Training, Topping, pruning

peterstoke

Well-Known Member
they look really happy all i can say is they are going to triple in size when you switch them to flower 12/12 so if you can work out how tall they are now then you can triple that size when it comes to 3 weeks flowering time
 

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Well it's a month today, they have one more month indoors. I'm trying to learn when and how to top and prune or train. I'm trying to get the best yield and keep them at 5 ft max height with plenty of room to bush out.
This was topped around 3 weeks IMG_3746.JPG
If you are early in the spring like i am here, you have plenty of time to train.
 

Mohamed.

Member
Oh man, you have a lot of reading ahead of you if you want to really know your way around these subjects.

But I should say something here. Training your plant is done mainly for two reasons.

The first reasons is that you want your plant to cover the whole area of your grow space and make efficient use of the lighting so you start bending the stems in order to make them grow in a a more horizontal direction rather than just up. So if like in your picture, you have 8 plants, I see little to no point in training as these plant nearly cover the whole growing area anyway unless your are planning to move them to a bigger area.

The second reason for training is that your plant height is out of control and you don't want it to bump into the overhead light and so you start bending the steams sideways to make it avoid hitting the light. With good planning, you can avoid this from the beginning. So you should prepare for a tripling of height as Peterstoke indicated above.

Now for topping. Topping is done to break the apical dominance of the plant which should provide you with more than one main cola and you can top more than once but be careful as each topping stunts the growth of your plant for a few days. I usually top my plant earlier than what shows in your photo but I would suggest you go for Manifolding which is a topping technique that makes your plants end up looking like a branched candle holder (and in the process, you give up all the smaller bud sites below).

Now for pruning, hmmm, there is a lot of disagreement on this subject. Some people don't prune at all and others prune too much. My suggestion is to only prune the big leaves that are shading budding sites below it at week 2 or 3 of flowering and leave all other leaves intact.
 
Oh man, you have a lot of reading ahead of you if you want to really know your way around these subjects.

But I should say something here. Training your plant is done mainly for two reasons.

The first reasons is that you want your plant to cover the whole area of your grow space and make efficient use of the lighting so you start bending the stems in order to make them grow in a a more horizontal direction rather than just up. So if like in your picture, you have 8 plants, I see little to no point in training as these plant nearly cover the whole growing area anyway unless your are planning to move them to a bigger area.

The second reason for training is that your plant height is out of control and you don't want it to bump into the overhead light and so you start bending the steams sideways to make it avoid hitting the light. With good planning, you can avoid this from the beginning. So you should prepare for a tripling of height as Peterstoke indicated above.

Now for topping. Topping is done to break the apical dominance of the plant which should provide you with more than one main cola and you can top more than once but be careful as each topping stunts the growth of your plant for a few days. I usually top my plant earlier than what shows in your photo but I would suggest you go for Manifolding which is a topping technique that makes your plants end up looking like a branched candle holder (and in the process, you give up all the smaller bud sites below).

Now for pruning, hmmm, there is a lot of disagreement on this subject. Some people don't prune at all and others prune too much. My suggestion is to only prune the big leaves that are shading budding sites below it at week 2 or 3 of flowering and leave all other leaves intact.
I know I have alot to learn lol, my spot is outdoors and it's 25 and 1/2 by 9 and 1/2 lol it's just only
5 feet tall so I have room to bush out. I will take everything you said in though I appreciate it
 
Oh man, you have a lot of reading ahead of you if you want to really know your way around these subjects.

But I should say something here. Training your plant is done mainly for two reasons.

The first reasons is that you want your plant to cover the whole area of your grow space and make efficient use of the lighting so you start bending the stems in order to make them grow in a a more horizontal direction rather than just up. So if like in your picture, you have 8 plants, I see little to no point in training as these plant nearly cover the whole growing area anyway unless your are planning to move them to a bigger area.

The second reason for training is that your plant height is out of control and you don't want it to bump into the overhead light and so you start bending the steams sideways to make it avoid hitting the light. With good planning, you can avoid this from the beginning. So you should prepare for a tripling of height as Peterstoke indicated above.

Now for topping. Topping is done to break the apical dominance of the plant which should provide you with more than one main cola and you can top more than once but be careful as each topping stunts the growth of your plant for a few days. I usually top my plant earlier than what shows in your photo but I would suggest you go for Manifolding which is a topping technique that makes your plants end up looking like a branched candle holder (and in the process, you give up all the smaller bud sites below).

Now for pruning, hmmm, there is a lot of disagreement on this subject. Some people don't prune at all and others prune too much. My suggestion is to only prune the big leaves that are shading budding sites below it at week 2 or 3 of flowering and leave all other leaves intact.
So for instance I know airflow is really important, check this lady out and tell me if I should clean her up
 

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Mohamed.

Member
So for instance I know airflow is really important, check this lady out and tell me if I should clean her up
If through touching inside this small bush, you find your fingers got wet then you definitely should remove a few leaves because this will indicate that transpiration from the leaves got stuck in between and formed damp areas which might cause mold to form. Otherwise, a small rotating fan can solve this issue.
 

Mohamed.

Member
I know I have alot to learn lol, my spot is outdoors and it's 25 and 1/2 by 9 and 1/2 lol it's just only
5 feet tall so I have room to bush out. I will take everything you said in though I appreciate it
I live in the northern hemisphere and the days in my country are beginning to become longer. I don't have outdoors growing experience, only indoors but If I understand correctly, you intend to transfer them outdoors for flowering right? Then they won't flower until they get 12 hours of darkness, unless you're growing auto-flowering strains or you live in the southern hemisphere, so which is it? :D
 
I'm in Colorado on the Western slope, I've only grown in nor cal but out here the last chance of Frost is around mid late May, so I'm hoping I can get a few months of veg outside even if I have to hit em with light everynight to stop them flowering. The genetics come from a friend of mine who got them from nor cal and grew them last year here outdoors. So hopefully they are a little more accoustemed to the climate. To me I'm thinking light dep worst comes to worst
 
Will it shock them? I'm a little reluctant only because their so young but if you think that's best I may do that here soon. It makes sense because I notice the others of the same strain are reaching but this lil one is stubborn
 
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