Remove secondary colas or let them grow?

[d42zero]

I have three plants who have just been defoliated heading into flower, and I've noticed that there are lots of secondary stems that come out from down below. The plants were 'manifolded' so they have multiple main stems, and these secondaries are coming out from the lowest nodes that I left through veg. See below:

Are these secondaries likely to produce anything or should they be removed? If I remove them, I'm guessing I want to cut the stem an inch or so away from the main stem and leave the little pre-flowers so they bud, is that right?

Thanks

 

[Old Salt]

I used NugBucket's Maineline/Manifold method to grow four plants with eight colas each in a 2' X 4' tent. Space was very limited.

Since you have the space, I'd leave a few of them. Perhaps allow 16 colas. There are several smaller shoots on your plant than those you've circled. You may want to leave them until you flip and then take them as cuttings. If you aren't going to take cuttings, get rid of them now. I'd suggest taking the cuttings, whether you grow them to maturity or not, to get some practice at rooting them.

 

[d42zero]

I used NugBucket's Maineline/Manifold method to grow four plants with eight colas each in a 2' X 4' tent. Space was very limited.

Since you have the space, I'd leave a few of them. Perhaps allow 16 colas. There are several smaller shoots on your plant than those you've circled. You may want to leave them until you flip and then take them as cuttings. If you aren't going to take cuttings, get rid of them now. I'd suggest taking the cuttings, whether you grow them to maturity or not, to get some practice at rooting them.

The plant in this photo was cut with the nugbuckets method and I have another like it, I also have another plant that was cut using the Grow Weed Easy method (8 colas from two toppings). Check out my journal if you want to see the difference, it's interesting. Anyways I've already flipped so these can't be cut again.. they all have 8 main colas. A week or two into veg I removed the first nodes but I left everything else, so these long ones are the second nodes coming from the main colas.

So if you would remove these, would you also remove the other nodes all the way up the plant? Each main has about six or seven nodes and of course as they get closer to the top of the plant they get smaller. Am I supposed to remove all of these (leaving the little preflowers I assume)? I thought I would get buds on these too but am I supposed to be focusing only on the eight main stems in order to end up with eight long fat buds?

I definitely can remove them on one plant and not the other for a comparison, but the third plant I need to make a decision on and I'm nervous about making the wrong one lol.

I've already used the cuttings I took from the first round of manifold topping to create clones, they were about two feet tall so just yesterday I cut them two nodes from the top and re-planted them to start the cycle again and get practice rooting clones. Can never get too much practice though so if these should definitely be removed cloning them is exactly what I will do.

 

[Old Salt]

If you are going to follow NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, or the modified version, then prune away all the shoots, leaving the pre-flowers on the main branches.

You can leave the shoots to get a bushier plant, and you will get colas on them. This defeats the purpose of NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, which is to focus all growth into those eight branches. If a bushier plant is what you want, take a look at quadlining. There you top once to get four main branches, training those, and their shoots to get a bushier canopy. It's much faster than starting with NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, saving perhaps a month or so of veg time.

 

[d42zero]

If you are going to follow NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, or the modified version, then prune away all the shoots, leaving the pre-flowers on the main branches.

You can leave the shoots to get a bushier plant, and you will get colas on them. This defeats the purpose of NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, which is to focus all growth into those eight branches. If a bushier plant is what you want, take a look at quadlining. There you top once to get four main branches, training those, and their shoots to get a bushier canopy. It's much faster than starting with NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold method, saving perhaps a month or so of veg time.

Thanks, I'll do some experimenting with the two. Here is the plant with 8 colas from two toppings:

She also has growth tips that have turned into secondary colas although it's a little harder to see due to the other two plants behind her.

I'm nervous about removing those growth tips as it feels like throwing away yield Some of them are as long and almost as strong as the main ones... I wish I had two plants done in this method to properly test the difference.

I'll look more into quadlining before my next one, unfortunately I was too far into the manifold to do that by the time I discovered it.

 

[d42zero]

Ok sooo I hope I don't sound like I'm not listening, I just want to be suuuuper certain I have this straight before I start cutting stuff off.. I took this photo tonight and it's a good example of a higher node where I've taken a fan leaf but left the growth tip:

If I'm properly manifolding I should remove these little guys entirely between the main trunk and the first little node, like this?

 

[Old Salt]

Thanks, I'll do some experimenting with the two. Here is the plant with 8 colas from two toppings:

She also has growth tips that have turned into secondary colas although it's a little harder to see due to the other two plants behind her.

I'm nervous about removing those growth tips as it feels like throwing away yield Some of them are as long and almost as strong as the main ones... I wish I had two plants done in this method to properly test the difference.

I'll look more into quadlining before my next one, unfortunately I was too far into the manifold to do that by the time I discovered it.

That's what I've done from day one until this grow. As my grow space is only 2' X 4' I had to be very careful to train my plants. This is what I did:

Four Plants trained using NugBucket's Mainline/Manifold Method in a 2' X 4' Tent
​

I'd wait until the stretch is over before doing any more pruning. I have no proof, but I suspect that pruning the shoots will not affect your harvest. The energy that would go to the shoots will go to the main branches instead.

 

[d42zero]

I'd wait until the stretch is over before doing any more pruning. I have no proof, but I suspect that pruning the shoots will not affect your harvest. The energy that would go to the shoots will go to the main branches instead.

I'm no plant surgeon but I feel like you're right there... I'm inputting X light and Y nutes so I should get Z yield, whether I have 1 cola or 50. Maybe a little difference at either end but it feels like if I trim them off I might just get the same yield but on 8 big buds instead of 16 smaller ones or whatever's there. I do feel like if I don't trim them now I should leave them for the whole grow, as anything that goes into them between now and then will be wasted.

I have no experience or knowledge to back that up but logically it makes sense, I think

Also wow your tent must've been packed lol, I have three in a 4x4! Interesting to know I could squeeze 8 in there if I wanted to tho........

 

[Old Salt]

I'm going by what others have said with the 'do not disturb' in the stretch. After the stretch, I remove any new shoots that appear.

First Grow - Appearance of the First Flowers​

The stretch is the time the plants grow the fastest. They still grow after the stretch, and can add 50 - 100% to their height.

First Grow - After the Stretch (Same Day as Above)

First Grow - At Harvest Time​