# Lolipopping and SOG



## Relentless999 (Jul 12, 2009)

If there are any good links for this please post up if you dont mind..

When should you start lolipopping?  Immediately after the clone roots?  Just cut off all side branches except for main cola?

Any tips on this would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I have the following strands going, which do u think would yield or perform best in a lolipopping/sog setup?

Dinafem Blue Hash
Dinafem Cali Hash
Dutch Passion Blueberry
AK X Big Bud
White Labels Double Gum

thanks!


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## dirtyolsouth (Jul 12, 2009)

Relentless999 said:
			
		

> If there are any good links for this please post up if you dont mind..
> 
> When should you start lolipopping?  Immediately after the clone roots?  Just cut off all side branches except for main cola?
> 
> ...


Hey R999...

There's an infamous old OG thread by a guy who called himself Pistilwhip'd and he perfected the lollipopping method and that's where I learned it... I searched around but can't find the old OG Forum thread so I'll try to explain it.  imho Lollipopping works better with some strains more than others and I usually do my pruning in weeks 1 & 3 after a clone is rooted, or around week 5 if it's a plant grown from seed.  Here's the lowdown on how I've done it: 

When the plant is a freshly rooted clone I'll usually "top" the plant and choose 4-6 nodes to let grow.  If it's a plant grown from seed I wait until it grows 5 weeks or so to avoid any stress during the critical first month of a seedlings development.  I firmly believe that any stress will increase a plant's chances at becoming a male so pruning is a no no til week 5 in my garden.  For seedlings I typically top it below the 7th node and choose as many of the remaining branches I want to develop and then I'll prune the others growing shoots off, being very careful NOT to remove any leaves... Keep all the leaves whenever you prune side branching... that's your powerhouse! Soon you'll see this in action... So I usually pinch off the top just below the 7th node and I'll keep the branches coming from nodes 3,4,5 & 6.  I'll then either prune off the bottom two branches or I'll sometimes let the lower two branches go til they're 4-6" and then remove them as clones for later use.   It's worth noting that you need to be careful not to be clumsy and snap off any developing tips of branches that you've kept because if you snap it off below the developing tip there's nowhere left on that branch for it to continue growing.

After this first round of pruning you want to let the plant recover from the pruning stress and leave it alone for awhile to regain vigorous growth. Within a few days it will resume normal growth and you can let it go for a week or 10 days.  After a week or so the branches start taking off and you'll want to do another round of pruning.  Prune any new lower developing shoots out of the lower nodes on your developing branches, saving the top 3-4 nodes to continue growth at the tip. And remember when pruning to be very careful to cut only the shoots off and not the fan leaf on the mainstem at it's node. Always save your leaves for max photosynthesis... You then give it a little time to develop and recover and  when it returns to vigorous growth again you can veg the plant longer if you want it larger or you can put it into 12/12.  If you continue to veg, every week or so you'll want to pinch off lower branching until they are at about half the desired size of the final plant. Once you put it in 12/12 and as the plant does it's stretch you'll remove new shoots every 5 days or so until around week 2 when the stretching slows down and then you can probably let it go and all your flowering will occur from the top several nodes that you kept at the end of your braches... 

The re-focus of the plant's energy is pretty amazing.  Within a few days of removing the side 'sucker' shoots you'll notice the tips exploding with new growth.  It almost looks like they're flowering because so many thin leaf tips are trying to explode out of the growing tip... There's so much penned up energy that they look a bit like sparklers lit up... 

Like all growing techniques or styles, lollipop pruning benefits some strains more than others.  I've had great success using lollipopping with DP Blueberry and Sensi Seeds' Hash Plant so many of your strains should do very well.  If you're already deep into vegging you can do this but it will require more intensive pruning and slightly longer recovery times.  If the plants are really bushy you may do better to just remove all the branches and shoots from the lower 1/3 of the plant, keeping as many leaves as you can in the lower canopy for energy.  In time they'll be in the shade from lack of light when the upper canopy gets full enough to supply the needed photosynthesis for vigorous growth.  

imho I don't think plants 'yield' more if any overall weight with lollipop pruning but it puts all the budding closer to the light source and that makes all your buds much more dank than they would have been growing down below your shaded canopy.   One of the best things about lollipopping is at harvest you have very little manicuring to do.  A combination of lollipopping and LST or SCROG is very effective to get the most killer bud out of various strains as well.  It just takes trial and error.  Try googling some of your strains names to find forum threads from growers who have grown your strains and see what's worked for them.  It usually takes me a couple of grows with a new strain to learn it's growth pattern and tendencies.  You'll learn a lot from this round and next time you'll have much more knowledge to base your decisions on.  Good growing is a never ending education...   baby steps...  baby steps...  baby steps...

Good Luck!


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## loolagigi (Jul 12, 2009)

yeah what he said.......^


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## Relentless999 (Jul 13, 2009)

wow dirtyolsouth, I really appreciate the post.  I am learning so much from you, and I cant tell you how much I appreciate each post!

I thought lolipopping was removing any branch other than the main stalk? maybe this is a different form of lolipopping?  
I was thinking I could do a sog lolipop style with just the main cola to maximize my space.. I saw a guy fit double the amount of plants due to this and increased his yield by a good bit..

What do you think of having only main colas?

Thanks again!


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## Relentless999 (Jul 13, 2009)

Ive been looking at this guys grow for years.. High Times October 2005, big yields in small spaces.. guy went from getting 10 zones every 3 months to almost 2 pounds every 60 days, all in a 3x3x6.. this is what inspired my setup..

Basically he takes 25 clones.. after rooting he places them in 6"cups for 5 days to expand their roots, and then tranplants those into 1 gal grow bags where he flowers for 60 days, then picks.. when in flower he trains to be just a single cola plant, trimming off any branches on the sides..

So hes only vegging his mothers when those 25 clones are in flowering for 60 days.. 

I really like this idea..  What do you guys think?


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## pcduck (Jul 13, 2009)

Have you seen this thread by JBonz? click here


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