pruning

[Woodstock senior]

I have a small group of young plants(about 6 weeks old) of various strains that are now growing at a fast pace. I would like to keep them from getting too tall and more inconspicuous. Question is when to top off and how often, to stay short,bushy?

 

[Grandma Weedstein]

I have a small group of young plants(about 6 weeks old) of various strains that are now growing at a fast pace. I would like to keep them from getting too tall and more inconspicuous. Question is when to top off and how often, to stay short,bushy?

Have you considered supercropping? I did this last year when one of my plants started growing over the fence and my wife didn’t want the neighbors to see.

Basically I just took the stems that were too tall, roughly a foot from the top, squeezed and wiggled them until they sort of flopped over.

The branch stems remained viable despite being bent at like 90 degrees or more. Only problem was, the whole thing ended up getting really top heavy and a bunch of branches snapped off during a heavy rain.

If you go this route, first squeeze the stem gently and sort of wiggle it back and forth while doing so. The trick is to bend it without cracking it.

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Hey Wood, There are a few techniques that will allow you keep the height under control, my tallest plant last year was around 4 1/2/ ' . The best advice I can give is L.S.T. ( Low Stress Training ) it will improve your yield and control the height, as the title implies it is low stress so as not to upset your girls. Super Cropping is another technique, it will cause a bit of stress but will help with controlling all dimensions. I found Super Cropping works best in the beginning to really get the shape of the base to where you want it Both of these techniques are covered extensively on this site. The best technique is to shape your plant while it is young to fill out, not grow up.

 

[Treeibus]

I grow outside and I use LST on all my plants... it help them get more sun, keeps them low to the ground , but more importantly it gives stability from wind .

 

[Canadadoes]

I like to top and train my plants to keep them short and bushy. Generally I wait till about the 5th node. Top it above the 4th and strip off the first. Then start training the branches laterally.