Pruning is a simple yet effective tool that can significantly improve cannabis yields. When done properly, pruning can stimulate plant growth, promote sugar distribution, and increase overall harvest size.
However, it is important to know how and when to prune your cannabis plants. Pruning too early or too heavily can compromise your flowering process and lead to a lower-than-average harvest.
Apical Pruning
Apical pruning is a technique used to boost plant growth. It involves removing the upper part of the central stem, called the apex. This helps to produce two Y-shaped side branches that will replace the main stem and boost its growth.
This type of pruning is ideal for growers who want to improve their crop. It also helps to keep the plant healthy, allowing it to receive more light and nutrients than it would without pruning.
The benefits of apical pruning are many, including increasing canopy coverage, improving bud production, and producing larger yields. However, it is important to make sure that the plant is properly prepared for this process.
Before starting this procedure, you should be sure to use sterile pruning shears. This will ensure that you don’t injure the plant and cause it to lose yields.
After the procedure, it is important to provide the plant with proper nutrients so that it can recover quickly from the injury. You should also make sure that you wait at least three days before making another pruning procedure.
During this period, you should make sure to water the plant regularly and provide it with a nutrient solution. The plant will then recover from the injury, allowing it to produce larger yields again.
Aside from boosting bud yields, apical pruning can also reduce the risk of pests and diseases. This is because it removes diseased tissue, which can be a source of infestation for the plant. In addition, it will also help to reduce the density of the plant, which can prevent humidity from accumulating and promote better ventilation.
Pruning is an effective way to increase cannabis yields, but it’s important to do it properly. It can cause damage and even kill the plant if you do it incorrectly.
Apical pruning is a great way to boost cannabis yields and can be implemented by indoor and outdoor growers alike. The technique is especially useful for growers who don’t have a lot of space or want to maximize their crop.
The effect of apical pruning depends on the age of the plant and the amount of trimming. You should only prune a small portion of the plant at a time so that it can recover easily. It is also important to sanitize the shears and provide the plant with proper nutrients after the pruning procedure is complete.
Lollipop Pruning
Lollipop pruning, which gets its name from the way plants look after they’re pruned (like lollipops), is a simple and effective method for boosting bud production. This technique removes lower buds and leaves to concentrate all of your plant’s energy on the top colas.
Cannabis plants receive limited amounts of energy, so they need to direct that energy to their highest bud sites to produce the best buds. When that energy is spread out across all of the bud sites in your plant, it can get overwhelmed, and you’ll end up with a lot of weaker and smaller buds on the bottom parts of your plant.
To start with, you’ll want to take a close look at your plants. You’ll want to see where the bud sites are, as well as any leaves that are growing on them. You’ll also want to inspect the lower sections of your plant, as these typically receive less light than the top areas of your crop.
You’ll also want to pay attention to the growth patterns of your plants as you’re pruning, so make sure to spot any areas that don’t have much growth or bud production at all. This will allow you to determine which bud sites need to be removed first.
Once you’ve identified the bud sites and foliage that need to be removed, use sharp, sterilized scissors to cut them all off. It’s important to move quickly and carefully, as this can be a stressful process for your plant.
Lastly, you’ll need to let your plant recover from the pruning process. This is especially important for any plants that have experienced periods of slow recovery or are susceptible to diseases.
When it comes to deciding when to lollipop your cannabis, many growers will recommend doing it right before the switch to flowering (18/6 to 12/12). This is because you’ll only be removing a small amount of lower growth, which should be easy to recover from in a few days.
Mid-Stage Pruning
Pruning is one of the most important steps for cannabis growers. It allows them to manipulate plant growth to enhance canopy coverage, limit the size of plants, promote lateral branching, and increase yields.
It also helps maintain the integrity of the growing plant by removing dead or dying tissue. However, pruning should be done with care to avoid damaging the plant and reducing yields.
Before a grower prunes their plants, it is always a good idea to check for any dead leaves or branches that are forming on the bottom of the stems. If any are found, they should be removed immediately.
This step is crucial to ensuring the health of the plant and its ability to produce high-quality buds. By removing these unnecessary leaf tissue, the plant can redirect its energy and nutrients towards the most productive parts of the plant.
The best way to do this is by starting at the innermost part of each lower branch and removing the leaves that get very little sunlight. This will send a signal to the plant that it should focus its resources on developing buds on the outermost parts of the lower branches, which are more resilient and able to survive.
While this may seem counterintuitive to some, the results can be very rewarding and can have a significant impact on your overall yield. By removing these leaves, you can allow your plants to direct their energy and resources to the most important parts of the plant, resulting in thicker and lusher leaves and more potent flowers.
It can also help you achieve the ideal light intensity for your grow room. As you remove these leaves, your lights will become more efficient, allowing more light to reach your plant and increasing the total number of flowers produced.
Lollipop pruning is a technique that helps your plant direct its energy to the most important bud sites around the canopy, which will result in heavy harvests of exceptional buds. It is one of the most low-stress, easy and effective ways to boost bud production on your cannabis plants.
Topping
Topping is a simple and effective cannabis training technique that forces plants to grow horizontally instead of vertically, promoting greater light efficiency. This helps to prevent etiolation, or the stretching of lower leaves.
Topping also encourages lateral branching, which in turn increases yields. When a plant is grown naturally, it will grow tall and skinny like a tree with the main branch being the growing tip (called the apex).
But without topping, a cannabis plant can end up with a Christmas tree-style arrangement, dominated by one central branch and surrounded by branches on the sides. This is called apical dominance and can be a serious problem for growers looking to increase yields.
So if you want to maximise your bud production, it’s vital to top your plants as early as possible. This will help them to recover from the stress and readjust to their new growth pattern.
Most growers will top their plants 1-3 times during the vegetative stage of the plant’s life cycle. The amount of time you will need to wait between toppings depends on the variety and strain you are cultivating, but ideally wait around 2 weeks before topping again.
Another technique that can be used alongside topping is low-stress training, which involves bending or tying down branches. However, these methods of pruning can be a bit fiddly and high-maintenance for some growers.
Topping and LST are both designed to disrupt the hormones that govern a plant’s apical dominance. This allows a cannabis plant to prioritise lateral growth and produce more bud sites, thus increasing yields.
Topping can also improve the cola structure of the plant, as two or more new colas will form when the top apical shoot is cut. This means that more buds will be produced from each cola, which will result in larger, better quality bud.
