trimming undergrowth to promote upward growth after topping, good idea?

[Igignokt]

Title says it all. I'd like to get my vegged plants into flower ASAP, but I want to top them and take some clones and have them good and healthy for flower.

I've seen friends with plants that have been nicely manicured, so is this a good way to promote the lower branches to grow upward quickly? They sure look nice at least

And I'm taking about trimming those tiny petioles attached to the main stem, maybe a few little other crappy lower lying branches that seem to be too far down on the plant

this will grow bigger main buds, yea?

or by trimming all this does it stress the plants out too much?

I just came home between class today (luckily) to find my 1k light on, while the fan was not! Some of the plants took some bad burn damage to the top, so I cut off the burnt parts, topped them, and trimmmed undergrowth to help the other shoots skyrocket

too much stress for a plant?

 

[Hold Your Fire]

I always trim the lower branches off my plants. The bottom rarely sees enough light, so I cut 'em off. Main cola and 4-6 other branches is what I shoot for. My plants are 24" or so at harvest. They're indy dom.

 

[Igignokt]

I wonder what sativa dominant likes

I have a couple of plants that look sativa heavy (only want to grow one main steam/cola) so maybe those little petioles should stay i wonder?

 

[Stoned Crow]

If you're running HPS, then there should be enough light penetration to harvest the lower branches. Personally, I don't like cutting lower branches or fan leaves, both are used by the plant to convert light into weight during flower. IMO, it will only give you less of a harvest.

 

[lysol]

I agree with stoned crow. I'll prune the bottom set of nodes just because they are weak stretchy growth, and to promote air circulation and make it harder for bugs to get onto the plant. but nothing else.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

lolly the bottom and cut the top 1-3 big fan leafs on top so the sides get additional light.

 

[Cheeb]

I will never run a grow without pruning again. Fat colas is what we want..

and even more then wanting fat colas is not having to mess with larfy lower buds at harvest. I dont want to see them - I dont want to trim them.

I've found I get my best results stripping the plant heavily - defining what is going to be a few large tops per plant. I trim them pretty strong once or twice going into bloom. I shoot for palm tree tops going into bloom, often finding that I wish I would have took more off. the closer the branch is to the bottom of the plant - the farther up it gets stripped...that is ofcourse its up there with is fellow tops..otherwise it gets chopped completely.

note - the picture of colas is not a SOG at all. its 4 plants per 600w light

 

[Stoned Crow]

Also, if a lower leaf or branch isn't getting enough light, you'll be able to tell, they'll pretty much die on their own.

 

[Hold Your Fire]

I will never run a grow without pruning again. Fat colas is what we want..

and even more then wanting fat colas is not having to mess with larfy lower buds at harvest. I dont want to see them - I dont want to trim them.

I've found I get my best results stripping the plant heavily - defining what is going to be a few large tops per plant. I trim them pretty strong once or twice going into bloom. I shoot for palm tree tops going into bloom, often finding that I wish I would have took more off. the closer the branch is to the bottom of the plant - the farther up it gets stripped...that is ofcourse its up there with is fellow tops..otherwise it gets chopped completely.

note - the picture of colas is not a SOG at all. its 4 plants per 600w light

YUP!
Agree 100%.

 

[Hold Your Fire]

BTW, NICE FREAKIN' PICS. That's beautiful and impressive!

 

[Hold Your Fire]

FWIW, I run 1000's in a 4x4 homebox and still my lower sites get minimal light.

I did not do enough trimming on these, IMO.

 

[bengie187]

What did light did you veg with and total height of her??........I might try this technique......awesome job Cheeb

 

[carbonskeleton]

Most plant tissues grow in a sigmoid pattern (slow growth at start, large growth, then slow growth at maturation and reproduction).

So this and the fact that dicots grow from the apical meristem (lol the dictionary on this site doesn't have meristem) and new growth is fueled by photosynthesis, it seems logical to me at least, the best circumstance is to prune before flowering if you decide to do it.

 

[Cheeb]

thanks..
I follow this rule now.
light then well, train them always, prune heavily.

I typically root them under t5 or just off to the side of a 600w hps.

After rooted I'll let the plant grow naturally for a bit. I pinch and bend tops that start to out reach others.

..then I'll tie the top over and let all the other branches stretch upward. At that point its apparent which branches to keep...anything that reaches even top level; everything else gets removed.

I've never really pruned throughout the grow..typically its just one heavy pruning right around the 12/12 flip - a alot of times 1-2 week into bloom due to laziness and time contraints. Perhaps this isnt good and it should be done in veg, but I've never seen it hurt a plant and I've never experiencing hermies or what not from stress.

I do STRONGLY recommend HPS lighting for vegative growth. I've owned some T5 and found I get weaker/stretchier plants..ecspecially if things get crowded. MH is good, but I find a good 600w HPS veg light makes for some powerful youngins in no time. More intense then MH - seems to get 'em there faster.

VEG with HPS lights!

note - I dont quite get the whole heat argument when it comes to T5 vs HID. I've found that T5 produce just as much heat...with no way to aircool it. A 8 lamp T5 unit is 432w and will creat more heat then a 400w HPS due to the extra wattage. They are also giant and hard to move around.

 

[geopolitical]

I'll prune off anything that's so heavily shaded it won't develop properly. Anything that looks like it'll get good light I leave.

 

[Cannatruther]

Looks like you have it dialed in Cheeb. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to have to give the girls a good trim when the lights come on. I'm at 22 days into flower do you think its to late?

 

[carbonskeleton]

Looks like you have it dialed in Cheeb. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to have to give the girls a good trim when the lights come on. I'm at 22 days into flower do you think its to late?

It makes less of a difference the later it gets into flowering.

 

[medmaker420]

another thing to think about is all previous grows (for anyone thinking about doing or not doing this).

If you got fluffy and NOT so called top shelf quality nugs then why grow it OR waste time trying to trim twigs and a couple bud calyxes. Get rid of em if only to save you trim time later on down the road.

I got sick of having a couple ounces of "shake" for my personal and thinking about all the extra trim time it took to get the shake in the end. I would rather get rid of it, let the upper buds grow bigger and have a higher "quality nug to average nug" ratio.

Now some could hermie doing this BUT some girls hermie from many things SO with that trim some and wait and continue up. 12" to 18" of undergrowth will allow upper buds to grow AND help fight mold, mildew, bugs and plenty of other things like airflow improvement.

To test it, do some this way and some the regular way and see what your END quality nug weight it for each type and decide from there.

 

[Cheeb]

Looks like you have it dialed in Cheeb. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to have to give the girls a good trim when the lights come on. I'm at 22 days into flower do you think its to late?

I think the variety has a lot to do with those arm size colos (from 600 watters!) I've had a few other varieties which dont product the length of those. I wish I had it dialed, but I cross my fingers every grow and hope for the best.

22 days into bloom is pushing it I think. I still would clean up the bottoms, but would not drastically prune like my picture shows.

 

[Cannatruther]

Thanks Cheeb, I cleaned up the inside and took off some lower branches. I super cropped this Lemon Kush and it is ridiculously branchy with a lot of small bud sites so I'm hoping this will encourage a little larger bud growth.