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A Complete Guide to Topping, Training and Pruning
- Thread starter Kodiak
- Start date
Thanks everyone, I'm glad you liked it.
shmooothsmoke, sounds like you did a good job training your hindu Kush, perhaps a SCROG net would be a fine addition to your grow.
I know what you mean moses224, getting tight buds on the haze is no easy task. They will fatten up and become tight with time. At the latest when the calyxes start to swell up. I had to top my mostly sativa haze a whole bunch of times and train it extensively in order to get tight nugs. Even then they were not as tight as the indica buds. If you intend to make oil out of your plants it really doesn't matter that much how dense the nugs are but the more bud the merrier either way.
With sativas like this one you could probably go as low as 10.5/13.5 or even 10/14 on the light schedule during flowering, but not much lower than that.
shmooothsmoke, sounds like you did a good job training your hindu Kush, perhaps a SCROG net would be a fine addition to your grow.
I know what you mean moses224, getting tight buds on the haze is no easy task. They will fatten up and become tight with time. At the latest when the calyxes start to swell up. I had to top my mostly sativa haze a whole bunch of times and train it extensively in order to get tight nugs. Even then they were not as tight as the indica buds. If you intend to make oil out of your plants it really doesn't matter that much how dense the nugs are but the more bud the merrier either way.
With sativas like this one you could probably go as low as 10.5/13.5 or even 10/14 on the light schedule during flowering, but not much lower than that.
Pittsburgh Kush
Member
One of may great guides to training. (topping ftw outdoors when running numbers)
puffdragon
Member
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you from all of us dummies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you
Thank you from all of us dummies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kirby_Tokin
Member
Have you tried to top,prune or train your autoflowers? Reason why i ask is because ive read a post that said the one auto that was trained gave more yield.. I can see why you should not top and prune it, but you could train it.. What are your thoughts Kodiak? My 5 Female Red Dwarfs are 16 days from seed today, would be fun to try it out.. Great thread..!
Kirby
Kirby
Hi Kirby. I have not tried to top or train autoflowering strains yet as the Lowryders that I grow and breed have such a short life span that it never crossed my mind.
Sure, you could train the autoflowering plants but I'm guessing that you would get more bud by growing more plants. You could train one LR to cover the available space but harvesting the main cola from 5 different plants in the same space, would probably give you more bud. This is the reason why I make my own LR seeds and hybrids. I need a lot of seeds and cannot buy new ones every time. By creating my own hybrids I also get plants that suit my needs. I consider the selection process to be of crucial importance. The first parents chosen for the breeding project will define the entire seed line, so only the best will do. LR's and other autoflowering plants cannot be cloned so for every new generation of plants I have to start enough seeds to make sure that I will find at least one good male and one good female that I will use to make the next cross.
But to answer your question, yes, if you train your autoflowering plant, you will most likely end up with a greater harvest. Give it a shot, if you can slow down the flowering process long enough for the training to have any effect, you would probably end up with a bushier plant with more active nodes and therefore also more bud.
EDIT: I have now tried topping and training autoflowering plants and I can confirm that it works very well. I saw none of the problems that people are so worried about. Topping the AF's seems to delay flowering, which is a good thing because then they spend more time in veg. I would say that I got about 25% larger crops by topping and training the AF's, compared to earlier grows. Go for it, I say. Nowadays, I top and train the autos indoors every time during seed grows. I grow them in large numbers outdoors for bud so I don't really have to worry about the yield because it's usually more than enough.
If it was my plant, I would put it under a 24/0 or 20/4 light schedule and use either a MH or CFL bulb that emits light from the blue spectrum. Once the plant has reached the desired shape I would switch to the HPS and a 12/12 light schedule. The longer days and blue light will most likely encourage the plant to invest more energy into vegetative growth. When you switch to the HPS and 12/12 the plant will go into full bloom. Also, you might want to feed the plant mostly veg fertz until you put it into full flowering. The sum of all these things might tilt the growth to the vegetative side instead of flowering. The trick here would be to slow down the flowering process as much as possible until the training is complete or at least well on the way.
Hopefully that answered your question.
Good luck
Sure, you could train the autoflowering plants but I'm guessing that you would get more bud by growing more plants. You could train one LR to cover the available space but harvesting the main cola from 5 different plants in the same space, would probably give you more bud. This is the reason why I make my own LR seeds and hybrids. I need a lot of seeds and cannot buy new ones every time. By creating my own hybrids I also get plants that suit my needs. I consider the selection process to be of crucial importance. The first parents chosen for the breeding project will define the entire seed line, so only the best will do. LR's and other autoflowering plants cannot be cloned so for every new generation of plants I have to start enough seeds to make sure that I will find at least one good male and one good female that I will use to make the next cross.
But to answer your question, yes, if you train your autoflowering plant, you will most likely end up with a greater harvest. Give it a shot, if you can slow down the flowering process long enough for the training to have any effect, you would probably end up with a bushier plant with more active nodes and therefore also more bud.
EDIT: I have now tried topping and training autoflowering plants and I can confirm that it works very well. I saw none of the problems that people are so worried about. Topping the AF's seems to delay flowering, which is a good thing because then they spend more time in veg. I would say that I got about 25% larger crops by topping and training the AF's, compared to earlier grows. Go for it, I say. Nowadays, I top and train the autos indoors every time during seed grows. I grow them in large numbers outdoors for bud so I don't really have to worry about the yield because it's usually more than enough.
If it was my plant, I would put it under a 24/0 or 20/4 light schedule and use either a MH or CFL bulb that emits light from the blue spectrum. Once the plant has reached the desired shape I would switch to the HPS and a 12/12 light schedule. The longer days and blue light will most likely encourage the plant to invest more energy into vegetative growth. When you switch to the HPS and 12/12 the plant will go into full bloom. Also, you might want to feed the plant mostly veg fertz until you put it into full flowering. The sum of all these things might tilt the growth to the vegetative side instead of flowering. The trick here would be to slow down the flowering process as much as possible until the training is complete or at least well on the way.
Hopefully that answered your question.
Good luck
Kirby_Tokin
Member
Thanks Kodiak, good answer.. Im gonna try to train one plant if it looks good enough.. I got info on my grow in my log, just follow my signature.. I will be using one 150 veg cfl light 24/7 until they start to flower, then put them on 20/4 with my 400 hps.. I also plan to take the best female and make some seeds instead of buying them, then take those seeds outside in the summer..
Kirby
Kirby
Sounds good Kirby, it will be interesting to see the results 
Yeah, it's always a good idea to make your own seeds for outdoor growing since then you will have some control over the genetic makeup of the plant. You will have to figure out what sort of traits you consider important and then select the parents based on that criteria. Keep in mind that the physical appearance, scent and flower formation of the males will also affect the female offspring. What you want is a strong male with a good scent and tight clusters of male flowers. When it comes to selecting lowryder females the criteria is pretty straight forward; heavy resin production, tight internodes, nice scent, early flowering etc..
Yeah, it's always a good idea to make your own seeds for outdoor growing since then you will have some control over the genetic makeup of the plant. You will have to figure out what sort of traits you consider important and then select the parents based on that criteria. Keep in mind that the physical appearance, scent and flower formation of the males will also affect the female offspring. What you want is a strong male with a good scent and tight clusters of male flowers. When it comes to selecting lowryder females the criteria is pretty straight forward; heavy resin production, tight internodes, nice scent, early flowering etc..
I've just done 2 weeks at 12/12 with my Trainwreck and AK48's. I grow 20 plants in 7 liters buckets. The area is about 1 m2 (3*3ft). But I dindt pruned them under the vegg, and now, some plants are going to be very bushy with a lots of low branches that overlaping each other and the only thing they do is to shade the lower section of the plants. So I think the best is to prune all the low and shaded branch, but do I stress the plants too much if I pruning them at the begining of week 3 in 12/12? I can understand that topping the plants will disturbe and stunt the grow a lot, but how will it affect the health of the plants if I cut of all the lower branches?
riskofwater
Member
bump!
awesome guide!
awesome guide!
Thanks, glad I could help.
Big swede, removing the lower branches and leafs should not stress out the plant as long as you do not remove too much growth at once. When it comes to removing lower growth after training and possibly scrogging a plant, you have to decide which branches and leafs you think will become energy sinks and which the plant can still use. By removing the smaller branches you actually help the plant to direct energy to where it is needed, namely to the larger main colas. Many of the smaller branches just eat up a lot of energy and only produce small "popcorn" buds that never really mature in the end. Remove a few branches each day until you can find nothing more to remove, but leave as many fan leafs as you can. You have to use the "Green Eye" here.
Pontiac, thanks for adding me to the DIY Link-O-Rama. I will also add a chapter on the SOG method.
Big swede, removing the lower branches and leafs should not stress out the plant as long as you do not remove too much growth at once. When it comes to removing lower growth after training and possibly scrogging a plant, you have to decide which branches and leafs you think will become energy sinks and which the plant can still use. By removing the smaller branches you actually help the plant to direct energy to where it is needed, namely to the larger main colas. Many of the smaller branches just eat up a lot of energy and only produce small "popcorn" buds that never really mature in the end. Remove a few branches each day until you can find nothing more to remove, but leave as many fan leafs as you can. You have to use the "Green Eye" here.
Pontiac, thanks for adding me to the DIY Link-O-Rama. I will also add a chapter on the SOG method.
good pictures, no supercropping though?
I could be way off, but isn't it better to top at night as the "juice / hormones" gets sent down to the roots at night, and if cutting the top of in the day you take that from the plants and it will stunt it alot more then if you were to cut at night?
I could be way off, but isn't it better to top at night as the "juice / hormones" gets sent down to the roots at night, and if cutting the top of in the day you take that from the plants and it will stunt it alot more then if you were to cut at night?
Ok, I added a chapter on hurd crushing. In all fairness I could not call the guide complete without including this technique.
Thanks for pointing out that the plant should be topped at night habeeb. According to what I have read you are right about the hormones being sent to the roots during the dark period. Topping it during the day might stunt the plant somewhat but honestly I cannot say that I have noticed the difference. Usually the plant picks up fairly fast from where it left off but I will add this information to the guide nonetheless, just in case.
Thanks for pointing out that the plant should be topped at night habeeb. According to what I have read you are right about the hormones being sent to the roots during the dark period. Topping it during the day might stunt the plant somewhat but honestly I cannot say that I have noticed the difference. Usually the plant picks up fairly fast from where it left off but I will add this information to the guide nonetheless, just in case.
great thread
great thread
kodiak you covered pretty much everything, but i grow in a dense SOG and pruning fan leaves is a must, even more so than the lower branches. I would not recommend it for growing bushes, but trimming fan leaves is crucial when growing 4-6 plants per square foot. the leafier strains, such as the Pineapple Trainwreck i am working with, will literally overgrow each other in a SOG if not pruned weekly
great thread
kodiak you covered pretty much everything, but i grow in a dense SOG and pruning fan leaves is a must, even more so than the lower branches. I would not recommend it for growing bushes, but trimming fan leaves is crucial when growing 4-6 plants per square foot. the leafier strains, such as the Pineapple Trainwreck i am working with, will literally overgrow each other in a SOG if not pruned weekly
HIGHGROOVE
Member
im 12 days into flower with gdp what are my options at this point to help yield....i know ive waited too long but what would some of my options be?
Twelve days is still quite early into flowering so you could try tying down some branches unless they are already too stiff. If you add a scrog net you can carefully bend the branches and tie them down horizontally so that they are resting on the net. This would be a low-stress solution. In case you do not want to use the net, try crossing branches over each other so that they form an arch or a bridge and twist-tie where they overlap.
Either way, all the smaller bud sites will start growing taller and put on weight once the main cola has been tilted. By tying the plant down in this manner you get more budsites that the plant considers "equal" and it will distribute the energy evenly to all these locations. The main cola will still be the main cola but the buds growing further down on the stem will grow larger as well.
Do not top or remove anything from the plant. It might take a week or two before the plant has completely adjusted to it's new condition so you can expect a slightly longer flowering time. You will start to see a difference within a few days, all the smaller buds will turn towards the light.
Good Luck
Either way, all the smaller bud sites will start growing taller and put on weight once the main cola has been tilted. By tying the plant down in this manner you get more budsites that the plant considers "equal" and it will distribute the energy evenly to all these locations. The main cola will still be the main cola but the buds growing further down on the stem will grow larger as well.
Do not top or remove anything from the plant. It might take a week or two before the plant has completely adjusted to it's new condition so you can expect a slightly longer flowering time. You will start to see a difference within a few days, all the smaller buds will turn towards the light.
Good Luck
HIGHGROOVE
Member
hey guys day 18 of flower...what are your thoughts on pruning some of the lower branches at this point?
