First scrog. Second grow. Pruning during flowering.

I have a plant that I scroged by attaching trellis to the actual pot (20 lt super roots). It is growing in DS60 size grow tent under 400w HPS using a cool tube and has intake and extraction fans running.

Due to space limitations I trained the plant as close to the pot rim as possible and when all done, the screen is only about 4 inches above the soil, completely defoiliated below the net and light penetrates all the way down to the soil.

It is going into the third week of flowering on Monday and my question is: is it packed to densely and should any leaves or smaller bud sites be trimmed?

Thanks for looking.

Pics attached

There's debate on trimming fan leaves; but it's general concensus that growth nodes that'll never see the light of day (above canopy) are a drain on resources. They may form buds with pistils shooting out, but they'll not amount to much. It's good to prevent them from forming.

Little under developed fan leaves that'll never see the light of day fall in the same category for me, I pinch that shit off.

Six9 said:

There's debate on trimming fan leaves; but it's general concensus that growth nodes that'll never see the light of day (above canopy) are a drain on resources. They may form buds with pistils shooting out, but they'll not smount to much. keep them from developing, trim them. A lot are very adamant on this point.

Little under developed fan leaves that'll never see the light of day fall in the same category for me, I pinch that shit off.

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Thank you for taking the time to reply and I think this seems like a good approach. I trimmed quite heavily during veg and was planning to continue lightly during flower but have read so many posts saying to never trim any leaves during flowering time. Many where really adamant on thus point under any circumstances.

Being that I gave grown in a completely artificial and very restrictive environment I feel something got to give. Ie the leaves potential to photosynthesis or store nutrition would be off set by lack of available Co2.

That said, my concern is not so much about yeild but last night I got reading up on bud rot and I'm thinking I may run into air circulation issues as I don't really have the space for an oscillating fan and just have ducting from the intake fan to direct fresh air above the canopy.

Fan leaves are vital especially during flower; but maintaining fan leaves requires energy too. You'll see a healthy plant "sacrifice" older/lower/inner fan leaves in late flower (turn yellow, die) because she knows they're not vital; she's focusing on higher value parts.

Basically you can prevent her from wasting that energy in the first place with aggressive pruning. She's smart, but she will make the mistake of growing fan leaves and larf buds inside the plant. Trim it so she focuses everything on the colas. Good luck

I went crazy pruning this one but my sacrifice was only wasted vertical. She focused on the colas. This was with LED. This would have not been possible without aggressive pruning, not with cheap LED..

I aint pruning nothing during flowering mate. Sure I clean up the lowest part a little during veg cause it's touching dirt and theirs no light hitting it. But All this talk of pruning to focus on bigger colas is funny to me. These aren't tomatoes, their cannabis plants.

Six9 said:

Basically you can prevent her from wasting that energy in the first place with aggressive pruning. She's smart, but she will make the mistake of growing fan leaves and larf buds inside the plant. Trim it so she focuses everything on the colas. Good luck

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Tell me about it...I though that by pruning most of the large fan leaves just before switched to 12/12 this would be achieved but existing leaves or new ones grew to the same size and created a thick canopy in a matter of days. TBH I should have went with a bigger screen but I liked the idea of a movable scrog in order to clean out the tent, flush and rotate the plant.

I went crazy pruning this one but my sacrifice was only wasted vertical. She focused on the colas. This was with LED. This would have not been possible without aggressive pruning, not with cheap LED..

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LED grow lights are an interesting technology that have really developed over the last few years. I remember watching a documentary on them about a decode ago were NASA was doing trials with them as part of research in to low energy crop production. Seeing them from that point of cutting edge research to a mass produced consumer product is pretty cool.

Anyway impressive results you are getting. even more so your level of efficiency ie in power consumption in lighting, presumable room cooling and also that which the plant is not wasting. Really nice. Is this from a single plant?

StoneyMcphatter said:

I aint pruning nothing during flowering mate. Sure I clean up the lowest part a little during veg cause it's touching dirt and theirs no light hitting it. But All this talk of pruning to focus on bigger colas is funny to me. These aren't tomatoes, their cannabis plants.

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Also a valid point. Its a tough one. In theory it's all pretty straightforward to set up a nice environment for the plant but I have very little growing experience so not really sure how the plant should respond or develop. But I guess that is part of the learning curve.

Thank you for your input.

Yes that was a mainlined landrace sativa in a 10gal soilless under about 600w of Chinese LED. I pruned to a point where I thought the main colas should "start." i could have pruned two nodes less though. Was my first mainline, but a great lesson in maximizing resources. Here she is chopped in half for drying. Thanks

Six9 said:

Yes that was a mainlined landrace sativa in a 10gal soilless under about 600w of Chinese LED. I pruned to a point where I thought the main colas should "start." i could have pruned two nodes less though. Was my first mainline, but a great lesson in maximizing resources. Here she is chopped in half for drying. Thanks

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Just saw second pic. That is like a tree. I only have two main nodes also as I thought it to be a waste of time letting it grow vertically as I was scroging.

Apart from aiming for top shelf bud I'm finding this a great hobby in its self. Its really interesting how the plant can be manipulated and next time round should have more of an idea what I'm am doing. Reading the scrog tutorials and putting it into practice almost seem like two different thing. Broke a few branches but felt more comfortable experimenting during veg than I do now it's in flower. Really tempted to lollipop after seeing your results.

Loving the site btw. The only person I can show or talk about it to has zero interest. Personally I think it's because the girl at times is getting more attention than her.... Not to mention the bondage.

You chose a worthy training method for sure, it'll be a learning experience!