# Pinching the stem at week 1 flower



## AWnox (Jan 30, 2012)

Hello everyone, I am currently on my first week of 12/12, she just started Saturday. The second night was yesterday she went to "sleep" early and when I woke up this morning I find her really growing. There are 3 shoots, mainly on the back of the plant that are growing faster than all the other tops. I went ahead and slowly "pinched" (squeezed, they didn't break or crack, just made the stem walls collapse) all 3 shoots near the end, just below the latest growth node. I did this in order to give the other tops more time to catch up to these 3 rebel shoots. I was wondering though if this will cause too much stress to the plant to the point where it can cause herm or is it ok still to perform these kinds of stress training during the first week of flowering without having to worry to much about stress causing herm? Please any info or insight will be very much appreciated. 

Best regards,

AWnox

P.S.: If anyone has any suggestions as to how to control these faster tops without having to "pinch" or perform any harsh techniques to control them please let me know. Thanks again RIU.


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## rumors1011 (Jan 30, 2012)

If you have a stable plant it wont hurt. I do it.

just make sure to keep the plant as stress free in every other way possible


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## AWnox (Jan 30, 2012)

rumors1011 said:


> If you have a stable plant it wont hurt. I do it.
> 
> just make sure to keep the plant as stress free in every other way possible


Thanks for the reply. Yeah I pinched them as little as possible making sure there was no tear in the dermal tissue. They should be somewhere around the same height when I see them tomorrow morning and hopefully with the other tops already caught up. The strain is Ice from Royal Queen, so far very impressive; nitrogen fiend but matured very fast, showed sex near the end of the 3rd week of veg. Strong resilient strain IMO so far.


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## Sir.Ganga (Feb 3, 2012)

Hey AW, I no longer use any of those abusive techniques, if I have an issue I generally bend now. Stress at the start of flower is not a good thing IMO

Vaper


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## AWnox (Feb 3, 2012)

Sir.Ganga said:


> Hey AW, I no longer use any of those abusive techniques, if I have an issue I generally bend now. Stress at the start of flower is not a good thing IMO
> 
> Vaper


Hey Sir.G thanks for the reply. Yeah I didn't do much of it either, just on a couple of shoots that were getting ridiculously tall in comparison with the rest. I want to talk a bit about using the light to control the canopy. Using an HID does help control the canopy but I am a bit unsure as to how exactly. For example I know that if you keep the HID real close they will keep the shoots short and nodes closer form each other; although I've had experiences where I have the HID real close during the light cycle then during the dark cycle they stretch even more, yet if you have the light too far away during the light cycle they will stretch during the day to reach more of the light so we still have the same problem. Bending down for me at least right now is not an option; first the stem is way to thick already to bend anywhere and second I have no space to bend them towards, my grow space is very limited and there are more tops than what the space can handle, maybe when budding begins I will eliminate the weaker ones and concentrate more energy on the main tops, I don't know yet. In any case does anyone have any input as to how light distance affects stretching in flowering? Please if anyone has any more input I would be very much appreciated, as well as others who might have the same doubts. Thanks for your time people.


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## NiigataOp (Feb 14, 2012)

I seem to be having the same happening when I adjust the light distances. also seems that the tips closest to the bulb grow faster than the outer stems that are farther away. every week I have to move something to adjust the light flow over the canopy. personally i don't like to pinch. I feel as if its hurting the yield and I don't like having to ration. Instead i just tuck this one and trim a little there to open the canopy to that stem growing up.


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## BullwinkleOG (Feb 14, 2012)

i topped my white widow 2 or 3 days after 12/12 switch. heres a link to the thread with pics https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/511540-indoor-cfl-week-3-flower.html#post7114848


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## UncleBuck (Feb 14, 2012)

don't worry, bending or even breaking the stem matters not. i usually pinch mine to even out the canopy and end up breaking the tissue on one here or there. they do repair themselves quickly and production is not only unharmed, it is often times better than on unpinched stems. 

if you examine a pinched stem at harvest, you will see that it is like a 4 lane highway instead of a two lane highway.

the first reply said it all, as long as the strain is stable, pinching will not stress it, and in my experience, may even make things better.

best of luck!


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## hempknightt (Feb 15, 2012)

You should try to keep all your pinching/topping/stress inducing during veg period only. Any of these during flowering will hurt yields. If you do feel a NEED to do something try to do all your final pruning and what not before week 2 of flower.

@AWnox that goes for you too, if you feel like you are not going to get good light coverage on some of your buds sites then get rid of it before its too late in flower or it will hurt yield. 

also pinching is a great thing to do during veg, as with any stress it will mean it will take longer to veg but what pinching will do is the stem will heal itself and be THICKER than before so better for holding big ass buds


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