I can say first hand that i tried to train them into a scrog an didnt trim enough lower branches and they tiny buds cause no light but im not sure if i only topped and had 4 colas each plant and left it alone i could have bigger harvest from 4 big nugs then bunch of tiny ones. Think its all on how much training you do.
Topping to get few colas, the leafs wont block light from anything cause wont really be a bush of buds rather a bush of fan leafs. Whereas, if you train for a scrog and lollipop you could get bigger harvest so it depends what type of training your doing since we are all looking for potency and quantity. If you do a scrog and not trim all the lower stuff(lollipoping) you prob end up with a smaller harvest from popcorn buds taking away from size of colas... once you decide to train a plant your kinda defeating how mother nature wants things done so isnt this argument apples to oranges?
Example would be in a scrog, would you lollipop the plant but only cut the nodes off and leave all the bottom fan leaves below the screen? The leafs are what stores food and ive read that if leafs are green then some light is gettin to it and you want strong light for the buds, (florecants are weak and still provide enough light for leafs to do there job, the light from hid under the screen prob stronger than flor.). So why trim the fan leafs when there is enough light for them to work?
thats why you have to weave the stem through the scrog and take good care of your canopy, light only travels so far through a leaf and leaves little to no lumens for the leaves below said leaf, the one below that one gets even less, and so on. so here you are left with a bunch opportunities for mold, infestation and its generally just blocking air flow to the plant. not to mention spotting any infection or infestation will be like looking for a needle in a hay stack, good luck. leaves will block light as long as there is growth below them, topping will actually cause the output of more leaves since the plant believes its being attacked(one of mjs many defense mechanisms), so just train to get those colas and dont take off any growth, this'll cause stress and slow your growth, during veg they really need a good environment so they can prepare for flower and harming the plant can affect its vigor throughout its life(also meaning potency and yield, unhappy plants yield not so good buds).
mother nature isnt always the most efficient, all plants have the end goal of reproduction and survival of the species so allowing them to grow wild doesnt always yield the most potent bud, neither does it usually yield as well as a plant that has been taken care of and trimmed correctly to allow light penetration throughout the plant, in fact youll find in a field of female plants, one or more will hermaphrodite so next season the species will continue, they dont grow big buds for us to come smoke them. with mother nature's design, plants focus on one spot to grow and eventually reach towards its light source as to photosynthesize more(or so it tries to), however we tie them down so all the bud sites have equivalent energy going to them so we can avoid those pesky popcorn nugs come trim time. we grow our plants for yield and potency therefore we find the best ways to make our plant the most efficient, vigorous plants possible and make the best use of our space, and of course to make our jobs a bit easier when we gotta chop. mother nature doesn't always have the best in mind for us, but rather the survival of the species.
nodes w/ emerging branches below the screen that are also covered by leaves are a waste, if theyre big enough take em as a clone, but if they arent going through the screen they'll likely just divert energy rather than doing any real photosynthesizing and filling out, youll be left with popcorn nugs either way since the canopy is getting all of the energy so even if this bud is expose it wont be significant compared to your top buds. leaves store food for flower(why leaves yellow throughout, the plant uses all energy available) but if fed enough nutrients they wont rely off the leaves for nutrients as much, though in the last two weeks you should just let those leaves yellow, if they appear before the 4th week id feed a little bit of N(feeding it later on wont yield good results, N is needed but too much make buds taste bad).
if leaves are getting direct light, they serve their purpose, but leaves left in the shadows(even if its still green) are just wasting space and could cause potential problem. now dont strip all leaves since some are still needed for the end of flower but if light doesnt penetrate all your bud spots, get to work on trimming, the problem is usually the fact that the light cannot penetrate these leaves as they are not very transparent(not to say some light doesnt travel through them, just not enough to make the lower leaf significant), strength of the light wont solve it however multiple lights put below the canopy in spots where they're needed can help, exposing these lower branches to any lumens at all will help a bunch.
you think plants in the shadows yield good). lets see, you posted my grow from when i had to go on vacation and leave my plants in bushes? yeah, i guess that was an epic fail seeing as i did cross 2 strains in the end(when i wasnt there might i add), HUGE fail right? uncle ben, the word fail defines you, you shouldnt try to use it against people, you just totally failed at making sense during this entire thread, we dont need to look in my grow journals to see that, you obviously think everyone else doesnt know shit, the thing is, your the one who doesnt seem to have a clue, you just talk out of your ass about science. now, make some more mediocre insults to those who made you look like a dumbass, i know you have a complex where you cant lose arguments and this completely crushed your ego, but arrogance only makes you an easier target. youve had no contribution to this thread, the best thing you can do now since you proven how low you are is just leave, you didnt say anything back to all the things i said and im sure plenty of other people have said shit to you that you would probably just reply with something like this,
