What Is Monster Cropping, and Why You Should You Do It?

For some growers, cultivating cannabis is simply a matter of getting enough buds to smoke up with friends. For others, growing cannabis is a dedicated challenge to always outpace themselves.

If you belong to the latter category, you should consider monster cropping to take your cannabis cultivation to the next level.

In addition, monster cropping is often compared to cloning, but unlike cloning that requires a mother plant, you can monster crop cannabis without using a mother plant. 

Makes sense?

Simply put, you get better yields and save time and money in the process. 

How do you do it?

Here’s a basic guide on monster cropping cannabis.

About Monster Cropping Cannabis

Monster cropping isn’t a new method, but many growers shy away from this technique because it sounds intimidating. 

Sure, you need to be an experienced grower to try this technique, but even beginners can try it because you lose nothing except a few clones. 

Essentially, the method involves cloning a flowering cannabis plant and re-vegging it. Doing so leads to an unusual growth where the plant becomes incredibly bushy.

Basically, monster cropping is like cloning but with a twist. While cloning cannabis, you need to choose a mother plant in the vegetative stage and wait for it to develop roots so you have a new plant that’s similar to its parent. You will need to dedicate a mother plant for cloning purposes. However, with monster cropping, you will get to harvest the plant more than once, even if you don’t have a mother plant dedicated for this purpose. 

Unlike traditional cloning, with monster cropping, the cuttings are taken from a female plant that’s 2-4 weeks into the flowering stage of its development. The cuttings are then placed in a 20/4 vegetative light cycle to disrupt their flowering process, causing them to grow more side branches and flowering sites. 

Monster cropping ensures perpetual harvests, but you can also increase the yield by combining this method with other techniques such as ScrOG. So not only will you save time, but you also save energy, electricity, and, most importantly, time. Also, you can monster crop your cannabis plant anywhere, whether you grow outdoors or indoors, or even in a greenhouse. 

Sounds fantastic, but how does it benefit you? Here’s how.

Monster Cropping Benefits

There are several advantages to monster cropping cannabis.

Save space

Since you don't need a mother plant in the vegetative stage and dedicate space specifically for it, monster cropping is a better option compared to traditional cloning.

Save time

As you already know, you will be taking clones from flowering cannabis plants, so you skip all the time the plant requires to develop leaves and stems in the vegetative stage. You just take the clones from flowering plants and let the plant grow as usual. You can also take more clones from that particular plant, thereby saving a lot of time in the process. 

Typically it takes anywhere from 4-5 months for a photoperiod plant from germination to harvest, but monster cropping takes away at least two months required for the vegetative stage. In short, monster cropping is a terrific option if you want to clone a specific strain but don't want to go through the hassle of maintaining a mother plant in a perpetual vegetative stage.

Perpetual harvests

The best part of monster cropping cannabis is that you get perpetual harvests without a dedicated mother plant. As mentioned already, you can use one flowering plant, take clones from it, and continue the process for as long as you want.

Better yields

Although clones taken from a flowering cannabis plant grow abnormally at first, they become monstrous in size — hence the name, monster cropping — once you start re-vegging them. Re-vegged cannabis plants grow quite a few side branches and become incredibly bushy, which means you ultimately get more yields. 

You can also combine monster cropping with other techniques like ScrOG, Topping, LST and FIMming to increase the yields further. Moreover, combining monster cropping with other techniques allows the buds to grow dense with a lot more trichomes.

Monster Cropping Drawbacks

Like everything else, monster cropping also has a few drawbacks including:

Not suitable for all types of cannabis

Generally, cannabis plants are available in both photoperiod and auto flowering varieties. Although monster cropping works great with photoperiod plants, the same is not valid for auto flowering plants. You cannot clone autoflowers, whether the plant is in the vegetative or flowering stage.  

Unlike photoperiod plants that start flowering once you switch them to the 12/12 cycle, auto flowering plants flower automatically, based on their size and time. This further means that you cannot re-veg autoflowers since the cloned plant will not have any time to flower. Even if you try re-vegging autoflowers, it's not worth it because the plants will not produce sufficient yields.

Low success rate

Cloning flowering plants have a low success rate compared to vegetative plants. So, sometimes, some cuttings don't root and end up dying. We recommend cutting a few extra branches to be on the safe side if you use monster cropping.

Monster Cropping Growth Duration and Yield

Monster cropping works like a charm, but the duration of the crop cycle entirely depends on your growing conditions and environment. So, unfortunately, there’s no way to say precisely how long it will take. 

However, typically, the vegetation stage of your plant takes up to four weeks; the flowering stage takes another 2-3 weeks; the clones take another 2-3 weeks for rooting.

Yes, that’s kind of a long time, but the results are worth it. Plus, it reduces vegetation stage duration in the following cycle, and it lets you harvest the strain multiple times, so it more than makes up for it.

Similarly, it’s difficult to say how much yield you can expect — it depends on various factors like humidity, nutrients, strain, and your growing experience. Plus, it depends on how long you let your plant vegetate. 

But expect at least a few hundred grams of buds if you practice this method correctly and provide the right environment for the clones to grow.

Step-by-Step Monster Cropping Process

The name monster cropping sounds daunting, but the process isn’t that difficult. All you need is some basic cloning skills and a scissor or two. So let’s take a look at the monster cloning process.

Things You Need

• Sharp scissors, knife, or a scalpel
• Alcohol wipes to disinfect the tools
• Glass or container with clean, pH balanced water
• A rooting hormone of your choice, whether gel, liquid, or powder
• Rockwool or perlite cubes (we recommend Rockwool for its moisture-retaining capabilities)

Steps for Monster Cropping Cannabis

• Prepare a Flowering Cannabis Plant

Before you even begin the cloning process, you need to wait for the right time to cut the clones from the flowering plant. 

Generally, you should take clones from the mother plant when it’s 2-4 weeks into flowering, but we recommend taking them in the third week of flowering.

• Cut the Clones

Now, the cloning process begins.

Start by choosing the branches to cut for monster cropping. While you can select any branch, we recommend choosing lower-tier ones as they tend to grow roots faster than those on higher tiers.

When cutting, always make a diagonal cut (of about 45 degrees) to ensure the cutting has a bigger surface area to absorb water and nutrients and cut the clone about 0.5 cm below the node.

Always take more clones than you need, as not all clones will successfully root.

• Prepare the Clones for Rooting

Once the clones are cut, you need to be quick. A lot of air getting into the clone’s vascular system may lead to embolism, killing the clone.

So, immediately dip the cutting into the rooting hormone of your choice. If required, leave the cutting dipped in the rooting hormone for a few minutes.

• Transfer the Clones into Water

Now, the clones are ready for rooting. Simply transfer the clones into a cup of water for some time to grow roots.

• Re-veg the Clones

Once you start seeing roots on the clones, it’s time to transplant them into your choice of growing medium. 

Since you want to re-veg flowering branches, you have to push your clones into an 18/6 vegetative light cycle, i.e., keep it in light for at least 18 hours of the day. 

When possible, you should also provide a 20/4 light cycle, so the plant has more energy and the roots grow faster.

We don’t recommend using HPS lights for the light cycle since they can be too stressful for the already-stressed plant to handle. In addition, it would slow down its growth. Instead, use CFL or LED lights for the clones during their revegetation stage. 

Summary: Guide to Monster Cropping Cannabis

Monster cropping cannabis takes some time and watching some of your clones die before you transplant them can be frustrating. But don’t give up. 

Monster cropping is a terrific way to increase your yields and get bushier buds without investing in expensive growth systems or seeds. 

Just remember that you may fail initially, so we recommend you practice this with other plants and not risk your harvest entirely. 

Once you understand the method thoroughly, enjoy cloning your favourite strain endlessly without needing a dedicated mother plant!