Anybody Want To Double Their Yield?- Desertrat's Top and Prune?

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
.....and perhaps in the light of a new day minds will be opened to new ideas.
Sorry, but ya'll can embrace your theories all day long, seen it a million times in countless forums, but you can't change botany, basic plant culture. It is what it is.

There are no "new ideas", just gimmicks from noobs who think they can reinvent the wheel. Like I said, the only way you may be able to receive any real world benefit by removing foliage is IF that foliar mass you removed is subsequently replaced by equal or more foliar mass. To think otherwise is showing your ignorance and lack of experience.

You still haven't addressed the fact that when you top as high as you recommended in the first post that the plant will no longer have a "main branch". You have removed apical dominance found in a typical terminal leader. Research hormonal processes and how they drive growth (as well as drive dormancy and other plant processes).

UB
 

Miss MeanWeed

Active Member
I see you didn't use the Search feature. Assuming it works, click on my name and pull up my threads. Here's one:
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/158144-never-ending-abuse-phosphorous-bloom.html

Look at the avatar in post #5 in that thread - there's a perfect example of a grower's failure to retain healthy leaves until harvest which resulted in sub-par yields and marginal plant health.


UB

The search feature doesn't seem to like me here, or perhaps I ask it the wrong questions. I checked your thread listings but really I didn't know what specifically to look for. Thanks for the directions.
 

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
The search feature doesn't seem to like me here, or perhaps I ask it the wrong questions. I checked your thread listings but really I didn't know what specifically to look for. Thanks for the directions.
Funny, but I couldn't pull up any UB thread links. Now you know why I put in that caveat to you! This isn't the well designed website it used to be. The "new and improved" version really sucks. I did link you to a thread that should have answered your questions regarding the importance of leaves and foods that would support foliage.

UB
 
well i just read the latter half of this thread and i can honestly say i did not learn one god damn thing! I feel like I am reading a script from Days Of Our Lives or something.

that's okay b/c i didn't come here with questions (good thing!), just to see what you all are saying.

it's sad that after all this bitching and whining, if someone actually had questions they would have to sift through all this B.S. to find answers. what a pain in the butt.

thanks for the entertainment though!
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
Uncle Ben, Why the fuck do you care so much what desertrat does with his plants? I am going to do a side by side with this and I am also going to try out LST on my next grow. You both have really nice grows and you both are experianced growers! But you guys are lowering yourselves in my opinion. Why not just agree to disagree, and maybe there is more than one way to skin a cat. Either way nobody is making you grow "their way" so grow big and be happy!
 

sguardians2

Well-Known Member
Uncle Ben, Why the fuck do you care so much what desertrat does with his plants? I am going to do a side by side with this and I am also going to try out LST on my next grow. You both have really nice grows and you both are experianced growers! But you guys are lowering yourselves in my opinion. Why not just agree to disagree, and maybe there is more than one way to skin a cat. Either way nobody is making you grow "their way" so grow big and be happy!
Thank you!
 

bdonson

Well-Known Member
Hi UB another childish UB gangbang Ha Ha that's really fresh. I am still involved in finding new ways to screw up a grow. Fortunately I have a good memory so I try to make mistakes only once. First one I ever made was removing fan leaves on one of my first 2 plants I grew. I remember it well, difficult to cut off the first one but after that I removed about half of them. I left the 2nd plant alone. two plants side by side . I'm no physicist and it's been a long time since my crop science days but I wil never for any reason remove a perfectly healthy fan leaf again. just my own personal observation but my second mistake was nute burn. 2 plants about 28 inches tall, 1 with half of the fan leaves removed. The plant I defoliated never recovered and I ended up destroying it. The other recovered and I had a pretty good harvest. Cheers
 

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Hi UB another childish UB gangbang Ha Ha that's really fresh. I am still involved in finding new ways to screw up a grow. Fortunately I have a good memory so I try to make mistakes only once. First one I ever made was removing fan leaves on one of my first 2 plants I grew. I remember it well, difficult to cut off the first one but after that I removed about half of them. I left the 2nd plant alone. two plants side by side . I'm no physicist and it's been a long time since my crop science days but I wil never for any reason remove a perfectly healthy fan leaf again. just my own personal observation but my second mistake was nute burn. 2 plants about 28 inches tall, 1 with half of the fan leaves removed. The plant I defoliated never recovered and I ended up destroying it. The other recovered and I had a pretty good harvest. Cheers
Yep, lessons hard learned!

Cheers.....
 
I've had great success with simply pinching one top pnce plant is about 10 inches, letting the 2 tops grow about 4 inches, then pinching the 2 tops and thus getting 4 tops. I then wait anout 8-10 days, then flip to flower.

1.5 to 2 lbs per light in 2 gallon posts, 16 pots per light.
 

Drr

Well-Known Member
I didn't wanna jump in this but.. like my unlce ben said when you cut off the leaves.. the branch at that node replaces it.

and the other thing is that your opening the canopy for light to penetrate the lower nodes and they take off towards the light.. while topping it make the plant concentrate on those lower nodes...

Now what you've done here is gone from 1/2 to a full yield...

you doubled YOUR YIELD...
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
Thanks for adding so much information a year after the thread was over, Drr. :) Without your post, who knows what we would have though? :)
 

C.Indica

Well-Known Member
If you must cut off fan leaves, it's best to cut them when they are as small as possible. This will avoid as much energy loss at once, and shift full attention to the branch at that node.
If you cut off large fan leaves, this will stunt the plant and waste a lot of energy on the leaf.
 
Awesome information

Thanks for the information I have been doing this same thing all the way through the growth it works awesome...:-P





i cannot claim original ownership of this idea - it was in the old growfaq - but since i don't think anyone uses it anymore, i'm gonna jack it for myself. it won't double the yield of someone already using advanced growing techniques but it is an easy way to improve on basic growing techniques.

anyway, here are the basics
1. either top or fim the main branch after the 4th node
2. on the main branch only, prune every other fan leaf in a staircase pattern. this slows the growth of the main stem and for some reason stimulates the growth of secondary branches.

here's what you get after two weeks: View attachment 931031View attachment 931025

versus this for topping alone: View attachment 931032

notice that each topped/pruned plant now has at least 6 growth tips all within a couple of inches of the canopy top. i think this is superior to multiple topping because it causes less overall stress to the plant and can be tailored to keep the growth tips all at the same height.

this is what a mature female looks like after topping/pruning: View attachment 931036

versus this for topping alone: View attachment 931037

i've tried it with two strains and gotten the same results. doubled yield to 4 ounces per plant from 2 ounces.
 

flyingtime

Active Member
I went through this thread last night and this morning I woke up and took all 6 of my plants (all in 4th wk of veg), I fimmed and made a spiral staircase of my fan leaves...I went for it 100% on all 6.

Why? Well, I am not expecting to double my yields..not at all. What I am looking for is to slow down the top growth and getting wider girths. I am sure that with training and pinching, etc all of this is achievable too but I just didn't feel like it.

So, will post some before and after pictures and see what the outcome is. BTW, the six ladies are :

2 x C99 (Joey Weed..still have about 30+ beans I bought 3 years ago..kept in a small constant climate chamber. I dropped 2 and both germinated..and fast too :))
2 x CSSH (Delicious)
1 x Utopia Haze (Barneys)
1 x Amnesia Haze (Soma)

Will take some pics as time goes by and post them.
 
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