I ended Grow Journal 9 with low stress training my five plants by bending and hooking the braches with coated wire that I’d poked through the side of my 5-gallon fabric pots. I rearranged the plants for different exposure from my NextLight Core LED Grow Light (sponsored by Aroma Grow Store). Each plant exploded with new leaves and growth, and before I knew it, it was close to flipping my plant to the flower stage. But before I switched light cycles, I performed Kyle Kushman’s supercropping and “chiropractic” techniques.

After a decade of teaching college students how to find proper sources via experts in the field and peer-reviewed research, even I had difficulty finding proper sources in the cannabis industry, especially for indoor growing. Cannabis research for years has been and continues to be squashed. Peer-reviewed publications usually focus on medical uses and are nonexistence for indoor growing techniques. So whom can you trust?

Amnesia Lemon before supercropping

My partnership with Homegrown Cannabis Co., I admit, has made me a fanboy of Kyle Kushman and his cultivating techniques. I’ve read his articles and watched his many videos and found him to be one of the most compelling and likeable growers in the industry. If a scientist had followed Kushman’s entire growing career and scientifically documented every plant of every grow, I believe Kushman would have one of the most well-established canon of trusted grow research in the industry, especially for indoor growers.

I followed Kushman’s advice and videos for Supercropping my five plants (Dream Queen, Amnesia Lemon, Blood Diamond OG, Prayer Pupil, and Swabi Pakistani 3). As recommended, a few days before I flipped my plants to the flowering stage, I pulled each plant out of my tent at noon on May 26.

Amnesia Lemon after supercropping

I’d already been low stress training my plants, but I hadn’t been pruning or trimming anything but the very bottom for airflow. I let vegetation grow out more than I should have because I wanted to practice creating clones while I had the chance (coming soon in Grow Journal 11).

So plant-by-plant, I unhooked the braches from the coated wire. I pruned all lower sucker branches from the bottom half of the plant because, as Kushman said, “they suck energy from the plant, but won’t produce anything worthwhile due to a lack of intense, direct light.”

Blood Diamond OG before supercropping

After eliminating sucker branches, I pruned each satellite branch (though I left a few questionable branches I wasn’t sure about) and then pinched off all nodes below the three (and maybe four) nodes from the tip of the plant. Next step, Kushman’s “Chiropractics”

As Kushman recommended, I firmly yet delicately grasped each branch with the index and thumb of each hand. I pinched with the bottom grip and twisted with the top grip to break “the inner hurd while leaving the outer layer intact.” I snapped each branch in opposite directions from bottom to the top. At first the loud crack this technique created was jarring.

Blood Diamond OG after supercropping

With each branch, though, I developed a better and better touch. I discovered that the sound of the snap also correlated with not only the thickness of the branch but also how well I performed the technique.

After finishing all five plants, I felt like I was just getting the hang of it. I worked in factories for years and have developed a “factory-line efficiency” mentality in nearly everything I do. This process was no different. Find a starting point. Find an ending point. Find the most efficient way to get from one to the other.

Dream Queen after supercropping

I re-hooked the coated wire back to the weakened branches. I added my Lotus Nutrients and watered each plant. I returned the plants back to the tent for three days of recovery. This photo as taken March 26 after I supercropped and used the Kushman chiropractics.

Day of Kushman’s “Chiropractics”

The below photo was taken after one day of recovery. Not bad.

Day after Kushman’s “Chiropractics”

This is a photo after two days of recovery. Even better.

Two days after Kushman’s “Chiropractics”

This is a photo after three days of recovery. Ready to flip?

Three days after Kushman’s “Chiropractics”

The entire process, including cloning while pruning, took twelve-straight hours. Check back for News Joint Grow Journal 11 for my attempt at cloning.

Click here for earlier entries of News Joint Grow Journal. A Prairie State of Mind.