Should I Trim or Not?

Hey All,

This is my second time growing. Strain is 9lb. Blackberry. Mix from Blackberry Kush and 9lb. Hammer. I am starting week 4 of flowering, in FFOF soil, 250 watt HPS and outdoor light on nice days, been using FoxFarm Trio notes and just started using molasses. My question is, should I trim or prune either large fans leaves or the bottom branches with bud sites at this point? I was thinking of either allowing more light to the bottom, or removing the bottom branches to focus more energy to the top alone. Is it too late into flowering for this? If not, which method would be preferred for better quality yields. Would rather have better quality/more potent buds over larger yield. Thanks for any advise and suggestions.

1. Healthy looking plant! Great job.
2. Tuck the leaves, don't chop them.
3. Maybe it's the angles, but she doesn't seem too leafy to me.
4. Other grows suggest harvesting her in different stages; allowing more time for the larf to put on weight.

Whatever you chose to do, good luck!

Trimming popcorn does nothing to fatten remaining buds. Blackberry Kush is not a great yielder. 9# is. Hopefully your pheno goes that way.

Best too leave all leafs on ,if they turn pale yellow then remove

Thanks everyone. I trimmed a few leaves that were losing color, and tucked the rest. I will harvest per bud when the trichomes tell me to. Seeing the bud developing is really making me impatient.

I would do a little bit of LSTing on her. Just pull a few branches out to the sides and let some light down in the middle. Maybe clean up a few of the fan leaves if they are blocking bud sites but not too much really looks good.

james1982h said:

Thanks everyone. I trimmed a few leaves that were losing color, and tucked the rest. I will harvest per bud when the trichomes tell me to. Seeing the bud developing is really making me impatient.

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Hi, what is tucking? I haven’t read that anywhere.

james1982h said:

Hey All,

This is my second time growing. Strain is 9lb. Blackberry. Mix from Blackberry Kush and 9lb. Hammer. I am starting week 4 of flowering, in FFOF soil, 250 watt HPS and outdoor light on nice days, been using FoxFarm Trio notes and just started using molasses. My question is, should I trim or prune either large fans leaves or the bottom branches with bud sites at this point? I was thinking of either allowing more light to the bottom, or removing the bottom branches to focus more energy to the top alone. Is it too late into flowering for this? If not, which method would be preferred for better quality yields. Would rather have better quality/more potent buds over larger yield. Thanks for any advise and suggestions.

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I'm not a fan of cutting leafs. The only thing I'd do at this stage is use some garden wire to open her up a little bit. Next time look into LST. I top a few times and LST my plants with awesome results. I like to have all my serious topping and training done well before mid to late flower. Opening your girl up with some wire won't hurt anything.

Nice job.

Edit- Topping is done well before flower even starts.

Doxie Mama said:

Hi, what is tucking? I haven’t read that anywhere.

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I just tucked the large fans leaves under or behind another branch or something that would hold it out of the way of light getting lower.

Indacouch said:

I'm not a fan of cutting leafs. The only thing I'd do at this stage is use some garden wire to open her up a little bit. Next time look into LST. I top a few times and LST my plants with awesome results. I like to have all my serious topping and training done well before mid to late flower. Opening your girl up with some wire won't hurt anything.

Nice job.

Edit- Topping is done well before flower even starts.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I did top this plant when it was young in veg. I topped after the third node, and did what I thought was LST by tying the branches down and letting them curl out and up to allow more light to penetrate and keeping all main colas at the same height. I'm still trying to learn the in and outs of the hobby.

Here's a few updated pictures.

Frosty

Looks good bruh! I think trimming/defoliating has its places in certain situations. I'm growing a couple Greenpoint strains and am getting some HUGE fan leaves. I took them off on a couple and left a couple on. The lower branches on the ones I trimmed definitely responded positively and the canopy evened out some.

The other side of that is lighting. I use LEDs and pretty much veg with as little light as possible. If I was using a 600 or a newer, higher powered panel or something I dont think it would matter as much. People growing with 1ks and shit are getting light almost all the way to the bottom... my 90w cob in a 3x3 just doesnt do the same and I gotta do whatever I can to maximize my shit lol

Your shit looks healthy and you appear to have a nice even canopy.. keep up the good work!

wanted to add; My first few grows I would also take my ladies outside on nice days.. It wasn't long before I found thrips inside.. not a huge deal thanks to captain jacks... but I wound up losing a tray of clones and had a super stunted harvest