Hearing the term 'monster cropping' for the first time may seem somewhat weird. After all, the word 'monster' has such a negative connotation to it. Don't worry! Monster cropping is a fascinating training technique with many benefits. Therefore, this article will tell you all you need to know about Monster cropping.

Monster cropping is a plant training technique that involves re-vegging and strategized use of your grow space. Over the years, this technique has become famous due to its various benefits. It differs from other styles of high-stress training like super cropping. Nevertheless, if you master the art of monster cropping, you can undoubtedly reap some awesome rewards. Let's discuss what it really is, how you can do it, and why you should want to do it.

What is Monster Cropping?

Monster cropping is a unique training style that involves obtaining clones from your flowering plant and putting them in veg a process called re-vegging. The clones can be in an 18/6 photoperiod, encouraging them to grow into large, vigorous plants. Then you can flower them.

Therefore, your mother plant won't need to repeatedly take clones to build a perennial harvest. In contrast, in monster cropping, you can obtain a few clones from each flower and keep the cycle going.

Does Monster Cropping Really Work?

As a grower, you must have come across the concept that you should avoid training or pruning your plants during the flowering stage. Well, this is true to some extent. If you want to let your plants take the natural course, you may follow this.

On the other hand, if you are adventurous enough, you may try monster cropping to enjoy exciting results. Many growers have reported how monster cropping improved outcomes for them. The fact is, when you take clones from a plant that is well within the flowering stage, it causes high levels of stress which, surprisingly, turns out to be a good thing! Let's talk about how this technique works.

Is it Good to Stress Your Plants Out?

The term 'stress' is used more or less in the same way with plants as with humans. We say that a plant is under stress when it faces growing difficulties. Of course, if you cut off some branches of growth, this is stressful for your plants. However, the interesting thing is that this stress is quite helpful in some cases! Have you heard the saying 'no pain, no gain'? Well, this applies to your plants too!

When you apply the monster cropping technique to your plants, they undergo high-stress levels. Interestingly, this stress can result in dramatic growth, more resin production, and a significant increase in flavonoids and terpenes. Due to stress, the plant is under the impression that it is dying. For this reason, it makes a final attempt to get pollinated by maximizing the aroma, flavor, and resin production. Therefore, leading to a more robust and potent harvest with improved quality and weight.

That's not all; here are some additional benefits of monster cropping.

What Are the Benefits of Monster Cropping?

The foremost benefit of monster cropping is the ongoing harvest. It allows you to set up multiple chambers, which means that while you wait for your fresh clones to re-veg, you can complete flowering your plants and then successfully harvest them.

As soon as you finish that, you may place your freshly re-vegged plants in your flower chamber to continue the process. This way, you can get more out of your growth without starting from square one each time. Amazing, isn't it?

You can use Monster cropping to preserve good genetics as well. For instance, let's assume you had a few seeds of a particular strain and started your growth with them. When the flowering stage approaches, you observe the flower quality and discover that the plant variety is incredible. You can keep growing this variety with monster cropping without needing more seeds. As you can perform Monster cropping so easily, a lack of seeds won't stop you from growing your favorite plants.

In fact, growers who have tried this technique report that their re-vegged plants yield better than standard clones. They bloom into large bushes with more than usual branching. More lateral growth means more colas and, consequently, more plant weight!

Disadvantages of Monster Cropping

On the flip side, it's important to realize that this technique might not be useful in every case. Not only can it be a little challenging, but it can also make it unsuitable if time and space limitation restricts your plant's growth. Limited space means you won't be able to set up as many separate veg and flower chambers.

Besides, you must realize that re-vegging can be stressful for both the mother plant and the new ones. Therefore, every one of them is not likely to root. Consequently, you may want to take more cuttings than you need to ensure a higher success rate.

Monster cropping is also unsuitable for growers aiming to grow autoflowers because monster cropping doesn't involve growing plants with a certain light photoperiod, preventing you from being able to manipulate veg and flower periods.

Another thing to know is that some growers say that a negative aspect of monster cropping can be that it can significantly elongate the growing cycle. However, this might not necessarily be true. In fact, if you consider this from a different perspective, re-vegged clones in monster cropping still take lesser time to harvest than starting from seed.

With the advantages and disadvantages of monster cropping, it's time to discuss how you can use it. Monster cropping can be a little different in indoor and outdoor growing. Let's talk about how you can monster crop your plants when growing indoors.

How To Monster Crop While Growing Indoors?

If you opt for short strains, they tend to grow slower after monster cropping. Therefore, there may be a chance that you may not enjoy the full benefits of monster cropping. Hence, it is best to use strains that develop into medium-sized plants. Also, tall strains are unsuitable for monster cropping because they grow too fast for you to control their growth.

Firstly, you need a mother plant that is the healthiest one. Of course, you still have to follow the standard plant training rules, meaning you should attempt to grow a flat canopy with only the main colas.

When Is the Right Time To Take Clones

The time to take clones from your flowering plant is not difficult to figure out. According to most growers, you should wait until 2 or 3 weeks have passed within the flowering stage before taking your clones. From this point onwards, you need a further 2 or 3 weeks for your cuttings to root. Following this, re-veg will start. Now you may work towards some level of vegetative growth for a couple of weeks before you begin flowering these clones.

How To Take Your Clones

Now that you have determined the right time to take your clones, you should know how to do the job. The first thing is to get the following tools and supplies:

• Ultra-sharp garden shears, knife, or scalpel
• A jar of water to place your cuttings in while you work
• Disinfectant to prevent contamination from your tools
• Rockwool cubes to plant your cuttings in so that they can start rooting
• Rooting gel to boost the success rate of rooting

Begin with Your Best Flowering Plant

We recommend you begin with your best and healthy specimen. If you are unsure how to identify it, here's the deal. As soon as the third week of flower approaches, observe all your plants and cherry-pick the healthiest and most robust-looking one.

Why should you fish out your best plants for monster cropping? Well, the reason is simple. Monster cropping is a stressful process for your plants and what you are doing is replicating genetics. So, it makes sense to duplicate the best genes, right?

If you select a weak or sick plant, it will likely suffer a hard time during re-vegging and may never be able to root. Even if it does, it is of no great use because you now have another weak and sick plant. Since it is grown from cutting a previous unhealthy plant, it will have the same genetics and therefore similar characteristics as the parent plant.

Disinfect Every Tool Before Taking Your Cuttings

Now that you have chosen which plant and specific cuttings to take, you are ready to begin your cloning. Here is a brief synopsis of our thorough blog post on how to clone your plants.

To avoid contamination, you need to sanitize your shears or scissors first. The cutting should come from the lowest half of the plant and ideally have a few nodes on it. Carefully and gently, slice a branch diagonally. Now stick this cutting into a glass of water. You may also dip it into your cloning gel before fixing it in a Rockwool cube.

You can do this process repeatedly, as many times as you need. Remember to take more cuttings than you need because up to 1 out of 4 cuttings may not root. So, make sure you allow for this.

Speeding Up the Rooting Process

The sure-fire way to speed up your cuttings' rooting process is to use a suitable rooting gel. Put your clones in a 24-hour lighting cycle to supercharge their re-vegging. If not, the standard 18/6 photoperiod will also work just as well.

Here's a gentle warning. Re-vegging may create plants that may appear strange. If you think about it, you are actually mutating the plant, so you should expect some abnormalities to pop up!

Remember, patience is critical. You have to allow your clones to take their time for rooting, which can be up to a few weeks. Once those tiny roots start popping out from the bottom of your Rockwool cubes, it's time to begin vegging in the usual manner. You can smoothly move them into the flowering stage when the time comes.

Can Monster Cropping Be Done Outdoors?

Yes, monster cropping can be applied to outdoor growing, too. However, its success depends on your geographical location.

This plant training strategy is much easier if you live in milder climates because it needs you to plant in the earlier months of the year. The outdoor growing season is short in colder climates, so that might be a problem. But you can still do it. The trick is to start your plants indoors first. Once they harden off, you may move them outdoors, protecting them from the risk of frost. Typically, this risk decreases once February approaches, so you can safely take your plants outside by this time.

Even before spring arrives, if you can manage to do things correctly, you will be able to reap a bountiful harvest. Following this, you may obtain some cuttings from your plants, re-veg, and begin another outdoor grow cycle right away. Sounds great, doesn't it?

How To Achieve The Best Results With Monster Cropping

Monster cropping works best when you combine it with another plant training technique that can also accelerate lateral plant growth. SCROG (screen of green) or topping are also acceptable. If you ask us, we'd advise choosing the SCROG approach. The cause? Since you will be installing a trellis, why not use it for another purpose as well?

Once you do this, you can invest some effort into opening your plant up to allow more light to reach the deepest nooks and corners within each plant. You can achieve this by weaving shoots of growth through the support system. When the flowering stage comes, this net will also serve the purpose of supporting the weight of those lovely, heavy buds.

The Bottom Line on Monster Cropping

We hope that reading this far has shown you how monster cropping is an exciting way to set up a perpetual harvest. It allows you to maximize your growth by stretching much further than ever before. Monster cropping also lets you preserve some great genetics that you are fond of. Not to mention, it brings about a tremendous increase in your yield, helping you gain several extra harvests within the same growing calendar!

You are all set to try monster cropping now. All you need is to get the supplies you need from GroIndoor.com and then get to work. Good luck!