Lollipopping - How late into flower?

As the title states, I'm curious as to how far into flowering you guys continue to lollipop your plants as you realize the shoots that are going to stretch and those that are staying low in the canopy? I'm about 2 weeks on now, and have a couple more branches I'd like to remove, but historically like to be finished by week 1 of flower.

My preference is to wait until the middle of Week 4 to make sure that the stretch is finished before I do the first serious lollipopping. I will still do some selective pruning, like removing or pruning the tips of some of the fan leaves that are blocking what will be a nice nugget, into week 6.

StareCase said:

My preference is to wait until the middle of Week 4 to make sure that the stretch is finished before I do the first serious lollipopping. I will still do some selective pruning, like removing or pruning the tips of some of the fan leaves that are blocking what will be a nice nugget, into week 6.

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Perfect, thanks for that. Are you talking about 4-6 weeks into flower? If so, that's great to know.

I do what I'd probably call more of a "modified lollipop". I dont do it to the true definition, but more just remove all lower branches that dont reach near the top of the canopy and remove all internal growth that doesnt get light. I typically dont remove many fan leaves, but i probably could start to. Normally, my "lollipopping" is done over several weeks instead of doing it all at once.

Say10 said:

... Are you talking about 4-6 weeks into flower? If so, that's great to know ...

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I am. Most of my lollipopping is done during Week 4.

Say10 said:

... I do what I'd probably call more of a "modified lollipop" ... just remove all lower branches that dont reach near the top of the canopy and remove all internal growth that doesnt get light ...

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That is what I do when I lollipop ... the weak sisters that are light starved by their bigger sisters.

Say10 said:

... I typically dont remove many fan leaves, but i probably could start to ...

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Sorry ... my bad. Removing selective fan leaves is more of a light pruning than lollipopping.

I leave as much leaf on them as possible and let the plant shed them when she is done with them. But you will see that there are a couple of nice looking nuggets that aren't the weak sisters but they didn't quite get as high as the "donkey dick" branches. The larger fans on those donkey dicks will shade that nice nugget. I'll nip the tips or maybe 1/2 of that fan leaf so that the light can reach that nugget better.

Say10 said:

... Normally, my "lollipopping" is done over several weeks instead of doing it all at once ...

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I'll lollipop over the course of a couple of days during Week 4. The light pruning is more into week 6 so that I can see that those nice nuggets are going to yield me something worthwhile.

Perfect! Great info there, thanks alot for that! For whatever reason, I was under the impression that you shouldnt trim much beyond week 2 (dont know where I got that from) and was getting worried since I was in week 3 and still had some more I wanted removed.

In regards to the fan leaves, I mostly just remove ones that are extremely low and wasting more energy than the the energy they're giving to the plant due to lack of light, and remove the ones that overlap each other causing moisture. I try my best to prune other growth that's inhibited by fan leaves unless removing the fan leaf leaves a sizable growth to get more light.

Thanks again for the input!

This is my 3rd grow, the first two being 8+ years ago. This plant is about 10 weeks from seed, flipped after 3 weeks. Sorry for bad pic quality.

What are your thoughts on cleaning up that lower part this late in the game? thanks!

I lollipop and defoliate about a week or so before i flip to 12/12.

After that, its simply a matter of maintenance as far as lollipopping goes. As the plant stretches and grows, it will produce new growth/bud sites on that bottom 1/3 of the plant that i cleared previously, but i try to remove it as quickly as possible, to prevent wasted energy or major stress during flower.

I defoliate again around week 2-3 of flower, while simply continuing to maintain the bottom 1/3 of the plant to keep it barren of new growth. The lack of growth on the bottom 1/3 allows energy to be concentrated on the upper 2/3, as well as allowing better air circulation from under the plant. And then defoliating allows more light into bud sites that would otherwise not receive any, as well as better air circulation. Plus defoliating seems to produce denser buds in my experience, and saves a ton of time when trimming after harvest

toad37 said:

This is my 3rd grow, the first two being 8+ years ago. This plant is about 10 weeks from seed, flipped after 3 weeks. Sorry for bad pic quality.

What are your thoughts on cleaning up that lower part this late in the game? thanks!

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do not take anything more off of those plants