DIY high-yielding polyploid plants

Hey everyone,

So, im not positive or not as to wether this is a common practice already among the more experienced growers, so ill just put it on up

So, i was reading the other day about how to increase your yield, no matter what plant your growing, and there are multiple methods, but one in particular stuck out in the book, so i figured id give it a try (which i am now beginning).

A Polyploid plant is typically a plant that grows with what is known commonly as "Ducksfoot" type leaves, and these plants are almost always high yielding - or i should say, at least from my own experience and from what ive read here at riu. The only problem is, usually you have to just kinda get the luck of the draw, maybe one out of every several plants grown in one particular strain will end up having these polyploid traits. Well apparently according to Mel Thomas and Ed Rosenthal, you can force a plant to go polyploid yourself, and thusly create a higher yielding plant.

Grow out your plant out like you would normally, only once the plant has started to take form and get beautiful (several nodes high, multitudes of potential budsites everywhere) -- basically just a couple of weeks before flowering, begin to strip off all of the plants leaves. All of them. The Cannabis plant has the ability to regenerate leaves at an alarming rate, and alot of people dont know this, because theyre so scared to take leaves off of the plant out of fear of cutting back on resin production. Now, while your super huge fan leaves may not grow back, all of the other leaves will. Keep stripping the leaves off, allowing them to grow back again, and strip them once again, until you begin to see that Ducksfoot leaf characteristic shine through.

Once the plant has basically stressed itself into producing these abnormal leaf formations, the plant itself is primer'd and ready for its leaves to be stripped again, so all of its energy is concentrated on being ready to produce its leaves all over again. Only this time, since you've already achieved your polyploidial leaves, rather than stripping the leaves back once more, you can throw the plant into flower. All of this energy that has been built up, ready to produce mass amounts of foliage, will then be diverted to producing bud. From what im reading, this will cause a dramatic increase in yield from your plant.
(hope i made the explanation clear enough to understand. If i didnt, then i can always just type it verbatim from the book a little later on, which puts it in a very clear way how to do it. Either way, ill illustrate it in the journal ill be putting up special for the test ill be doing on this)

As i said before, i am starting a plant from clone, to see if i can achieve this goal. i'll be using a Blueberry clone, which is a decent yielding strain, and a particularly well yielding plant from my garden, and ill see if i can get this "dramatic" increase in yield, in comparison to a clone that ill start at the same time that i will NOT be stripping back, using it as a Control factor to this test.

I just wanted to put this up to find out how many people have either heard of this, or even tried it themselves before, and if nobody has, i would love to be the guinea pig, and find out if this is truly another way to increase yield. Look for a journal on these two clones in the near future - ill be doing a completely seperate journal about this test, from my regular grow journal. So keep your eyes open for it if your interested.

Thanks for reading

-K1.

So what happened?

Yeah, what gives?

I'd be concerned about all that stress producing males, or hermies at least?

Dam interesting shit, gonna keep my eye on this one!

interesting, but i dont like it. maybe it works. i dont think i would test it, myself. would like to see some results though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy

it is not possible to get polyploidy without the plant being born with multiple chromosome pairs. and they can only reproduce with other polyploids having the same pairing, or number rather, of chromosomes.

what you are describing is a method apple orchard farmers have been utilizing since jonny appleseed. here's the basics behind it. if you stress said plant enough, natural reactions to negitive stimuli is to produce seed to keep the species and genetics of the surviving individuals perpetuating after the mother has died. the problem with doing this to marijuana is the fact that everytime you strip the food factories that fan leafs are, the plant reaches into its reserves to reflush new leafs. this leaves little to draw upon come flowering time, when even the stored energy in fan leafs themselves are being used. with annual plants, trim the leafs that don't get enough light to validate the energy being spent to keep it green. other than that nature has taken care of the details.

good botany term though

It works. Been doing this for about a year now with lots of flowering annuals and veggies. As for yield, I am getting mixed results, but it has mostly been heavier (heaviest was a 50% increase). The plants were extremely bushy. I was getting anywhere from 3-5 leafs from a single node instead of the normal 2. The amount of nodes was mind boggling...fewer leaves = more light penetration = more nodes = more flowering sites = heavier yields.

I had mixed results because...

1. Did not have big enough containers, so am now using 5 gal. instead of 3.
2. Did not veg them long enough. 3 months or at least 3-4 ft tall before flowering.
3. Did not realize that this increased leaf production means the plants need MORE WATER and nutrients.

I strip all leaves, leaving only the tips. It ends up looking like you are growing a stem plant, which is what you are doing.

I found they can take a higher temperature in flowering doing this method. I also find that the yield is increased even if the leaves don't get the "Ducksfoot" characteristic.

It does take a bit longer to veg this way, IMO, but that time could likely be reduced using hydro and air stone bubbler, co2, etc. And some strains definitely respond better than others. Proper watering and waiting until the plant is well rooted is the key.

Tomatoes respond extremely well to this method (you only need 3 total leaves per plant) also.

I did this to a plant and it never recovered. I cut off the major fan leaves to make the smaller ones grow out but it got shocked so bad that it didn't happen that way. Stayed in shock too so I just let it flower...for 4 months and it was never gonna be ready so i cut her down to free up the space. It did produce buds but at an alarmingly slow rate and she RARELY required watering. Maybe once every two weeks. It was a bag-seed and not quality genetics but im not sure I would attempt this one quality genetics either. In my experience, any and all stress = bad, mmkay?

ive heard of this...dont know if it works,but i dont think that make a true polyploid
i believe polyploid only comes from luck of the draw or colchaline induced seeds

In my experience, any and all stress = bad, mmkay?

That's your experience and I respect it. I am getting different results that prove to me this technique works. If you saw my plants, you would agree that they aren't stressed, but showing vigorous growth. I'll get pictures up here soon and show how they look before stripping, after stripping, then 1 week later.

I do not wish to make generalizations, but I would guess that most who have tried this and failed are using inferior strains, weak plants or plants that have not developed their roots well enough OR not getting enough light.