How to prune/defoliate/leaf pick on the outside row

BCBLondesLEDGrowLights said:

View attachment 4386431 View attachment 4386432 View attachment 4386433 View attachment 4386434 View attachment 4386435 View attachment 4386436 View attachment 4386437 View attachment 4386438 View attachment 4386439 How to prune?

Some people call it a leaf pick, or defoliation. I prune when I kick them into flower, again at about 3 weeks and again at 5-6 weeks. Here is a quick series of pics showing how to prune a plant that is just kicked.

First step is to identify where the back of the plant is so you can ‘flat back’ it. This plant is on an outside row so it has a back.

Remove the spindly/weak branches with scissors, also any branches pointing straight back on the back of the plant, but don’t remove any that are on the top 3rd of the plant.

Then remove leaves that are low down and facing backwards as well, leave the leaves at the top of the shoot, DO NOT PRUNE THESE.

Turn plant around to the front and remove leaves from bottom and only a few from the middle to thin it out a bit.
Pruning will do multiple positive things for the plant. Removing the low down and weak leaves and branches allows the plant to focus on the parts of the plant receiving the most light.

It also removes the weakest stuff which is where your powdery mildew and bugs will start.
Another bonus to doing a prune is it will stimulate the plant to grow, if you do it right the plant will perk up and receive a huge growth burst, the leaves will grow back in 2-3 weeks when you’ll have todo another prune.

Use this technique to crank up your yields and keep your plants big and mildew free.​

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Plants look good bro, care to share your feed recipe and if there are any specific supplements you use in timing with when you prune?

I used to give them a b1 spray before/after I pruned em, but I don't do that any more as the stress is beneficial. My recipe is pretty basic I don't use a whole lot of additives. Basic 3 part with a few bloom boosters.

1250 ppm veg

week 1 through 9 for flower
1100
1150
1200
1250
1300
1350
1400
1450
1500
flush

BCBLondesLEDGrowLights said:

I used to give them a b1 spray before/after I pruned em, but I don't do that any more as the stress is beneficial. My recipe is pretty basic I don't use a whole lot of additives. Basic 3 part with a few bloom boosters.

1250 ppm veg

week 1 through 9 for flower
1100
1150
1200
1250
1300
1350
1400
1450
1500
flush

Click to expand...

Is that on the 500 or 700 ppm scale?
Which 3 part are you running?

OneHitDone said:

Is that on the 500 or 700 ppm scale?
Which 3 part are you running?

Click to expand...

500 ppm scale. keep in mind im on c02.

Green planet 3 part

Heres the same plant that I pruned on august 28th, 8 days later. First picture is when I first pruned it on aug 28th.







These are from today:

This isn't the same plant that ive talked about above but this quick little video shows you why its so important to flat back prune when trying to maximize table space.

Flat back pruning. Pruning/defoliating does multiple things. It cleans up your weak branches and leaves so you don’t get bugs and mildew. It stimulates the plant to grow, and you can literally bonsai the shape so it fits perfectly on your table with the other plants.

BCBLondesLEDGrowLights said:

View attachment 4386431 View attachment 4386432 View attachment 4386433 View attachment 4386434 View attachment 4386435 View attachment 4386436 View attachment 4386437 View attachment 4386438 View attachment 4386439 How to prune?

Some people call it a leaf pick, or defoliation. I prune when I kick them into flower, again at about 3 weeks and again at 5-6 weeks. Here is a quick series of pics showing how to prune a plant that is just kicked.

First step is to identify where the back of the plant is so you can ‘flat back’ it. This plant is on an outside row so it has a back.

Remove the spindly/weak branches with scissors, also any branches pointing straight back on the back of the plant, but don’t remove any that are on the top 3rd of the plant.

Then remove leaves that are low down and facing backwards as well, leave the leaves at the top of the shoot, DO NOT PRUNE THESE.

Turn plant around to the front and remove leaves from bottom and only a few from the middle to thin it out a bit.
Pruning will do multiple positive things for the plant. Removing the low down and weak leaves and branches allows the plant to focus on the parts of the plant receiving the most light.

It also removes the weakest stuff which is where your powdery mildew and bugs will start.
Another bonus to doing a prune is it will stimulate the plant to grow, if you do it right the plant will perk up and receive a huge growth burst, the leaves will grow back in 2-3 weeks when you’ll have todo another prune.

Use this technique to crank up your yields and keep your plants big and mildew free.​

Click to expand...

A good tip to add would be to clean the scissors being used with alcohol before pruning.

Kushash said:

A good tip to add would be to clean the scissors being used with alcohol before pruning.

Click to expand...

ive seen this in many textbooks, but in 17+ years of experience it has never been a problem.

day 14 of flower brings another prune

Turn the plant around so the back is facing you first.

This time we are focussing more on the leaves as opposed to the branches as most of the weak branches were already removed, how ever there will still be some that need to be cut off.

Then focus on carving out the back of the plant again. remove leaves that are on the back of the stem facing backwards or facing inward to the rest of the plant.

remember to leave the fan leaves at the top of each shoot.

spin the plant around so the front is facing you and now remove the leaves at the bottom, and thin out the middle a bit.

Remove any leaf debris from the dirt and place the plant back where it was on the table.



Heres a series of photos showing how I prune at this stage.

Here is that exact same plant at day 27. Pruned it again and took a few photos so you can see the process.

At this stage its mostly just picking off leaves because the shape of the plant should already be molded to your table from the previous prunes. That doesn't mean that you wont have to cut a branch off or two though, there can be branches on the back that you left on hoping they would turn into something which didn't.