i read this on another forum and i thought it was really interesting thought i would share it and i have really seen anyone do it ......

Monster Cropping


Monster Cropping or Flowering Clones is another method of growing that was brought to my attention by one of our members; JWP, who also was kind enough to provide the pictures for this part of the guide. This method involves taking clones of flowering plants and then forcing them to root and re-veg, which eventually leads to very bushy plants with a great number of branches and nodes. I named this technique Monster Cropping because that is what you will get, real monster plants, but also because this method was introduced to the scene by a grower named greenmonster714. He in turn credits a grower named Feral for discovering this technique.

Taking clones from flowering plants goes against all that has been said about cloning cannabis and might therefore seem a bit confusing at first but the science behind the technique is sound and the results speak for themselves.

You start by taking clones of a plant that is about 21 days into flowering. This seems to be the best time to do it but you can also take clones at a later stage with similar results. The lower branches make better clones as they have not yet become rigid and will also root faster and more easily than say the top cola. Move the new cutting into a glass of water and let it sit for a while in order to make sure that no air gets into the vascular system during handling, as this can be fatal to your new plant. You should make the cut so that it runs along the stem as this will increase the surface area for water and possibly nutrient uptake, depending on what method of cloning you use. Personally, I have found that using a small hydroponic setup or a propagation bubbler to be by far the best way to clone cannabis plants. I will not expand on the subject of cloning here, if you need more information on how to clone your plants, have a look at the official cloning thread by JJScorpio

In the picture below, you can see how the clone from a flowering plant been has placed in a propagation bubbler for rooting and re-vegging. This also means that you will have to put the clone back under a veg light schedule of 20/4 or even 24/0. Any less and the clone might just continue flowering. Clones do not need strong light so a small CFL will do. You can remove some of the buds and leaves at this stage in order to encourage the plant to revert back into its vegetative cycle but leave the topmost shoot alone.


It will take several weeks for the clone to root, some never do, so it is best that you take a great number of clones at the same time in order to ensure that at least one makes it on to the next stage. It might be a good idea to place the clones inside a humidity dome, which can be bought at gardening stores or custom built for your specific needs. The high humidity inside the dome will make sure that the plants do not dry out and die. Ventilate the dome every day just to make sure that the plants don't get attacked by mold.

Keep in mind however that the most important thing when it comes to cloning is to provide the fresh cuttings with plenty of oxygen and that is why the propagation bubbler is so effective compared to other methods.




The clones might be a sad sight at first but as soon as they root, they will also revert back into the vegetative stage and start growing again. Once the clones have rooted properly and started growing again, they will put out single unserrated leaves at first but the normal leaves are soon to follow. It might be a good idea to apply some training at this stage, tying down some of the tops will encourage even more branching. You can also provide some heat underneath the clones as this will speed up the rooting process considerably.



When the plant starts growing again, the incredible branching power of the flowering clone becomes apparent.


As you can see, this plant has grown into a real monster, and all this without ever topping the plant. That's the beauty of this technique; you can forget all about topping and FIM'ing since the flowering clone will sprout all these new branches all by itself.

This plant is now perfectly suited for a SCROG or perhaps even a SOG grow. This one plant can easily fill up an entire Scrog net in no time. Several of these plants grown in SOG will definitely give you a grand harvest.

There are other benefits from using this technique; it also removes the need for keeping mother plants. When the newly re-vegged plant is flowered, it can also provide more clones for a perpetual harvest. Recycling at its best. This might be of interest to those who need to keep down their number of plants.

Needless to say, this method is highly effective thanks to the heavy branching that occurs after a flowering clone is re-vegged. With further training and some patience, you will get some real monster plants and thereby also a monster harvest.


think ima try it out when im flowering but if anyone dose it before me plz post results and heres a link to the whole thing pretty good read if u dont know about training http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377

Wow ! Thanks Dampothead ! during this greenhouse?outdoor grow i tried various training methods and now prefer lst w/ light topping,pinching. My methods were a little crude. this helped.Photos promised. I am doing a few outdoor scrogs this year.

I have never named it monster cropping but have 2 of them in flower right now and they are taking up an entire 4x4 tent,that I did exactly as described above, and 3 more in veg. One girl alone presently has 31 colas coming up on her. I only have ability to take upload micro shots as for some wierd reason my phone won't upload to my computer. But yes, this absolutely works. The 2 I have going right now are Medibud (this looks like it will have 19 main colas, and White LSD (this has 31 main colas. It took me about 2 1/2 months to veg them out to be monster plants and now they are both together under 1 x 1000 hps but I could easily only leave one there, I just don't have enough lights.

The White LSD is approximately 39" wide, 38" tall and at day 28 of flower. She has 31 colas that are all in full light, plus other budz too and is an awesome sight. I have no idea how much she will harvest but if each of those colas just gives me a 1/4 oz, it adds up to a half pound so I expect that and probably more, just off the one plant.

for legal med patients/caregivers in some places, such as where I live, there are plant limits. I am allowed 14 plants as we have 2 patients living here but it is only 7 in this state per patient. Using this method, I can harvest 1lb every 4 to 5 weeks by using two 4x4 tents to flower. I have a 1000 watt hps in one and two 600 watt hpss in the other. To do this I also have over 2000 cfm worth of ducted fan going and an in room airconditioner plus the homes ac keeping the house at 75f. keeping the entire room at exactly 72f 24/7. My total plant count right now is only 9 plants and some in the cloner, which means I am under legal count and yet harvest a pound a month. That's the result of using project management principles to my grow and maximizing every aspect of the environment. Doing what you have referred to as monster cropping is definitely one of the things that I do as a part of that. For those that are aspiring to have a similiar set up. I started on this grow from scratch 9 months ago. I had a 600 hps and a closet. I poured every dime I could find into it for 9 months now and even went without smoking for the first 4 months so that I could afford it. Now I have a fat harvest every month. The last one was actually 790 grams dried trimmed cured bud that goes for $400 an oz at any dispensary.

thats just not what i expected ...... im really eager to try this method of training and rebel did u have any trouble with the clones rooting or is it just like another clone?.?.?

RD, your setup is clearly totally dial-ed as they say. If you're pulling an elbow per plant, you're doing something right!!

Learned something today, thanks to this thread! What a great way to boost results with basically no extra cost or work. This is definitely something I'll be trying asap. Thanks for this guys.

Cheers

how long was the reveg period Rebel?

when you re-veg. a plant will it turn out like this or is this a from clone only tech.?

I did this once, when I saw the freaky morphology of the re-veg'd clones I thought, oops, toss 'em out. I had no idea you could go on to get great results...

Big question though, do they retain these changes? I mean, could I take a clone from a plant 21 days in flower, and use that as a mother in my veg chamber, and have all the clones from that mother be just as bushy?

. . . and people always say that cloning into flower is no good. I have done this over and over again. Many here have seen some very nice pics of the results I had.

I'm one of those morons who said that...apologies. Really have to try this someday...it's on my list! thanks for setting the record straight GB