During the early flowering stage the plant is still growing and will recover more quickly from the stress of super cropping. However, if you decide to super crop during the flowering stage, it's important to be very gentle and avoid causing any damage to the bud sites.
WHEN TO SUPER CROP. If you're a rookie grower, we recommend super cropping your plants just once during the late vegetative stage, ideally 3–7 days before you flip them over to flowering. This will give them time to recover from the stress of cropping before they start focusing their energy on developing buds.
You can also use super cropping in the late vegetative and early flowering phases if you want to even out your canopy and boost resin production for a bigger, more aromatic, and ultra-potent harvest. As they recover, your plants will form thick, hard knots at the crop points.
The best time to commence SuperCropping, is roughly 7-10 days into your plant's flowering phase, roughly when the branches of the plant commence their 'stretch' phase. This time length is indicative of a strain that would be fully mature in 8-10 weeks.
Knowing when to flip your grow from the vegetative to the flowering stage is one of the most important factors to ensure the success of your plants. This is because making the switch too early can result in a smaller total yield. Conversely, making the switch too late can result in overgrowth, or burned buds.
Lollipopping is a simple technique that growers of all levels can apply early in bloom to boost bud production.
So there are three different times we recommend defoliating during Flower: Right before you switch to 12/12. Once between the beginning of Flower and the 3-week mark. 3 weeks after beginning flower is the last time you'll want to defoliate.
For new growers, it is advisable to super crop plants only once, during the late vegetative stage, ideally 3-7 days before flipping to flowering. This time interval allows the plants time to recover from the stress caused before they begin redirecting their resources to bud development.
In theory, so long as the cannabis plant is healthy, you can super crop several times, depending on when you start. As it's a high stress technique, the plant will need 5 -7 days to recover after each super crop while in the vegetative state. However, inexperienced growers are advised to play safe and do it once.
Your plants should recover from supercropping within a few days.
You'll want to lollipop your plants just before they begin flowering. We also recommend pruning—removing unnecessary branches—as well, although you should proceed slowly, and with a plan. Start with sharp, clean shears to prune your plants.
You can remove fan leaves during flowering in much the same way you do during veg. Prune away large leaves that are overshadowing bud sites, as well as dead or dying fan leaves. One thing to keep in mind is that you should prune in intervals, giving at least a couple weeks between each session.
Prior to the flowering stage, growers often remove around half of a plant's fan leaves to encourage bud production. Right before it is time to harvest the buds, you can remove most of the fan leaves from the plant. However, it is important to allow a few days for the plant to recover before harvesting.
If you intend to super crop or knuckle your plants to this extent, this is how you do it: Locate a point between internodal growth on the main stem. Gently pinch and twist the stalk in opposing directions until you feel the inner fibers break and the branch becomes droopy.
Normally the first 2 weeks of bloom are those when you will see your plant stretching the most. But some of those strains which exhibit maximum cannabis towering stretch may continue stretching in etc 3rd or even 4th of bloom.
Right before you begin to harvest buds, you can remove most or all of your fan leaves. However, always allow two days for the plant to recover before harvesting buds.
Shock to the plant: Defoliating too many leaves at once can cause stress and shock to the plant, affecting its growth and health. Reduced yields: If the plant is defoliated too early or too late, it can reduce yields and the overall quality of the buds.
While it's simple enough, there's definitely some risk involved with defoliation. Specifically, it's all too easy to over-defoliate a plant, stunt its growth, and remove nodes that could've developed some great bud.
Super cropping autoflowering cannabis plants can be risky, but it has been done: Hold a section of your plant's stem and twist it gently between your fingers until you hear a snap. Be careful and remember that you only want to damage the stem's inner herd while keeping its outer herd intact.
You want to make sure you defoliate your plants right before you flip them from veg to flower. This way they're ready to start growing immediately once they enter the flower cycle. The first couple weeks of growth in the flower cycle produce a lot of fan leaves.
The Super Cropper Tool is specifically designed to aid in the overall process without causing irreversible damage to your plants. Select healthy, pliable stems for crimping and maintain a consistent stressing height when Super Cropping multiple areas of the same plant.
Once your plants are in the flowering stage, you will definitely need to defoliate them during or after the post-veg stretch. That is because after switching to the 12/12 light cycle, your plant will go through a tremendous growth spurt for about three weeks. We recommend defoliating your plant in Wee 2 of Flower.
After about three days, new shoots will sprout and you'll find bushy leaves after 3-7 days. The next defoliation can be carried on around week 3 of flowering (make sure that the plants have been recovered). When the leaves start to regrow and become bushy, and then repeat the previous process.
Deleafing is most effective during the flowering cycle. When done around the 20th and 40th day of flower, this technique will allow for good airflow throughout the canopy and help ensure that most of the plants' energy is directed towards flower production.
Therefore most weed cultivators, growing indoor and outdoor cannabis seeds insist that lollipopping weed plants should take place before the plant has completed its veg stage. There is a logic to this because lollipopping is a medium to high stress training technique which is going to have an impact on your plant.