help when is it the best time in flower to clean up the bottom of plants

lilroach

Well-Known Member
Exactly why do you want to "clean-up" the undergrowth?

The plant spent much time growing that stuff, and between you and the plant....it's the smartest one in the room to determine which leaves to keep and which ones to let go.

Check out my signature link to my grows.....where I left everything on the plants.
 

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
id say now,and up till day 14 of flowering......
I agree with Genuity...best time is now and no more after the first couple weeks of being flipped. I feel what your saying Roach but I think it depends on the grower and the setup and what your trying to do. If you have a nice even canopy you can clean up the undergrowth to promote the energy into the top buds/colas instead of making popcorn buds that aren't getting a lot of light. Like I said depends on a lot of factors
 

lilroach

Well-Known Member
I understand what you're saying, but in reality plants don't work as you describe. Please take a look at my grows....do you really feel my plants didn't get enough "energy" to my colas?
 

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
I understand what you're saying, but in reality plants don't work as you describe. Please take a look at my grows....do you really feel my plants didn't get enough "energy" to my colas?
I took a look at your grows Roach and I have to say very impressive. To answer your question no I feel they did put enough energy to the colas but your plants don't have a lot of colas. From what I see looks like they have four main colas so you really don't need to trim the undergrowth but if you would have trimmed some of the bottom off, those main colas would've put on a lil more weight not a lot tho. I say its more for plants that have been trained or topped to have a lot of tops/colas or have vegged for a long time and are trees. I see you read Uncle Ben's Topping so you know once after you top past the 2nd node your not gonna have dominate colas, most likely a lot of small tops. Trimming the undergrowth helps make those smaller tops/colas bigger than they normally would be and helps the plant with air flow, humidity and mould issues. Like I said earlier it depends on many factors but keep doing what your doing bro. Plants look awesome. You can sub up on my grow and I'll show you what trimming the undergrowth does for my plants. Peace
 

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Jimmy from what I can see from your pix I wouldn't trim anything because it looks like your plants aren't topped/fimmed for more than one cola but that doesn't mean anything. You can still trim some undergrowth to help the main cola and some upper buds but your plants don't look really big so you don't want to take a lot off it will stunt growth. How big are your plants???
 

easy jimmy

Active Member
I understand what you're saying, but in reality plants don't work as you describe. Please take a look at my grows....do you really feel my plants didn't get enough "energy" to my colas?
that pic shows only 4or maybe six plants that looks nice ,,,I mean a area of 30 plants jamed under a 10 k its very thick and jammed in their ,I have done grows 2 plants per lite ,did not touch them lower flowers were very nice and bulky but now some light does not hit the bottom of plants need to cut lower branches..when is it best,
 

lilroach

Well-Known Member
I understand about a ton of plants in a small space.....several of the plants in the photos shared a 5x7 flower-room with 8-10 others. I currently have 8 very mature big plants in the room at the moment.



I Do have some CFL's lighting the bottoms.....do they help? Honestly I don't know but I had the lights so I'm using them.
 

lilroach

Well-Known Member
There's a big misconception about how plants work. Not all leaves need light as a plant processes light as a whole.

Here's a pic of the bottom of that big plant:



Now these branches and buds have rarely if ever seen direct lights. Notice they are neither yellow or dead.
 

lilroach

Well-Known Member
When I first started growing not that long ago, I too bought into lollypopping and pruning "for better air-flow and getting rid of the "sucker" branches and leaves at the bottom. I typically got around 2 ounces per plant.

After doing a bunch of reading of Uncle Ben's explanation of how plants work, I gave it a try and left all the leaves on the plant. My yield increased to 3-4 ounces per plant. With other tweaks I now average over 5+ ounces a plant.

I can see lollypopping in a scrog but for me I'll let the plant decide what leaves to ditch and what to keep.
 

lilroach

Well-Known Member
Here's a photo of one of the plants currently stuffed into my grow room:



Do you notice the bottom of the plant.....lush very green healthy branches. This particular plant's bottom hasn't seen much light in the past 8 weeks.
 

genuity

Well-Known Member
There's a big misconception about how plants work. Not all leaves need light as a plant processes light as a whole.

Here's a pic of the bottom of that big plant:



Now these branches and buds have rarely if ever seen direct lights. Notice they are neither yellow or dead.
so are you saying them buds whould have came out the same with light on them? or did that plant have cfl's down there.

nothing wrong with trimming lower growth,if you do not want to deal with all that undone bud.
 

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Here's a photo of one of the plants currently stuffed into my grow room:



Do you notice the bottom of the plant.....lush very green healthy branches. This particular plant's bottom hasn't seen much light in the past 8 weeks.
That plant is the ideal candidate to be lollypopped/prunned/raped imo. Especially if it's slammed in there, next to other plants like that one. To late into flowering of course now? Larf sucks to trim, and degrades the quality of a sack, if mixed in. My experience and experiments proved opposite of what you are saying. Many factors as stated before though. Like trees with lots of space vs. scrog vs. sog vs. slammed trees, like yours.
Maybe if you tried lollypopping again, now that you got shit dialed in, your yield will still be there, but with better quality. Anyways, to each their own

I personally like to have the lollypopping done by day 14 also. In the end I almost NEVER ask myself "why did i lollypop up that high?" Usually the other way around
 

tusseltussel

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't want to mess with all that crap, if you trimmed it off that energy would have went up. Now your backed up waiting for that b/s to finish and for what there's not an oz there
There's a big misconception about how plants work. Not all leaves need light as a plant processes light as a whole.

Here's a pic of the bottom of that big plant:



Now these branches and buds have rarely if ever seen direct lights. Notice they are neither yellow or dead.
I trim up the day before flower and 2 weeks in if I see anything that looks like it will be a waste of time
 

genuity

Well-Known Member
yea i use to let the plant do its thing,but in the end i did not like trimming all the undone buds
 
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