Français Re-vegging, or revegetation, sends a flowering plant back into vegetative growth by giving it long days again. It lets you keep a favourite plant after harvest without having taken cuttings, but it is slower and less predictable than starting from a clone. Here is when it makes sense, how to do it, and what to expect.
Reveg
Back to vegetative growth
Photoperiod plants can regrow after harvest if you give them long days again.
Feminized seeds
When re-vegging makes sense
Re-vegging is useful if you want to keep a plant you love after harvest, or if you did not take a cutting in time. It takes longer than starting from a clone, and the regrowth is often slower and less uniform. If you have found a phenotype worth keeping, taking cuttings before flowering is usually the easier route; see our article on what a cannabis phenotype is. It is also an indoor technique, because you control the light with a timer.
Step by step
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Harvest the top buds and leave the lower branches that still carry healthy leaves and a few small bud sites |
| 2 | Switch the lights to 18 hours on and 6 hours off |
| 3 | Water lightly and feed gently with a vegetative feed that is richer in nitrogen |
| 4 | Wait for new growth at the nodes, usually within one to three weeks; the first leaves are often rounded or single-fingered |
| 5 | Prune dead or yellow growth, then top and train the plant as it fills out |
| 6 | When the plant is healthy and bushy, return it to 12 hours on and 12 hours off to flower again |
Topping and training the regrown plant works as it would on any young plant; see our guides to low stress training and topped vs non-topped plants.
What to expect
Results
Strange at first, then normal
Good signs
New green shoots
Fresh leaves at the nodes, then fuller growth over the following weeks as the plant settles into vegetative mode.
Watch for
Odd leaves and stress
Mutated or single-finger leaves are common at first. Stress can also raise the risk of hermaphrodite flowers, so check the plant regularly and remove any pollen sacs early.
The plant’s age and health matter. Old, weak or diseased plants rarely come back well, and heavy trimming at harvest leaves less to regrow from. For the basics of sex and stress, see the difference between male and female cannabis plants.
Common questions
Can you reveg autoflowers? Technically yes, but autoflowers follow an internal clock, so the regrowth is usually weak and slow. Starting a new seed is easier and more reliable.
How long does it take to reveg a cannabis plant? New vegetative growth often appears within one to three weeks. The plant then needs several more weeks to recover and fill out before you flower it again.
Is reveg the same as monster cropping? They are related. Monster cropping takes a cutting from a flowering plant and re-vegs it as a clone, while re-vegging returns the whole flowering plant to vegetative growth.
Does reveg give a better plant? Not necessarily. Yields can be good, but the regrowth is often slower and more irregular than a fresh clone.
Can you reveg cannabis outdoors? Not easily. Day length outdoors gets shorter in autumn, which keeps plants in flower, so reveg is mostly done indoors with a timer.
