Pruning below the canopy

[Hackk]

Pictures of how YOU prune?

So Im having a VERY hard time trying to figure out how high to trim the girls. Im running Platinum OG, 4 1000's, multiflow buckets, and a trellis. Im on my 3rd run with this setup, and I havent dialed it in yet enough to feel comfortable with a set pruning plan. I veg for 30 days, and by the time their done with flower they hit ~6feet

Can any of you post pictures, or give advice on stretchy strains? Thank you, it would be a big help.

Ill try to get some photos once the lights turn on tonight

 

[Charlie_Citrine]

Trim everything under an imaginary line you create based upon light saturation.
It's really as simple as that.

As for the "official" tutorial on that, Scroogle dot org or Google (if you must!) for "pistilwhipt pruning" thread.
I know it's over on theCan naCab ana and at the CW.org sites...

Good luck to you.

 

[whiterasta]

If your plants are hitting 6ft you may want to do some topping or supercropping as well as trimming the understory. My rule of thumb is 1K will only penetrate ~2,5-3 ft. This is your "sweet spot" for the best light and where you are likely to get the most solid non-shaded buds. I would consider vegging half the time and putting out shorter plants so they finish around 4.5 ft and trim the bottom duff just prior to sexual expression. I do not prune during active flowering. I grew a strain similar and plants that were put out at 2ft would finish at five. it was a main cola strain so topping and cropping hurt yields so they started being put in flower at 1.5ft with the bottom 6" pruned. @ 2weeks flower they get a touch up prune and would finish >5' with little or no duff and the same yield in good bud.
I am a firm believer in aggresive shaping of stretchy and super bushy strains for best yields. Good luck and I hope this was of help
WR

 

[DHF]

Good info White Rasta.....Yeah CC.......Pistilwhipt was helluva grower.......I ran ebb and flow buckets for a lotta yrs Hack so I know you`re tryin ta make as many budsites as possible , but anything under 3 ft on a 6 ft plant`s nothin but hash material popcorn anyway so why not just veg 2 weeks and prune anything under 3 ft after they finish the stretch.........

If it`s a 10 week strain for example the stretch is 40% so at the end of 4 weeks rape and pillage those bitches........Shave their legs bare , clean out all the sucker branches and useless big fan leaves , and only leave what the lights are able to penetrate down to which in your case with 1K`s would be max 3 ' deep......

You`ll be amazed how much more the colas will swell cuz of not having to feed all the flarf down below on each plant......

Good luck ....DHF......

 

[delta9nxs]

hi, hackk

i practice a pruning technique i learned from lucas of the "lucas formula fame"

from a non pruned clone i take off the first six branches from the medium up, leave six branches, and then top between 12 and 13, leaving only six strong branches.

i further prune those six branches of at least the first 3 branches that develop on each as they occur.

just before 12/12 i go through the whole plant and take off any branches less than 1/8" in diameter except up near the branch ends. especially remove branches growing towards the center of the plant.

it produces big heavy buds with almost no popcorn. my weight records show no weight loss. but it radically cuts down on trimming time. the difference is huge. 1.5-2 hours per plant pruned, 6 hours or more un-pruned. it also increases "bag appeal".

this works for me with sweet tooth #4, which is a very bushy plant. with more columnar plants you might not want to treat them this way.

here is a few photos from my "passive plant killer" thread. the last is an un-pruned clone, the rest are shots of pruned plants at various stages.

 

[delta9nxs]

sorry, the last photo won't enlarge for me, i screwed up somewhere.

here's another of a plant at harvest showing structure. as wide as it is tall. total canopy height is around 30". not plant height, but the part of the plant that is in the sweet spot of the lights.

 

[DHF]

Respect Delta 9........Excellent info .........

Peace.....DHF...

 

[guest5703]

Grow I got going on right now. I trim all the lower nodes off to get rid of lower buds. But I leave lower fans to catch light for the upper buds....

 

[Calimed]

Trim everything under an imaginary line you create based upon light saturation.
It's really as simple as that.

I pretty much do this, and follow the lucas formula of pruning the first 3 branches from each node. Helps keep the clutter down. No set timing for mass pruning, I do it as needed throughout veg and stretch.

 

[delta9nxs]

dhf, thanks, although i got pics out of order, pics that don't work, and omitted something. (tired and sick)

what i omitted was that i sidelight with 1k hortilux and i rotate the plants 1/3 turn everyday. this shaping is ideal for that.

calimed, nice job! it's obvious you are top lighting and are pruning with that in mind.

both versions are open, airy, and hollow looking on the inside. lots of gas exchange and no bud rot.

 

[Hackk]

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

The info you threw out really put me in the right mindset. In an hour I'll post up pictures once the lights come on, and you can critique as much as you want, its what I want. Im constantly learning, and trying to better my methods every day, so this will be a big help.

Im trimming popcorn as I type, and Im not likin it one bit!

 

[NS775]

I'm still trying to figure out my trimming plan as well. I'm currently only on my 2nd grow, and I initially went a similar route as you ( few giant plants... well giant relative to the 1 600W I was running) and for this grow I've switched from 600 to 1Kw and gone the totally opposite direction... ie. 12" thick canopy about 10" above the aero table and strip everything under 10".

The main reason I've totally flip-flopped my method is that I'm way too impatient to wait thru veg time, which in the end I believe was somewhat of a waste because there was little yield below the first 6" of canopy ( and that was with the light almost sitting ontop of the canopy).

I'm sure you will get much better penetration w/ the 1Kw's, but I believe the answer to your question somewhat depends on what size footprint your canopy is going to be. Personally, I would bend those bitches over a little and trade some of that vertical canopy space for horizontal space if possible. Or another possibility which I am testing out on this grow is to clip the tips of the topmost fan leaves. This way you can get alot better penetration without sacrificing too much yield on top. In my previous grow I went a little overboard on pruning fan leaves in some areas and I think it helped the penetration alot without any major negative effects.

Another thing I'm doing, which may not be practical/applicable for some people; I setup a webcam on one of my slave PC's and have it shooting timelapse shots every 30 mins. This way I can get an idea of how the plants are reacting to things that I am doing (ie. heavy pruning)

 

[Hackk]

Well, I cant find my camera, so pics on my part will be on stand-by, sorry

NS775, that timelapse is a great idea, if you notice a significant difference, I would love to see you start a thread!

 

[superultramega]

I always wonder what is the goal of trimming?

Why do you want to rid yourself of the bubble factory under the canopy? Pruning below doesn't seem to produce more on top. It simply eliminates the lower popcorn which are easy to trim as they are destined for the bubble buckets anyway.

So why do you guys do this?

 

[kindroyale]

I always wonder what is the goal of trimming?

Why do you want to rid yourself of the bubble factory under the canopy? Pruning below doesn't seem to produce more on top. It simply eliminates the lower popcorn which are easy to trim as they are destined for the bubble buckets anyway.

So why do you guys do this?

yield is generally slightly lower from pruning, but quality goes way up as a result. if all you have are canopy buds, the appeal will be much better than a big bag full of popcorn fluff.

 

[ThisBuds4You]

Trimmed up

-
TB4U

 

[Standaman]

Better air circulation and sends more of the growing energy to the top of the plants.

 

[superultramega]

yield is generally slightly lower from pruning, but quality goes way up as a result. if all you have are canopy buds, the appeal will be much better than a big bag full of popcorn fluff.

The quality as a whole if you include all the popcorn into the mix. I haven't seen the quality or yield increase from pruning.The tops look the same whether you trim or not. So you end up just cutting off a lot of popcorn you could use for bubble.

What's the point?

 

[superultramega]

Better air circulation and sends more of the growing energy to the top of the plants.

uh ok. But if you have solid air circulation, then why?

Again I have never seen a difference from pruning. Seems like one of those ideas that sounds good, but doesn't really provide any net benefit.

 

[Standaman]

uh ok. But if you have solid air circulation, then why?

Again I have never seen a difference from pruning. Seems like one of those ideas that sounds good, but doesn't really provide any net benefit.

I do believe i have solid circulation, my fan runs at a 1/4 of its potential but i just feel with a SCROG its better to clear the underneath or a good amount of it.

My problem is that the underneath is cool, and the top part is warmer, i have only just noticed it over the past couple days, so i'm considering thinning out the canopy