About

What is the StemBender®?

As an artist and craftsman, a good portion of my time is spent figuring out how I can do a particular task quicker and more effectively.  Through my own interests in horticulture and observing various plant manipulation techniques, I developed the StemBender® as an aid in Low Stress Training to shape a variety of plants.

The “tool” that I saw a need for, and invented, enables the user to bend the stem of a plant and hold it in that position without the need for time consuming wires, ties, sticks and other currently used devices.

There are multiple advantages in being able to manipulate your plant’s shape. Opening up the canopy to allow light to all parts of the plant, allows for greater plant production. Proof of this principle can be seen in the wine industry. Grape vines are trained to grow horizontally so that the whole plant is getting similar exposure to light. When growing indoors, your lights can be lowered without the problem of burning the upper canopy. The advantages of closer light to your plants is shown in the Inverse Square law pertaining to light which simply stated means the farther away from your plants, the less effective your light is.

Various techniques that involve shaping plants for increased yield have been around for years.  Pinching and bending stems with your fingers is one widely used technique. This allows the stem to be bent in the direction that the gardener desires. Noticing that different plants and even different strains have a wide range of bending characteristics, I developed the StemBender® to help anyone “bend like the pros”.

The StemBender® increases the degree of accuracy and safety when “breaking” the stem of your plant.  Logic has it that when a stem is broken or crushed to some degree, gravity will take over and it will fall in a downward direction.  What if you want to bend a stem in a sideways direction, or decide that the bend went too far and you want to bring it up a bit?  To accomplish this in the past, many “aids” have been employed including sticks, tape, twist ties, etc.  Not only is this time consuming, and cumbersome, adjustments have to be made over time as the plant grows.

The quick application of the StemBender® allows the user to bend the stem in any direction.  The StemBender® acts as a splint that holds the stem in place, while it heals and strengthens the bent section.  Because of the flexible nature of the StemBender® design, it can stay on your plants and flex with stem growth. They can also be reused on your next plants.  The StemBender® can be used in all stages of growth, flowering and fruit production.