got a question... do you guys think i need to prune any for more light penetration. This is my Think Different day 53. I'm using 240w LED and she's catching a little light from another i have on an ak auto. seems to be doing fine but i was wondering if it might help me maximize yield if i trim a leaf here or there for the lower buds to get more light.
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How many more days to go? on this? Pruning during flowering can get tricky because you have to time it just right.
The truth is that you have to understand translocation of sugars in plants and its timing switch in the strain you are growing in order to maximize the effects of pruning particularly during flowering. The fact about strain specific timming is really a very broad grey line because it is only accurate on pure strains. With hybrids it is all over the place so I do not think exact pinpoint timing really matters once you are in flower, but timming will make the difference between successful pruning and a wild wild guess. Read your leaves, only they can tell you when.
Some people do not need to know the science behind timming and pruning simply because they have done it so many times they just know when to prune. They cannot tell you exactly why they do it when they do it but they can prove to you that timing is everything. Here is the science behind pruning during flowering.
During flowering the plant stops all vegetative growth, leaves become sugar sinks (Meaning they no longer manufacture starch but consume it) and roots become sugar sources. During vegetative stage the reverse is true.
--Sugar sources are plant organs such as leaves that produce sugars.
--Sugar sinks are plant organs such as roots, tubers (underground stems), and bulbs (swollen leaves) that consume or store sugars.
OKAY BOYS AND GIRLS, WHIP OUT YOUR NOTEPADS!
Now you have heard of old timers using Molasses during flower to create a smooth, cough free smoking experience. Here is why.
In plants
sugars, water, minerals, amino acids, and plant hormones. through Sap and moves through phloem via
translocation, FROM SUGAR SOURCES TO SUGAR SINKS..
This is also why folliar feeding during flower is pointless. Instead feed your plants molasses during flower because roots will suck up the sugar and other larger molecules that the roots do not trans locate during veg.
With an understanding of the size and type of molecule your strain trans locates and at what ph range during flower, you can now do some really interesting things. like give your plant a scent and or flavor. Since roots do not need light, and since in C3 plants the dark cycle of carbon fixation of which the light cycle is called photosynthesis is a highly energy draining process, unlike the light cycle that uses light energy, during the night the plant has to supply the energy to fix co2 because carbon fixation cannot stop or the plant dies. This is also why even though plants fix, co2 during the night, without a large enough source of carbohydrates for energy, the plant will die in continuous darkness unless that is its nature.This is also why it is the dumbest thing not to give your pants 24 hour light because the 6 hours of darkness you force the plants to use energy from other energy draining like growth to CO2 fixation and why you get a slower growth rate with anything but 24 hour light..
Now with this in mind, you can flavor your plants. (you can do this in hydro more efficiently:
1) Not watering them for 10 days before harvest ( This is really a MUST DO if you want a faster mre efficient dry and cure)
2) 3 Days before harvest you dump a highly concentrated flavor in the plant and stick it in the dark for 3 days. I used Black Tea and Cranberry flavored Tea from K-cups from the dollar store, they have real sugar, and the chemicals of the natural flavor of the tea is plant material and will be readily absorbed during root translocation. When you come to the room the third day it will be filled with scents of whatever you put in the plant. I did this and took the plant into the yard, the entire yard filled the luxurious and heavy aroma of Heavy Pain Killer strain odor, Black Tea, and Cranberries. It just oozed from the resin plump and heavily dripping flowers. Made everyone in the know salivate like gluttons at the site of a juicy burger. Do not go crazy, some things out there have stuff in them that is not meat to smoke, will kill your plant, will make your weed taste like shit, and some can even kill you if you smoke it. Just because it is edible does not mean it is safe to smoke. So be smart about it.
So, back to trimming during flower.
- Water enters the sieve tube elements by osmosis. During osmosis, water moves into the areas with the highest concentration of solutes (in this case, sugars).
- Turgor pressure rises at the source (root or leaf), causing the movement of water and carbohydrates through the sieve tube elements toward a sugar sink. (Turgor pressure is pressure from the fluid within the plant cell that pushes against the plant cell wall.)
You can think of this step like squeezing your tooth paste tube, the pressure exerted by your fingers is the concentration gradient from high to low (sugar goes from high to low) As more sugar enters from solution into the phloem, it pushes the other sugar in front of it down the gradient meaning to the sugar sink in this case leaves and flowers from the roots.
- If you defoliate your plant heavily right before you dump a viscous sugar solution into it and lock it into solitary confinement in the dark, the only leaves left as sinks and where highly concentrated solutes will end up can only be in the flowers. You can now go ahead and create some good pineapple schnaps cannabis flavored weed. I find that different flavorings work best with different strains. When you do this also watch the humidity in the darkened room, very important. Low humidity means plants close their door to save water, meaning Translocation will be slow. High humidity means the air is saturated so the vapor pressure around the stomata may be saturated, no gradient. Best humidity 55, temp 25 degrees Celsius. Hopefully you have made the connect between turgor pressure, and why your plants droop if over watered or underwatered.
DANGERS OF EXTREME DEFOLIATION DURING FLOWERING:
Because Sugars are removed from cells at the sugar sink, keeping the concentration of sugars low, it is easy to cause nute burn after extreme defoliation. By defoliating too early and increasing the average concentrations of nutrients at the critical concentration, prior to signs of nute burn, you could be reving the plant's biological system too high for too long a time. This biotic stress will show up in your potency because the too high concentration of nutes will interfere with the chemical processes in the flowers (NOT GOOD FLOWERS ARE THE GOAL).
What does this really come down to? Do not rush to grow multiple strains as a newbie. You can vary your strains but alsways have your Master Strain plant with each batch. You see, why? For example I have patients who become bored with teh same strain, yet that is the only strain the hits the spot for them. So with a little bit of this knowledge, you can have one strain, 10 flavors, 10 high experiences. Keep in mind you can also vary the high by the way you cure, or the timming of your harvest.
Happy Gardening