How does pruning during a scrog grow affect yield

[m4rkk]

With the scrog method the goal is to train the plant to fill the horizontal area of the screen and position as many bud sites beneath holes in the screen. Obviously if one were to top all of the new growth sites on the plant more sites will be created and the plant will rapidly spread to fill the screen. Training without cutting can result in full coverage although it may take longer. So what changes take place when the plant is topped and how does this affect yield? Topping results in more bud sites but are these sites capable of producing the same size buds as a similar plant that has only undergone non-invasive training techniques?

In addition to topping I have read that some prune fan leaves to redistribute energy and nutrients in the plant. From what I have read, lower fan leaves support root growth, and upper fan leaves support new growth and flowers. Is this correct; is pruning fan leaves beneficial and are there fan leaf pruning strategies that people have used to successfully improve yield?

With scrog one ends up with some amount of foliage that is primarily shaded. Is it necessary / wise to trim the shaded foliage beneath the canopy? If so, when should this be done?

 

[DroJo]

Before you flip the lights to 12/12, you prune/trim all the leaves beneath the screen, this forces all the energy above the screen (simple version). Below the screen wont be getting much light anyway and will just be wasting the plants energy

 

[m4rkk]

Thanks DroJo, that makes sense. Any ideas about correlations with pruning to increase bud sites and resulting yield?

 

[casear2528]

Obviously the more times you top it the splits you will have if you top it once you will have two tops, top both of those you have 4 tops, then 8 and so on. I top and try to spread the splits across the screen. I hope this helps