Trimming

There is a lot more to trimming or pruning your cannabis plants than simply cutting them back or snipping a few leaves that are not getting enough light. What you trim back depends on what your ultimate goal is. Proper trimming is essential in maintaining the best possible light exposure for the whole plant.

Trimming for Light Exposure

During the first stages of growth your plant will be thin enough that the majority of the foliage will be getting all the light it needs. Trimming is the way to train each plant into acquiring a nice bushy growth as it matures. Soon your plants will begin to take shape and determine where the canopy will be. This is the perfect time to start removing the excess parts of the plant. This process should stop once the plants are 2 to 3 weeks into the flowering stage.

The best quality cannabis will always be in the part of the plant that receives the most sunlight and of course proper airflow, which is typically on the outside of the plant and specifically on the top. In order to achieve this, you will need to trim as follows:

• Leaves that are dying due to lack of light
• Branches that are low and receive very little light
• Lower bud sites that are forming on main stalks of the plant

The tools you use to trim your plant is also important. The scissors or clippers must be sharp and in good condition in order to get smooth, clean cuts. This will also help prevent infection due to damage caused by dull blades. It is also recommended that you have one small pair of clippers to use when your plants are younger and a pair that is stronger that can deal with larger branches. A couple of examples of cutting tools are:

Basic trimming steps are as follows:

• Begin by removing some of the larger branches. Doing this will give you more room to continue the finer details of trimming. Make sure to think for a moment before you cut – this is similar to woodworking where you always ‘measure twice and cut once’.
• Next find the branches that are growing in the middle of the plant and upwards just under the canopy. These are the weaker branches that have not had the benefit of full light exposure.
• Once the middle of the plant has been properly trimmed, you can start removing the bud sites that do not receive any light. These are typically on the lower portions of the canopy branches and the bottom of the plant itself. Although it may seem wrong to cut any bud sites, without enough light they will not develop properly.

While trimming is essential for the healthy growth of your plants, it should only be done in intervals. Continuous trimming will cause plant shock and end up doing more harm than good. It may take a couple of days for t he plants to ‘get over’ being trimmed but once they do, you will notice a healthy burst of renewed growth.

Another important aspect to trimming/pruning your plants is the opportunity of spending time in the grow room observing their growth (or getting to know them). You will soon begin to understand how you are able to train the plants and direct their energy in the most valuable way.

It’s also important to understand that there are different reasons why one trims their plants. For example, pruning in order to create a ‘parent plant’ is different than if your goal is for cloning purposes. Different types of pruning will have different effects on your plants.

Cloning

• The part of the plant you intend to use as a cutting must be above the spot you are cutting
• There needs to be several small branches on the piece you have cut
• Leave a knot above where you cut as you need to plant it deep enough and up to the knot
• That knot is where the roots will form from

Many growers prefer cloning to starting a new plant from a seed since you already know everything about the plant you are cloning. The clone you create will be an exact copy of the original, so it is important to ensure that the parent plant is perfectly healthy. Since only female plants produce buds for harvest, they are a preferred way to grow your production. Cloning itself is a process that is rather in depth and we will have a more detailed guide on how cloning should be carried out.

FIM Method of Pruning

This method of pruning is popular with people are looking to get more growing shoots. It can be a scary process however since it means cutting of about 90% of the growing shoots thus only leaving about 10% untouched. The advantage is that from that 10%, as many as 8 (or more) branches will emerge. The end result is that you could end up with up to eight tops in one single pruning.

Trim to Get a Small, Wide Plant

Another reason for trimming is if you want a small but wide (indoor) plant. This method needs to be more precise and therefore it is advised to be careful and take your time. First, the cut must be along the fattest part of the trunk, leaving an open wound that will need to be covered up. This will end up creating a sort of ‘blanket’ of buds. This blanket will be about 40x40cm and enough to fill a grow tent that is just one square meter with four plants. You will end up with a production that is more spread out with slightly smaller buds but in much greater quantities. Just make sure to make your cut around the same height as the lower branches of your plant. Don’t forget to cover the ‘wound’ you made using a scarring paste right on the wound. You can even use wax from a candle as long as you make sure that no dirt or insects can get in.

Trimming to Stop Growth and Increase Strength

Well, to be honest, this is not actually trimming or pruning but we have included this to show you a way to stop growth in order to increase the strength of you plant. What you need to do is slightly bend one of the branches – but not enough to break it. The branch will form a sort of ‘callus’ where the bend is and voila, that branch doubles in strength! It does this by sending all its energy to the injured part of the plant; of course, if you break the branch, it will just die. Although you will be able to grow less plants you will certainly increase production. The end result will be more compact and stronger plants with a nice thick ball of bud.

Things to Avoid When Pruning/Trimming

Now that you know what to do when trimming your plants, here some of the things you must never do:

1. Never cut away the larger leaves with the intent of allowing light to reach the smaller bottom leaves. The leaves are what absorb the light and turn it into energy for the rest of the plant. So, removing those large leaves means your plant will not absorb enough energy to keep the plant healthy.
2. All leaves have a purpose, even the smaller ones. Cutting even one of the big leaves while the plant is still growing will cause the branch that the leaf was on to stop growing. This works the same for buds you think are not getting enough light. If you remove a leaf to allow more light to get to the lower buds, the higher buds will simply get dwarfed and less potent and they would have been much bigger than the lower ones had you left it alone.
3. Never prune the tops of the plant. The top of the plant is the one part that is always the most productive.
4. Never prune you plants while in the flowering stage. Always prune during the growing phase otherwise the flowering period will be compromised.