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Super Cropping Outdoors Questions

gps420

gps420

New member
Well this is my plant. I'm sure some of you have seen her. She's outdoors and has been topped and lst'd and now I'm trying my luck at SC just to try and get as much out of the sun as possible. Just hope I did it right. She's responded very well to everything so far and her stems folded over nicely. Didn't have to force and no breaks. Well let me know what you think! Thanks guys!

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Hey man, what do you mean by supercropping? I thought it was the process of taking a clone during the flowering stage and reveg it?
I also have outdoor plants, yours is beautiful but quite short, how is that? Have you amended the soil before planting? (I have an auto supposed to be 1M height maximum, its standing at 1M80 near its end of flowering stretch. Another photo is nearly the same size, but still in veg... I guess I will have to remove the greenhouse to let it grow when it'll stretch.) My point being it surprised me, it might grow thrice what I had initially planned.
They sprouted beginning april though, maybe that's the reason :) 2/3 months of sun, good soil, good genetic.

Good LST, they recover so quickly :)
 
Supercropping is really a indoor technique, it does not particularly increase yeild by sun exposure. Here is a post i made on another forum.

Danofdanger said:
Theres nothing wrong applying plant training techniques outdoors, they will however be less effective at increasing yeild compared to indoors. Obvious training techniqies that should not be used outdoors are sea of green and screen of green.
Typically plant training is used indoors to create a even canopy and fill in the space to optimize the efficient use of light. Outdoors you dont have the same problem.

In outdoors i still prefer to top a plant at least once, to break the apical dominance to prevent favouring of the main cola. If applying supercropping, i would only recommend its use if height is a issue. I have found no real gain from the process and my understanding in plant biology suggest none with outdoors, its more for indoors.
Mainlining or manifolding may increase yeilds if you plant to keep the plant small. If it allows to grow too big, it will just bush out and act like a regular topped plant.
When a plant is allowed to bush out, space within the plant receives no light, so a lot of area goes unsed and wasted. When this happens, you get less yeild for the added amount of time in veg spent. For this reason i try to control how long a plant is in veg by planting at a specific time, allowing thr plant to grow so big that light can still penetrate inside. This creates good yeild and decent quality produce, last year i got 2 pounds per plant. But they were monsters. This year im doing small again.
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I found quite some use to supercropping outdoor, Dan. Without it, my plants would have been "constricted", airflow would have been much less between the branches and I noticed an increase in bud sites on the branches I "supercropped". Top branches gives shadow to lower one, lower one being the tallest ones, I bent them outside the plant, and they all get sun that way. Its not VERY useful if you have only one plant, even less if she's that kind of sativa where you can see through it from top to bottom (I have one like that, I didnt feel the need to touch it...).
So there are conditions that could be favorable to supercropping I think :) when the plant is creating shadow on itself, mainly. I know sun is supposed to travel through it and all, but really I saw a difference by spreading the branches. They all took on a life of their own. I should definitely take picture of those...
 
Spreading branches can be done with LST, using supercropping to just move branches out of the way is not ideal. Controlling the shape as the plant grows will be sufficient enough.
 
I don't understand the difference between LST and supercropping then? I think I did LST on my plants :) That seemed normal, necessary.
 
Haha no offence i laughed, it was so cute.
Yea supercropping is the actual bending of the branch in a 90° angle and actually physically "break" the internal structure to force a healing process and form a knuckle at the break. Its classified as a high stress damaging technique where as LST is low stress non damaging.
 
Yes I remember now, it makes sense ^^ Thank you for the info :)
Supercropping in my head is for strong branches, to carry more nutrients and support stronger weight. Not useful in my case ^^ Indeed I LST most of them, avoiding high stress (topping is the only high stress I do... Maybe also that LST where you bend the main stem on the side so that it does an even canopy (not needed outdoor, I know, it was a question of trying and space constriction, now that I've seen it, I think I should have done this on most of my plants!! haha)
 
Yes thats right, except the theory of the branch being capable to provide more nutrients is not exactly correct. The nutrient flow and pathways are not increased, the entire pathway from the bottom to the top would need to increase in size in proportion with the wound. What does happen is that translocation of phloem nutrients is directed to the site of damage to support the healing process. This is the very same reason why defoliation impacts growth (i read a few papers on the subject). Both technqiues require timing and technique to avoid negative yeilds.
 
Hmmm very interesting, I had not heard of the "phloem" nutrients, i will look it up! Thanks for the precision about the branch not being capable to provide more nutrients. makes senses the bottom part need to get bigger to transport more... The roots also i guess!
 
Actually it used to be an indoor plant. But I moved her outside about 2 weeks ago just because I didn't feel like she was growing right. But I'm guessing that might be why shes so short. IDK. Hopefully she still yields with all the supercropping. Also she looks sativa right? Coulda swore it was indica at first but leaves definitely look sativa now.
 
Thats ok, I have mainly Indica strain and still their leafs look like sativa somewhat. Yours is not more than that :) (out of 7 plants, only 1 look properly like indica leaves)
Yeah that's probably the reason for shortness! I felt like mine would be small when it was still in pot (too cold for outside), so I planted them as soon as temp got ok... they stayed small for a month and few weeks! Then it just BOOOOOMED. doubled in size within 15 days, and NO that wasnt the pre-flowering stretch yet. (Ill have to remove the greenhouse when it'll come, haha!)
 
Thats the same problem Im having with all my outside plants, I cant slow em down w topping or training.
 
Right! Its amazing and fun to watch, not bad at all, possible space issues for my four veggers in the future hahaha We already added a foot of hieght to their t5 cabinet and the only have 4 inches left so back inside they go. Ive learned so much about light differences though!
 
The spectrum you mean? Or the light itself (cfl/hps-mps etc)? It changes the result in spectacular ways? P.M me if you want :)
 
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