can i cover part of the stalk?

so a friend of mine obtained a good sized plant from a friend of his whom is being kicked out of his apartment and cant care for the plant. the plant is about three feet tall but about a foot of the stalk has no branches because the original owner cut em off to use for clones.

my friend and i planned on putting the plant outside for the summer since we have no room for it in our indoor garden.

we were wondering if it would be ok to put 8 inches or more of the stem of the plant under the soil. would roots eventually start to grow or should we use rooting hormone to encourage roots or is it not a good idea to put the stalk under the soil.

The plant has already been topped and is very bushy but we would like to cut down on the height of the plant since by the end of the season it will be a monster.

you can put it under as far as the first set of leaves with no worries. Some people say to "bruise" the stalk thats going underground by running something hard along it, but I have never tried that before.

will any roots grow?

New roots will grow off the stalk were it touches the dirt , root hormone will speed it up. I always do this with any plants that are stretching.

NICE! thanks!

You can bury quite a bit of stem with no ill effects, but I agree, using a rooting hormone on the stem to be buried will make both the plant and yourself, happier.

I've had plants that were heavy, whose branches would partially break away from the main stalk. Where these branches touched the ground, feeder roots would appear.

Consider laying the plant to one side, and training the various branches with wire hooks, stuck in the ground.

I do a lot of this.

With forethought and experience, you can have a two foot tall plant that produces mass quantities of buds.(Extreme LST/ScrOG)