Trimming during Flowering

I have 9 plants in a large closet with good ventilation.Plants are Indica about 2 ft tall and buds on top of canopy after 2.5 weeks are coming along great.I'm using a 400 & 600 watt hps spread across the room.My question is too get better light down below how much trimming of leaves can i go to allow light in lower canopy.The dynamite plants are so dense only a small amount of light will go lower.Thanks

cdn420 said:

I have 9 plants in a large closet with good ventilation.Plants are Indica about 2 ft tall and buds on top of canopy after 2.5 weeks are coming along great.I'm using a 400 & 600 watt hps spread across the room.My question is too get better light down below how much trimming of leaves can i go to allow light in lower canopy.The dynamite plants are so dense only a small amount of light will go lower.Thanks

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your best bet would be to try to tie the branches apart instead of hacking off leaves.. the leaves are there to absorb light which is how the plant grows and produces bud.. if you start taking away leaves, it means less light that can be absorbed... if you want to cut off anything you should lollipop your girls.. cut the bottom 1/3 of the branches off the main stem.. but otherwise i wouldnt recommend removing any leaves at all.. some people say its fine.. others, like me, say not to.. i guess its up to you.. but removing leaves really just takes you a step backwards IMO... if your girls dont want the leaves they will shed them themselves... but as i said trying to seperate the branches a little and tieing them off to allow more light penetration will do you a LOT more good than starting to hack and remove leaves...

good luck
sampson

Thanks that makes perfect sense.I picked off some yellowing ones here and there below but i'm just going too let it go naturally.Will a 600 & 400 hps give me a good yield ??? This is only my second grow and my first was with a 400 watt and the results were not bad.I'm hoping for more bud but dense.I'm growing Dynamite and God bud.

I am having a similar issue as well.
But my babies are about 4ft tall in a 5x7 are area.. with a 400w hps.. do I need to remove a few of the bottom branches b/c they're not really producing and just taking up energy?

oh, forgot to mention that there 7 of them.. I will post pics if needed..

This is only my second grow but things went really well with the first and this one is fine but again i'm growing 9 plants in a space that would be great with six.What i'm going to do is what i did with the first.Basically harvest the top canopy buds and then take my 600 & 400 watt hps bulbs horizontally and drop them down low or medium height in between the plants and flower the lower canopy.This gave me a large yield even though my bulb was only a 400 watt hps for my first grow.I will take the 2 or 3 smaller yield plants and say bye bye and keep 6 of the large females for extending the flowering.Basically adding another 3 weeks is no big deal and the buds below turn out very nice.Peace

I also hava a 4ft track, so the lighting moves back and forth (very slowly).. do you think i shuld let hem flower longer?

One thing you guys have to keep in mind, especially with HID lights, is that just because you cant see light on a lower part of your plant doesnt mean its not getting any. Light is not just a visual energy, its also radiant. In the case of a HID bulb, it should penetrate through foliage with no problem up to 18 inches or more from the bulb for most 400w and higher bulbs.

I think people worry too much about getting light right on every little budsite. I agree with Simpson on the fact that chopping leaves is never really a good thing. When you chop leaves off, the bud sites you are so worried about being shaded will grow less because you have taken away potential energy from the plant by cutting off a perfectly fine leaf. Not to mention if you stress a plant too much I believe it will almost completely quit growing for a day or so.

I do, however, love the idea of harvesting the top then scooting the lights on down to flower under the canopy, that is GENIUS!! I have a couple plants in my fridge that are PRIME candidates for that, mainly because I am using CFLs mixed with low watt HIDs and dont have nearly the penetration of a 400W or higher lamp. Thanks for the awesome idea!!

KB

I agree about the radiant for sure but again i still always drop my bulbs to do the lower canopy which i do for about 14 days and it is well worth the patience.While i'm drying and curing my top canopy i'm getting everything i can out of my lower.Dynamite which i'm growing now is full on Indica and only 3.5 ft max in height at maturity but the potency and yield is crazy.There are already frosty and dense nug sites after only 2.5 weeks like i was told before i grew this stuff.The seed company is Next Generation up here in Vancouver and the prices are very reasonable for very high quality seed.I had 15 seeds and 9 turned out female.I'm going to be growing Bubble Kush next but am really happy with Dynamite plants .What are you growing at the moment.

cdn420 said:

I agree about the radiant for sure but again i still always drop my bulbs to do the lower canopy which i do for about 14 days and it is well worth the patience.While i'm drying and curing my top canopy i'm getting everything i can out of my lower.Dynamite which i'm growing now is full on Indica and only 3.5 ft max in height at maturity but the potency and yield is crazy.There are already frosty and dense nug sites after only 2.5 weeks like i was told before i grew this stuff.The seed company is Next Generation up here in Vancouver and the prices are very reasonable for very high quality seed.I had 15 seeds and 9 turned out female.I'm going to be growing Bubble Kush next but am really happy with Dynamite plants .What are you growing at the moment.

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Yeah man Im so glad you shared that little trick of the trade with us. I have told a few of my good friends about it and we all feel stupid for never thinking of it. I was going to drop a couple 42w CFLs down between the girls in my mini fridge once its up & rolling for side & lower light coverage. But removing the top buds and flowering the remaining for 2 more weeks is very smart.

Right now I have a couple different things going. I actually have never had a completed harvest of my own, im still on my 2, 3rd & 4th attempts haha. My first failed, and all of these are doing GREAT!

I have a large fridge with 2 large females from 8 bagseed I started a while back. Theyre about 3 weeks or more into flowring. I also have 3 younger bagseed in the fridge with them flowering, sex unknown.

I was given 3 diesel ryder autoflowering plants about a month ago. 1 male & 2 females so i could pollinate the females and get a bunch of seeds They are hilariously small. One is 5.5 inches and one is 6.5 and they are days away form harvest. I may need to let them go an extra week or so for all the seeds to develop though. I have pictures of them in my 175w fridge grow in my sig, towards the end.

I was also given a couple different seeds and I currently have 12 2 week old plants in a makeshift cab with the DR girls. 6 of them are Diesel Ryder AFs and the other 6 are an Apollo11/Green Giant cross. I plan to scrog 3-4 A11/GG in the mini fridge while having a bunch of DRs in the big fride with an A11/GG mother. This way the light cycle can be 18/6 or 20/4 and the DRs will flower, but the A11/GG will stay in veg.

Sorry for the novel/thread hijack, feel free to check out any of my threads for more info. That dynamite strain sounds like it would be perfect size for a fridge, I may have to look into som of those

KB

Your pics look great.Lots of work on the fridges but i bet it will be well worth the effort.I keep things simple.This old hippee who used too be a judge at the cup in Amsterdam and is good friends with Marc Emery up here in Vancouver.He spent a couple weeks here and there showing me how to grow bud without all the frills and things.I use Panda film on the walls,two good fans,600&400 watt hps for flowering and get the best seed you can period.Good strains will erase many shortcomings if you F up somewhere.I germinate from seed so every grow i start from scratch and use a different strain.I germinate with a heating pad overnight and then seed and taproot go right into a 3 gallon grow bag ,no transplanting ,i by pass all that ,it just creates work.I vege using the 400 and flower including the 600.My first grow was amazing using Sunshine #4 as my soiless mix and this one is Pro mix HD .I grow Indica because my space is good size but do not want a jungle more a small forest.My actual first grow without talking with hippee guy i used a 400 watt mh and i used outdoor sativa strain and it was a jungle but the yield was a joke.So far this Dynamite strain after just 17 days is just frosty and dense ,well on it's way.I was told this strain after 4 weeks looks better than most after 8 weeks and this is so true.I'm hoping for two lbs.My grow room smells of fruity grapefruit with a hint of skunk.Try and get bubble Kush seeds, i just smoked an OZ of this stuff.I have never seen a weed in over 10 yrs with so much crystal,the high is crazy and the taste is piney with a bit of lemon.Amazing .Anyway good luck on your grow.

its very simple....dont grow your plants so big you cant contain them. if you spend the time/nutes/electricity to grow a plant you cant properly light are we not wasting resources?

only grow plants you can properly maintain.

Don't trimm just take the top buds off when ready and carry on flowering the bottom section for another 2/3 week.the only trimming that should be done during flowering is when the plant has used the leaves for the nitrogean in them and they turn yellow then remove them.also if you are growing a sea of green method then i would remove the odd few leaves but only for the purpose of good air cicleation.should have lollypoped the plants from the start of flowering then you would not have no where near hasw bad problem,or start to flower earlyer.

Thanks for all of the ideas, and techniques.. Im pretty much at the end of my first grow, and i regret not logging in to this site during the first few weeks.

Eventhough Im using 400w HPS, is it wise to also use a UV spot light ?... I was told that it gives you a higher yeild.

Splashfree said:

Thanks for all of the ideas, and techniques.. Im pretty much at the end of my first grow, and i regret not logging in to this site during the first few weeks.

Eventhough Im using 400w HPS, is it wise to also use a UV spot light ?... I was told that it gives you a higher yeild.

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run it for short bursts, all day and you will burn your shit.

Yeah your fridge setup looks great.I like this site alot because almost everytime i come on here i get a different perspective on grow shows without myself having too experiment.Again i keep things really simple and straightforward.I lost 40 seeds through dampening off and being impatient ,White Rhino,God bud and Blue Dynamite from using Jiffy 7 pellets .So i don't even do that anymore.I find germination a bitch but now it is heating pad with tissue paper and into the soil with either Sunshine #4 or Promix HD in a 3 or 5 gallon grow bag with holes at the bottom.Hit the lights and that is all.I'm really glad the Dynamite is going so well because i invested about $1500 in the lumatek ballasts 600 & 400 along with the bulbs and of course all the seed i F'd up on .I will have good pics next week.Again my next grow is bubba Kush and i cannot wait too grow this stuff.How short do you keep plants in the firdges .Whay yield can you get in there for space???

cdn420 said:

Yeah your fridge setup looks great.I like this site alot because almost everytime i come on here i get a different perspective on grow shows without myself having too experiment.Again i keep things really simple and straightforward.I lost 40 seeds through dampening off and being impatient ,White Rhino,God bud and Blue Dynamite from using Jiffy 7 pellets .So i don't even do that anymore.I find germination a bitch but now it is heating pad with tissue paper and into the soil with either Sunshine #4 or Promix HD in a 3 or 5 gallon grow bag with holes at the bottom.Hit the lights and that is all.I'm really glad the Dynamite is going so well because i invested about $1500 in the lumatek ballasts 600 & 400 along with the bulbs and of course all the seed i F'd up on .I will have good pics next week.Again my next grow is bubba Kush and i cannot wait too grow this stuff.How short do you keep plants in the firdges .Whay yield can you get in there for space???

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Thanks for the kind words, and for checkin out my threads! I have yet to grow in the mini fridge, and my first real grow in the big fridge is only about 3-4 weeks into flowering. The way I have things setup now is nothing but a learning experiance. The girls in the big fridge are bagseed, but the 12 I will be putting into the mini fridge are not. They are 6-Diesel Ryder AFs and 6-Apollo11/Green Giants.

My plan for now is to veg all 12 in the mini fridge for a couple more weeks, then throw all 6 apollo11/Green Giants into the big fridge on 12/12, leaving the Diesel Ryders in the mini fridge. By this time the DRs will have shown sex. Then, after harvesting the apollo11/GG, I will reveg the best looking lady and make her a mother plant. Then I will be able to have 1 A11/GG mother and I was thinking about 6 or so Diesel Ryder AFs in the big fridge on 20/4. It will keep the mother alive, AND the DRs will flower under 20/4. Then I can clone the A11/GG and either SOG or SCROG them in the mini fridge. Im thinking 12 plants if SOG, and like 3-4 if SCROG. As far as yield, Im way to new to be guessing, but I would be happy with just a 1/2oz dry per plant. Maybe more if SCROG. I updated both threads last night so feel free to swing by, the 12 little ladies are growing very nicely.

Peace
KB

I will only prune and trim what will yield nothing but popcorn buds (buds smaller than my thumb nail...buds that small green when dried wil lbe as small as a pinky nail and worth nothing anyway ). Or fan leaves that are absolutely necessary to remove for light penetration or overcrowding, and even then I try to tuck them and see it that yield more light penetration. If I tuck them they usually die within a couple weeks and then I take them out. If I cut off Fan leaves that are nto tucked it is onyl a few at a time and I wait a few days in between cuttings. I Hope this helps