Girdling - Has anyone ever tried this technique before??

[Elite Nugs]

I cant remember where I was reading about Girdling, but I was wondering if anyone has ever tried it and actually seen an increase in yield.

The concept is to remove the outer layer of skin from a branch. Its said that nutrients and water travel upward into the plant from the inner core of the branch, and water and nutrients that were not used, travel back down the branch in one of the outer layers. So if you removed that outer layer off of the branch, then the nutrients and water get trapped above that point in the branch, resulting in bigger yields because of the higher concentration of nutrients and water in that section.

Kinda sounds like a myth to me, but I was wondering if anyone has tried it and seen improved yields?

And if this doesnt make sense, you'll have to apologize me... I just had a date with some Skunk #1 bubble hash.

 

[Chronic Monster]

interesting.. never heard of that before.. but looking forward to the discussion...

 

[jeffadies]

I dont know but i really like the word Girdling..lol

 

[Elite Nugs]

Haha... Here's a link. I forgot to post it earlier.

http://www.lycheesonline.com/girdlingtips.cfm

 

[Elite Nugs]

5 Easy Steps for Girdling a Tree to Make it Produce More Fruit
By William Mee & Krystal Folino

Girdling is a way to stimulate your tree into producing more fruit. This method works for many types of fruiting or flowering trees.

The idea behind girdling a tree is to allow water and nutrients to become concentrated in the canopy of the tree, by cutting off its ability to send nutrients back to the base, roots and other parts of the tree.

This succeeds in dramatically increasing the growth of flowers (bloom), which is a biological response inflicted on the girdled branch. The more flowers you have, the higher the probability of successful pollination and consequently more fruit.

The following are some simple steps to help you girdle your lychee tree.

1. Late September through early October is the time to begin girdling your trees. At the same time you girdle your lychee tree you should use a higher phosphate content fertilizer which is known to boost bloom
2. Never girdle the base trunk of the entire tree. Always girdle a major branch segment from the main trunk. If you girdle the entire tree you run the risk of killing it by starving the roots of nutrients, provided by the photosynthesis occurring in the canopy of the tree.
3. Girdling is best performed by using a clean sharp pruning saw and cutting a ¼" deep groove, the width of the saw blade, 360 degrees around the limb section. The end of the groove should connect with the beginning of the groove to form a complete circle around the tree. The groove will heal and not permanently damage the tree.
4. Perform the cut around a major limb comprising ½ to 2/3 of the total foliage. If your tree branches into two limbs off the main trunk (bifurcated) you can only girdle one of the limbs. If you tree has three main limbs (trifurcated), you can girdle two of them. Always leave one main limb un-girdled or you can kill the tree.
5. After the tree has been girdled be careful to keep herbicides or pesticides from being sprayed into the open wound on the limb as these can be taken up into the foliage and fruit or can even result in the death of the tree.

Don't be surprised when the girdled branch(s) is loaded with fruit and the rest of the tree fruits lightly. The fruiting of the non-girdled branch is typical of what the tree would have produced had you not girdled the tree at all.

Follow these simple tips and you should be able to get the maximum amount of fruits from your lychee tree(s) every year.

 

[biggs]

good find elite mate, it sounds really interesting. are you going to try it out bro?

 

[Seamaiden]

I cant remember where I was reading about Girdling, but I was wondering if anyone has ever tried it and actually seen an increase in yield.

The concept is to remove the outer layer of skin from a branch. Its said that nutrients and water travel upward into the plant from the inner core of the branch, and water and nutrients that were not used, travel back down the branch in one of the outer layers. So if you removed that outer layer off of the branch, then the nutrients and water get trapped above that point in the branch, resulting in bigger yields because of the higher concentration of nutrients and water in that section.

Kinda sounds like a myth to me, but I was wondering if anyone has tried it and seen improved yields?

And if this doesnt make sense, you'll have to apologize me... I just had a date with some Skunk #1 bubble hash.

That's backwards, the outer skin or covering is where plant circulation takes place and I know for a fact that girdling is a great way to kill plants. Try it. Try stripping the outer covering and see what happens. My own experience tells me it kills within a few days anything "down stream" from the girdled point. Do it on the main stalk and you'll kill the whole plant with a quickness.

Maybe it works with lychees, but there's no way I'd do it myself unless I'm experimenting with a shit plant. I've done it to poison oak and killed it by girdling.

*Edit* I think I've got my terminology mixed up, but I still know that girdling is a great way to kill unwanted plants.

 

[Shamanfarmer]

In theory this could work. The phloem is responsible for downward transport of water and sugars, produced by photosynthesis, to the roots. The xylem is the inner layer that is responsible for transport of water and nutrients from the roots to the fruit and leaves. The plant will live until it's roots no longer have any Adenosine triphosphate, which is a product of photosynthesis and provides the energy to transport water and nutrients upwards.
It seems to me the thing to do would be to girdle your plant at the beginning of the pre-harvest flush when it's not going to be taking a lot of nutrients from the roots anyway. That could stress the plant into putting extra energy into finishing up it's flowers and it would force all the nutrients that are in the fan leaves into the buds rather than spreading them through the whole plant.
Another option is to use tight zip ties or twist ties around the branch or trunk of the plant to restrict the phloem rather than actually removing it.

 

[A.Sherman]

I did it at the base of the plant a couple times, I dont know if the buds got to the size they were as a result or they wouldve got that big anyway. The one thing I did notice is the plants took about 11 days to then turn all yellow, even the buds. It gave the buds a golden look, unlike how at the end of flower the leaves go yellow, this made the buds yellow too, I believe it sped up the ripening and I was able to harvest a little early.

 

[Elite Nugs]

good find elite mate, it sounds really interesting. are you going to try it out bro?

Im gonna give it a shot on one branch. Just to try it for myself. It says not to do the base, otherwise you will kill the plant. So common sense would tell me that it should do the same thing to even one branch... but Im gonna give it a shot anyway. What the hell.

 

[Elite Nugs]

In theory this could work. The phloem is responsible for downward transport of water and sugars, produced by photosynthesis, to the roots. The xylem is the inner layer that is responsible for transport of water and nutrients from the roots to the fruit and leaves. The plant will live until it's roots no longer have any Adenosine triphosphate, which is a product of photosynthesis and provides the energy to transport water and nutrients upwards.
It seems to me the thing to do would be to girdle your plant at the beginning of the pre-harvest flush when it's not going to be taking a lot of nutrients from the roots anyway. That could stress the plant into putting extra energy into finishing up it's flowers and it would force all the nutrients that are in the fan leaves into the buds rather than spreading them through the whole plant.
Another option is to use tight zip ties or twist ties around the branch or trunk of the plant to restrict the phloem rather than actually removing it.

I have a 10 foot tall Chocolope growing outdoors. I'll sacrifice a few branches to see if this actually works. I'll girdle them when they have 2-4 weeks left of flowering and see what happens.

 

[Elite Nugs]

So I did it a few days ago. My Chocolope has been flowering for a week or two. I scraped a large branch... so we'll see what happens. I'll post some pics later.

 

[TreFarmer]

Had some grasshopper damage happen, they girdled and partially girdled several branches.. the short is... the branches that weren't too comprimised and removed exploded and almost have surpassed the apical bud. They got large knots resembling trained plants at the damage sights. I wouldn't do it on purpose but there may be something to this. Good read..

 

[Elite Nugs]

Im just not sure if I dug enough into the branch. I scraped off quite a bit, but I'll post some pics tomorrow and everyone can tell me if they think I took enough off or not.

 

[Elite Nugs]

Well... scratch this plan. My Chocolope plant, along with my Lemon Skunk and Sour Grapes was stolen last night. I know who did it. They left a leaf trail right to there house.... So they'll be dealt with accordingly.

Anyone know of any good traps to set up for outdoor thieves?? I just electrified my back fence. And I did it in a way that they will get stuck to it. If there lucky, they'll have a fellow thieve with them that can try and pry them from it. I would like to set more traps though. Anyone know of any good ones??

 

[A.Sherman]

This is a harvesting method, i dont think girdling at 3 weeks flower is a good idea. Do it with 10-14 days left. Sorry to hear you got ripped.

 

[Elite Nugs]

This is a harvesting method, i dont think girdling at 3 weeks flower is a good idea. Do it with 10-14 days left. Sorry to hear you got ripped.

Have you tried it with success??

I'll have to give it another shot, maybe during winter. I usually throw a few strains outside that like the cold and change colors in the cold. There never very big producers, but I'll give it a shot then. I just have to scare these kids straight that stole my plants, so they dont step foot in my back yard again.

 

[shaganja]

I have read farmers in Mexico were girdling Acapulco gold. It's a long sativa 12 weeks. They needed it earlier. So they girdled it to get it to finish faster. Eventually it kills the plant.

Every year I give away 12 to 20 plants, to father in law, friends, etc. This year after I gave em away, have noticed two of my keepers are boys.
So am two plants short outside. The only plants I have left are choc thai and wild thai. I run them inside because so long for outside. Wouldn't finish in time up here. 45 lattitude.

I am thinking hard on putting these sativas in the dirt, and girdling them when everybody else starts flowering. Am nervous tho. Only have one plant of each left, and really want to use the genetics. And if it don't work, back to ordering more. Oh....the humanity!!!

 

[Dirtbag]

Girdling is a technique used by folks to kill standing trees for firewood. Remove the outer layer of bark in a ring around the tree, come back next year and its standing dead, ready to fell and burn.

Never heard of it being used on Cannabis.

 

[One drop]

Girdling is a technique used by folks to kill standing trees for firewood. Remove the outer layer of bark in a ring around the tree, come back next year and its standing dead, ready to fell and burn.

Never heard of it being used on Cannabis.

Yep that’s exactly how I do my firewood it’s called coprising I do 10 to 20 trees a year have been doing it for many years my grandfather taught me how to do it back in the 70’s .ive used a method we call stalk smashing where you get 2 smooth river stones and you hit each side of the plant stalk low down near ground enough to bruise the cambium layer this shocks the plant and starts to send all the goodies up to help fix the smashing well that was the theory in those days back in late 80’s early 90’s , I don’t really know but I did see effect in the plant ripening faster but never really sure about size of yield , other method was to drive a copper nail about 3 to 6 “ above the ground through the stem of the plant again the shock set the ripening off never really could tell if heads got bigger . Regards OD.