Skunnymonster's Tip's and Tricks to an even canopy without topping

skunnymonster;2441370 said:

I was chatting with Dirty & Reg last night about the various training methods I'm using on a couple of my young ladies to get an even canopy without topping the plant. I've taken a few pics & I'll do my best to explain the process.

Starting with a seedling, as soon as the 1st set of real leaves has grown & new growth is visible in the middle, I start to spread the leaves to open it up to light.
Here's some before & after shots. They look quite flat to start with coz I'd opened them up earlier today

Open them up as often as you can & this is all I do until they're around 9" tall. I then give them the Bassman style defol & this is where the training begins.
The initial strip stunts the growth upwards & encourages growth in lower branches. To keep these branches growing, we stop stripping the leaves & after a week or two you end up with plants like the two that follow.

This is Blue Dream, she's a quirky one & has 3 shoots per node in the top section.

As you can see the top is stripped back & the darker patches are where I've pinched the main stem. The combination of these keeps the node spacing nice & tight, limits vertical growth & diverts growth hormones to the lower growth.

Two branches are level with the top, they get a pinch

And I strip the leaves from the end

This one, is Tangerine Dream. She's having the same treatment

As you can see from the overhead, the tall branches are naked & pinched, the lowers are untouched

Other than pinching, you can also twist snap. I'm sure there's another word for it but it's where you hold the stem/branch fixed in one hand & you twist the branch/stem with the other until you hear it crack. (Note: It doesn't always crack)

I think that''s covered it but feel free to ask questions if I've missed anything

Click to expand...