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.
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