Subscriptions - Maximum Yield Cannabis USA November/December 2020 | Page 62

Staking If staking plants, be sure to cover the top of the stake with something soft such as tape or a ping pong ball. There have been plenty of hospital visits from eyes being poked by bamboo and other stakes. Stakes can be very handy tools to hold up buds as your plants get larger, especially in container gardens. With varying sized plants, you may not have an evenly spread out canopy. Stakes can support individual branches and/or the entire plant. There are several ways to stake plants, but a good rule of thumb is to first stake the main branch, which will prevent the plant from falling over. For most plants, this is great for holding up the main stalk with added support to keep other branches continually reaching towards the light. Sometimes, however, the need for additional stakes on each branch is apparent when the buds began to bend and break the branches with their weight. It’s a great problem to have so don’t fret! Just support the plants one way or another. If necessary, it’s fine to use multiple stakes in the same container in order to support several large colas. “ The same plant will yield a considerable amount more when spread out in a trellis because the bottom buds will not be shaded out anymore.” Yo-yos, Etc. Yo-yos are simply wound up fishing line or a piece of string with a hook at the end that can clip around a branch to support a branch being pulled over by a heavy bud. The other end of the yo-yo can be tied up to the ceiling or wall or somewhere else that will support the string and weight of the bud. Yo-yos can be found at most grow stores, though they may not be called yo-yo by product name. I am just referring to them as yo-yos because they behave much like a yo-yo. They lock into place at the length you need, hook around the plant, and can easily be tied off where needed to support the buds. If set up on several branches, yo-yos can accomplish more than supporting just one single bud and they are useful tools in a garden that doesn’t have many large plants needing support. This will allow gardeners to avoid the labor and expense of more extensive choices such as trellising. Indoor and Outdoor Light orientation plays a role in canopy shape so don’t forget to consider the angle of light when supporting your canopy. For example, outdoor gardens get sun from different directions as the day progresses, so the plants grow more like a round or bushy ball than in an indoor garden with light coming from only one direction. Cannabis and most plants are phototropic, meaning they tend to reach towards light. Thus, plants receiving directional light in indoor gardens will only spread out once they can’t support themselves. Indoor gardens with horizontal light create an added need for trellising because they tend to crowd themselves, stretching up instead of out. Horizontal trellises are better indoors, but outdoor plants may require vertical trellises on the sides as well in order to support their more rounded shape. For this reason, many outdoor growers also use tomato cages, whereas an indoor garden usually needs a horizontal support on which to grow. 62 Maximum Yield