Want to trim!

[Lofty]

Hey all. I have a plant which is around 20cm high and am thinking of trimming some of it, is this advisable ? what parts do i trim?

[Guest BudWaver]

only 20cm high?

 

How high is the ceiling of your grow space?...if your trimming to keep it manageable in tgha spcae then by all means, or if your going to tip it so it bushess out by all means do it..but if your trimming it just to reduce the amount of leaves...I wouldnt bother...

[Guest Wilderbud]

If you want an plant to get bushy but keep growing just tie it down instead - a week is all you need to make a big difference in bushiness.

 

BTW, why arent you working in inches, feet, pounds etc like the rest of us?

[Lofty]

Ahh i'm new to growing! So can i have some instructions on tying the plant down and how its done exactly.

[Guest BudWaver]

get some green wire tie and bend that stem towards the edge of the pot a 45-30 degree angle to promote the smaller limbs to bush forth

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

The principle is that the very highest point of the plant, the very tip of growth (known as the apical tip) contains a hormone, which stops the other branches from growing passed it. The further away from the apical tip, the less influence the hormone has on the rest of the plant.

 

So the norm is that the tip of the plant grows along, and the lower branches grow with little effect, all this combined gives us the xmas tree shape typical of dope plants.

 

Now if you cut the tip, the apical tip, the hormone is removed temporarily, and the nearest branches can get a move on, causing bushiness.

 

But the same affect can be achived by simply altering the plant's shape, as already stated. By taking the highest growing part of the plant, and tieing in down, so it's below the top of the rest of the plant, the same effect will be achieved as if u clipped the tip, but with less stress to the plant.

 

However, when u tie the top down, the next highest point that is now the apical tip, becomes the source of the hormone, and hence, has the effect on the branches around it. So, once it has obviously taken over, you tie that one down below the canopy too.

 

So, the answer I've found to this over the years is to tie the tip down, but only to the same hight as the rest of the branches. When one branch in turn shoots away and takes over as the highest, tie that down, but again, only to the hight of the rest of the bush. The result is that you have many branches all the same hieght, and a flat uniform growth of brach tops, and bent stems forming the shae of the plant more into a box shape, rather than a xmas tree. Another thing you can do it to experiment around and have all the lower braches shoot off to become the tallest branches. This way you get a plant with multiple colas instead of one.

 

Just experiment around, I learned on outdoors plants, but have since experimented inside. I don't bother anymore, getting old and lazy perhaps.

 

But just remember that the top of the plant contains that hormone, and while it remains the top, it will keep the rest of the closest brach tops supressed. keep that in mind, and have fun playing with it all. There might be a branch that is the highest tip, and so when u tie it down, the brach will of course look like a bent stem. Make the highest part of the bend in the branch the equal hight of the tallest tip. This will cause all the side braches to grow, and of course, if and when one shoots off to become the apical tip, you tie that one; as with all the earlier ones.

 

We did this for years without any particular name, but it's the basic principle I think in SCROG growing. If you're growing just one plant, you can seriously increase the yield doing this.

 

cheers

rob

[Luke Skywalker]

Excellent post mate, that's described it to a tea.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Why thunk ya Luke. I always think that it's good to know why you do a thing, and how it works, rather than just "how to do it". Then a person can adjust it all to suit their own paticular situation. ( I just hope it's all true .) Of course, it is all true, and well documented in many places.

 

Anyway, I did forget one thing but, if you want to bend a branch a long way, don't be in a hurry, it may take a while. Just bend it until it seems like it doesn't want to go any further.

 

Then a few days later, or maybe a week or so, you can bend it a bit more. But this is when ya dealing with hard wood, branches that are thick and maybe a few months old.

 

If you ever break a branch doing this, and it's still hanging on at all. Just splint it with a couple tooth pics, or twigs if it's a bugger branch, and sticky tape it all together. It wont only grow back more than likely, but may well have the best yeild on that branch that any other. But that's another story, they call it "super-cropping" now days I believe. Well in super-cropping the idea isn't to actually break thebranch that far, but it's the same prinicple, and is more than likely where the technology of it came from.

 

Nothing new under the sun the Egyptians said; they just change the names.

 

If you want to play around, take the main tip, and bend it around at about 90 degrees or so to what it ought to be. Then the next day or a few days later, bend it around further, and so on, and so on, and so on....until you have the tip doing loops like a spiral on a roller coaster. While all this is going on, the lower branches will all catch up, and pass the top. Use PLASTIC coated wire ties. The ones they give you with the freezer bags at coles or where-ever. Don;t use the paper ones. I've never had the problem, but I've heard people say the paper caused rot to the plant. Stands to reason I suppose.

 

It's all just games in one sense, but like I said, it will increasr the harvest a good deal.

 

cheers

rob

[Stalwart]

Supercroppin is twisting the stem in opposite directions along it's radius with one hand twisting one way the the other the opposite. You hear a pop and it temporarily weakens the stems so the plants lay down. I've done it on centers a small as 1/2 inch and they just collapse. Then in two weeks I pop on the scrog screen and tie em up and tie em down!

 

As for trimmin I only want to trim mothers. Since that's the lowest stress you can offer the plant.

Edited November 6, 2003 by Stalwart