Advice on Lollipopping and Defoliation

I've heard the knuckle theory but I don't agree with it it doesn't sound logical to me hence the twisting of the stem.

My understanding is a knuckle can't increase the flow of nutrients that's limited to what evaporates from the leafs and that would be limited to what can travel up the stem as a whole?

I trimmed at the bottom, and removed 3-4 larger leaves at the top (without removing branches, just the leaf).
Tomorrow will tie the bigger branches down a little bit. Will not overdo this.

The smaller one I couldn't really... trim, it's way too bushy and stocky. Is it ok to cut leaf when it stretches a little bit in flower phase?

Star Dog said:

I've heard the knuckle theory but I don't agree with it it doesn't sound logical to me hence the twisting of the stem.

My understanding is a knuckle can't increase the flow of nutrients that's limited to what evaporates from the leafs and that would be limited to what can travel up the stem as a whole?

Click to expand...

I can't say I've done any real side by sides with it. It seems to strengthen the branch above the knuckle and it helps me even out a canopy without a net which is my biggest concern. The nutrients being taken up at a faster rate is what I've read a bunch but I'm always open to new ideas. VPD is probably going to have more to do with the rate of transpiration than that little knuckle but it probably doesn't hurt.

Don't worry, you have plenty of time to defoliate a bit more if you want. It's good to be conservative the first time you do it. Once you flip, the plants will grow quickly for 3 weeks or so, and during that time some of the bud sites will grow much faster than others, creating an uneven canopy. You can supercrop any of those fast growing branches, just crush the stem and bend it over so it's even at the canopy again. If you don't secure the branch, it will bend back up in a day or two, but you can keep supercropping as much as you want without anything bad happening-so long as you are careful and don't break the branch off. I do it to all of my branches because it creates extremely strong, thick branches that don't need much (if any) support. Be sure to remove the bud sites/branches that can't keep up with the canopy during stretch-people call those the "suckers." Remove leaves that are sitting directly on top of each other, big fan leaves that are covering bud sites at the canopy level, and also leaves that aren't getting any light inside of the canopy. This will reduce the RH inside the canopy and increase air flow. The plants in my 3x3 grow journal in my sig are a little bit further along than yours, but I just went through and did a bunch of defoliation so you can check it out if you want to see what it looks like. I'm not sure if you flipped yours already but I'd do it soon if not, some plants stretch like crazy so you might need to boost the shorter one up at some point to keep them even-which is important so they both get ample light. Good luck!!

I switched to 12/12 yesterday.

I was also trying to do LST, and instead I ended up supercropping one branch.



The leaves on that branch are having some issues now, but I guess it will recover. The plant seem to be fine. Here she is:



It's a monster. I initially planned on having 4 plants in this tent, but it seems that's impossible. 2 tops. Will have to invest in a bigger tent.

All in all, it's going well. It survived the trimming, topping and super cropping so I got a bit more confidence now.
I was terrified of doing anything to it at the beginning.

That branch will be fine, if you want to speed up the healing you can support it at a 90 degree bend by tying it up to the roof support or propping it up on something. Even when you break the branch partially off you can usually tape it back up and support it. Flexible electric tape is good to keep around. For actual breaks where there's tears in the plant I dab honey on the injury before I tape it up. Just a tiny bit to cover the wound to help seal it and fight bacteria. Not necessary but I like taking the extra step for important branches.

Ok, so this is 2 weeks later. It stretched like crazy, doubling in size (at least). Basically my whole tent is full of one plant. It's so tall it started hitting the lights and i actually burned the leaf and what looks liked beginning of a flower. I'm having hard time controlling it, it actually grew above the lights.

Here's few pictures of what's happening (sorry for the crappy quality, it's shot in the dark with a cheap phone):






So I tied the branches to the tent redirecting them from the lights in all directions.
It does appear as it slowed down growth, maybe even stopped... but I'm not sure yet, but this (the last pic) does appear like it finally started flowering?

Yes, It's flowering. The white fuzzy buttons are the clusters that will become your buds. I'm sort of at a loss for words as far as to how far up into the lights it's gotten. You usually want between 12-18" of space from the lights. Keeping them as far out as possible from under the light directly is the best thing you can do at this point and keep up your watering as the extra light stress will up your water intake most likely. If you get badly burnt leaves just trim them off as they can be an easy place for mold to take hold as well. I wish we had seen it before it was this high and maybe it could have been better but who knows. It looks like the genetics were not a great match for your shorter tent for sure. I'm sorry bud. I'm sure somebody else can chime in that's been in the same spot before and can give some extra tips. I just grow short indica's and have a tall tent so I've never really bumped up into that problem that closely. I've burnt tops for sure, I just did it this grow, but not into the lights.

It is what it is. It's my first grow, and I ordered seeds from RQS for my next grow, so they should be legitimate, and I will know better what to expect. I had no idea what to expect with these seeds I used.

I actually think I did a good job keeping the branches and leaves from going to the lights, I only burned one. And the ones that are close to the lights (just under) look fine under 300w LED mars hydro cranked up full power. Will take better picture when the lights turn on tonight.
It drinks massive amount of water. In a 10 gallon DWC (7 gallons of solution actually), I add 3 gallons every 3 days. That's a gallon a day. I might be off a bit, i don't note this stuff down.

There was another plant in there, i took it out because it turned out it was a male. So these seeds were not even feminized.

I'm glad it's flowering, I can't have it grow more. I learned a lot, and my second grow will be more optimal.

That's a great attitude! Sometimes there's just not a lot you can do and it looks you did everything you could have with the seeds you had. I forget that you're in hydro. That's good it's drinking that much, that also would account some for the explosive growth. I've heard hydro plants can get really big. I do organics only but the same rules apply just a little differently. As long as you have the light still at full power and it's not getting burned then it should do fine. In the pic it just looked so close I was really concerned for the buds at the top. Keep an eye on the pistils and watch out for browning as an early warning sign of heat or light stress. You might have to turn the power down if they start getting brown early.

Ok, the light is on, and I was able to get better pictures. I honestly can't believe it got this big, I had no idea they get this big.
Including leaf damage when the flower/leaf touched the LED.

Any advice on defoliation or something? Looks super leafy and... large. I did cut few branches and leaves at the bottom, but did not do much more.

Hello,

Not to open a new topic I have another question if somebody can answer. It's in regards to flowers and cutting some of them off.

The plant has stopped growing, and is now in flowering stage. The only thing is, since the plant grew so monstrously big, it has dozens of little flower sites and I'm not sure how I should do it to maximize quality and yield, and get rid of what they call popcorn buds? Although mine might all be popcorn buds I don't know I uploaded few images with annotations (because the quality is not so great).

Anyway due to problems with height, I know it's impossible for me to do much with this plant, but still I want to maximize what I can get...

If I'm doing my math right it's been 21 days since you flipped and it's a great time for a final defoliation. Do a good stripping of all the big fan leaves on the inside of the plant from the middle, down and I usually take any buds and stems 16"-24" below my canopy top depending on how dense I think it's going to be. You're welcome to leave them if you want, I just don't like them as they're usually smaller buds and I really hate trimming. It's sort of a modified version of lollipopping. It should help with airflow as well which I'm concerned about looking at the size of your plant once the buds start putting on some weight. Try to do it ASAP though as flower is getting ramped up. Also you can take some fan leaves that are blocking secondary bud sites especially if they are going to get burned up by the light from being too close. Open it up some for the buds down lower that are in the sweet spot for your light. Try tilting your fan up so that it isn't blowing directly on the buds if you can. You want it blowing across the top but not on them if you can help it, unless it's oscillating and even then it needs to be gentle in bloom to prevent drying them. Having one blowing up from the bottom would be a good idea if it gets more crowded in late flower too. Keep an eye on humidity and keep up the good work.