Revegging Cannabis: How to Get a Second Harvest From the Same Plant

Revegging (short for revegetation) means taking a cannabis plant you've already harvested and pushing it back into the vegetative stage so it can grow and flower again — usually for a second harvest or to keep a great phenotype alive. Plenty of old-school growers toss the plant once the buds are cut: you got your fresh, potent harvest, time to move on. But more and more growers are taking a different approach. Here's what revegging is and how it works.

Cannabis is an annual with a single life cycle, so once it has flowered, it won't flower again unless you step in. In the wild, the whole thing moves pretty fast, from spring to fall. In that window, the plant sprouts, flowers and dies within a few months.

What is cannabis revegetation?

Revegetation is a great way to reuse a plant after you've harvested it and potentially get a second harvest out of it. It can also happen by accident, when you really don't want it.

Revegging cannabis comes down to harvesting a plant's buds and then forcing it to "rewind," in a sense, back to the vegetative stage so it can flower again.

Some growers reveg their plants on purpose to get the most out of their harvest, but sometimes you'll find buds revegging all on their own.

What does a revegging cannabis plant look like?

If something looks off with your plant, these are common signs of reveg:

• Leaf edges look smooth instead of serrated

• Buds have stopped developing

• New growth is coming out of the buds, like long leaves or even new stems

• Leaves are curling

• Growth looks unusual, twisted or wrinkled

How to reveg a cannabis plant

Revegging cannabis plants is all about encouraging new growth after harvest. That's why, when you harvest mature plants, you leave the lower branches with enough growth on them. Roughly 4 to 6 weeks later, they'll start growing again and turn into new, healthy branches.

To flip plants from flowering back to veg, you need to keep them in an environment that triggers vegetative growth. That means switching to an 18/6 light schedule — 18 hours of light and 6 of darkness a day — and keeping relative humidity at 65–75%. That keeps the plants in veg, so they can grow as big or as small as you want.

Spotting accidental reveg: why does it happen?

Sometimes cannabis reveg happens by accident. Why? It happens when something messes with the plants' light cycle. Most of the time it's too much light, either a light leak or more than 12 hours of light a day during flowering. When that happens, you'll notice a plant reverting or acting weird, all because of an unexpected interruption.

So, what in the grow can lead to unexpected or unwanted reveg?

Like we said, light leaks during the dark period are the most common cause of unplanned reveg, but there are other possible culprits too:

• The plant is getting too much light, which can stress it and trigger reveg.

• It's not a high-quality plant — bad genetics could be in play.

• The plant is getting too much nitrogen during flowering, a nutrient that's mainly supposed to help during veg.

• Moving the plant outdoors or flipping to flower too early. If you put a plant outside too early in the season, it'll start flowering because the nights are still long, then revert to veg once the days get long enough.

What to do if your weed revegs by accident

We recommend checking for light leaks first. There could be other reasons your plant is slipping back into veg in the middle of flowering, but this is the most likely scenario.

When accidental reveg hits, there's still something you can do. Basically, you've got two options.

1. The first option is to let the revegging plants finish the reveg cycle.
2. The second option is to figure out what's causing the reveg and fix it. Remember: a photoperiod plant needs 12 hours of darkness a day to keep flowering, and those hours have to be uninterrupted — not even the tiniest light leak.

That second option will help push them back into flowering. Keep in mind plants take a while to bounce back, so getting back to the flowering stage will take time too.

What are the benefits of revegging cannabis plants?

Revegging weed doesn't have to be an accident. Plenty of growers reveg on purpose because it lets them get the most out of a plant before starting the cycle over. When it's planned, reveg means a double harvest from the same plant.

Growers also reveg plants for a few other reasons:

Keeping phenotypes

At harvest time, many growers take clones from a mother plant they really love before it goes into flower, because otherwise that phenotype is lost once the plant starts flowering — unless they learn to reveg. Either way, growers can keep an exact copy of that phenotype.

More viable plants

Taking cuttings is a great way to expand your grow, since two plants with the same traits always beat one plant of unknown origin.

No need to keep a mother plant

Some growers keep a mother plant going as long as possible, taking clones from it to preserve its traits and keep enjoying it. But you can do the same thing by revegging.

Maybe the mother is hogging too much space in your grow room, or keeping her alive is eating up too much time and too many resources. That's why a lot of growers learn how to reveg a plant: to save time and resources and keep producing genetically identical harvests.

Revegging after harvest

Not many people know this, but revegging can cut down the time you spend in the vegetative stage. Plants that grew for a full season have mature, complex root systems. Clones and younger plants, on the other hand, take a while to get their roots established. So when you reveg after harvest, the roots are technically already good to go.

More bud from the same plant

There's a term, "monster cropping," that sounds like it could mean something else, but it's really just a reveg technique. Done right, it can boost yields with bushier plants, stronger stems and more nodes where buds will form.

No seeds needed

Picking the right seeds can be fun, but it eats up time if you're the indecisive type. Skip that step and you'll get back to growing your favorite plant in half the time. Plus, if you manage to reveg plants to preserve their genetics, you'll have exactly the plant you're after without hunting down its seeds.

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