Lollipopping

Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
So I have been hearing and reading a lot about lollipopping plants lately. (where one cuts the buttom 4-6 branches away to allow the plant to put more energy to top of plant)

The timing of this seems to be crucial because if you trim the bottom branches too soon you could cause the plant to grow taller than it normally would?

When is a good time to do this? I was thinking maybe two weeks into the bud stage so the plant cant react to it by growing more, but also dont want to allow the plant any time to put energy into those small weak buds on the bottom.

bongsmilie
 
kms420

kms420

Member
i would do it the week before u start flowering, so that its healed before its
worrying about growing buds, hope that helps
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
I liked Uncle Ben's Post, thank you for pointing me there. It gave useful tips on acheiving four cola tops instead of one, but I did not find too much specific regarding the technique of lollipopping. If anyone else has any insight on this much is appreciated.

I have heard to go up to 1/3 of the plants base, another thing I have heard is to clip everything that doesnt represent the top canopy.
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
Fred Flintstoner said:
I liked Uncle Ben's Post, thank you for pointing me there. It gave useful tips on acheiving four cola tops instead of one, but I did not find too much specific regarding the technique of lollipopping. If anyone else has any insight on this much is appreciated.

I have heard to go up to 1/3 of the plants base, another thing I have heard is to clip everything that doesnt represent the top canopy.
Click to expand...
2 weeks before flower and up to 4 weeks into flower.

Here are the results I got lollipopping gigabud:


I stripped 10" - 12" of growth off the bottom by the way. If you're like only penetrates 20 inches, and the plant is 40" tall, then the bottom 10" is wasted plant energy.



 
naturalhigh

naturalhigh

Well-Known Member
yup yup...best to do it when there smaller..or bigger... like flower at 12 inchs..clear out the lower 5 to 6 inchs of the plant and the top will form one big bud and yo uwont get that fluffy pop corn bud that doesnt do anything
 
samstoner

samstoner

Active Member
if any can offer advice it's appreciated . I lost all the bottom leafs off a 7 foot brazilian Big Bud plant to some nasty rabbits .Evasive action has been taken to stop any more critter damage . The top of the plant seems to be "lolly popping " better than I expected and am wondering if I should cut all the lower branches back to the stem as the critters just pulled off the leafs ( along with leaving the budding flowers in the dirt . Plant has survived but is valuable energy still being routed into these leaf less branches on the bottom ? Thanks for any advice .
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
Green Cross said:
2 weeks before flower and up to 4 weeks into flower.

Here are the results I got lollipopping gigabud:


I stripped 10" - 12" of growth off the bottom by the way. If you're like only penetrates 20 inches, and the plant is 40" tall, then the bottom 10" is wasted plant energy.



Click to expand...
Great pictures my brotha! This is exactly what I am talking about, and its great to see some proof in the pudding too!

I did not lollipop enough this grow and I have ended up with some small popcorn buds again on a few of the bottom branches of my largest plant. I didn't want to go overboard, but with this experience as well as advice like yours it seems a few more inches up next time around and I will be golden.
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
naturalhigh said:
yup yup...best to do it when there smaller..or bigger... like flower at 12 inchs..clear out the lower 5 to 6 inchs of the plant and the top will form one big bud and yo uwont get that fluffy pop corn bud that doesnt do anything
Click to expand...
I trigger flowering at about 24", so next time I will go ahead and lollipop at LEAST 12" up from the bottom of the plant as a rule of thumb. This time I did about 8-9" and it just wasnt enough. Only a few, but spindly branches none the less, do exist on the bottom of the plant. I have collected some pollen, which I plan on using to pollinate a few select buds at the bottom of the plant towards the end of the grow.
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
:joint:Greencross:joint::

Your time frame of 2 weeks before flowering and 4 weeks into flowering is a pretty long duration to choose when to lollipop.

I really liked your results, I was wondering what factors lead you to choose when exactly during that time period to begin lollipopping.
OR
Are you suggesting to lollipop off spindly branches during that entire phase?

Thanks much for your help in this post, its been great. bongsmilie
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
Here is a pic from my current grow journal that shows the top of one of the plants that I lollipopped. It is the cola on the right hand side of the picture. You notice a smaller bud in the back there, that is from another plant that I did not lollipop nearly as much.

 
FuZZyBUDz

FuZZyBUDz

Well-Known Member
Fred Flintstoner said:
:joint:Greencross:joint::

Your time frame of 2 weeks before flowering and 4 weeks into flowering is a pretty long duration to choose when to lollipop.

I really liked your results, I was wondering what factors lead you to choose when exactly during that time period to begin lollipopping.
OR
Are you suggesting to lollipop off spindly branches during that entire phase?

Thanks much for your help in this post, its been great. bongsmilie
Click to expand...

yea i love this idea but i gotta agree aboutthe range of wen to do it??? this is like the complete opposite of suppercrooping.
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
greenearth5 said:
Has anybody heard any information on lollipop-ping an auto-flowering low life plant?
Click to expand...
If had an autoflowering plant, I would probably just wait until she is a week or so into budding and then lop those bottom babies off. The two out of three plants in my current grow that I lollipopped big time have the fattest damn nugs on top. Harvesting tonight too!
 
greenearth5

greenearth5

Well-Known Member
sweet... I lollipoped 1 lowrider last night and left 2 alone... I cut off the smaller branches and probably got a good couple of joints from its bud... its only 2 weeks into flowering but is look'n good
 
mared juwan

mared juwan

Well-Known Member
It is critical to know the plant's growth traits before doing something like this. I have grown strains where the top cola will explode when the bottom branches are removed. I've also grown strains that require you to preserve as many budsites as you can through flower. These are the small yielders like Bubba Kush that won't form colas. Instead you get a golf ball size nug at each budsite. Lollipopping this strain would destroy the yield. So I strongly recommend growing out the strain normally to find out what it does before doing any extreme pruning. The exception is if you have an overcrowding situation. If you are so tight on space that an entire lower branch is 100% shaded then it is best to lose it.
 
Fred Flintstoner

Fred Flintstoner

Active Member
mared juwan said:
It is critical to know the plant's growth traits before doing something like this. I have grown strains where the top cola will explode when the bottom branches are removed. I've also grown strains that require you to preserve as many budsites as you can through flower. These are the small yielders like Bubba Kush that won't form colas. Instead you get a golf ball size nug at each budsite. Lollipopping this strain would destroy the yield. So I strongly recommend growing out the strain normally to find out what it does before doing any extreme pruning. The exception is if you have an overcrowding situation. If you are so tight on space that an entire lower branch is 100% shaded then it is best to lose it.
Click to expand...
NICE POST of Information Mared. These underlying pieces of information that people might not think about before doing this are exactly what this thread needs. :clap:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top