Cannabis plants need extra TLC to grow and bloom however there are times when you can’t be too careful in handling your plants. Moving your plants inside the room or training your plants to grow well could result to injury and damage if you are not careful.
Damage could be as mild as bent branches to as horrible as broken branches as you attempt to care for your plants. As early as now, you must learn how to care and fix a broken branch in case this ever happens to you. Here are a few important things that you must remember as you try to mend your cannabis plants to good health.
How To Take Care of Bent or Folded Stems?
One of the most common injuries that you could inflict on your fragile cannabis plants is a bent or folded stem. This happens when you are training your plant, pulling vigorously with LST or even as you transfer your plants from place to place. Bent stems could make it hard for blooms to get food, water and nutrients. And of course, bent stems could rot, taking the entire part of the plant with it. You need to act fast and the action you need to take depends on the severity of the injury.
Take note that the bent stem can become too rigid if you are trying to train your plant too fast. This bent stem can still grow and will be super cropped and the plant won’t be able to support its weight unless it is properly supported immediately.
- Support the folded stem to preserve it. If the branch has been damaged low then it would be hard for it to get sunlight and therefore it may soon wither and die. You can save it by supporting the stem with a stick that you have placed on the ground or from the soil. Carefully attach the bent stem on the stick with duct tape. It would take time but the stem will slowly heal itself. The branch will appear thicker and has a different color from the other stem. Once the stem has thickened, you can now remove the tape and stick and allow your plant to grow normally.
- Leave the plant to heal itself – you may opt to just leave the plant alone if the bent part is not that severe. Position the plant carefully and just leave it alone. It will gradually heal itself but it would take longer than a tape-mended stem. Once this plant heals, it will not be as strong as its original self. It may be lower than other stems and therefore may get less energy and grow slower. A large bulge will replace the bent portion of the stem.
How To Take Care of Broken Stems?
Broken stems can be the result of training rigid plants or just plain carelessness. You can mend this stem by using a simple duct tape technique. If the detached stem is still hanging by a thread, take this piece and carefully put the two parts together with duct tape. If you are fixing autoflowering plants then it is quite different. Autoflowering plants are strong and will tend to fix itself and mend a bent or broken stem. You must act fast so that there will be no visible broken parts on the stem.