Ever stitched a stem together?

[treefarmercharlie]

Got a little too aggressive with this one and split her down the middle. I zip tied it, but it wasn’t holding, so I drilled through the branch knuckles and stitched her back together with bonsai wire. It seems to be callousing over and healing and the plant hasn’t skipped a beat. This is Purple Canyon from Greenpoint in case anyone is wondering.

 

[F series]

This is why i don't like mainlining, I always get split stems, or if I bump a branch that's heavy enough, then it's fucked

 

[Joebud]

Got a little too aggressive with this one and split her down the middle. I zip tied it, but it wasn’t holding, so I drilled through the branch knuckles and stitched her back together with bonsai wire. It seems to be callousing over and healing and the plant hasn’t skipped a beat. This is Purple Canyon from Greenpoint in case anyone is wondering.
View attachment 115358
View attachment 115359

Poor plant.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

That's a new one for me, I've used a chopstick and soft coated training wire to fix a split. Nice idea TreeSurgeonCharlie

 

[crimsonecho]

ok i got a solution for you just use beeswax next time.

warm it in your hands knead it to a dough consistency wrap it around the branch and if the branch is a big heavy branch apply extra support. if you completely wrap it, even if the damaged tissue doesnt make 100% contact, the plant fills in the rest and whatever little beeswax in the wound disappears on its own. for relatively small branches no extra support is necessary as beeswax hardens again and provides good support on its own.

another great thing about beeswax is the plant sheds it when a callous forms. callous is thicker than the branch you treated so when the plant expands from inside out hard wax cracks and sheds.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

ok i got a solution for you just use beeswax next time.

warm it in your hands knead it to a dough consistency wrap it around the branch and if the branch is a big heavy branch apply extra support. if you completely wrap it, even if the damaged tissue doesnt make 100% contact, the plant fills in the rest and whatever little beeswax in the wound disappears on its own. for relatively small branches no extra support is necessary as beeswax hardens again and provides good support on its own.

another great thing about beeswax is the plant sheds it when a callous forms. callous is thicker than the branch you treated so when the plant expands from inside out hard wax cracks and sheds.

That's a great idea that I never thought of. I got the stitching idea after remembering watching a video of an arborist repairing a split tree by drilling through the two leaders and running a cable through them to pull them back together.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Poor plant.

It didn't even look pissed off when the zip ties failed to hold the split.

 

[crimsonecho]

That's a great idea that I never thought of. I got the stitching idea after remembering watching a video of an arborist repairing a split tree by drilling through the two leaders and running a cable through them to pull them back together.

it looks like its gonna work no problem but i just like beeswax. its natural and sheds on its own its like an instantly formed artifical callous but with a natural material.

 

[Slowdrawl]

That's a good idea!
When I was able to have an outdoor crop most of my plants were fairly large and heavy.
The wind storms were brutal at times and would always split a few.....self tapping wood screws!
Easy peasy, worked every time they never missed a beat.

 

[619KGB]

Grafting tape is probably more suitable than the bonsai wire due to the blending of non organic material not binding which could break further down the road whereas the paraffin or grafting tape holds in moisture and acts more like sutures that dissolve over the healing process. Beeswax can be a little sloppy especially outdoors in the hot sun and it seeped into some of my grafts separating the cambian layers which led to a failed graft. Also bump readily available calcium and silicone to your feeding and will also push out flower

 

[crimsonecho]

Grafting tape is probably more suitable than the bonsai wire due to the blending of non organic material not binding which could break further down the road whereas the paraffin or grafting tape holds in moisture and acts more like sutures that dissolve over the healing process. Beeswax can be a little sloppy especially outdoors in the hot sun and it seeped into some of my grafts separating the cambian layers which led to a failed graft. Also bump readily available calcium and silicone to your feeding and will also push out flower

yeah under hot sun i wouldnt recommend it either, even if your indoor temps are hitting over 30C beeswax may not be suitable. grafting pastes are a mix of beeswax and paraffin afaik so beeswax is good grafting and mending material under suitable conditions and creates a barrier to protect to plant from fungal attacks and stuff. never used grafting tape but that probably works same as well.

 

[H.A.F.]

Late to the game, but I found the solution to manifolds/mainlines splitting. Instead of topping stuff close to the node you are keeping top it at the next node. Or if it's stretchy you can snip it in between nodes, but leave a good inch or two of stem above the manifold juncture. If there's not a hollow stem leading down to the keeper node that's good. Leaving the top of the next node fixes this.

It will dry up and shrink but will likely be there until harvest instead of falling off like a pruned leaf stem. It keeps the important part from being exposed to air and drying out, and the need for either paraffin or beeswax. I have both on hand for emergencies though.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Late to the game, but I found the solution to manifolds/mainlines splitting. Instead of topping stuff close to the node you are keeping top it at the next node. Or if it's stretchy you can snip it in between nodes, but leave a good inch or two of stem above the manifold juncture. If there's not a hollow stem leading down to the keeper node that's good. Leaving the top of the next node fixes this.

It will dry up and shrink but will likely be there until harvest instead of falling off like a pruned leaf stem. It keeps the important part from being exposed to air and drying out, and the need for either paraffin or beeswax. I have both on hand for emergencies though.

Yeah, I usually top as high as I can but these plants were pretty tight. I didn't think to top it higher and just cut the top branches off, though.

 

[H.A.F.]

Yeah, I usually top as high as I can but these plants were pretty tight. I didn't think to top it higher and just cut the top branches off, though.

I have fimmed the next node instead of topping. No biggie, you strip anything that grows back.

 

[FluffySquish]

only had to do something like that once, duct tape worked

made it to the finish line too

 

[Turpman]

Electrical tape works. Little streatchy so it holds nice. I’ve also just left them with the split. They just keep going and make a bit of a callous where the brake is. This was a scrog so it was supported.

 

[H.A.F.]

only had to do something like that once, duct tape workedView attachment 115373

made it to the finish line too
View attachment 115374

I used "grafting wax" which is a nasty pine-tar like junk that works great, but stays tacky forever. Leaves stick to it and stuff when they're little. I was watering so I snagged a few pics. I just do 4-tops, and rarely train them anymore since I keep them small.

Here's the latest group of toppings. They got some serious stretch once they got going but I just follow the same procedure now out of habit.

If they need support I just use some heavy duty rubber coated wire and hook the opposing limbs to each other. Here's one about a month into flower

 

[H.A.F.]

I just noticed that you can see the 4-ploid/quadraploid-whatever node on my DeChempose from Archive. That limb and the one across from it have either 3 or 4 flower sites at each node. One of the Piff has a triploid.

I seem to be getting those a lot.

 

[Slowdrawl]

I've yet to have an indoor plant split, probably because they're so damn dinky!
Got me thinking about years past, dug up a few old pics of split trunks.
Can't see the screws, but 2 of these had them.


This one did some weird shit!


One that I found to late and had hardened.
Filled it with tree heal tar later before the rains.

 

[1oldfart]

gr

I've yet to have an indoor plant split, probably because they're so damn dinky!
Got me thinking about years past, dug up a few old pics of split trunks.
Can't see the screws, but 2 of these had them.
View attachment 115383

This one did some weird shit!
SSlowdrawl

One that I found to late and had hardened.
Filled it with tree heal tar later before the rains.View attachment 115382

great saves@Slowdrawl