well, for many years now it has been known that the cannabis plant, among others, has an elongation response but the mechanism was not well understood.
most thought that there were specialized light receptor cells involved but no one could agree on their location on the plant.
some thought the cells were uniformly distributed all over the plant, some thought they were clustered at the nodal points, and some thought they were on the fan leaves.
the fan leaf group turned out to be correct. distributed randomly accross the surfaces of the fan leaves are these specialized cells that sense changes in light spectrum.
some sense the reflected green from adjacent plants and cause the plant to stretch upward to compete for light.
others sense the change in the red/far red ratio that occurs when leaves are occluded sub canopy. these cells send signals down the petiole to the associated node that the petiole is attached to. the node then causes the stem section above it to stretch.
so when we remove a large fully expanded fan leaf from the outer canopy we are simply keeping the fans below it fully or nearly fully lit and still sending the normal light spectrum to the receptor cells on those leaves. thus limiting elongation and creating shorter internodal lengths.
shorter internodes mean more branching and more budsites per plant mass. we can force the plant to grow mostly stem like the hemp growers do by planting at high density. but i can't sell stem in my 'hood so i want to focus my plants resources on flower development.
also, if a major fan leaf is removed you are removing the source of the signal to its accompanying node. no signal no action.
depending on the strain i will do one removal of large fans just before stretch and one just after.
never remove fan leaves emanating from the buds themselves. i just remove ones that are at the base of stem sections that are clear of flower sites. that is that have some stem above them before the bud. it is like putting the brakes on that stem sections elongation.
i think we have officially gotten to the point of threadjacking now so i'll quit.
"In my case perhaps exacerbated by the sink/source relationship being altered by removing large fully developed fan leaves at strategic points in growth, even further reducing carbon reserves.
but i do this to reduce the elongation that usually accompanies rapid growth and increase ramification and therefore number of bud sites."
What are your findings/technique to reduce stretch and get more/tigher bud sites when you are hitting the sweet spot of accelerated growth?
If you dont mind elaborating on fan leaf removel?
Great minds think a like or something like that lol.
"stoned" i'm shocked and surprised!
the above is a rather cursory brief interpretation for a lot more on the subject try google scholar "cannabis elongation response red/far red ratio"
should be enough to keep you busy for a year or two.
"stoned" i'm shocked and surprised!
the above is a rather cursory brief interpretation for a lot more on the subject try google scholar "cannabis elongation response red/far red ratio"
should be enough to keep you busy for a year or two.
"stoned" i'm shocked and surprised!
the above is a rather cursory brief interpretation for a lot more on the subject try google scholar "cannabis elongation response red/far red ratio"
should be enough to keep you busy for a year or two.
Look what ya gone and did Loc lol. I told ya boost your calcium in veg.
GG4 is a calcium HOG. On top of that she grows super fast especially in early flower.
As Foothill mentioned and my own experiences can back up once you are behind in calcium on a big plant it almost impossible to get back to optimal levels, well I found a way, prune the hell out of it and let it veg all over.
That pic that everyone sees from the 70's paper that says "drug type" was probably grown in a calcium poor soil and perhaps since it was drug type it was more of a calcium hog ha!
All that light stuff is interesting but just feed more calcium in veg so they are stocked up good before flower and see what happens...