Early Flower Pruning?

I have a plant in the first week of conversion from 16/8 to 12/12, and have come to realize that I should have pruned the bottom section of the main cola before I pruned to produce two splitting colas. Right now it is quite bushy and I know that not all the leaves are able to get light, but I'm unsure if I should prune at all since I switched, and even if I did prune it - which to cut or not cut. I've done my best to read up on the forums regarding this, still not very sure. My questions again, in bullet form:

1) Is pruning in early flowering prudent?
2) What guiding principle should I use to prune? Cut down every other shoot so they get enough light each or only a few to prevent stress?

My plant is already starting to produce some flower pods, nothing major yet but what i'd basically describe as a small crop of pre-flowers. Any help would be appreciated!

It's undesirable to prune during flowering. It can be done but it takes the plant longer to recover than it does in the veg state and might cost you time till harvest. Some are bolder than others about this.

Is it really necessary to prune? Post some pix. Probably it would not make that big a difference and you might as well leave it alone or do some LST to make sure the right parts get the light.

zvuv

Thanks! Pictures incoming, but yeah I think it is necessary because it is awfully bushy there, and I'm using a 200w CFL to light so I'm pretty sure from other information sources that there is little to no light penetrating anywhere in there. I grew it as a single cola until the fifth shoot or so, then split it into two, and the bottom area is now super dense.

Two pictures

You'll see some old damage there from heat stress and some minor nutrient deficiency, before it was moved it was in a temporary holding area being cared for by friends, things didn't work out nearly as well as expected but it has recovered quite a bit. Bushiness should be apparent. I'm thinking I might just prune the ones that are still a little brittle or waxy ("crackle-y") or have lost color and are crispy.

I reccomend trimming only what is absolutely required. Too much stress during the first couple of weeks of flowering can cause a plant to hermie. Leave anything still green on the plant for now. If you have to remove a large number of leaves, only do one or two a day to minimize stress. After the first few weeks of flowering you can go back and thin the plant out.

Take the ones that a turning yellow and drying up.

Lot's of people trim to get more light on the lower leaves.

And trimming will not make them hermie.

Good Luck

Ok I must not have read your explanation when you posted the pix. So I deleted the silly things I said in this post.


You have the damage under control. Sorry about those silly comments.

Yeah, you can cut off the dead and dying leaves. I believe pruning leaves is less stressful than pruning shoots. Other than that I dont see any urgent need to prune.