So if I wanted 6 top colas I would top after the 3rd node right? If the bottom one doesnt catch up I’ll be forced to get rid of it and be left with fewer top colas. Would there be anyway to manipulate that at all or does this not happen often?
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The bottom nodes are not to be trusted to grow well. If i wanted 6 main colas/branches, I would top over the 4th node and then cut the branches from node 1, I find node 1 branches can be weak and slow growing and never catch up to the others.
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Those nodes that grow and become branches with stems forming nodes, how many do you usually leave towards the top? Do you clean all the bottom ones and leave about 3 nodes at the top for bud sites?
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I leave a lot more than 3. Kyle Kushman made a video where he strips all but the top three nodes from the tops, I tried that once and got one of smallest harvests ever, trimming was easy though. Before flipping to flowering I like to trim down to have about 8 to 10 nodes for bud sites on the tops.
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That is what I did with my plants and it made it incredibly easy to shape them. I thought for about two weeks that the 1st nodes were going to eventually catch up, but they were weaker and eventually I could tell they wouldn’t make it to the top of the canopy. Next time around, I’ll chop that first node earlier.
One of the things I’ve learned from this thread and have observed during my first grow is that in a 8 week veg. you’re going to have no shortage of tops if you do even a half ass job of training your plants, so might as well prioritize early with pruning and defoliation.
Much of what we do with stone fruit is similar to maximizing yield from a cannabis plant.
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That’s exactly where I got the 3 nodes tip from and thought Id ask you.
Thank you so much for your answers and time.
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I apologize but another question popped up in my head. I remember when I started my first grow I was overwhelmed by all the stems and branches and didnt know how to even things out.
So those smaller nodes that i was referring to, that stem out of the top branches, also have smaller nodes haha do you leave those or get rid of them?
@hellraiser
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I defoliated the hell out of them Sunday (top picture) and they have undergone explosive growth in the 2 days since. @Hellraiser is speaking the damn truth about the results you can achieve with defoliation and pruning.
Day 9 of flower and tonight I saw hundreds of pistils forming 
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To clarify, are the node 1 branches shown with blue lines the one that would be removed? Or, the entire node 1 branch itself - with yellow lines
I guess now you can see the girth of right side branches with blue lines are not as thick as most of the other ones. Confirmation of what you said?
At a minimum, 2 of the 3 should have been removed allowing the survivor to be more like the single branch on the left side.
Thanks. In preparation for how I want the batch of AK-47 seedlings to be trained.
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Entire branch at the yellow lines. Some plants grow fine branches from node 1, some don’t, so I don’t rely on them.
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I try to get rid of most smaller branches before hitting flowering, all I really want are big thick branches/tops that will grow big thick buds/colas. I don’t like trimming small stuff as I usually have way too much to trim. But the small stuff can add up to more overall yield, so you gotta decide if you want the small stuff or not.
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@Hellraiser Thanks again for all your answers
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Keep in mind those are per liter.
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right, that’s one part i didn’t screw up…
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Looks good, yeah the leaf grow-back is amazing to watch. I still pull a handful of leaves every few days.
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Lol looking at the pictures makes me want to get in there and pull some leaves, but I’m trying to just stick to once/week to let them recover fully.
I have a question that probably doesn’t have a simple answer, but I’ve heard experienced growers say over time you just know when to feed your plants. What in particular should I be looking for if there isn’t a clear deficiency present? For example, I have fed FF trio every 5 days for the last three feedings with CAL Mag every other feeding and the plants look the best they ever have with just the tiniest bit of nutrient burn on the tips. Should I just keep doing what I’m doing or would you suggest throwing in a water only day?
I’m effectively giving the plants half of the FF trio schedule doing 2x weekly feeding at the moment. My thinking is continue doing what I’m doing until they need to be watered 3x per week and then throw in the watering. Just curious what your thoughts are if you have a chance to respond 
From this morning (they are dry and ready to be fed this evening)
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It’s all about the color of the leaves, another reason blurples suck, can’t see the real color of the plants to see potential problems coming.
In veg, I look at the plants on watering day and ask myself what they need, a big feeding, standard feeding, small feeding, or maybe just water only? Easier in veg, just go by the color - very dark green - water only, light green/hints of yellow - big (3/4 to full dosage) feeding to green them up some more, plant looks fine/perfect - than standard feeding (1/2 to 2/3 dosage) to keep them that way.
In flowering, I feed every watering, with the intention of doing a water only if I feel the plants need it - burnt tips or clawing leaves are signs of overdoing the nutes a bit and would get a water only between feedings and maybe even a slight reduction of future feedings.
Would be great if I could just say, make your nute mix to 650ppm every time and feed with every watering and you’ll never have a problem. Which is what I’m going to try to do with the Blue Dream grow. I’m going to come up a PPM that I will use for every watering, there will be no “water onlys”. To take any guesswork out of it. I’ve been experimenting with giving 650ppm nute mix to my solo cup challenge plants for every watering for about a week now, will see how they are doing shortly.
Dr Bruce Bugsbee does the 650ppm for every water/feeding for the whole grow, I think it’s a good place to start but may need a little tweaking if using different ferts than him, believe he uses Jacks 20-10-20 thru the whole grow. I feel 650ppm with my AN nutes is a little on the weak side during flowering and I know the usual 925ppm I usually give them is a tad too much to give at every watering, I think the sweet spot lays somewhere between 750-800ppm for flowering and a bit lower for veg. I’ll be finding that sweet spot and others that use AN nutes should be able to replicate what I am doing or even use whatever nutes of their choice with a little tweaking.
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Thank you so much.
With 1/4 strength FF Trio and CAL-MAG my PPM is at 750, but I’m using tap that’s typically around 280PPM by itself, so I’m really on the weaker side as far as nutes. I think I’ll be around 500PPM without CAL-MAG, pretty weak but I think since the plants aren’t noticeably starving I will go with that on the feeding tonight.
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what he said 
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