You've harvested a plant and discovered it's the best flower you've ever grown. But you didn't take clones before harvest. The genetics are sitting in a pot with a stripped stump, and if you throw it away, that phenotype is gone forever.
Revegging — putting a harvested cannabis plant back into vegetative growth — is the recovery technique for exactly this situation. It works, it's not difficult, and it saves genetics that would otherwise be lost. But it's slow, ugly, and only worth the effort when the alternative is losing something genuinely irreplaceable.
When to reveg
Good reasons
- You found a special phenotype and didn't clone it. This is the primary use case. A seed-grown plant that produces exceptional flower, and you have no other way to preserve those genetics
- You want a second harvest from the same root system. Revegged plants produce a second (sometimes third) harvest. Yields are typically 70–80% of the first harvest but require no germination or early veg time
- Monster cropping. Taking clones from a plant in early flower (weeks 1–3), then revegging the clones. The resulting plants exhibit extreme branching and can produce impressive yields. This is an intentional training technique, not a rescue operation
Bad reasons
- "I want to save money on seeds." Seeds cost $5–15 each. The 4–6 weeks of electricity and space used for revegging costs more. Take clones before harvest if you want to run the same strain again
- "I'm lazy." Revegging is harder and slower than starting a new seed or clone. It's a specialized technique, not a shortcut