Need HELP! Trimming bottom of plants during the flower stage

Hello yall,

I have been growing for about 3 years and I was talking to another grower and he said I should cut away all lower branches on my plants he said like 6" reason being he says it will concentrate the growth towards the tops I have a few ladies in there 4th week of flower and woundering if I should go trim them? or is this bad info please let me know if this is a good idea or not.

I mean when I harvest I end up throwing the stuff on the bottom branches away anyway so it makes sense. Thanks for the help RIU

thats how i do it around the 4th 5th week i start cutting away all the branches that look like they wont get any bigger than the popcorn buds they really are.

grower001 said:

thats how i do it around the 4th 5th week i start cutting away all the branches that look like they wont get any bigger than the popcorn buds they really are.

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Thanks so no issues with stunted growth from the stress of cutting ? Also do you cut at the main stalk or ?

4personaluse said:

Hello yall,

I have been growing for about 3 years and I was talking to another grower and he said I should cut away all lower branches on my plants he said like 6" reason being he says it will concentrate the growth towards the tops I have a few ladies in there 4th week of flower and woundering if I should go trim them? or is this bad info please let me know if this is a good idea or not.

I mean when I harvest I end up throwing the stuff on the bottom branches away anyway so it makes sense. Thanks for the help RIU

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Thats the way to do it. I scrog, so the line where to stop and start is easier, but any lower branches that will never see any light or produce anything worth while can just be trimmed off. They are just wasting nutrients and energy in every effort they make for growth. Here';s a pic of my trimmed canopy so you can see how nuts I go with my trim...

my plants usually get uptrimmed at about week 3. same as the big shade leaves get pulled too. cut them at the main stalk and go up about 1/4 of the way. i also take some of the smaller ones off the branches i keep. the will never get the light to amount to anything more then trim. the other benifits will be great air circulation and ease of watering and taking care of. sometimes less is more!

did you just say you cut off the fan leafs? Biggest no no

WOW! Thanks for the info and PICS! I can always caount on yall RIU ROCKS!

Looks like im heading out to trim Thanks again + REP for all

yep, i start taking the big fans off around day 16. not all of them, just thin them out a bit so the light can penitrate. i know, your going to tell me that if i leave them on they feed the flowers. seems to me like it doesnt really matter and makes things a little neater.

This is a technique used in most gardening. This forces the plant to focus its energy on fewer fruits and thus a better fruit. Its a give and take. I LST so i attempt to make all my branches bottom branches. Sure some are pathetic and will grow a bud that is worth just one hit, but for me (im cheap), every hit counts.

Its also hard to clone a flowering plant as it has to revert to veg and stay alive while doing it before it grows roots. Sometimes you get lucky. If you trim, try to clone. If you dont trim, keep LSTing.

greensister said:

This is a technique used in most gardening. This forces the plant to focus its energy on fewer fruits and thus a better fruit. Its a give and take. I LST so i attempt to make all my branches bottom branches. Sure some are pathetic and will grow a bud that is worth just one hit, but for me (im cheap), every hit counts.

Its also hard to clone a flowering plant as it has to revert to veg and stay alive while doing it before it grows roots. Sometimes you get lucky. If you trim, try to clone. If you dont trim, keep LSTing.

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OK Its been a week they have till the 3rd of aril to go this saturday is week 11 of 12
and my big fan leaves on some of the plants are tunning yellow which I know is normal becuase its feeding on them but seems like more so then before I cut the bottom branches off. noral rigt?

Wow, I'm surprised to see people still talking about cutting fan leaves.

If someone came along and said they had magic joo-joo sauce that gave your plant a great source of easily available sugars and nutrients in late flowering you'd probably pay big money for it. Well, you have it - it's called the big ugly fan leaves. There's a reason they turn yellow at the end of flowering - your plant is pulling nutrients from them. Leave em alone - if nothing else your plant can use them when it needs a mobile nutrient(not all nutes are mobile - meaning the plant can't recycle them).

As far as the popcorn goes... just learn to cook with them, or make hash.

I've never bought into the idea that cutting off small growth does anything except maybe help airflow. Your plant is smart enough to let it die if it's no photosynthesizing enough to fuel growth.

If I had some big-ass, thick, gooey buds in the undercanopy... well THEN you might convince me the plant was stealing energy from the top colas... but thinking those shitty little buds are pulling anything significant from the rest of the plant is just an old wives tale.

I dont think its good to cut them either. One think I would look for in small places is the older fan leaves that are being blocked by the canopy. I started getting some moldy yellow under groath. I trimmed them up and they seem totally happy about it. Take a look at the before & after!