Can buds develop after being chopped?

Ok so suppose i needed to harvest 4 outdoor plants a little early due to security issues. They are at ~7 weeks indica dominant about 4 ft tall and bushy. If i cut at the ground and hung whole for a week would the plant use its stored energy from leaves and stems to continue developing a bit? Or do plants not store energy they use it as its made?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Are you serious? How about this......I cut off your head and seee how long you last. I would imagine nothing will continue to grow once its choped.

No, the plant would not grow after being chopped.

Maybe you need to clear up exactly what you mean?

I dont know where your from but where Im at theres only a few weeks left in the season,if there 7 weeks total do you have buds?

If you cut off my head i would survive as long as i had oxygen in my blood coming to my brain. While that may not be long its a period of time. Now if you cut out my lungs it would be a bit longer because i have oxygenated blood in my veins that still hasnt reached my brain. I think its more comparable to me stopping eating and drinking i use the energy i have then start burning fat and muscle and leaching water from cells until theres not enough to survive.

Now thats assuming plants store sugars or whatever they use for energy in plant matter as opposed to using it as its made. Which i guess is what im really asking.

But thanks for the informative response.

Not so much grow but produce more cannibinoids. Excrete any more resin?

Yes they have buds and they look pretty good, but here we have a couple weeks left until flowering is complete.

I know its not going to be anything noticeable just thought since potency increases greatly in the last 2 weeks i may leave the plant in tact if it would benefit the end product even slightly.

Minutemaid, cutting off the head is actually the better analogy in this case. Once circulation in the plant stops, all anabolic processes will end, including production from the resin glands. I'm not speaking from growing experience, but it's the case in almost all biological systems.

If you're interested though, here's a link that describes why the trichomes change color. If the process of trichome development and maturation is part of your question you should look at the articles referenced in the discussion at the link.

http://www.gardenscure.com/420/harvesting-drying-storage/83247-trichomes-process-turning-amber.html

How do clones have energy to produce new roots if they are the chopped head? They must use water and nutrients in the plant material to survive until a new source becomes available right?

I dunno i may be way off but it seems to me a plant can survive off of itself for a period before dying. Any one else have any info?

Well that's a different story. If you stick your chopped plant in a bucket of water right away, the plant would continue drawing water the best it could, provided circulation could be restored. You sound like you've cloned before, so you must know that the first thing that happens (even in a successful scenario) is that leaves fall off because the plant can no longer balance the demands of the foliage for the nutrients they need for photosynthesis. It's essentially on Life Support, just concerned with not dying. In your case, even if you stuck it in water, the best you could hope for is that not too much fall off before a root system can regrow. In the meantime, your pre-chop flowers are all turning to mush.

But if you're talking about cutting down a plant and hanging it, that's the end of the story.

Ok good enough for me. Thanks for the info wagontail. Ill just trim it up the way i usually do when i harvest these girls early.

wagontail said:

Well that's a different story. If you stick your chopped plant in a bucket of water right away, the plant would continue drawing water the best it could, provided circulation could be restored. You sound like you've cloned before, so you must know that the first thing that happens (even in a successful scenario) is that leaves fall off because the plant can no longer balance the demands of the foliage for the nutrients they need for photosynthesis. It's essentially on Life Support, just concerned with not dying. In your case, even if you stuck it in water, the best you could hope for is that not too much fall off before a root system can regrow. In the meantime, your pre-chop flowers are all turning to mush.

But if you're talking about cutting down a plant and hanging it, that's the end of the story.

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Nice reply Wagontail, +rep!

Ok guys i did abit more research and found this:

Water moves up plants from roots to leaves in a variety of ways...

To be honest, scientists are not sure on the exact method by which water moves up plants. There are three methods which are present, but each on their own is probably not strong enough to force water up the largest plants. As a result its probably a combination of all three of the following methods which is responsible for the transport of water up plants....

Cohesion-tension theory - here the effect of water evaporating at the top of the column at the leaves creates a tension which pulls water up to take its place. This tension pulls the water molecules upwards, and due to the presence of the hydrogen atoms in the water molecules, they tend to 'stick' together, and so the whole water column is pulled upwards.

Root Pressure - since water enters the plant through its roots at the bottom, this creates a pressure at the bottom of the water column which pushes it upwards.

Capilliarity - this is when water moves up a thin tube. In plants this occurs due to the attraction between the water molecules and the inside of the xylem tube.

I was thinking the plant used cohesion-tension to pull the water up to the flowers and would die from the bottom up. It seems that there are a few factors that come into play though. I guess i figured if this cohesion tension was strong enough to pull water through a cut stem in clones i may have a chance to gain an extra day or two in a large plant.

Apparentlyyou can use food coloring in your water to follow the flow of it from the roots to the leaves. Maybe ill root a clone give it some colored water but chop it at about 1/2 way up the plant and see if it continues its journey to the growth tip. Then give it a try on progressively larger plants to see if theres a cut off point. EDIT: the roots may be too selective in what they take in to bring the dye with the water. So ill try a rooted clone just to see but i guess my main experiment will include freshly cut clones placed directly into the colored water then taken out when color is half way up the plant.

Anyway thanks for the responses guys. Its given me a lot to think about and a little project which is fun. Ill let you know what my results are.

No it'll be dead but the reason you keep it in darkness after chopping is because the plant will continue to try and photosynthesize for a short while after, causing new sugars/starches or what have you to develop, hindering the taste of your budha.

Minutemaid said:

Ok so suppose i needed to harvest 4 outdoor plants a little early due to security issues. They are at ~7 weeks indica dominant about 4 ft tall and bushy. If i cut at the ground and hung whole for a week would the plant use its stored energy from leaves and stems to continue developing a bit? Or do plants not store energy they use it as its made?

Any insight would be appreciated.

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Are you trying to get the plant to Reveg? This can be done... but you would have to give it 18/6 to do this you would have to probably bring it inside. Since you are outdoors, the light is 12/12 and this would just get the bottom buds riper, if you left a few branches on the bottom. This would also depend on how healthy the plant is when you chop it too!