That's just it these Autocobs are well light is top to bottom wish you could actually see what I'm talking about these babies are spread eagle without training
Once the tops really become apically dominant though they will often accelerate in growth and force you to raise the light higher and higher off the secondary branches. If you supercrop the main tops, it will delay you having to raise the lights and increase overall productivity by giving making the secondary branches think they have a shot at becomes the apically dominant tip.
Work in progress article
Plant Manipulation - Supercropping
What is the point of Supercropping?
Supercropping allows you to accomplish 2 things. One first and foremost is an increase in bud size and if managed right an increase in overall production by opening up more of the underneath bud growth to available light. I have witnessed this quite a bit on lower shaded out branches on outdoor plants. Nodes close to healed supercropped wounds tend to have larger buds than those not cropped, and redirecting the direction opens up more of the under formed buds to create a better overall harvest.
The second thing Supercropping does, is it allows you to shorten the overall height of a branch, so it doesn't get light burn indoors if its getting too tall for the available vertical space, or perhaps for stealth purposes outdoors to keep it below surrounding vegetation or below a wooden fence.
I have messed with Supercropping for over 3 years now. I do two types of supercropping. One type is done to create a wound thats easily heals, and deals little stress to the plant. I have done this on outdoor plant on side by side branches and i have found that most strains indeed get better formed bud on nodes surrounding the healed wounds. This is the effect caused by the increase in nutrient flow available in surrounding nodes from the increased cellular structure when the wound heals.
Technique - First thing you do is grasp the branch you want to supercrop between your thumb and forefinger. The you apply increasing pressure while rolling the branch between your forefinger and thumb until you feel the plants walls start to collapse. Once you get the knack of this technique, you will find there is no tip droop and there is not setback in growth.
PIC Supercropped Knuckle 1
The second type of Supercropping done, I call Supercropping Redirection. This technique is used when height needs to be reduced, or to better manage the canopy. Using the whole available space and controlling the canopy is a key factor in pulling the maximum amount of fine bud from your available space, whether you are growing indoors or outdoors. This type of training is more stressful for plants than the first technique, and sometimes the tips will droop for a couple of days before the wound heals and it stands back up.
Technique - Develop a plan for canopy management, and figure out where you would like a branch to end up before you start cropping. The more evenly spaced the branches are and exposed to strong light, means more bud in the end, so plan accordingly. The technique used for low stress Supercropping is used as described above, but as you feel the walls collapsing you manipulate the upper half of the branch to the direction you want it to go. Using a piece or two of plastic coated wire you will be able to secure it exactly where you want it for maximum effectiveness. Branches manipulated this way will eventually turn themselfs upright and grow up toward the light. Using plastic coated wire you will be able to control their direction further. Grow a plant with a perfectly managed canopy and you will increase bud size, bud quantity, and also the depth of well formed buds.
Apical Dominance - This is a good article to explain apical dominance and how it affects growth. This is the definition of Apical Dominance when relating to plants. "Apical dominance, the phenomenon whereby the main, central stem of a plant is dominant over other side stems."
This means that the growing tip closest to the light source(the main cola on a standard untrained plant) will grow the best, and receive the most growth energy that the plant can muster. If you pull that main growing tip down further than another secondary branches growing tip, you will essentially transfer the growing energy to that tip, pushing it to grow faster and evetually develop more bud. Every growing tip wants to be the apical dominant tip with the best light. Creating an even canopy with most growing tips competing for the best spot will give the best results, especially if canopy management is done properly, and each of the growing tips receives lots of light, and therefore maximizes bud production during the flowering cycle.
So if you pull the main tip down past another secondary branch tip, you will transfer the main source of growing energy to the tip(s) closest to the light. In an ideal world, there would be a perfectly even canopy, where all growth energy would be evenly be distributed amongst the branches receiving adequate light. Scrog(Screen of Green) growers have proved that creating an even canopy is certainly one of the best ways to produce top crops of perfect buds, and that is due to the perfectly managed canopy.
That's not bad I can't wait to see what I pull from the Kush room with 900 draw watts from burples with the 8 35k LED sups
my cuz was telling me about this very same thing I need to learn to do this and a Scrog would work to. I can super crop in flower
