How do you trim your trees?

[kushtrees]

I wanted to hear how other people were trimming. So lets hear it!

I defoliate most large leaves especially ones blocking other bud sites

I rarely top my current strain, it grows into a nice fat Xmas tree shape pretty much on its own. That being said I just topped my new GSC, it was growing straight up and the FOAF I got it from recommended it so well see what happens

I very liberally trim out and pistil whip the middles. Lately I have been leaving the the last 16-20 inches on the branch (lolipopping to about a 16-20" canopy) Anything in the middle goes away. This time I will be lolipopping to 12 inches. Anyone go less than that?

 

[Capulator]

I'm gonna lollipop all the way to the cage this time to make pulling it all down easier. I try to push big leaves down and out of the way now. You can tuck most of them I found after talking to JK and asking him what he does.... I stopped going crazy with the defoliation.

 

[kushtrees]

How deep of a canopy does trimming to the cage get u cap?

I do tucking as well with leaves that I don't trim by the end of week 3. They seem to come out though and constantly tucking is a pain

 

[Capulator]

How deep of a canopy does trimming to the cage get u cap?

I do tucking as well with leaves that I don't trim by the end of week 3. They seem to come out though and constantly tucking is a pain

2-3 ft. or so.... I run 48" OC, The cage is a 2' diameter. I will lollipop up higher in the middle if the plant is taller than it is wide. I would say 2' is the sweet spot for penetration in my set up.

 

[Capulator]

Here is a post I found from DD on the subject: everytime you pluck a fan leaf it costs you yield bro, esp week 4 - 7 bro. You are hurting the plants ability to photosynthsize in the time when its in its time of producing heavy amounts of bud. I have never once plucked perfectly good fans off a plant and never will.

 

[Danksnax]

Also I have read around during my years of information gathering that a bigger stalk is directly related to potency of buds. What feeds the main stalk? Those fat funky phan leaves (with a "PH" because they are phucking awesome) that your plant worked very hard to grow and are full of nutrients your plant can still very much use. This is my first real season, but I have been around many girls before were there owner would chop off leaves at random, with those phan leaves being the first to go. How was there final product? Please believe it was a whole lot shittier then it could have been. Every time I lose a leaf I silently mourn for a second :sorry: . Tuck that shit, or let it be until the plant has sucked its nutrients out.

 

[CelticEBE]

Here is a post I found from DD on the subject: everytime you pluck a fan leaf it costs you yield bro, esp week 4 - 7 bro. You are hurting the plants ability to photosynthsize in the time when its in its time of producing heavy amounts of bud. I have never once plucked perfectly good fans off a plant and never will.

I remember reading that and I have treated it as gospel ever since. The only time I do an defoliation is 10 days into flower and I only get rid of sucker branches and budsites that are not getting any light.

 

[woodsmaneh]

Anyone with a basic understanding of how plants work would never pull leaves off their plants. Now having said that I do some serious lolly-popping in the first week of flower and also top just before flip. I move leaves out of the way sometimes but never ever pull them off.

 

[Oregon Panda]

Basically every time I grow, I clip every leaf off. I take out my loppers and chop at the base close to the dirt. No branch is left on the plant, each is cut off ENTIRELY. I top every main branch, like all the way to the bottom of the bud 8 to 9 weeks into flower.

I trim my trees when I harvest them. If a plant likes to make lots of little suckers... I probably dont grow it. If it grows too tall... How tall is that? Basically I take the dead leaves and thats it. Lolly-popping is all cool indoors when gravity isnt an issue.When a bud weighs an ounce dry, its damn heavy on the branch. If you dont have all the lower and inner growth to counter balance, your looking at massive branch breaks.

If you put all the weight at the top, all the stress is on the bottom. I know everyone wants bigger buds, its created by a bigger environment. If you dont have the space for a tree, your growin bonsai.

 

[Burned Haze]

It's all about not lollipooping/training your plants ALL- at -once since that will produce more stress. Like what was said above: It has a lot to do with environment and how close your plants are in your rooms . You cannot expect them to become tree's when the plants are fighting for space,C02,light and so forth. It's def better to strain hunt for plants that have a great balance indoors. Rigorousness and speed in veg might be a bad thing yield wise for indoor gardens . However some of the pheno choices outdoors were the least favorite choice indoors. Funny how i keep 2 pheno's on some strains cause of that lol

indoors:7-10 gallon root pots (Outdoors30-45 gallon root pots, buried) 1000+PPM C02 , lower heat , perfect environment, topped 4+ times depending on strain. I LST or HST them with wire or trellis early & move fan leafs around once 12/12 begins instead of removing like i did in the 90's .

 

[NightShift]

I like to defoliate large fan leaves on the top of the canopy during the first week of flower. I wouldn't have done this in my first few years of growing because it takes a lot of energy/time for a plant to create fan leaf not to mention it is a storage of potential nutrients.

From what I have found It gives more light penetration for buds to fill in and my yield is always increased. Of course I also trim out any undergrowth. I choose which buds I wanna cultivate. Those being top colas

 

[DO IT]

Do an experiment.... take the fan leaf that's on the stalk under a new branch (just 1 on the tree) and watch how the rest of th branches with there fan take off on the 1 without. That will show you how important leave are in th growth process.

 

[NightShift]

yes then others get in there and strip out whole branches and watch how the others around them swell up. Its about having fewer budsites with bigger buds. Its better then having a harvest of smaller buds.

 

[shadyslater]

do any if you feel that the fan leaf corresponds to the branch or the growth site adjacent to it? I plucked a couple fans today and justified it that way, those adjacent branches had shot up sufficiently imo.

I've had this idea floatin around my stoned brain for some time now too

 

[zincsulfate]

yes then others get in there and strip out whole branches and watch how the others around them swell up. Its about having fewer budsites with bigger buds. Its better then having a harvest of smaller buds.

I see.

 

[Bo0m]

Here is a post I found from DD on the subject: everytime you pluck a fan leaf it costs you yield bro, esp week 4 - 7 bro. You are hurting the plants ability to photosynthsize in the time when its in its time of producing heavy amounts of bud. I have never once plucked perfectly good fans off a plant and never will.

NO WAY cap. I have just seen some very interesting shit with defoliation, side branching takes off, and light penetration is insane. New fan leaves fill out within a couple days, like a week tops. I wouldn't pick anything after the end if the second week. Picking off large fan leaves also seems to do some weird toping, were side branches take over and get huge.

Like picking off all the main large fans, forses the side branches to grow the huge fans, which makes the smaller branches get huge. Ill know more in like a week, but I wouldn't grow a big plant with out doing it.

 

[Capulator]

NO WAY cap. I have just seen some very interesting shit with defoliation, side branching takes off, and light penetration is insane. New fan leaves fill out within a couple days, like a week tops. I wouldn't pick anything after the end if the second week. Picking off large fan leaves also seems to do some weird toping, were side branches take over and get huge.

Like picking off all the main large fans, forses the side branches to grow the huge fans, which makes the smaller branches get huge. Ill know more in like a week, but I wouldn't grow a big plant with out doing it.

BoOm I was quoting someone else. I have heard many others claim not to pull leaves off who I respect very much. I personally will take a few here and there, if there is a big ass leaf blocking a bunch of budsites I will try to tuck it back, and if I can't do that I remove it. I gut my plants from the inside as soon as I transfer them and again at week 2. At this point in my life I have a pretty good idea of what is gonna produce and what is not gonna be worth the hassle. PLants get gutted, Yo-yos go up to support large branches, and dead leaves are removed daily to keep airflow abundant.

Your yield will be greater overall if you leave all the leaves. However, I do not like to trim small shit so for me it is a matter of cost of labor vs. bigger yield.