I have had some very good results using it in the last week or 2 of flowering. I don't use the technique outdoors though because of risk of bugs or infection getting into the split. I think the technique came about in the late 70's early 80's and the concept behind it is that the plant raises its natural defense mechanisms ( trichome production/potency) to defend against whatever is attacking it. I have been using the technique indoors for the last decade without any negative effects on the plants and from what I have documented it has increased tric production in most cases. One could argue that tric production would have gone up anyways in the last few weeks of flower but I have done side by side grows of the same cultivars and it has sown an increased tric coverage. Be careful when you split the base of the stalk as sometimes the split can get out of control going up the stalk. I usually tie off the stalk above and below where I plan to split it so the crack doesn't get too big. I then will put a few toothpicks to hold the stalk open.Was thinking about trying the stem split but everything I read says not to with autoflowers. But if your able to don't see why I shouldn't give it a try.
Yeah, I've seen some old timers doing that in the late eighties, early nineties on photo's of course. But read some books where stem splitting was already discussed in the early seventies. In India and Nepal they supposed to be doing that for way way longer than that...I have had some very good results using it in the last week or 2 of flowering. I don't use the technique outdoors though because of risk of bugs or infection getting into the split. I think the technique came about in the late 70's early 80's and the concept behind it is that the plant raises its natural defense mechanisms ( trichome production/potency) to defend against whatever is attacking it. I have been using the technique indoors for the last decade without any negative effects on the plants and from what I have documented it has increased tric production in most cases. One could argue that tric production would have gone up anyways in the last few weeks of flower but I have done side by side grows of the same cultivars and it has sown an increased tric coverage. Be careful when you split the base of the stalk as sometimes the split can get out of control going up the stalk. I usually tie off the stalk above and below where I plan to split it so the crack doesn't get too big. I then will put a few toothpicks to hold the stalk open.