If you’re a cannabis cultivator, you’ll need to prune your plants at certain times and for different reasons. This will help to improve the quality of your buds and also increase your yields.
There are many pruning techniques to choose from, but there are four that pro growers have been using for decades to maximize bud production. Let’s take a look at each of them to see how they work and how they can boost your harvest!
Branches
Pruning is the process of removing unproductive or damaged sections of the cannabis plant to encourage healthier overall growth. Successful pruning promotes greater airflow and sunlight exposure, fostering a vibrant plant that forms denser, more cannabinoid-rich buds.
It’s important to understand the effects of different pruning techniques on cannabis growth so that you can choose the best strategy for your specific grow site and cultivation environment. Pruning can be used to increase your crop’s yield, but it also helps maintain a healthy cannabis plant and encourages the development of new branches.
The first step in the pruning process is to identify the branches that are limiting your plant’s growth. This is easiest to do by inspecting your plant’s interior. Look for branches that are overhanging other branches or blocking light from reaching the rest of the plant.
Once you’ve identified the branches that are causing your plant trouble, use your pruners to make clean cuts along their length. Be careful to leave enough fully-grown leaf surface and don’t tear leaves away from the branch when pruning.
Another thing to keep in mind is that leaves help the plant produce sugars for photosynthesis. They also prevent sun-induced rays from being lost by falling to the ground, which is essential for maintaining your plant’s health and promoting flowering.
When pruning fan leaves, it’s important to avoid tearing them away from the base of each petiole and to ensure that you create a clean break at their base. This is to help prevent the formation of “runners” or strips of stem’s epidermal layer that can impede growth and increase your risk of infection.
It’s also crucial to water your cannabis after pruning, to reduce the shock it may cause your plant and promote the growth of healthy branches. This is especially true if you’re pruning lower branches during the vegetative stage of your plant.
While pruning is a common practice for many growers, it’s important to understand the effects of each technique on your plants and the type of genetics you’re growing. For example, Sativas tend to respond better to pruning than pure Indica varieties. This is because Sativas naturally grow vigorously and are prone to more branchy growth.
Leaves
When growing marijuana, pruning can be an effective tool to maximize yield and enhance quality buds. However, it’s important to understand the effects of different pruning techniques on cannabis growth.
Pruning is a fundamental plant management process that removes unproductive and damaged growth to promote healthier growth, airflow, and light exposure. It also helps improve canopy structure and bud density.
It can be done with a variety of tools, but it’s crucial to use sharp shears that won’t damage the plant. You’ll also want to sanitize the shears to prevent pathogens from hitching a ride to your plants.
Many cultivators swear by pruning, especially during the vegetative stage before flowering. If done correctly, pruning will boost the health of your crop and help it grow larger, squatter plants.
Another popular pruning technique is topping, which is a method of cutting the top branches of your plant before they get too large (typically during the vegetative stage). This can significantly increase your harvest.
Topping can be performed both indoors and outdoors, but it’s best to do it during the vegetative phase. It can increase bud density and improve yield by breaking the natural tendency of cannabis plants to branch out into tall, towering trees.
While topping is a simple and risk-free way to increase your harvest, it can be difficult to do properly. In order to do it properly, you should sanitize your shears before and after trimming to avoid contamination.
Generally speaking, pruning should only be done when your cannabis plant is at least three weeks old. This will ensure that the leaves don’t turn yellow or dead before they’re ready to be harvested.
It’s also essential to only prune dead or excess foliage while your plant is still in the vegetative stage. This will encourage healthy growth, and you’ll be able to harvest more mature buds with better quality.
While many new growers overprune their cannabis plants to sample as much THC-filled leaf tissue as possible, it’s important to be careful. Overpruning your plant too soon will cause your bud canopy to become stunted, and it may even delay or stop blooming altogether.
Buds
Pruning is a key component of cannabis cultivation. It removes growth that is damaged, unproductive, or blocking sunlight from reaching budding buds. It also enables plants to focus their energy on strengthening the remaining leaves, shoots, and buds.
There are several different pruning techniques that growers use to control their cannabis plants. Some are considered high stress, such as fimming and topping, while others are low-risk interventions that can help produce higher yields.
Defoliation is a common pruning technique that allows growers to increase light availability and air flow for their cannabis plants. This can allow more nutrients to be absorbed and more sugars to be sent to buds, side shoots, and young leaves.
It can also reduce the amount of brown and yellow leaf material that falls on the soil, which can attract fungal attack. Lastly, it can help prevent pests from taking hold of the plant.
To prune a cannabis plant, first identify the area where you would like to strip away the growth. This can be done by marking the point and then cutting away the growth, removing anywhere from 50 to 70% of the total canopy (depending on the cultivar).
After you’ve removed all of the growth, it’s important to sterilize your scissors to keep pathogens away from your plant. This can be done by using a sterile wipe or alcohol if necessary.
Another important factor is to be precise and avoid cutting away too much at once. Removing too much can be detrimental to a cannabis plant’s health and may lead to fewer flowers produced.
If you’re a beginner, it might take some practice to perfect the art of pruning your marijuana plants. Try pruning at a friend’s garden or at the park to get a feel for it before trying it out in your home environment.
Performing your cannabis pruning correctly can be crucial to your harvest success, so be sure to practice in a safe place until you’re comfortable and confident with the process. Luckily, it’s easy to learn the finer points of this process with a little guidance and some practice.
Flowering
The flowering phase of cannabis growth is a complex process that includes many different factors. One of the most important aspects is ensuring that the plants are getting enough nutrition to grow and flower properly. This involves understanding how each of the various nutrients and plant needs vary during this time of development, as well as when to apply those nutrients and what effects the pruning techniques have on a plant’s overall growth and cannabinoid production.
As a cannabis plant grows in the vegetative stage, it receives a lot of photon power. This energy causes thin, divided leaves to rapidly grow and expand in size as the plant tries to maximize its light capture potential. This rapid growth can be a useful tool in helping to establish a good, healthy plant size that is suitable for flowering later on.
However, the long light periods that a plant experiences during this stage can cause it to grow too fast and may result in stunted growth. To help a cannabis plant avoid these problems, the proper timing of feeding and pruning can have a profound effect on a plant’s flowering ability.
In addition, it’s important to remember that the plant only has a limited amount of resources for each individual leaf or branch. This means that if you prune too many branches or leaves, you are removing them from the plant and taking away valuable resources such as water, nutrients, light, etc.
This can result in a plant that is stressed and can potentially stunt growth or induce hermies. As a result, it’s best to avoid pruning too much during the flowering phase of cultivation.
Pruning should be confined to the early stages of a cannabis plant’s vegetative growth before it is ready for flowering. Judicious pruning in this early phase can have a positive effect on a plant’s bud development, as it helps the buds to concentrate their energy only on those sites that will yield the best product.
It is also important to be careful when trimming the tips of a branch, as this can introduce diseases and causing unnecessary trauma. For this reason, it’s important to be mindful of the overall plant size and make sure that each of the tips on each branch is about 50% of the height of the rest of the plant.
