How to prune outdoor plants into giant bushes?

[Ibechillin]

How often are people topping there outdoor plants during veg and in how many places to get them into those giant bushes we all love?

I put a blue cheese indica seedling out this year into a 100 gallon fabric pot on May 7th. I have not done any training or pruning yet.
It is now over 3 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep with about 12 side branches about 18 inches long.

Some recommendations would be awesome to help shape this beast!

 

[ManyManySpliffs]

Pruning alone won't give you the bush you want, what you want to do is LST. Low Stress Training, tie the plant down and it'll force its way back up and create the bush you seek. Search LST and you'll see plenty of good methods and ideas. Good luck and keep up the good work.

 

[FreedomGrower]

I prefer bending ... and a trellis ... try bending the top ... that's all I have done so far this season ...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BU2-tf8lJfk/?taken-by=marijuanaresearch

 

[Ibechillin]

Thanks, ill start bending it over and tying it down tonight. That chemdawg is looking awesome FreedomGrower!

 

[pipeline]

I don't recommend lst outdoors since you have plenty of sun. What you want to do is promote the plants natural strong framework. Bending it over may make it weaker and it could blow over in storms or break. Prune just the little tuft of leaves sticking out the tallest branch. Allow the plant to respond and top again. Doing this will allow the lower branches to grow without the inhibition hormone produced by the top. There ya go! Have fun!

 

[reppin2c]

That container looks more like a 30 gallon. But 10% trimming insides every week

Edit with good sun they'll bush up how they should on they're own

 

[Ibechillin]

I don't recommend lst outdoors since you have plenty of sun. What you want to do is promote the plants natural strong framework. Bending it over may make it weaker and it could blow over in storms or break.

^this is what i was semi afraid of, ive seen/read horror stories of LST outdoor plants branches splitting at the joints after heavy rain/wind. I have unpredictable weather, frequent light rains and occasional windstorms. Ive been nervous to start training or pruning my outdoor plants for fear of getting greedy for yield, and ruining the structural integrity of the plant to have it split apart during flower.

My plant gets full sun at approximately 16 hours daylight 5am sunrise 9pm sunset currently. Days start getting shorter in about a week. Sun rises from the east, opposite side i took the picture from and sets west behind me.

And yes the picture is bad perspective lol that pot is 36 inches across and 20 inches tall.

 

[baduy]

Just pinch your top several time in the course of the season to redistribute growth hormones to the lower branches and thus keep your top cola. you'll get bushes and keep the natural shape. If you decide to prune the part where you do this will become a point of weakness for the growing branches and break easily if rain + wind.

 

[Triplemfarms]

I don't recommend lst outdoors since you have plenty of sun. What you want to do is promote the plants natural strong framework. Bending it over may make it weaker and it could blow over in storms or break. Prune just the little tuft of leaves sticking out the tallest branch. Allow the plant to respond and top again. Doing this will allow the lower branches to grow without the inhibition hormone produced by the top. There ya go! Have fun!
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Gaaaahhh sorry to rage but I don't think you could be more incorrect. I've seen SOOOO many people grow their 14 ft tall plants and yet all they yield is 2lbs, 3 maybe. And I've been on my hill 5+yrs. If you let them get too tall all you're going to get is larfy larf larf. Topping by pruning causes undue stress and extra stress time... wrap that top though a trellis LST style and you get the same effect without the stress lag....

It isn't about how big your plant can be, it's all about #of tops and canopy area...

 

[Triplemfarms]

^this is what i was semi afraid of, ive seen/read horror stories of LST outdoor plants branches splitting at the joints after heavy rain/wind. I have unpredictable weather, frequent light rains and occasional windstorms. Ive been nervous to start training or pruning my outdoor plants for fear of getting greedy for yield, and ruining the structural integrity of the plant to have it split apart during flower.

My plant gets full sun at approximately 16 hours daylight 5am sunrise 9pm sunset currently. Days start getting shorter in about a week. Sun rises from the east, opposite side i took the picture from and sets west behind me.

And yes the picture is bad perspective lol that pot is 36 inches across and 20 inches tall.

An untrained/ supported plant will split no matter what. If you are active about spreading plants from day 1 they won't have issues. All my girls just survived rain+30mph winds yesterday and the fat knuckles I created earlier are still intact.

 

[Triplemfarms]

I don't recommend lst outdoors since you have plenty of sun. What you want to do is promote the plants natural strong framework. Bending it over may make it weaker and it could blow over in storms or break. Prune just the little tuft of leaves sticking out the tallest branch. Allow the plant to respond and top again. Doing this will allow the lower branches to grow without the inhibition hormone produced by the top. There ya go! Have fun!
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TO BE FAIR!!!! guerilla grow tech I'm sure is different

 

[Ibechillin]

So i started training my plant today, i did LST to the lower branches and supercropped the tops.
I didnt train the upper branches because they would have just ovelapped and shaded the lower ones. We will see how it turns out lol, Ill put a trellis together when i feel it needs the support.

I also topped the main shoot to try and shift focus towards the lower growth more.

Picture of LST branches on front side

Picture of LST branches back side

Picture of top shoot after topping

 

[pipeline]

Thanks tripplemfarms! Yeah everything has pros and cons. Its good to discuss the different techniques. Thanks for sharing!

Pruning slows down the plant and causes a little stress, but a vigorous plant won't slow very much I think. It just gets overwhelming topping all the buds. Its best to get a cage and train the tops downward or horizontal to allow lateral branches to release. Keeps everything moving... Guerillas have limitations on time and metal cages out in the brush...

I think the top needs to be lowered the most. I would tend to let the lower branches do their thing for now. Its fun to experiment!

Topping should be done once in May/ June at the 1-2 ft stage from what I've seen. Then low stress training after that should be used until harvest.

 

[Triplemfarms]

Got my girls in their first layer as trellis the other day. I use the first layer mainly as support from wind and in the case of the past few days heavy rain bending them over. >:/

Starting the second layer soon, I'll take the main stalks and spread them out gradually

 

[pipeline]

Cool, thanks for sharing! Kind of screen of green style only bigger scale than indoor growing! Lots of heads on that one! With guerilla growing, pruning/topping may be preferred to reduce labor time. Although, with once per week visits I bet LST would work well. Waiting too long between trips and you may walk up one a tree that outgrew your cage!

I may need to LST this year. Wanting to limit head height. Pinching once in June usually does the job due to the lower light conditions.

--Caution-- Be sure not to top/ prune late in the season because it could delay flower production. Too late is probably somewhere around July 1 in my opinion.

Enjoy!

 

[ManyManySpliffs]

Cool, thanks for sharing! Kind of screen of green style only bigger scale than indoor growing! Lots of heads on that one! With guerilla growing, pruning/topping may be preferred to reduce labor time. Although, with once per week visits I bet LST would work well. Waiting too long between trips and you may walk up one a tree that outgrew your cage!

I may need to LST this year. Wanting to limit head height. Pinching once in June usually does the job due to the lower light conditions.

--Caution-- Be sure not to top/ prune late in the season because it could delay flower production. Too late is probably somewhere around July 1 in my opinion.

Enjoy!

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pipeline this your new outdoor? if so what strain(s) you running..

 

[CannaFunk]

I usually tie all the branches down to the base of the plant itself, Take the entire stem and bend as if bending copper tubing, try to slowly bend the middle of the branch by pushing the ends together...After you have opened up the canopy, remove all the smaller growth in the middle and lower sections, and allow your main branches to become the structure.

Sometimes release the ties right before she hardens off those branches and allow her to stretch the new bushy growth vertical, I think trimming, pruning, training, etc are all plant and situation dependent.

I have a flat LST'd bush that went into flower and is reveggin, and I can see that all the flower sites it produced are now exploding because of the training I've been doing, really evening out the canopy, and the Tops of the Branches that were bent down are almost fully bent back upward in a hook motion. I took Tops 8 inches long 3 weeks into flower just starting reveg and bent them outward. I really want to focus on training with this plant.

Side note: Met an Old Timer at the grocery store, this fools been at it a long time. Anyways he is an expert gardener, trimmer, pruning, knows ALL the info I have gathered since Overgrow.com. Hes teaching me more than I could imagine. We speak almost daily. Told me a story of a swamp he was riding through and found a plot ran off Solar Pumps and Mounds, found a 20+ Foot Tree in the Middle of the plot with a trunk base like they grow in Norcal and Oregon.

Listen to your Elders! (Unless there full of shit)

 

[Kygiacomo!!!]

Fim and supercrop gives me the bushes outdoors..ive never done a LST and always get a bush plant. check out this berry bomb is bushing out. its about 3.5 foot tall right now and some width around..still got about 45 days of veg left on it.

 

[WelderDan]

Check out this thread. It's kinda long, but dude did an amazing job and got multiple 12-15 ft branches on a single plant. It's a monster.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=327315

 

[pipeline]

many spliffs- Not current year garden photos. Check out my thread for more info. Thanks!

I agree Kygiacomo. With infrequent maintenance, pruning upper tops once or twice seems to do a great job, especially with indica dominant strains which tend to have more branchy structure. Sativas may need topped over and over to have the same effect. I love it when you top once and it produces 7 heads. What more do you need? You lose maybe a day or so of active growth, but they will catch up! Can't wait to see how mine respond to last weeks topping!