Splitting The Stem 7-10 Days Before Harvest

[PigSquishy]

I was reading a legitimate article the other day from a trusted source about splitting the stem of the cannabis plant 7-10 days prior to harvest to increase the THC, which by the way the article brought out the information all did really seem to make sense. To sum it all up, they showed using a sharp blade like a chef's knife to slice into the base of the main stem within a couple of inches above the soil line, and then shoving the knife into the stalk they would line up a chopstick and work it into place before removing the knife. The theory of it is that the trichomes of the cannabis plant act in such a way to protect the plant from infection, and so in splitting the stem in this fashion forces the plant to recognize the high risk of infection and thus to protect itself pumps out a ton more trichomes just prior to the harvest. The article also brought out to only do this to one plant at a time and to expect to kill the plant the first several times you attempt to do this before you figure out how to do it correctly to keep the plant living after you do it. Thus it shouldn't be done by new growers because this is something you have to learn to master after you already know all of the basics of growing.

Since I am already familiar with grafting and the basis of what the article stated in it all made sense to me, but begged the question why haven't I ever heard of this topic and doing this before? I assume it is a new technique which is what I was off to research when I stumbled upon this site and this new forum, so has anyone here ever heard of this or know anything about it?

[Weasel]

Whatever the idea is, bullshit myth or unsubstantiated rumour, it's not new. It's been around forever. People keep bringing it up over and over again, as an idea to supposedly increase resin production. If it was a guaranteed way to raise THC as some claim then it seems like it would be standard operating procedure. Like all fringe ideas and myths, it stays on the fringe. Is it worth a try?. Yes, Absolutely. I advise you to try it as soon as possible in a side by side grow and report back. Please

[PigSquishy]

If there is one thing I've learned over the years is that its always worth listening to everything, then researching it, ask around about it and learn what others have tried, tested and learned and then give it a try yourself in a side by side tests with multiple clones to see if you can not only see a change but be able to reproduce that change on more than a single plant. For me this is just another part of the researching part of it in my quest to try something else, and if it doesn't work I'll try it again a couple years down the road when I have another idea of how to approach it differently again armed with even more new information. In the end the worst thing that could happen is I kill a plant and at least I can chalk that up to I learn something, and once I got it right I could figure out if it really does make a difference.

[BlueBudz]

I wonder what would happen if you split the top of a young plant? Would it work like topping?

[Doubledealing72]

I accidentally split my trainwreck auto at the top trying to lst too hard. That happened at day 33ish from seed, 3 or 4 days ago, and it's doing really well right now. There's a pic in my current grow journal in my signature of what I did to it by mistake, but it may have been a good thing lol

[insomniaczzz]

I've never heard of doing this, but I'm a relatively new grower. I do remember someone on this site mentioning sticking pins (like safety or sewing) throught the stems. I guess for the same reason, though they weren't really sure of the reasoning behind it. You seem to know a lot about growing and have experience so I'd say give it try if you don't mind running the risk of losing a plant.

BTW, welcome to the forum. Your input will be much appreciated.

[Royal Nugs]

I believe it was pagan rich that did the safety pin thing.

[insomniaczzz]

Do you remember how he made out doing that?

[kingfish]

Welcome back insom

[alltatup]

Greenthumb, yes, welcome to the forum. Eeeeew, it sounds violent to me. Like you're committing hara kiri on your cannabis plant...

[Dagmar]

I was thinking the same thing! I prefer to grow with gentle love.

[Royal Nugs]

There's several ways to stress the plant in late flowering to increase trichome production. Let it dry out, keep it dark for a couple days, drop the temp 20 degrees, feed with ice water, etc. All are anecdotal but seem to work.

I drop in a metal halide the last week or 2 from hps and let the plant dry out while it's sitting in the dark for 36 hours before harvest. They come out sticky icky after the dry and cure so I won't be changing anything anytime soon...

[kingfish]

Welcome back Nugs

[PigSquishy]

Thank You all for welcoming me to the Forums here, I've been looking for a place like this to come hang out in. So today I continued digging into this question of splitting the stem and I finally found a few people who were able to come straight out and compare the very things you brought up Royal Nugs.

Watering with the ice water was mentioned by some people as a way to boost trichome production, but I wasn't able to really find anyone saying anything more on the subject.

The majority of others spoke more of doing the 72-hours of darkness before the harvest. Those who claimed to do the 24-36 hours of darkness stated they did not see any worthwhile noticeable differences, although others pointed out nothing even happens for the first 36-hours and only after 72-hours of darkness has enough time passed to actually scare the plant into thinking its the last chance for survival. I personally questioned if any light during the dark period makes a huge difference in the end results of doing this, because I know there has been research done on flowers and it was shown that there was a noticeable difference in the size of the flowers for blacking them out from even the star light at night made a huge difference. That information came from a cannabis growing book by Ed Rosenthal, I can get the page number and book title for anyone wished to read it all themselves. I've also researched this with other growers who also claim to have added yields and better quality smoke for the 72-hours of absolute darkness.

When it comes to the letting the plant dry out for a couple of days prior to harvest I have read more than one article where two aspect of this idea were addressed. The belief in not watering the plant is that it will remove the water from the plant leaving behind more of the oils and trichomes because of it. The down side of doing this as it has been clearly improven in photos as far as I am concerned is that doing this actually costs you actual end yield weight, so really does it matter if it increases the end quality if you are doing so at the sake of the quality?

Even when it comes to the whole stem spitting idea, I did see it where it was done with needles/safety pins just being stuck into the plant, which to me just doesn't seem like it would be as effective as actually splitting the stem. On the YouTube videos I found and poured through for hours of those who claim this works, I did notice that those who claimed it worked were splitting several inches of the stem and then were prying it open with several chopsticks or other wooden wedges, and had the stem tied off above and below the cut to prevent further splitting of the stem. Sadly I did not find any side by side comparisons by anyone in my search, just those who claimed it worked and those who claimed it did not work. Those claiming it did not work all seemed to do a small cut or the safety pins/needles, while those who did more damage to the plant claimed it worked. All in all it was interesting to see how many people claimed it worked verses those who claimed it didn't work for them, and most importantly there seemed to be enough supporting evidence of people claiming this was the best way they'd found to increase the trichome production over all the other methods they have tried to this point.

While this is something which does peak my interest I will not be rushing out there to do it for a few months because I am currently working on some other experiments and I won't taint those results to try this until later, so if anyone here has tried it I'd love to learn more.

[PaganRich]

Excellent article mate, excellent

[insomniaczzz]

Greenthumb, since you seem to enjoy experimenting, as does Green75, please keep us updated on techniques that you find really are worthwhile. Green has convinced most of us that you can indeed top and defoliate an auto without compromising yield and quality. Thanks again for sharing with us!

[PigSquishy]

Auto's are something which have been brought to my attention that with the new strides forward with auto's I need to go back and look at them again, there is so much to learn on so many things... I am really happy to know i found a safe place for people like Green75 and me to do our experimenting and share our results with the goal of helping others.

[Frankiej]

I friggin did curiosity killed the cat and perhaps my baby . I split the stem on a girl this am . Let u all know the skinny next week . So much talk no better way than to see for my self .

[Frankiej]

So far 24 hours split she seems fine and I don't believe there has been any change as of yet

[alltatup]

I'm keepin my fingers crossed for her!!!

[Lojo 16]

Any update on the stem splitting Frankiej ?

[PaganRich]

I`ve started splitting the stem today on one of my girls.....if you think about it it does make sense especially in light of super-cropping, defoliating, LST, etc, etc, etc.....it might and probably doesn`t make a vast difference in weight but with all these additional little tricks then the sum of the parts should add up to increased yields per se....I used those plastic ties and a kitchen knife and slim bamboo skewer....undertook this today and the lass is still alive so so far so good....followed the guidance from this guy on Youtube..........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar0dSw_jS_Y

[PaganRich]

Well...the girl quoted above is roughly a week from harvest and I believe 2 weeks prior harvest is considered the max to undertake so I split another lass today who has 2 weeks to go roughly....now I`m growing Swiss cheeses and know rough yields for a plant...both these guys were roughly like others from previous grows so if there is a noticeable difference then there could be something to this

[PaganRich]

Just harvested a cheese and the buds were noticeably very sticky and there were a load of new tric`s as well....wonder if doing this will alter the hit slightly?

[PaganRich]

Another lass has gone for the slice....do like this technique and think it may add something as there appears to be some new glass like trichs

[Jr83]

How long before harvest did do this and what benefits did receive from splitting the stem? Also if u feel up it can critique my first grow for me thank u in advance if u do. https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...i-doing-so-far

[PaganRich]

Jr83 Hi mate...I`ve tried it 4 days, a week and then 2 weeks and really didn`t notice any difference. I think that if it does increase trich production then they will be immature trichs still when harvested but that can still give an energetic buzz which may go well with cloudier trich effects-I don`t know. Still worth trying, it might be a strain thing as currently I`m only growing Ice Breaker, Honeysuckle, Incredible Bulk, Delhi Friend and Critical Kush strains and it hasn`t worked on these...so, the jury`s out at the moment. Will have a look at your grow and thanks for the invite