New member looking for tips on pruning and topping

[JenniM]

Hello everyone. I’m trying to figure out the website. I have uploaded some photos of my girls and need advice on pruning and topping. Is it too early for me to remove anything? Om
Nervous to hurt her

 

[Carmen Ray]

Hey Jenni and welcome to 420 Mag! It's always great to meet another woman grower.

Your babies are beautiful. They look in the peak of good health. What are you growing them in?

It's too early to top them now. They should generally speaking have at least four nodes of branches before you take the top, unless you plan on a manifold technique.

I look forward to seeing how you grow them. Are you organic or salts? Are they autos or photos?

 

[Roy Growin]

Welcome to 420 @JenniM

 

[Bill284]

Stay safe
Bill284

 

[JenniM]

Hi Carmen! Thanks for the reply! I’m curry growing in premium garden mix. It has sphagnum peat, compost, peat humus (whatever that is) lime and controlled release fertilizer . I’m not sure if I’d be considered organic due to me giving them soluble nutrients every second watering to prevent nutrient buildup and burn. I’m also unsure of the strain I’m growing as the seeds we’re giving to me from an old friend who is no longer around. Out of 8 seeds only 4 germinated and 1 of them didn’t make it past sprout and didn’t develop any leaves. So I’m learning as I go and hoping for a decent harvest. I’m not familiar with the term salts so I’m going to have to do some reading. I appreciate your feedback! Happy 4th

 

[Azimuth]

Hey @JenniM , welcome to the site.

I'm partial to Quadlining (link in my sig). That's basically 1 topping above node 4, and then training the remaining branches out to the sides to improve the plant structure.

Mainly used indoors to maximize light coverage and looks like you're growing outside.

@StoneOtter grows some in the ground outside so maybe he'll weigh in with thoughts on topping/training an outdoor plant.

 

[Carmen Ray]

Hi Carmen! Thanks for the reply! I’m curry growing in premium garden mix. It has sphagnum peat, compost, peat humus (whatever that is) lime and controlled release fertilizer . I’m not sure if I’d be considered organic due to me giving them soluble nutrients every second watering to prevent nutrient buildup and burn. I’m also unsure of the strain I’m growing as the seeds we’re giving to me from an old friend who is no longer around. Out of 8 seeds only 4 germinated and 1 of them didn’t make it past sprout and didn’t develop any leaves. So I’m learning as I go and hoping for a decent harvest. I’m not familiar with the term salts so I’m going to have to do some reading. I appreciate your feedback! Happy 4th

Salts is shorthand for synthetics. Your grow would be considered a synthetic soil grow because you are using controlled release fertilizer and soluble nutrients in a soil based mix.

I imagine that you likely have photoperiod plants there and you may need to sex them and cull males if any turn up.

Another good person to follow for plant training is @InTheShed. Links to his tutorials are in his signature, and his perpetual journal is chock full of additional tidbits. He's not half bad with nutes either!

 

[InTheShed]

Another good person to follow for plant training is @InTheShed. Links to his tutorials are in his signature, and his perpetual journal is chock full of additional tidbits. He's not half bad with nutes either!

Thanks for the shout Carmen and @JenniM! Adding my welcome to the chorus above and agreeing that it's probably too early to top them.

Another consideration is that as photoperiod plants they'll be flowering as soon as they're sexually mature because it's after the first day of summer (assuming you're in the Northern hemisphere). Because of that your training time will be a bit limited whichever way you go.

As Carmen mentioned, I have a couple of training tutorials in my signature, but the one that you might be most interested in would be the LST thread as there's no need to top for that one.

If you have any questions on it you can post them there or here as I'm now subbed to this thread.

 

[Tokin Roll]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @JenniM

Nice looking plants you have there.
Nutrient treated only last a couple months. What nutrients will you be using for the rest of your grow?

Here's some helpful info: Welcome New Members - Please Read Before Posting

Here is some information if you would like to start a grow journal How to Make a Grow Journal

If you want to see want other growers are doing, here's that link.

This is where you place your grow journal.

Journals in Progress: Current and Ongoing

And, after you have over 50 posts you can vote and enter our contests to win free grow stuff from our sponsors.

420 Contests: Win Cool 420 Prizes

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

Also, we now have a Fungi section if you would like to grow mushrooms.

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Hey and welcome to 420.

I'll start out by saying I am not as "scientific" and "to the books" as alot of the amazing growers we here at 420..... However I do grow some pretty plants ......so I'll lend a bit of help here as well.

For pruning it does not hurt or slow the plant if done in moderation.....removing a couple fans to allow light penetration removing a lot of fans or essentially stripping the plant . It's needed to get the most out of your light and plants. I tuck as many leaves under lower growth as I possibly can before resulting to .

And for topping this one you get 100 + 1 different answers..... Yes topping can slow a plant down if done to early or if the plant is suffering from something during the time of the top. I mainly grow autoflowers and have read multiple places it's "recommended you don't top them" or "it's best to wait until they have 5-6 nodes".... Hmmm contradictive at the least ...

From personal experience as long as the plant is healthy you can indeed top at about 3-4 node without any ill effect or stalling......and after a couple days you have the start of a hydra.
*Reference photos below, between 3-4 node top June 15th 2024 and couple days later June 17th 2024 with new growth*

Another thing to keep in mind is these plants seem to almost thrive on abuse or stress....so sometimes what may seem to be harmful is actually just forcing the plants into over gear.

Hope this helps a little bit with the worry of hurting them to much...they are hardy and can most of what you throw at them

 

[JenniM]

Salts is shorthand for synthetics. Your grow would be considered a synthetic soil grow because you are using controlled release fertilizer and soluble nutrients in a soil based mix.

I imagine that you likely have photoperiod plants there and you may need to sex them and cull males if any turn up.

Another good person to follow for plant training is @InTheShed. Links to his tutorials are in his signature, and his perpetual journal is chock full of additional wtidbits. He's not half bad with nutes either!

I’ve been lucky so far to have three females! I believe that the seeds gifted to me were feminized but I’m still being extremely cautious about the signs of males and their pesky pollen sacks as I would have some very upset neighbours if I pollenated their ladies.

 

[JenniM]

Hey and welcome to 420.

I'll start out by saying I am not as "scientific" and "to the books" as alot of the amazing growers we here at 420..... However I do grow some pretty plants ......so I'll lend a bit of help here as well.

For pruning it does not hurt or slow the plant if done in moderation.....removing a couple fans to allow light penetration removing a lot of fans or essentially stripping the plant . It's needed to get the most out of your light and plants. I tuck as many leaves under lower growth as I possibly can before resulting to .

And for topping this one you get 100 + 1 different answers..... Yes topping can slow a plant down if done to early or if the plant is suffering from something during the time of the top. I mainly grow autoflowers and have read multiple places it's "recommended you don't top them" or "it's best to wait until they have 5-6 nodes".... Hmmm contradictive at the least ...

From personal experience as long as the plant is healthy you can indeed top at about 3-4 node without any ill effect or stalling......and after a couple days you have the start of a hydra.
*Reference photos below, between 3-4 node top June 15th 2024 and couple days later June 17th 2024 with new growth*

Another thing to keep in mind is these plants seem to almost thrive on abuse or stress....so sometimes what may seem to be harmful is actually just forcing the plants into over gear.

Hope this helps a little bit with the worry of hurting them to much...they are hardy and can most of what you throw at them

Thank you for sharing your tips and advice. I truly appreciate everyone who has take the time to reply! I’m so happy to have found this forum!

 

[Preston9mm]

Welcome!


Excited to watch the grow show. Tons of great advice around here.

 

[JenniM]

Haha love the Gump on his shrimpin’ boat

 

[Preston9mm]

Haha love the Gump on his shrimpin’ boat

He's my favorite way to say hello!

Hope you are living your best life! Can't wait to watch your ladies grow.

 

[Azimuth]

Hello everyone. I’m trying to figure out the website. I have uploaded some photos of my girls and need advice on pruning and topping. Is it too early for me to remove anything? Om
Nervous to hurt her

@JenniM if those plants live out on that deck, those black buckets in the sun can bake your plants, at least until the canopy gets large enough to shade them.

Think about hanging a white hand towel around them, hung from the top rim with binder clips or something. The white towel will reflect light and heat and the small air gap created by the slight taper to the bucket helps cushion the temps, relatively speaking.

 

[Sativa1970]

You name is Jenni and the forest gump reference didn't offend you, You'll fit right in! I think the only other old school grower missing is Bill.

 

[JenniM]

@JenniM if those plants live out on that deck, those black buckets in the sun can bake your plants, at least until the canopy gets large enough to shade them.

Think about hanging a white hand towel around them, hung from the top rim with binder clips or something. The white towel will reflect light and heat and the small air gap created by the slight taper to the bucket helps cushion the temps, relatively speaking.

 

[JenniM]

Great tip and makes sense. I was not thinking about the bucket color and the heat it would bring. Thanks for sharing this info with me

 

[JenniM]

You name is Jenni and the forest gump reference didn't offend you, You'll fit right in! I think the only other old school grower missing is Bill.

Oh I’m hard to offend lol. I do however become quite annoyed with overly sensitive people who feel that the world has to accommodate their ever changing needs and expectations and shoves their views down others throats. I am pretty happy go lucky and have a low tolerance for idiocy .

I’m an 80’s baby so I’m currently trying to raise a well rounded child who doesn’t need the world to validate their existence.

I love to learn! Literally anything, I am a fountain of useless knowledge and facts hahaha.