Regenerating A Cannabis Plant
Taking cuttings off of each plant you grow can be incredibly important. Imagine starting some seeds and out of these seeds, one plant turns out to be outstanding. What if you didn’t have the possibility to clone that plant before flipping it to flower? Would it be lost for ever? For whatever reason: time, space, knowledge, plant count… it may not always be practical to clone each and every cannabis plant you grow. However, it is possible to revert a plant from bloom to vegetative growth and even harvest most of the plant before the regeneration! Find out how regenerating a cannabis plant can be done simply and relatively quickly.
Plant Regeneration AKA Re-Vegging
Cannabis is an annual plant. It is programmed to grow when the days are long (During spring and early summer) and flowers when the days get shorter (Late summer and early fall).
There are many growers out there claiming that re-vegging a pot plant takes a tremendous amount of time and is therefore not worth it. This isn’t true. If you follow the steps, regenerating a cannabis plant at the very end of its flowering cycle can take as little as 3 weeks!
Will Re-Vegging Lower The Quality?
After reverting your plant, you can turn it into a mother plant to produce clones or you could flip it to flower once again. The potency and taste will be the same as the last time around provided it is growing in the same environment.
It is possible to re-veg a plant as many times as you want as long as you re-pot it and trim the roots before each new cycle.
How It Is Done
1)Harvest the plant like you normally would but leave 5 to 10 small buds along the main stem.
2)Apply plant wound dressing on the cuts to promote healing and prevent infections.
3)Place the marijuana plant under a light high in blue spectrum to promote growth and give it a full dose of grow nutrients.
4)Change the light cycle from 12 to 24 hours of light per day to stimulate the regeneration for the first week. Then, revert back to 18 hours of light daily.
5)Transplant into a larger pot or trim the root ball and re-pot it.
Cannabis plant at the beginning of the regeneration process. The new growth is not visible yet.
Make The Process Faster
When a marijuana plant is in full bloom, it will take some time to revert back to vegetative growth. Even under 24 hours of light, the bud structure will not change in less than 8 to 10 days. However you can take advantage of that and start re-vegging the plant before the chop! To speed up the process, change the light cycle from 12 to 24 hours of daily light a week before harvest.
How To Tell If The Regeneration Is Working?
Regenerating a cannabis plant doesn’t happen over night. At first, you won’t be able to notice any change. The remaining fan leave can even continue to fade. Don’t worry, it is perfectly normal. Your plant went through a lot and will need some time to start showing some new growth.
The first signs that the cannabis plant is reverting back to a vegetative stage are easy to notice. First, there will be a slight elongation of the remaining buds with tiny curly leaves coming out of them. These leaves will look weird at first. They will be smooth without serration and have only one leaflet. This is only temporary though. After that, the next sets of leaves will look more and more like weed leaves and the plant will form new branches.
Caring For Your Re-Vegged Plant
Be careful not to over water during that period. Due to the fact that the plant will have much less biomass and therefore need less water.
Re-vegged pot plants always are very bushy and dense. This is why it is a good idea to prune some of the leaves and branches along the base of the main stem. Pruning will increase the air flow decrease the risk of fungal disease.
You can flip the plant to flower again as soon as it is growing normal-looking leaves.
An Alternative To Cloning
Regenerating a cannabis plant is slower than cloning. Nonetheless, a re-vegged plant already has a well-developed root system and will be ready to flower again after only 3 to 6 weeks. It is a great alternative to cloning especially for the small-scale growers. It is great for those who want to grow as few plants as possible. With re-vegging, no need for an extra grow tent and all the equipment needed for cloning.
After 3 weeks the plant is clearly reverting back to a vegetative stage.
I love Cannabis planting with much happier. The process of the plantation that I say germination to harvesting has an interesting pipe-line, but after harvesting, the drying procedure takes up to 3 weeks it’s huge.
Hey Mike,
Yes, cannabis growing is a craft that requires a lot of patience where each step is important.
Cheers,
I’m trying to reveg a plant that only had one little bud left at the bottom. There was 3 small fan leaves. 1 died and 2 are fading away. I gave a small amount of water + N, 5 days in. The humidity is 42% and temps around 20°c. I’m on day 8 and haven’t noticed any growth. Do u think I’m wasting my time, or should I wait a bit longer?
Hello Nate
When revegging a plant, the more buds and leaves you leave on the plant, the higher your chances of success.
That being said, on day 8 it’s usually too soon to know whether or not it has worked.
In about 10-12 more days, you should know for sure.
Best,
The Khalifa team