JAYMAN2724
Member
How early can I start pinching off the lower branches?
Pinching
- Thread starter JAYMAN2724
- Start date
calicat
Well-Known Member
I usually modify plant when I see three growth nodes.
JAYMAN2724
Member
Removing the undergrowth
JAYMAN2724
Member
Thank you for the info. Why during flowering and not veg
choop
Well-Known Member
id like to know this as well. i have 6 plants on their first week into flower right now and i know there are some scraggly little guys not getting shit at the bottom but ive always heard its best not to take ANYTHING off
Corso312
Well-Known Member
I don't remove the under growth in veg because those become large branches in flower...I only remove the bottom 1/3 of every branch so the tops get max production and none of that airy garbage underneath ..that is where mold/mildew could start also...little air flow and stays moist too long from lack of light/wind....if ya prune that undergrowth the first week or 2 of flower then it will not grow back..the plant is blooming mode.
JAYMAN2724
Member
Makes since. Thanks for elaborating on that cause I was going to remove the lower branches.
Sencha
Active Member
Take that shit out. Don't remove fan leaves if you don't have to.
Guerilla Gardener
Active Member
lower budding sites and branches stretch up to try to break the canopy but rarely if ever receive enough light to produce any product above a c- grade of product. The buds are airy and premature on strains that bush out and have multiple top colas. Why is this? Because the solar panels, ie; Leaves, can't get enough light.
Thats why the knowledgeable grower will cut away the lower 1/3 of their plants upon switching the light cycle. This negates the bottom branches that would've produced shitty buds and used up alot of the plants energies. Now those energies can be used by the top of the plant to make more bud and leaves.
General rule of thumb is those leaves are solar panels. they catch the sun, convert it to energy and feed the plant. When a leaf becomes 40% necrotic, it begins to hinder the plant by wasteing these energies on itself just to keep alive, this is why you take the leaf.
For large SCROG or SOG grows or rooms overcrowded with larger plants, you can cut the top leaves horizontally across the blades up to half way without stressing the plant or hindering its ability to produce food for the plant. This will also create more open space for the secondary or Midgrade flowers to get bigger by receiving more light to their leaves.
Lastly, Cannabis flowers at night. It spends the day tracking the suns arc with its fan leaves and storing energy and heat for night time deployment. This why Cannabis glows on an infrared camera if it is grown in a field.
Cloudz2600
Well-Known Member
I never understood how cutting the solar panels would = more growth. Now if they just cut the bud sights and left the fan leaves, maybe. I do remove dead/almost dead leaves though.
Guerilla Gardener
Active Member
I wrote that up for some guys in the newb section as they were arguing over the merits of pulling off the leaves for more bud.
Its completely ok to remove a leaf or 3 on occasion if they are hindering light to a nice nug or holding water against a flower.
treat it like Mother nature, these plants lose leaves to bugs and weather and animals walking beside them through the brush.
Inside they don't have any of that. But the bottom line is it has those leaves for a reason.
Its completely ok to remove a leaf or 3 on occasion if they are hindering light to a nice nug or holding water against a flower.
treat it like Mother nature, these plants lose leaves to bugs and weather and animals walking beside them through the brush.
Inside they don't have any of that. But the bottom line is it has those leaves for a reason.