by Nebula Haze
You asked for a cannabis plant yo-yo tutorial and here it is! Last Friday, I mentioned I was using plant yo-yos in my current grow journal to hold up heavy buds, and several growers asked for a full tutorial on how to hold up heavy buds that are falling over with plant yo-yos.
Plant yo-yos are the best fix for big buds that start falling over!
Plant Yo-Yos – Keep heavy buds from falling over with an easy-to-use support system!
You must hook the top to something. I string several strands of plant wire (another SUPER useful tool, for bending and holding stems in place) across the top of the grow tent so I can put a plant yo-yo anywhere I want at any point in the grow.
Hang the plant yo-yos from the top of the tent
Hook the yellow part gently to stems (these don’t disturb buds)
Total control over your plant canopy!
These handy cannabis-specific yo-yos are great for holding up falling stems, but I also use them every harvest to hang dry buds. They make it easy to hang stems exactly where you want, without buds touching each other.
I also use them at harvest to dry buds!
[Quick Video Tutorial] How to operate a plant yo-yo
You have the hooks, which can be pulled down, and automatically retract.
There is a little button at the top, and if you click the button, it holds the hooks in place exactly where they were.
Push the button the opposite way, and the hooks start retracting again.
Helpful if you want to hold up a branch, but not necessarily hold it up tight.
Why two hooks on the yo-yo?
They used to only come with one hook per yo-yo, but these days they almost always come with two hooks. Why is that?
Because often you may have more than one bud that needs to be hooked right in the area. Or perhaps want to hook onto a big branch at two different places. Or when drying buds, maybe you want to hang a branch off the bottom of the string, and another near the middle or at the top.
Better one too many than not enough.
If you don’t need both hooks, just ignore the one you don’t need! But I know I was surprised when they started coming with two, and quickly realized I can use both a lot of the time.
Plant Yo-Yos – Made especially for cannabis plants
Plant yo-yos are also sometimes called “plant supports”. They are definitely one of those tools that you would never think to look for. Once you’ve needed a plant yo-yo and experienced their usefulness, there’s no going back!
Here’s an example from my current grow journal. The top red arrow points at the strings, and the lower arrow point to the yellow hooks on the stems.
Essentially, plant yo-yos provide a way to have the top of your grow tent to support the weight of your buds. Some heavily trained cannabis plants (such as with manifolding) can produce long colas that are so heavy that they fall over from their weight. When this happens, you can support them from above with string or wire, but it’s messy in addition to feeling clumsy.
Since the the hooks are usually yellow or white, they’re easy to spot later.
Plant yo-yos use a small plastic hook to gently grab onto a piece of stem, so they support the plant while touching as little bud as possible. They also extend and retract via a spring; so once they’re installed at the top of your tent, adjusting them takes only a few seconds.
If you have problems with your buds falling over from weight, this is the best solution I’ve seen so far.
Plant yo-yos are also helpful for hanging cannabis buds from the inside of your tent during drying.
Yo-yos make it easy to adjust as needed to keep all the buds spread out so they dry evenly.
Get some Plant Yo-Yos on Amazon
How do I hook plant yo-yos to the top of the grow tent?
You need to find something to attach the top of the yo-yo to. It has a little plastic hook on top.
I string four lengths of plant wire across the top of the tent. I already have a spool of plant wire for training, and it works perfect for this purpose.
Option 1: Plant wire (plant twist tie)
You can see the wire here at the top of the tent (ignore the rope ratchet hanging from the pole in the middle).
I strung black plant wires across the top of my tent before putting plants inside.
Then if buds start falling over, like they are in my current grow journal, I can just hook on a plant yo-yo and hold the buds up in seconds.
You can see the yo-yos hanging off the black plant wire.
In an emergency where you just need to hang a few plant yo-yos, or it’s difficult to string wire across the tent with plants inside, you can just use wire right on the poles. This works in a pinch but gets time-consuming if you’ve got many yo-yos you want to hang.
If you only need one or two, this works well.
Option 2: Shower curtain hook rings (thanks John for the suggestion!)
Grower John wrote in just Friday with his suggestion on how he holds the yoyos up with a shower hanger/hook. Genius!
Plant yo-yos snap right on!
No need to string anything across the tent. The shower hangers will hook right onto your grow tent poles. And they’re cheap.
Option 3: String (or lesser options like nylon rope or yarn)
I’ve seen many growers use string successfully.
Once, I hung the plant yo-yos from nylon rope that I strung across the tent. That worked, but the nylon is stretchy which got annoying. I’ve seen a grower use yarn, which had the same challenge.
I much prefer something more sturdy like plant wire, shower hooks, string, etc. It’s better to have something totally stiff; that makes it much easier to hook the plant yo-yos on.
Nylon rope works in a pinch.
Option 4: Get Creative! String, coat hangers, pent paperclips
And don’t hesitate to send us pictures of your solution; we might add them to this plant yo-yo tutorial!
Before you go, check out some other amazing plant tools you might not realize exist…
10 Cool Cannabis Growing Tools You Might Not Know About!
If you look closely, tons of these buds are being held up by plant yoyos. Can you spot the yellow hooks on strings?
