Seedling fan tip clip

3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
So, im going to do a side by side with 2 seedlings. I will clip the tips, just the tips, off the first set of leaves at a week, and leave the other natural.

Apparently, it is frowned upon, but they are my plants so no loss to anyone else. Just put them in, all my others are already clipped, so give me 3 days til they pop and we can go from there.

I'll post here when they pop and then an update right before the clip and right after. Just to prove a point.
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
buyyouabeer said:
What is your hypothesis on this and are you talking about the cotyledon or first true leaves?
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First true, the single blades.

By doing this, it will stop those fans from growing to promote faster growth at the top, push faster side growth at the second node, stack nodes tighter (for the first 3-4 nodes, until you clip the next fans), and get you training quicker if you run a manifold or circle jerk.
 
Dryxi

Dryxi

Well-Known Member
3rd Monkey said:
First true, the single blades.

By doing this, it will stop those fans from growing to promote faster growth at the top, push faster side growth at the second node, stack nodes tighter (for the first 3-4 nodes, until you clip the next fans), and get you training quicker if you run a manifold or circle jerk.
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I haven't heard of this before, so following for sure.
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Here's the pots. So interesting, I know lol. I'll label them with numbers a few days prior to clip so y'all can choose which I clip so it's not biased by my decision.

image.jpg
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
image.jpg

So I couldn't resist to throw a cheater pic lol.

The little unclipped one is a day behind the rest.

This is in my journal as well, just in case you think I'm fibbing lol.

Few more days.
 
Dryxi

Dryxi

Well-Known Member
So to explain what it is your trying to do, basically you are clipping the first single blade leaves and they get stunted promoting more growth above them? Do you continue clipping leaves after the first ones or does the idea not carry over when the plant is no longer a seedling?
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Dryxi said:
So to explain what it is your trying to do, basically you are clipping the first single blade leaves and they get stunted promoting more growth above them? Do you continue clipping leaves after the first ones or does the idea not carry over when the plant is no longer a seedling?
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Yes, cutting the first leaves tips to "control" where I want growth, which will be mostly top.

You can apply it to your whole grow. Once they hit 3 nodes say, for mainliners and circle jerkers, they can fim the top. That'll push sides. Then I can clip the 2nd node to push growth to the 3rd. You can do it in flower as well to dead end bud sites and push to other sites. Just by tip clipping.

Whenever you clip the tips, it just dead ends growth for a bit. You can cut growth tips to send energy to another growth tip and so on. Applications are endless.

You short growth in one place, while leaving the leaves intact to make fuel and push growth where you want it.

Hope all that rambling makes sense.
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Example.

These here have been clipped, you can see which one hasn't. Now if I was going to line or jerk it, I could take fim that top and snip the second set, putting all that energy into the 3rd node. Instead of waiting until the 5th or 6th. No recovery time either, just switches track to a different node instead of repair mode.

image.jpg


This one here missed out on a week of light from a power outage, so it got stretched. So I set it up to jerk it by removing the first node and clipped the 3rd node fans. The majority of energy will now go to the 2nd node where I want it. I tried to show the clipped, unclipped and the node I want to push in the same shot.

image.jpg

Make sense?
 
Dryxi

Dryxi

Well-Known Member
Ok I see what your trying to do. I might start doing this to new seedlings in the future. Is there any drawback for it there? Topping adds recovery, but I'm assuming there is no recovery for clipping, so really I'm just speeding up being able to fim/top later right?

Will it speed the recovery if I top node 4 and clip node 3? (Or top 3 clip 2 etc)
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Dryxi said:
Ok I see what your trying to do. I might start doing this to new seedlings in the future. Is there any drawback for it there? Topping adds recovery, but I'm assuming there is no recovery for clipping, so really I'm just speeding up being able to fim/top later right?

Will it speed the recovery if I top node 4 and clip node 3? (Or top 3 clip 2 etc)
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There's no recovery time. You'll notice new growth where you want it that night, 12hrs later. Just wait until the first leaves are about 1 1/2"-2" or a week if you want to be safe. Take just the tip, usually about 2 teeth in on the fans.

If you top node 4 and clip 3, it'll push node 2. If you then clip node 2, it'll push node 4 instantly. Very little recovery.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
I don't think you are crazy at all. I've definitely done similar though its not specifically part of my usual routine. I regularly use this principle in my grow though. I try to do minor low stress pruning to help "direct" where I would like the plant to grow. I do this on all my clones when I cut them so they put no effort into leaf repair, and only try to grow roots. Usually when my clones are in veg I will also remove the lowest branch nodes, not the fans by them, just the side growth tips. To encourage the growth to go up and down, rather then branching out.

Sometimes in early flower I will gently pinch the growth tips of taller plants to discourage them from getting much taller, same concept. We are basically training the plant were to send the growth hormones and energy.
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I don't think you are crazy at all. I've definitely done similar though its not specifically part of my usual routine. I regularly use this principle in my grow though. I try to do minor low stress pruning to help "direct" where I would like the plant to grow. I do this on all my clones when I cut them so they put no effort into leaf repair, and only try to grow roots. Usually when my clones are in veg I will also remove the lowest branch nodes, not the fans by them, just the side growth tips. To encourage the growth to go up and down, rather then branching out.

Sometimes in early flower I will gently pinch the growth tips of taller plants to discourage them from getting much taller, same concept. We are basically training the plant were to send the growth hormones and energy.
Click to expand...
Yea, pretty similar. This doesn't require you to remove growth tips though if you just want to push somewhere else, particularly in a circle jerk or manifold... But yea, same principle.
 
Thundercat

Thundercat

Well-Known Member
3rd Monkey said:
Yea, pretty similar. This doesn't require you to remove growth tips though if you just want to push somewhere else, particularly in a circle jerk or manifold... But yea, same principle.
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I don't remove the growth tips fyi, just a gentle pinch to break the cell walls but not hugely damage them, and it stalls that tip and encourages the others to catch up a little.
 
3rd Monkey

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Thundercat said:
I don't remove the growth tips fyi, just a gentle pinch to break the cell walls but not hugely damage them, and it stalls that tip and encourages the others to catch up a little.
Click to expand...
"Usually when my clones are in veg I will also remove the lowest branch nodes, not the fans by them, just the side growth tips."

That's what I was talking about.

You're referring to something like a mild supercrop. That's how I bend my tops at a 90 if I don't want a knuckle.

Anyhow, yea any way you can push growth to where you want is a good thing. This is the only applicable way I've found for very young seedlings though.
 
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