Lollipopping Problems

This is my first grow, Ive got some Blue Dream that has been vegging for about 5 weeks and now have been flowering for almost 3 weeks. I am wondering what I should be trimming at this point because the canopy seems way too dense for my 600 w HPS to handle. I've got 9 plants under a 600 w HPS and some CFLs on the perimeter of the setup. How much of the lower branches should I cut off? It's hard to do because most of the lower branches still have bud on them so I don't want to chop them off if they are gonna produce.

This is one of the biggest ones, which is about 4 1/2 feet tall now.

Should I hack it up of what? thanks

Your plants area bit tall but they look really healthy so great job on that aspect. I'd suggest pruning the bottom third to get more out of your light and also increase airflow down there. The bud sites there won't produce much good bud anyway since they are so shaded.

Thanks!
But what about some of the shoots that come off from the bottom and end midway up? Should I just trim off the fan leaves down there and let the main branch grow? or should I just cut the whole thing?

Make clones of those lower branches.

They've been budding for about 3 weeks now, isn't that a bad idea? Plus I made about 45 clones before I switched to 12/12, and have the 20 best ones in pots now vegging.

Throw in some side lighting instead of hacking it all off if that is an option.

if it were me, I would remove a couple of plants. I would look for a few plants that are close in height and look like they are going to produce. The intermixing of a super tall plant with a shorter plant is going to throw things off. it's going to make you raise your light and shorter plants are not going to get the light that they deserve. if you were to cull a few plants and get some uniformity with the remaining plants its going to greatly increase what you can produce. You can keep what you have, but pruning the lower branches doesnt seem like it's going to do a lot since you have some fairly tall plants with some shorter ones.

a little late but still ok. just cut em off. i trim upper fans and lower branches at day 15 and upper fans again at day 36

superstoner1 said:

a little late but still ok. just cut em off. i trim upper fans and lower branches at day 15 and upper fans again at day 36

Click to expand...

Does that help? How? (does it fatten up buds increase resin?

my yields increased and my trimming time went way down since no little popcorn everywhere. plants indoors, with a completely controlled atmosphere and feeding do not need all of the fans. let the light penetrate.

I have all of the shorter plants on boosters so that all of the plant tops are within about 6" of each other, so I hope that if I clear out some of the fan leaves there will be sufficient light penetration in the canopy. Also, I have about 8 CFLs around the perimeter of the setup so that's providing some decent side lighting. So are you saying I should trim off just the leaves superstoner? or should I just actually cut off branches with some of those smaller popcorn buds on them?