This Be How Dirbag Do...

[Dirtbag]

Thanks for the reassurance bro. In my hydro they may droop for an hour if that on a decent prune. Wasn't sure about soil.

I'm going with @dirbags new method on this one. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

I think you'll like it. You only need to top once when you have enough nodes to produce the number of branches you want. Then it's just pulling suckers once a week. Super easy and very low stress.

 

[MIMedGrower]

I think you'll like it. You only need to top once when you have enough nodes to produce the number of branches you want. Then it's just pulling suckers once a week. Super easy and very low stress.

Can you show a pic or diagram of what you are pulling please? Not sure i understand.

 

[Aqua Man]

I think you'll like it. You only need to top once when you have enough nodes to produce the number of branches you want. Then it's just pulling suckers once a week. Super easy and very low stress.

Right to the growing tips right?

 

[Dirtbag]

Right to the growing tips right?

Yeah, I dont get too crazy about leaving only a single node, but I remove all secondary branching weekly leaving only the small cluster of nodes at the very tip of each branch.

The nice thing is there is literally nothing but the odd leaves to prune at flip time. Keeps the stress really low.

 

[Aqua Man]

Yeah, I dont get too crazy about leaving only a single node, but I remove all secondary branching weekly leaving only the small cluster of nodes at the very tip of each branch.

The nice thing is there is literally nothing but the odd leaves to prune at flip time. Keeps the stress really low.

Thanks bro

 

[Dirtbag]

Can you show a pic or diagram of what you are pulling please? Not sure i understand.

Sure. I top the plants at about 2 weeks old when it has 8-12 nodes and let those nodes grow out to become branches.

On each developing branch, I pull the secondary growth. I attached a stock pic of a pot branch. Imagine this was one of 10 branches coming off the main stem, I drew black lines pointing to the growth I remove. I leave the leaves intact, just remove the secondary growth.

I do it up to a couple days before flip. I did the last prune when I put the trellis up. Then I just leave them and the budsites that develop during the stretch are all I keep. Which this round is a canopy about 18" deep already.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Sure. I top the plants at about 2 weeks old when it has 8-12 nodes and let those nodes grow out to become branches.

On each developing branch, I pull the secondary growth. I attached a stock pic of a pot branch. Imagine this was one of 10 branches coming off the main stem, I drew black lines pointing to the growth I remove. I leave the leaves intact, just remove the secondary growth.

I do it up to a couple days before flip. I did the last prune when I put the trellis up. Then I just leave them and the budsites that develop during the stretch are all I keep. Which this round is a canopy about 18" deep already.
View attachment 969995

Thank you very much.

 

[Dirtbag]

Thanks bro

No worries, something to consider though is the plants get big fast, and because they're essentially lollipopped on each branch, height will become an issue if you veg too long. Something to seriously consider given your height restriction.

 

[Aqua Man]

No worries, something to consider though is the plants get big fast, and because they're essentially lollipopped on each branch, height will become an issue if you veg too long. Something to seriously consider given your height restriction.

Yeah I anticipate fast flips in my room with more plants.

You are keeping the fans and removing the secondary only right?

 

[Dirtbag]

Yeah I anticipate fast flips in my room with more plants.

You are keeping the fans and removing the secondary only right?

Initially yes. By the time I'm ready to flip I do remove some of the older fan leaves lower down on each branch though. It just gets overly and unnecessarily bushy otherwise. And a couple weeks after the flip I'll prune a few more leaves to open up the canopy a bit and improve airflow

But yeah for the first few weeks of veg I dont remove any leaves, just shoots.

 

[Aqua Man]

Initially yes. By the time I'm ready to flip I do remove some of the older fan leaves lower down on each branch though. It just gets overly and unnecessarily bushy otherwise. And a couple weeks after the flip I'll prune a few more leaves to open up the canopy a bit and improve airflow

But yeah for the first few weeks of veg I dont remove any leaves, just shoots.

Ok that makes sense... I was kinda thinking otherwise that plant is gonna be bare af and have a hard time.

 

[Dirtbag]

Ok that makes sense... I was kinda thinking otherwise that plant is gonna be bare af and have a hard time.

Yeah the idea is to get the plants root system and all its leaves working only for the axial tips of each branch. It was explained to me like this, say you have a square foot of roots and 50 leaves, they are producing and uptaking a somewhat fixed amount of energy and nutrients. By removing secondary shoots it frees up more of the plants resources for the growing tops to use and focuses the growth to where you want it.

Resulting in strong branches with no smalls, just tops and mids. No skinny branches with lame buds anywhere to be found.

 

[Aqua Man]

Yeah the idea is to get the plants root system and all its leaves working only for the axial tips of each branch. It was explained to me like this, say you have a square foot of roots and 50 leaves, they are producing and uptaking a somewhat fixed amount of energy and nutrients. By removing secondary shoots it frees up more of the plants resources for the growing tops to use and focuses the growth to where you want it.

Resulting in strong branches with no smalls, just tops and mids. No skinny branches with lame buds anywhere to be found.

I guess it would be a balance. If ya take off to much the roots could have supplied more fans for photosynthesis to little and they need to grow. So I'm kinda thinking keeping fans and some growth earlier in veg and as you get closer to mid and flip pull more to encourage shoot and tip growth only with a more than adequate root system

 

[Dirtbag]

Funny thing about this technique is the growers I know started doing it to try and cut back on trimmer expenses. A tidy crop is processed 4x faster than a crop left with a ton of spindly secondary growth and loads of smaller buds.
They were willing to take a slight loss in yield if it outweighed the extra trimming costs, but it turned out their yields actually went up overall, and they cut their trimmer time nearly in half. On top of that the product itself is far more consistent in quality. Hardly any buds smaller than 1 gram come out of their crops. It's just all fat, chunky mids and big ass tops.

 

[Dirtbag]

I guess it would be a balance. If ya take off to much the roots could have supplied more fans for photosynthesis to little and they need to grow. So I'm kinda thinking keeping fans and some growth earlier in veg and as you get closer to mid and flip pull more to encourage shoot and tip growth only with a more than adequate root system

Exactly. 100%

You end up with such a high proportion of source leaves to sinks/flowers, that inevidably some of the leaves become expendable. Your giving the buds that develop the full resources of a plant that would otherwise be spread much thinner.

 

[Aqua Man]

Exactly. 100%

You end up with such a high proportion of source leaves to sinks/flowers, that inevidably some of the leaves become expendable. Your giving the buds that develop the full resources of a plant that would otherwise be spread much thinner.

Ok I got this now... It's one thing to do something it's another to understand it. IMO you shouldn't do something if you don't understand it lol.

 

[Dirtbag]

Ok I got this now... It's one thing to do something it's another to understand it. IMO you shouldn't do something if you don't understand it lol.

I get it. I'm not great at explaining things i barely understand myself sometimes lol. And this is all theoretical plant science so a lot of it takes a bit of mental gymnastics to grasp,...these guys tested a lot of things on a large scale to dial in their operations for delivering a high quality and consistent product in the most efficient way they could.

The funny thing is I used to always clean up my plants and lollipop but I'd remove small branches before flip and a couple weeks after flower only. Doing progressively and removing that stuff before it even has a chance to grow is just less stressful.
And I cant tell you how many times I've gone in my room in the 3rd week of flower and thought holy crap i didnt take enough off, it's a rats nest.. and I end up pruning more off the lower secondary growth anyway.

It took a bit of nerve to build up to the point where I could strip right up to the tip on the day I flip. But it is paying off... I havent cut a single branch off of these and they're nearly perfectly structured, with a very flat and consistent canopy. Its probably the lowest stress way of steering uniformity in a medium to large room. Or any room or tent for that matter.

 

[Aqua Man]

I get it. I'm not great at explaining things i barely understand myself sometimes lol. And this is all theoretical plant science so a lot of it takes a bit of mental gymnastics to grasp,...these guys tested a lot of things on a large scale to dial in their operations for delivering a high quality and consistent product in the most efficient way they could.

The funny thing is I used to always clean up my plants and lollipop but I'd remove small branches before flip and a couple weeks after flower only. Doing progressively and removing that stuff before it even has a chance to grow is just less stressful.
And I cant tell you how many times I've gone in my room in the 3rd week of flower and thought holy crap i didnt take enough off, it's a rats nest.. and I end up pruning more off the lower secondary growth anyway.

It took a bit of nerve to build up to the point where I could strip right up to the tip on the day I flip. But it is paying off... I havent cut a single branch off of these and they're nearly perfectly structured, with a very flat and consistent canopy. Its probably the lowest stress way of steering uniformity in a medium to large room. Or any room or tent for that matter.

Yeah it only makes sense when you think about it to so it in this fashion. Why waste the plants time and energy growing shit your gonna cut off. I think it will take some tinkering with the ideal amount of fan leaves to keep. I feel like if they are getting light and photosynthesizing then I keep em and pluck em as they get to dense of for airflow. So still keeping the solar panels but not wasting that energy on off shoots your going to remove anyhow.

This is making a lot more sense to me now

 

[Dirtbag]

Yeah it only makes sense when you think about it to so it in this fashion. Why waste the plants time and energy growing shit your gonna cut off. I think it will take some tinkering with the ideal amount of fan leaves to keep. I feel like if they are getting light and photosynthesizing then I keep em and pluck em as they get to dense of for airflow. So still keeping the solar panels but not wasting that energy on off shoots your going to remove anyhow.

This is making a lot more sense to me now

Yeah man you get it. What you're saying is exactly how I'm approaching it.

Once the main branches themselves have bolted by week 2 or 3 of veg, and are a few inches long, I remove the original fan leaves from the trunk of the plant at the base of the branches. From there I basically just keep the inside of the plant clean by removing leaves closest to the center and working out progressively for the last half of veg, usually while I'm in there removing suckers. But overall leaving more than enough solar panels to fuel the stem growth.

 

[Sanderman68]

Yeah man you get it. What you're saying is exactly how I'm approaching it.

Once the main branches themselves have bolted by week 2 or 3 of veg, and are a few inches long, I remove the original fan leaves from the trunk of the plant at the base of the branches. From there I basically just keep the inside of the plant clean by removing leaves closest to the center and working out progressively for the last half of veg, usually while I'm in there removing suckers. But overall leaving more than enough solar panels to fuel the stem growth.

Pretty much just like a tomato plant ,,ifya dont have a full field of em