@Catdaddycox 18 inches sounds about right maybe try 16-14?
You can also increase the time the light is on to to get more DLI to compensate not enough light.
@kellydans . You are the only person, I think. That mentioned the growth of the branches below where you top. And this is bc when the plant is topped the growth hormones redistribute and this makes a big difference. And then i train mine so they won’t split when being put under trellises. Like this:
Try"to manage height and try to get a better canopy with be more even light distribution" @beardless this is kind of flat. I didn’t train very much during veg.:
Very nice. They can really fill up a net if you let them.
I used the quadline on a couple of plants this last grow. This is one of them.
At harvest
I pruned it to produce only 12 colas. It survived despite being unfed and under watered for eleven days (coco perlite autopot). It shows with all of its brown leaves.
What it produced was tight and well formed colas
Oh yeah , that’s what I like nice even Canopy spread out. We alway top our plants even back in the early eighties To try to keep the helicopters from finding them. also Tied plants over to side for the same reason. Now they got all kind of fancy names (LST training fimming ) . Thanks for the tag @Bluemm
keep both bloom and veg light on.
@beardless that 8way manifold is sweet.
There are many opinions on this. Personally, I do very little leaf removal. I remove leaves to assure good air flow. Your plants have very good air flow.
It doesn’t matter that those big leaves are blocking where it may bud?
Again, many opinions on this. I don’t worry about blocking anything until deep into flowering. Many folks tuck leaves to expose those sights. Let’s bring in some folks that know much more than I do.
You have to be careful when removing any plant material: flower is produced by using sugars generated by the leaves. Removing too many will reduce flowering mass.
Topping and FIM’ing help the plant to spread out into a lower, wider footprint. This is beneficial to a lot of indoor growers trying to match their plant shape to the light footprint. Training technique like SCROG’ing help with this as well.
I don’t remove any leaves until +21 days in flower. At which point I remove fan leaves only and those that are dying. Another defoliation occurs at around +45 days. This is only to maintain good airflow through the canopy to avoid White Powdery Mildew (WPM) or bud rot.
It depends on the plant in my experience. Some are super bushy and leaf removal is optimal to prevent molds and encourage solid airflow.
It’s also growers choice. I tend to leave a lot more foliage on plants to serve as nutrient banks of sorts. Not the most hands on grower around. And tend to forget to water and/or feed. Those extra leaves are necessary in my grow area.
The plant in the picture above, I don’t see a need to defoliate anything. She’s pretty ‘leggy’ and all of the leaves will be needed to photosynthesize. If anything she may need a bit more light intensity. But I’d be cropping and super cropping to keep her canopy as even as possible.
I totally agree with the past two moderators it seems to vary quite a bit plant to plant, certain nutrients; cough,nitrogen.too later in flower can make the problem worse. If it is a photo and its blocking a bud site and the stretch is over and they have been in 12/12 over 3 weeks and are in full on flower mode remove some of the lowers for improving circulation and if it is blocking a bud site get rid of it dont tuck it that will hinder air flow.
I have to concur with what has been said
I never let a budsite get blocked, but I don’t do “autos” anymore. I have been clean for 12 years.
First time and that’s what the sight kinda implied to do for beginners it fwlt