Girdling

Some of you may know of this method. Most of you probably have no clue what it is. It has been discussed before in the past, and since there is no information I can find on it here, I will enlighten those whom do not know about the beneficial effects of girdling your plants.

Girdling is used in agriculture for many different types of plants. You ever see a 500 pound pumpkin or super large fruits? that may have been helped by a mixture of girdling and hormone treatment, and possibly other techniques. Girdling itself, has the potential to increase not only your yield size, but also the individual size of each flowering cluster. It can also make your buds sweeter with a stronger aroma, and also speed maturity.

Girdling is closely related to supercropping. Except supercropping changes the concentration gradient to allow for better passive transport within the plant. Girdling is essentially the opposite. Girdling can be risky if done excessively or improperly. It can kill any area that is above the girdle. You essentially want to restrict the flow alot or slightly by either cutting a complete 'ring' of the stems outer surface, or for an easier, safer method, tieing a strap around the main stem or branch, tight enough to slightly restrict flow without breaking or completely crushing the stem.

This can be done for best results, 2-4 weeks before harvest. You can even use metal twist ties to serve this purpose. If you remove every bit of flower growth on a girdled stem, except the main growth (optional), the left over growth will recieve the full nutrition every leaf has to offer above the girdle, increasing flower size. This method is also used to create a gold coloration in the buds. when near flower maturity, a girdle will restrict the flow, and basicly slowly strangle the branch or stem area above the girdle. this will cause the flowers to use up all of the available nutrients in these leaves, and they will slowly die off.

The buds themselves will also slowly die off, and can change into a golden color. ever wonder how they make "Acapulco gold" buds gold? well, they say it is the columbian strains natural characteristics, which may be true. But girdling can also give your buds the same 'golden' color, and contribute to resin producton, along with quicker, less problematic drying/curing. It is an easy technique, but the timing must be right for it to be beneficial and not harmful or useless. It is an interesting approach.

Anyone thinking of trying this, should girdle only a few branches, each with different girdle pressures. Since it is the same plant, you have a control factor. After harvest, You can compare the girdled branches to the ungirdled branches, and see which came out better. I have never tried it, but I would be eager to see results and comparisons. Anyone reading this, that may be growing, and only have 2-4 weeks to harvest could give this a try and in less than a month, we can see results of how well this technique can work or not. If done correctly, there is no doubt it would work. But comparisons from the same plant would be interesting to see.

Dude that was a cool post! But you sure this works? so you put something to like strangle the plant sort of no? Instead of the plants concentrating on other things it pushes its energy to making buds?