants is pretty hardcore.
Nonetheless, many growers suggest stem splitting can produce bigger, denser buds and a higher concentration of trichomes. Trichomes actually serve to protect the cannabis plant against pests, environmental factors, and disease. Growers believe that the stress induced by splitting your plants at the end of their flowering cycle pushes them to produce more trichomes just in time for harvest.

Yes sir! I'm all about the physical stress (as long as it's not overdone) on plants. I feel like it helps make up for the low wattage I do for my grows. From this grow, I think that super cropping actually put more stress on my plant than this skewer did!
 
Yes sir! I'm all about the physical stress (as long as it's not overdone) on plants. I feel like it helps make up for the low wattage I do for my grows. From this grow, I think that super cropping actually put more stress on my plant than this skewer did!
I agree that supercropping probably did a lot more than puncturing it. I've had my stems split when I did some pretty aggressive training, and then they really started to split when they started gaining some weight.

Here's the one that was really badly split. Clone only Green Crack at day 40.
SplitStemGC.jpg
GreenCrackDay40.jpg
GreenCrackDay40Closeup.jpg
 
I think I’m going to split mine when she wakes up today! I mean she’s got about a week or two left, so if she doesn’t like it I can cull her and start drying her out. What do y’all think? These pictures are from Friday. I’ve got until noon to decide
 

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Much research so far has shown that prolonged stressed out biology releases responses that are not good, be it the health quality of production meat or lab mice killing each other. I don't suppose plants are any different even if the effects on consumption are difficult to comprehend. While it may only be the case that more of this compound and less of that effects the high.. that could equally mean more of this and less of that reduces medical effectiveness.
 
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I think I’m going to split mine when she wakes up today! I mean she’s got about a week or two left, so if she doesn’t like it I can cull her and start drying her out. What do y’all think? These pictures are from Friday. I’ve got until noon to decide
Your stalk looking like a beast, why not give it a shot? Post your results 8)
 
Your stalk looking like a beast, why not give it a shot? Post your results 8)
I went ahead and did it, and more! So I now have about 1/4 of my girl hanging, and 3/4 still intact with a split stem.
 

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Nice! How long are you gonna keep it like that? Try waiting at least another week. I think your buds still have a lot of potential to grow
I figured I would try a week, the rest of the plant is still healthy! And it gives me time to get the first arm dry and start to cure.
 
I figured I would try a week, the rest of the plant is still healthy! And it gives me time to get the first arm dry and start to cure.
Got about an oz. off the branch that came off.
 

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Gatorade? That's old school. Powerade is what the big boys are using these days. If you really want to give your plants a boost then I suggest one of the Monster or Rockstar fruit flavored drinks. They have the energy needed to make the buds really swell.

I've been looking at the Full Throttle line. The Blue Agave sounds like a winner but the citrus sounds tasty as well. Plus it has a cool sounding name and a fancy looking logo. It has to be good.

fullthrottle.jpg
I’m trying this on my next run. I’m expecting great results.2679340D-B150-42AB-928F-39A744187643.jpeg2679340D-B150-42AB-928F-39A744187643.jpeg
 
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