what is lollipoping

4

420grower.cali

Member
So im planning on doing a sog and i need to lollipop and i have no idea what that is haha and also to get better light penetration i need to trim the, how do i do that? I dont wanna go overboard and hurt them
 
k_elliott99

k_elliott99

Well-Known Member
Lollipopping is taking the bottom 1\3 off your plant about a week prior to flower so that the other buds can all grow evenly. Just like cutting clones but a lot more branches come off. I think u wanna LST the top of the plant so all the remaining buds toward the lower part are reaching up to be even with the top ones
 
4

420grower.cali

Member
k_elliott99 said:
Lollipopping is taking the bottom 1\3 off your plant about a week prior to flower so that the other buds can all grow evenly. Just like cutting clones but a lot more branches come off. I think u wanna LST the top of the plant so all the remaining buds toward the lower part are reaching up to be even with the top ones
Click to expand...
Whats lst?
 
k_elliott99

k_elliott99

Well-Known Member
420grower.cali said:
Whats lst?
Click to expand...
Low stress training, taking your top branches and pulling them down toward the floor to try and open up space for light to reach the lower bud sites. Also then they all fight to be the highest bud so the lower ones grow pretty big. I haven't protected the art yet but going on my third grow in dwc I am tying my two babies down in the next few days
 
Nummingtons

Nummingtons

Well-Known Member
Hey man its me again I think I was the one that suggested you lollipop and trim let me explain why I suggested this. First off AZ2000 is right if you have lights lower in your tent you can turn the bottom stuff in to real buds. That being said in a SOG your plants are very young when you put them into flower so even when fully developed most the time the bottom stuff wont be much even if you get good light to it. Therefore you take the bottom third of the plant off to allow more resources to be used by the plant to develop the Cola. It also makes it much easier to feed the plants if you are top watering which if I remember right you are. Fallow that link or go to youtube there are great videos on topping as well. Topping is really easy and will basically make your plant grow two of the top Colas that I spoke of earlier.

LST is another way you can go if you are worried about trimming the plant, it will also give you better yield. All this is is slowly bending your branches and tying them to the side of the pot. Don't try to bend them all the way down all at once or you will break them. If you break them you are either screwed or you have accidentally super cropped your plant lol.

When I told you to trim I should have told you to trim and tuck. All I meant was to stand over your canopy from time to time and if there are any fan leafs touching or blocking bud sites either tuck them behind each other or take a few off to allow the plant good light. To be clear its not a big deal if a few fans touch each other, but if you get big clusters you will eventually get mildew if you are not careful. I made this exact mistake, let my plants get too bushy and put them to close together.

As you can see there are a lot of ways to train your plants to preform well in a SOG. However lollipoping and topping are super easy and effective, its your first grow man keep it easy.


Welcome to Costco I love you!
 
B

brimck325

Well-Known Member
Someone training plants for their needs is wrong. Everyone has different situations. While a technique may not be best for the plant it may fit the grower perfect.
 
R

reasonevangelist

Well-Known Member
I say: if you cut anything, minimize both the amount and frequency thereof. Cut the least material, the fewest possible number of times. Hacking a plant too much will stress it, which can cause/trigger almost every problem you want to avoid. Better to just give them plenty of room and sufficient air flow, instead of chopping off the parts that catch light and store nutrients and help it breathe. The more light the plant catches (to a point), and the more it remains in appropriate supply of proper nutrients, the better.

But yeah, some trimming and shaping is okay, if it's done to avoid a much worse problem. You don't want your bush too thick to the point where you start getting mold. If you have to hack off parts of the plant to avoid mold, do it. If you have to make them fit in a smaller than optimal space, go ahead and cut some.

I'm not saying that lolipopping is going to destroy an otherwise healthy and potent specimen... but it's extra work for less yield. You might have prettier colas, but overall yield will decrease.

I can confirm that stuff at the bottom that doesn't seem to get much visible light, turns out just as good (or nearly) as the colas. Maybe even better, since colas get singed a bit sometimes.

IMO, cutting off so many pieces of the plant, exposing it to so many points of possible infection, isn't worth the risk, isn't worth the decrease in yield, isn't worth the extra effort (unless you Need to decrease the compacted bushiness, to decrease the chance of mold).

Build the soil/substrate, start 'em, get 'em up and topped... stabilize and let 'em run. Flower when ready. Stay out of the way. Don't let anything compromise it. That's all you really need to do.

Consider this: every leaf you let grow, is spent and stored resources/nutrients.

If you let it grow, the resource/energy/nutrient is already 'consumed' or 'spent' (from the soil to the plant). Why waste it?

The only good reasons i can think of, for any aggressive cutting, are these: disease prevention and shaping for container/room parameters.

Otherwise... just let 'em grow how they do.

Uncle Ben says: "i will not be a slave to my plants." Only took me one grow to adopt that perspective. I can't imagine why anyone with anything else they might want to do, would spend time lolipopping a plant that will be no worse by Not hacking off branches (and will likely yield more). The only times it's worth doing, are when you have to make a compromise to save the rest of the plant, or when your space just doesn't allow a whole bush. Otherwise... don't we all have better things to do? Like maybe building better lamps, better ventilation, better scrubbers, etc. Or just anything else non-cannabis-related.

I understand some people just like to shape the plant, and i have no problem with any of that.

I just dislike the idea that people are being told to lolipop with expectation of inexplicable improvements, which almost certainly will not occur (unless in the specific circumstances i mentioned, or others i didn't).
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
reasonevangelist said:
I say: if you cut anything, minimize both the amount and frequency thereof. Cut the least material, the fewest possible number of times. Hacking a plant too much will stress it, which can cause/trigger almost every problem you want to avoid. Better to just give them plenty of room and sufficient air flow, instead of chopping off the parts that catch light and store nutrients and help it breathe. The more light the plant catches (to a point), and the more it remains in appropriate supply of proper nutrients, the better.

But yeah, some trimming and shaping is okay, if it's done to avoid a much worse problem. You don't want your bush too thick to the point where you start getting mold. If you have to hack off parts of the plant to avoid mold, do it. If you have to make them fit in a smaller than optimal space, go ahead and cut some.

I'm not saying that lolipopping is going to destroy an otherwise healthy and potent specimen... but it's extra work for less yield. You might have prettier colas, but overall yield will decrease.

I can confirm that stuff at the bottom that doesn't seem to get much visible light, turns out just as good (or nearly) as the colas. Maybe even better, since colas get singed a bit sometimes.

IMO, cutting off so many pieces of the plant, exposing it to so many points of possible infection, isn't worth the risk, isn't worth the decrease in yield, isn't worth the extra effort (unless you Need to decrease the compacted bushiness, to decrease the chance of mold).

Build the soil/substrate, start 'em, get 'em up and topped... stabilize and let 'em run. Flower when ready. Stay out of the way. Don't let anything compromise it. That's all you really need to do.

Consider this: every leaf you let grow, is spent and stored resources/nutrients.

If you let it grow, the resource/energy/nutrient is already 'consumed' or 'spent' (from the soil to the plant). Why waste it?

The only good reasons i can think of, for any aggressive cutting, are these: disease prevention and shaping for container/room parameters.

Otherwise... just let 'em grow how they do.

Uncle Ben says: "i will not be a slave to my plants." Only took me one grow to adopt that perspective. I can't imagine why anyone with anything else they might want to do, would spend time lolipopping a plant that will be no worse by Not hacking off branches (and will likely yield more). The only times it's worth doing, are when you have to make a compromise to save the rest of the plant, or when your space just doesn't allow a whole bush. Otherwise... don't we all have better things to do? Like maybe building better lamps, better ventilation, better scrubbers, etc. Or just anything else non-cannabis-related.

I understand some people just like to shape the plant, and i have no problem with any of that.

I just dislike the idea that people are being told to lolipop with expectation of inexplicable improvements, which almost certainly will not occur (unless in the specific circumstances i mentioned, or others i didn't).
Click to expand...
Yea theres some circumstances you didn't mention. But hey I'm not going to be the one to tell the op to prune up some bottom growth.
 
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