how to manicure a plant?

I have seen pics of indoor grow sites that have plants that are no more than 18-20in tall and the whole main stock is one solid bud. I would like to know roughly how to manicure the plant during the grow process to make the final result look like this. Ill include a pic. Is it a lower yield to get more smaller plants with one large bud than less larger plants with smaller buds?

something like this. The plant doesnt spread out and doest cover more of the area than the pot it is growing in.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/images/1698/medium/1_6wks.jpg

Wait til you harvest, take sharp scissor, cut off all leaves. That's pretty much how its done, you don't want to cut off everything while its still growing.

meathook666 said:

theres a strain called lowryder 2 that grows exactly like that with no pruning..its autoflowering too..

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How does autoflowering work? Does that mean you don't have to change to 12/12?

that's exactly what it means.. the best schedule i've found to work with growing autoflowering strains (ie. lowryders, lowlifes, db) is to have a constant light schedule of 18/6 from start to finish, you don't need to do anything except keep the light on and the plants healthy. blaze on.

its called lollipopping and the guy who said wait till harvest is wrong you wanna trim all the bottom branches and side branches off during the first 2-4 weeks of flowering and it will force the plant to just work on that 1 main cola its great for sea of green and gettring huge chicken leg colas

bigtittymilf said:

its called lollipopping and the guy who said wait till harvest is wrong you wanna trim all the bottom branches and side branches off during the first 2-4 weeks of flowering and it will force the plant to just work on that 1 main cola its great for sea of green and gettring huge chicken leg colas

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do exactly what she said.

lollipopping works best if you top...if you are picking a strain go with a short bushy trait. top it back to about 7 inches tall (should have 5 nodes give-or-take below this point). if you want to make clones let it grow to about 10 inches and you can clone the top part that you cut off.

after topping keep in veg for anoother couple weeks to let the plant rebound. then flower. the first couple of weeks the plant will stretch like crazy. indicas generally are shorter and will double in size in flowering (1 ft at end of veg = 2-2.5 ft at end of flower). sativa strains can triple in size during flowering. For lollipopping i dont trim until the initial growth spurt is over (about 2-3 weeks). you'll see signs of sex around then too.

once the growth levels off, i trim any growth below about midplant (should be about the level of where you topped). you will hae to do it periodically to keep the growth back. i also thin some of the upper fan leaves. lets light get down to different levels of the plant.

any time i do major trimming i water with like 1/4 or 1/2 strength of superthrive...supposed to help with the stress.

this lets you have most of your buds in a light range that is optimum. increases quality of your buds.

past time, should't you sex the plants before going into flowering?

mars2penny said:

past time, should't you sex the plants before going into flowering?

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Yes because if you try to sex a whole plant and want to return it to vegetative state the reversion takes weeks. When i sex a plant it is from the cuttings i take from the questionable sex of the plant.

if you veg long enough you can, but to keep them small and busy you only veg for about 6 weeks. theyll end up being about 2 feet not including soil. i just pluck out the males at first sign so they dont pollinate the girls

I am terribly sorry, I thought you asked how to manicure a plant, I guess thats what the thread said. Yes if you want the plant to grow short you can cut off the top and force it to grow bigger secondaries, OR you can cut of all the lower branches and force the plant to grow main cola, up to you.