Starting my second grow - Trimming Questions

Hi all,

Just starting the germ on my second grow. First grow went ok with one plant (my grow area is only 900mm wide x 500 deep.

My question is, on my first grow the one plant i had totall filled the space i had, and on harvest i realised that there was a lot of branch area with no bud on at the bottom on my plant.

I plan on growing two on this grow, what would be the best method to trim two plants within the space i have available, to get the best yeild?


any commments much appreciated.

You could top them early and get the 4 main colas on the top then strip off or clean up the parts of the plant that are not basking in the light from your system.

I take it from the size of your grow room that you are using CFL's?

Just get the lights as close as you can depending on Watts and top them early. Switch your lights to 12 12 and keep with your blue CFL for a week also keep on GROW nutes for that week then change your blue CFL's for Red spectrum and change your GROW nutes for BLOOM when you notice the bud sites starting to appear about 2 weeks in to 12 12 then strip alot of the bud sites from under the plants to only leave a few buds sites and the main colas.

If you do this you should have short stocky plants with pretty good main colas.

Hope this helps just my thoughts on the matter.

J

Hi,

Thanks for the help. The light i used on the last grow was a 400w hps with a cooltube and fan exhausting the hot air but its getting abit hot now its summer . This grow i an planning on trying a 250w mh on veg and hps on flower.

Anyways back to the trimming, my basic understanding of trimming is that if you trim off the lower branches the plant grow taller, if you top the plant it stays short and busy? On my last grow i used the FIM method about a week before i started flowering. I started the the flowering when the plant was about 32" tall, it then got very bush and was too wide for the space i had, especially if there are two. I got four good collas on the top though

Looking on the web i have seen plant pics that are really thin with like 4 or so main branches that are growing upwards with really thick big buds all the way up the main stems but not very busy. how do you do the hell do you get them to grow like that?

View attachment 906540

i would keep the light close and top and lolly pop.

Thanks for the reply. Please can somebody correct my understanding of the below if I am incorrect:

Topping

Purpose: To get two main stems growing instead of one and also to gain extra growth in the bottom branches.
Method: Count 4 nodes down from top shoot and cut the main stem just above the 4th set of nodes.

How long should you leave your plant before you top it?
If you top the plant and the new growth starts from the next two branches down, how long should you wait before you top the two new branches?
How many time can you generally top each new branch before it starts effecting the plants?


Lollipopping

Purpose: To gain extra growth at the top of the plant so it becomes taller and less busy, and also to increase better air circulation for the plant.
Method: Cut off lower branches. Not too sure when or how to do this

How long should you leave your plant before you lollipop it?
How do you lollipop your plant?


So should I lollipop the plant wait until it gets a little bit taller and then top it say 2 or 3 weeks before I flower?

Also do you guys know of any good books or websites with good info on topping and lollipopping. I have found quite a few on topping but I cant seem to find any good info on lollipopping


Thanks

WeeMan1980 said:

Thanks for the reply. Please can somebody correct my understanding of the below if I am incorrect:

Topping

Purpose: To get two main stems growing instead of one and also to gain extra growth in the bottom branches.
Method: Count 4 nodes down from top shoot and cut the main stem just above the 4th set of nodes.

How long should you leave your plant before you top it?
If you top the plant and the new growth starts from the next two branches down, how long should you wait before you top the two new branches?
How many time can you generally top each new branch before it starts effecting the plants?


Lollipopping

Purpose: To gain extra growth at the top of the plant so it becomes taller and less busy, and also to increase better air circulation for the plant.
Method: Cut off lower branches. Not too sure when or how to do this

How long should you leave your plant before you lollipop it?
How do you lollipop your plant?


So should I lollipop the plant wait until it gets a little bit taller and then top it say 2 or 3 weeks before I flower?

Also do you guys know of any good books or websites with good info on topping and lollipopping. I have found quite a few on topping but I cant seem to find any good info on lollipopping


Thanks

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ok from my understanding You are correct about topping although I don't know about counting 4 nodes or doing less. Check out the SOG guys and see how they get theirs with 100colas.
Lollipopping, when I did it, I cut the lower branches off so the plant wouldn't waste energy toward their growth. I never sliced any fan leaves off because it was understood that their only purpose is to gather light and promote photosynthesis. It turned out nicely but I did not have a control group so I cannot say whether it was good or not.