Pruning bottom suckers

[manels1111]

I have some sativa based super silver haze. Anyhow there stretched and about 6 foot tall indoors. They have some spindly "super" suckers stretching horizontal along the bottom of the plant searching for light that they will never really find. Should I just prune those guys? Seems like a waste of resources for the plant to let those guys grow and grow searching for light when I could be loading up on the top.

 

[massproducer]

I always prune the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the plant because as you said, they will never reach the canopy or any acceptable amount of light and as such will never produce anything. I find they do however suck up a lot of the plants energy with their search for light.

 

[Albrecht]

How late into flowering should one consider trimming those suckers? I really wish I would have done this earlier on, but what with this being my first grow and all, I couldn't work up the nerve to take a knife to my babies (other than topping once). I'm like 10 weeks into flowering, probably 66% of the way there. Would it be better to not stress my plants out by trimming off the bottom couple of branches? They've stopped growing obviously, but I guess they're still a resource drain to some degree, with the plant trying to bud them all up??

 

[manels1111]

I went ahead and trimmed my suckers off the bottom. I don't see how they could "stress" the plant as they aren't getting much if any light at all. So photosyhthesis is little to not existent. This is just my common sense approach to it I could be wrong?

 

[massproducer]

If you are that close to harvest i am not sure if it will do much to help, but IMO, it will not hurt. Another thing to consider if you have left the suckers, is that once you harvest your main buds you could leave the suckers on for another 2 weeks and have another small mini harvest, as they will get a lot bigger after the tops are harvested and the bottom get more light

 

[Albrecht]

I went ahead and trimmed my suckers off the bottom. I don't see how they could "stress" the plant as they aren't getting much if any light at all. So photosyhthesis is little to not existent. This is just my common sense approach to it I could be wrong?

Cutting branches stresses the plant out. Takes 'em a while to recover. Anyways, I don't know what I was thinking, it's way to late for me to do any pruning. I'll just take it as a lesson learned, and apply it to my next grow.

If you are that close to harvest i am not sure if it will do much to help, but IMO, it will not hurt. Another thing to consider if you have left the suckers, is that once you harvest your main buds you could leave the suckers on for another 2 weeks and have another small mini harvest, as they will get a lot bigger after the tops are harvested and the bottom get more light

Ahh, ya ya ya. Wasn't thinking about that either. Good point. My sativas are probably over 6' as well, I have them all tied down, but two of them are quite lanky, and even some of the side branches from the very bottom are quite long, so they should be good candidates for a second harvest.

One more question MP. From a general philosophical standpoint, what do you think would produce a better overall harvest (in terms of quantity and quality), leaving on all the lower branches to do a second (and third) harvest, or cutting them off so that the main colas and upper branches might fill out more? Obviously since you prune your plants, I know what you like better, but the question just came to me, so I'm curios about your thoughts on the matter.

 

[massproducer]

just do a 2 stage harvest and let em mature a bit longer then the top

 

[Albrecht]

But I mean when talking about the ideal grow, you think you get better harvests if you start out by pruning the lower branches early on, than if you leave them all on and do a two stage harvest? From your experience, do the benefits to the size and fullness of the main colas you get from pruning the bottom branches so out way the extra bud you'd get from doing a second harvest on the same plants that it makes sense to prune the lower branches?

 

[Type_S150]

just do a 2 stage harvest and let em mature a bit longer then the top

After the stretch during flowering is it ok to prune (like 3 weeks into flower)? The reason i ask is because it is becomming a pain to water.

Also, for the other guys that have 6ft tall plants, whats happening to them that they are stretching so much? How long are you veging for?

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

IMO, it is not a good idea to do anything stressful to your plants during flowering. Even if you do not end up with a hermie, it affects the growth and budding of your girls and delays harvest.

The reasons that plants stretch is generally inadequate light or strain. Some strains just tend to stretch more than others. But all strains will stretch if there is inadequate lighting--either not enough watts/lumens, not the right spectrum, or the light too far away.