Extreme LST / Training – Grow Weed Easy https://www.growweedeasy.com Learn How to Grow Cannabis with Simple Tutorials Sat, 18 Apr 2026 17:11:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.growweedeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/favicon-grow-weed-easy-1.png Extreme LST / Training – Grow Weed Easy https://www.growweedeasy.com 32 32 Grow Weed Easy – Learn How to Grow Cannabis Tutorials https://www.growweedeasy.com/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grow-weed-easy-learn-how-to-grow-cannabis-tutorials Tue, 17 Oct 2017 22:07:58 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/?page_id=8997 Grow Weed Easy – Learn How to Grow Cannabis GrowWeedEasy.com teaches you how easy it is to grow weed. Growing weed can be easy when you know what to do, but most “how to grow marijuana” tutorials make it seem like you need a degree in horticulture. Stop Feeling Lost. It Gets Easier. Here’s a...

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]]> Grow Weed Easy – Learn How to Grow Cannabis

GrowWeedEasy.com teaches you how easy it is to grow weed. Growing weed can be easy when you know what to do, but most “how to grow marijuana” tutorials make it seem like you need a degree in horticulture.

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Even first-time growers produce great harvests when they follow our tutorials.

Who Made GrowWeedEasy.com?

Grow Weed Easy.com was started in 2010 by home growers Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside. Together, they built a free online “encyclopedia of cannabis home grow” with 650+ expert home cannabis cultivation tutorials about every aspect of growing weed.

New to growing cannabis? Beginner growers start here to learn how to grow a few marijuana plants indoors!Pot plant problems? This page will help you diagnose your sick cannabis plants and get the fix!Learn how to train your marijuana plants for better yields - this cannabis plant training tutorial is a free way to get bigger buds!

GrowWeedEasy.com is now the biggest and most comprehensive source of free home grow information in the world.  We show you how easy it is to grow your own marijuana at home.

The GrowWeedEasy.com Ethos

Our Goal: You grow as much top-shelf weed as possible, with as little time and effort needed to grow your desired yields and cannabis bud quality.

Whether you’re a total beginner who wants to start growing cannabis indoors for the first time, or an experienced grower who wants to upgrade your skills to Pro level, this website was built for you.

 

 

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If you’re reading this right now, you want to grow great cannabis at home.

Cannabis plants isn’t a regular house plant, but learning how to grow isn’t as complicated growers make it seem. We’ve spent the last 16 years breaking down the home grow process so anyone can learn it.

The key to consistent harvest results is simple: follow a proven system developed for home growers.

You could waste an entire grow learning through trial and error…

Or take the shortcut and harvest a sea of fat, dense, beautiful buds that smell great. At home!

Follow our 5-week course and get walked through each part step-by-step. Build by experienced home growers and honed with hundreds of students since 2019, we ensure you achieve great results on your very next harvest.

Learn How To Grow Top-Shelf Weed at Home!

Home grown buds from this "how to grow weed" tutorial

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An indoor cannabis harvest - growing a pile of weed is incredibly rewarding at harvest time!

You may be asking yourself these common growing questions:

“How do I grow marijuana indoors?”

Read this guide on how to grow marijuana indoors. Or check out this article to learn what materials you need to get started growing your own marijuana!

Luckily, it’s really easy to get a cannabis seed to sprout!

A cute young seedling - it's ready to start growing!

“How much money will it cost to get started?”

If you’re considering growing weed, it costs as little as $300 to get started growing or a bit more for a semi-automatic, high-yielding bubbleponics grow system. See examples of yields to expect, electricity use & startup costs for different setups. Read this article to see even more growing styles with different price ranges.

“Where can I get marijuana seeds?”

Check out our How to Buy Marijuana Seeds Online Guide (with delivery to every state of the USA) to safely get your hands on good genetics. Starting with good seeds lets you choose the looks, smell, and effects of your buds!

Learn where it’s safe to buy cannabis seeds online (2026 update).

Where’s is the best place to get cannabis seeds? Click here to get our current marijuana seed bank recommendations in 2026!

What do good cannabis seeds look like?

Cannabis seeds - tan and dark brown tiger strips seeds separated

Learn about the best marijuana beginner strains and how to research and find the right strain.

Cannabis buds are generally green, but can also be pink or purple with certain strains.

Example of purple and green buds that have been grown at home

“How much will electricity cost each month?”

If you’re just growing a few marijuana plants for personal use, it will cost you $20-$100+/month for electricity, depending on what grow lights (electricity) and nutrients you use. On average, I’d say a hobby-size grower might pay about $50/month to grow, but it depends greatly on your setup and local electricity costs! How much will electricity cost each month?

“How can I increase my marijuana yields?”

We have quite a few techniques to choose from or combine! See some of our most popular pages:

Even More Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields

  1. Increase Light Intensity (plus choose right light for desired yields & possibly add CO2)
  2. Manipulate How Plants Grow (a free way to yield more bud indoors)
  3. Provide Right Nutrients (low Nitrogen in the flowering stage, and remember sometimes less is more!)
  4. Control Growing Environment (let the growing environment work for you)
  5. Harvest Plants Properly (most importantly, don’t harvest early!)
  6. Lastly, it’s important to remember that the strain has a major effect on yields!

Two small cannabis plants can yield several ounces of premium weed!

Growing cannabis buds on a small plant like this can give impressive yields without taking that much room or needing much time - get tutorials to grow your own weed like this!

“How can I grow weed privately?”

Read guide on growing weed indoors without anyone knowing. But remember the most important factors to stealth growing: “No tell, no smell, no sell.” Never tell anyone, not even your best friend, that you’re growing. Be on top of preventing smells, and never ever sell cannabis. Breaking one of those 3 principles is how 99% of growers get found out!

“What if my plants get sick?”

If you run into problems, our "diagnose your plant" tool with pictures will help you figure out what's wrong!The most common issue a grower runs into is a pH imbalance. Barring that, your marijuana plants likely either have a nutrient deficiency, heat or light stress, or are being attacked by some sort of marijuana mold, pest or bug. Whether you call it weed, cannabis, sinsemilla, skunk, pot, marijuana, or something else, the plant known as Cannabis Sativa is a hardy weed in the wild and can actually be easy to grow indoors at home when you know what to do.

Growing Medical Marijuana

“Medical marijuana” has become a household name. The body of evidence for medical marijuana in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses is growing every day. And for those who need medical marijuana, growing weed indoors is the perfect way to ensure a safe, regular supply of buds, for cheap.

In fact, when you grow weed indoors for personal use, you often end up with way too much. The Grow Weed Easy website will teach you how to grow your own beautiful huge cannabis colas like this one! If you catch the growing bug like I did, and if you start enjoying the process of tending your cannabis garden just for the sake of gardening, you’re going to have to find a way to press, cook, freeze, and concentrate all your extra buds. 🙂

As you probably know, both medical marijuana and recreational cannabis have been decriminalized or legalized in many places around the world and weed is becoming legal in more places every day! Yet there still aren’t many simple indoor “how to grow weed” guides for beginners (even for those who legally grow, such as medical marijuana users and those who live in places where marijuana is legalized for personal use).

If so, I know how you feel. It can be hard to weed out all the bad information on the internet and find well-researched, free tips or instructions on how to grow your own cannabis. That’s why Grow Weed Easy.com aims to be a simple online resource that explains from start to finish what you need to do when growing cannabis so you can learn how to grow cannabis with great yields and potent buds, even if you only have a small grow space like a closet or even a computer case.

We’ve grown cannabis out of closets and have gotten ounces of buds and you can too. Grow Weed Easy.com covers many popular cannabis cultivation topics, including:

Start Growing Weed Today!

Grow Weed Easy is run by a panel of experienced cannabis growers, including the founders Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside, who originally teamed together to bring you GrowWeedEasy.com. Due to the demand for more marijuana growing information, we’ve also started an inbox magazine all about how to grow weed, with additional tutorials, tips, and tactics sent to you each week. Simply sign up to start getting free expert growing articles delivered to you! All the information available at GrowWeedEasy.com is completely free and we regularly update the site and make new additions.

Looking for a growing book?

If you are interested in doing a bit of reading or would like to know more about the science behind marijuana hydroponics or horticulture, I strongly recommend viewing our page of Marijuana Grow Book Reviews. Read reviews of marijuana grow books. We would love to hear about your experiences with growing cannabis. Whether you are a pro grower already or are just starting your first plant, we have learned so much from our readers both beginners and masters! If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns, or just want to ask some questions about your marijuana grow, please contact us!

Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside

 

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HARVEST book by GrowWeedEasy.com. In this one-of-a-kind digital book, learn the best methods to harvest cannabis. Written by expert home growers, learn the insider tips and tricks to a perfect harvest, dry, and cure!

 

 

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]]> Link Guide to Growing Cannabis Tutorials https://www.growweedeasy.com/link-guide-growing-cannabis?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=link-guide-growing-cannabis Mon, 01 Feb 2016 03:08:57 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/faq/link-guide-to-growing-cannabis-tutorials/ ...lights Environment Create the Perfect Growing Environment Temperature Tutorial 5 Secrets to Heat Control Control Humidity for Better Buds How to Use Reflective Walls to Increase Yields Indoors How to...

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]]> by Nebula Haze

In addition to the search bar, this link guide helps you navigate through the Grow Weed Easy website. Learn about growing topics you won’t find anywhere else! This is a shortened list of all our cannabis growing tutorials, as the website has over 500 articles and tutorials!

Full List of EVERYTHING on GWE  ← Over 500 Articles & Growing Tutorials!

Start Here – Beginner Grow Guides

Cannabis Life Stages

Choosing…

Common New Grower Topics

Problems & Symptoms

Plant Training (Indoor Tricks for Bigger Yields)

Grow Mediums

Nutrients

Grow Lights

Best LED Grow Light Articles

Environment

Plant Care Tutorials

How to Improve…

Buying Seeds

Recommended Strains

Auto-Flowering Strains

Edibles

Extracts (No Solvents Used in Any Recipe)

And Lots More!

Safety & Preparation

Just for Fun

Submit Pics

Want More?

 

 

Thanks for visiting! We hope our website helps you find the growing tutorials you were looking for. We’ve written hundreds of growing marijuana articles and unfortunately we can’t fit them all on this page, so we encourage you to use the search bar on the right side (or top of the page for mobile users) to search for articles you don’t see here.

Happy growing!
Nebula & Sirius

 

 

Use this "Navigation" page to find the pot growing topic you're interested in!

Use this “Navigation” page to find the pot growing topic you’re interested in, or click here to see every single page on the website!

A young, cute cannabis seedling that has just germinated. It has its whole life ahead of it!

 

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]]> Cannabis Defoliation Tutorial: How to Increase Yields by Removing Leaves https://www.growweedeasy.com/defoliation?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=defoliation Wed, 03 Dec 2014 23:20:41 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/newsletter_issue/cannabis-defoliation-tutorial-how-to-increase-yields-by-removing-leaves/ by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

What is Cannabis Defoliation?

Picture Proof it Works

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]]> by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

What is Cannabis Defoliation?

Picture Proof: Defoliation Works!

Vegetative Stage: How to Defoliate Cannabis

Flowering Stage: How to Defoliate Cannabis

Why Cannabis Defoliation?

Cannabis “defoliation” is the process of removing leaves from your cannabis plants. Some growers call this “lollipopping” when applied to the bottom of the plant.

Here’s an example of a defoliated cannabis plant.

THC Bomb cannabis plant just before harvest, look at those big fat buds!

Many growers believe defoliation can be used as a tool to increase cannabis yields indoors, but there are also a lot of cannabis growers who say that plucking leaves off cannabis plants (defoliation) is not beneficial for your cannabis yields in any way. Today, I’m going to provide evidence that defoliation does indeed work and I believe the pictures I’m going to show you in this article will speak for themselves!

Defoliation means strategically removing leaves to “hack” the plant’s natural processes so you get bigger yields.

Cannabis defoliation in action

Over the years I’ve heard many naysayers swear defoliation can’t work:

“My friend is a grower and he says defoliation doesn’t work”

“I read in a book that defoliation is a terrible idea”

“I tried it and it hurt my yields!”

“The plant NEEDS those leaves or it wouldn’t grow them”

There is some truth to what they’re saying. Defoliation isn’t for everyone in all setups. It should only be used in specific situations. If you do defoliation the wrong way it will hurt your plant and reduce your yields. As one example, defoliation doesn’t appear to be effective at significantly increasing yields for outdoor plants. But for indoor growers, cannabis defoliation done right results in larger yields.

Unfortunately, I’ve also seen growers try to defoliate their cannabis plants the wrong way, most especially by pulling leaves from plants that are slow-growing and/or sickly. Defoliation will not make up for other problems like too-hot conditions, not enough light (or conversely too much light) or nutrient deficiencies. If you try to defoliate plants that are not in top condition, you’re asking for trouble because defoliation will only stress your sick plants further.

The truth is, when growers defoliate their plants the wrong way, they’ll end up with slow growth and reduced yields, and I believe that is where a lot of the criticism of defoliation is coming from.

So many growers say, "Defoliation doesn't work!"

But the fact that defoliation doesn’t work for all growers in all setups doesn’t mean that it doesn’t increase yields when done the right way!

Today I’d like to show you what successful cannabis defoliation looks like, and how to use it to increase your yields indoors. You’ll see examples and lots of picture-proof! If you still don’t believe properly-done defoliation works to increase yields after reading this article, I still encourage you to give it a try if you can afford to do so. You don’t need to do any defoliation on your plants… just don’t complain when the defoliators get better yields 😉

Defoliation Example (under 250W grow light)

Growing wide and flat is the key to producing the best yields indoors under grow lights! I used the manifold technique on this plant.

Example of a White Rhino plant in the process of being LSTed and Manifolded

Just before switch to 12/12 – Before Defoliation

Example of a cannabis plant just before harvest - before being defoliated

Just before switch to 12/12 – After defoliation

I started by removing the biggest fan leaves, especially any that were hand-sized and bigger. Some growers like to defoliate the bottom 20% of the plant at this stage. Make sure not to disturb bud sites, and always leave enough leaf cover that you still can’t really see through the plant very well. The plant needs a table of leaves to power the growth and stretch the way we want in the next few weeks! I think it’s common to go overboard at this stage, so I recommend taking a few less leaves than you think. It’s easy to get lost in the zone and realize you’ve completely plucked your plant bald! Just remember, you can’t put leaves back but you can always take more later 🙂

This cannabis plant was just defoliated, and will be put into flowering today

3 weeks after switch to 12/12 – Before Second Defoliation

It has started growing buds, and completely re-leafed itself in that time!

Example of a cannabis plant 3 weeks into the flowering stage - before defoliation

3 weeks after switch to 12/12 – After Second Defoliation

At this point I only took the biggest fan leaves, making sure not to disturb the growing buds. Again, you still shouldn’t be able to see through the plant very well after you’re done, your plants need leaves to fatten those buds! Nothing else was done after this point, and buds were allowed to fatten unhindered. I just gave them nutrients and water from here until harvest!

Example of a marijuana plant 3 weeks into the flowering stage - after defoliation

39 days into flowering (2.5 weeks later)

This is what that same marijuana plant looks like 39 days into the flowering stage

72 days into flowering – Just before harvest

Example of a marijuana plant that has been defoliated - just before harvest time

Drying buds upside down.

Buds from defoliated White Rhino cannabis plant hanging as they dry

How can this be? Why would the plant make leaves if it doesn’t need them?

Outdoors, cannabis plants need extra leaves to store nutrients and create an extra wall of defense in case the plant gets attacked by pests or otherwise loses all its leaves. But indoors there should be no pests, and you are there to give your plants the exact nutrients it wants at the exact right time. This makes holding onto leaves a lot less useful for the plant, especially some plants which get extremely bushy without defoliation.

“In the wild a fan leaf is a pretty necessary thing. Not only is it a solar panel but it is also a holding center for the plants nutrients. Indoor grows, where you control a constant supply of food to your plants, makes the fan leaf less necessary. Yes, they are a solar panel but they are also a huge blocker of light to your offshoots which need daily development to achieve greatness.”

– AK GreenLover

Cannabis isn’t the only plant that benefits from defoliation

To those naysayers who claim defoliation can NEVER work, I think it’s important to point out that cannabis isn’t the only plant that rewards growers with bigger yields and higher quality from defoliation. Some commercial crops, such as cotton, need to be defoliated during their grow to produce the best yields and quality of cotton. In fact, even after 40 years of intense study on cotton defoliation, there is still controversy and ongoing research by commercial crop producers to further pinpoint the exact time and way to defoliate cotton plants in the field to produce the best results. In a study with subterranean clovers, defoliation in early to mid flowering dramatically increased the number and size of flowers, but continuing defoliation until later in the flowering stage dramatically reduced flower yields. Cowpeas and some palms are other plants that produce better yields in response to thoughtful defoliation, but again yields are lower when too many leaves are taken, or if they’re taken at the wrong time.

Some palms produce more flowers in response to being defoliated

Some palms produce more flowers in response to defoliation

I think these examples demonstrate the main thing you need to remember: Defoliation is definitely not some magical way to increase cannabis yields; it’s a technique like any other and it can be done in both good and bad ways.

Let’s learn how to do defoliation the right way for cannabis plants!

Leaves laying on the floor after the cannabis plant was defoliated

Note: Cannabis defoliation works best when it’s combined with other cannabis plant training methods such as topping or LST.

Cannabis Defoliation in the Vegetative Stage

Some growers say cannabis defoliation in the vegetative stage can only hurt your plant. They believe removing leaves only prevents the plant from growing. In our experience, we believe defoliation gives growers better control over plant structure, while also stressing the plant in just the right way to cause it to explode in growth… but only in the places you want!

Now I would never recommend that someone take defoliation to an extreme unless they were a very advanced grower who can understand their plant…but I do believe the following extreme example shows that defoliation doesn’t necessarily hurt or stop your well-established, hardy indoor cannabis plant.

In the following example, the left plant was only defoliated slightly while the right plant was heavily defoliated! Defoliating this much is NOT recommended for most growers and could seriously hurt your plants in the wrong conditions!

The right plant was heavily defoliated – don’t do this if you have never defoliated before! If you do decide to “skin” your plant this way, I highly recommend leaving all the bud sites and only removing leaves. I’ve found having more bud sites (without leaves) doesn’t seem to take away from your top buds, but taking too many buds sites WILL hurt your yields. As a result, growers usually get better yields if they leaves all their bud sites alone, and stick purely to removing leaves.

Here’s a closeup of that defoliated plant. The grower wanted 8 main colas, with no other larfy bud from below. So they removed all growth except the growth at the end of the desired colas. However, in my experience, this grower would have produced even higher yields if they’d left all the bud sites and only removed leaves. The top buds would have been the same side, but you’d still get a few chunky buds from the bottom, too, getting more out of your grow space.

A closeup of that heavily defoliated plant

Now here’s those two plants 12 days later. The defoliated plant has completely overtaken the other plant, but with a better plant structure to take advantage of indoor grow lights.This grower did this in a very controlled environment, but you can start to see how it works. Like I said, that plant got good yields, but I think it would have gotten more with more lower bud sites.

12 days later, the right plant has completely recovered, in fact its overtaken the other

The defoliated plant does not have growth tips from underneath trying to make bud (which would never amount to anything anyway). The only growth tips left are the ones that the grower wants to become main colas. This type of structure sets the perfect stage for flowering, where the main colas stretch up and become a row of buds in your canopy.

Picture Proof – Cannabis Defoliation in the Flowering Stage

How can taking away leaves help your plants in the flowering stage? Don’t they need as much energy as possible to make buds?

Yes and no.

Yes, your plant does want to make the most energy for its buds in the flowering. But, making sure all the bud sites are exposed to direct light (and air) is actually one of the best ways to do that. For whatever reason, just like several other types of plant, partial (and thoughtful) defoliation increases the final size and mass of flowers.

I’ll show you a quick cannabis defoliation sequence, and there are lots more pictures below

Defoliation: Before – notice how leafy the plant is; no light can get down past the top canopy. Way-too-bushy plants like this are prime candidates for defoliation in the flowering stage.

Before plucking

Before defoliation pic 1

Immediately After Plucking

The same marijuana girl after some intense pluckin

4 days later, look at the incredible bud growth!

Just 4 days after being plucked, look at the incredible bud growth

Now that you’ve seen how powerful cannabis defoliation can be in the flowering stage, let me give you a little background information, plus even more picture proof!

In the wild, plants are powered by the sun. The sun has deep penetration (enough to travel 93 million miles and still power your plants) and moves throughout the sky, getting light and energy to all the buds. This may be partially why defoliation doesn’t seem as effective on outdoor plants.

But in an indoor grow environment, your grow lights just don’t have that power.

The only way to get light directly to your buds is by removing physical obstacles so the buds aren’t left in the shade.

Outdoors cannabis plants get light from all angles (since the sun moves through the sky). When all the buds of an outdoor plant get direct exposure to light, they don’t grow larfy buds at the bottom like indoor plants do. But if part of an outdoor plant is in the shade, those buds won’t develop.

In the wild, cannabis plants get light from all angles, so they don't tend to grow larfy buds at the bottom like indoor plants do

But why doesn’t the plant just use the energy from the top leaves and send it to the buds below? Because the plant sends energy to the nearest budsite, instead of taking that energy and having to move it to all the way to another place on the plant. If you look at any indoor-grown plant, it’s obvious that the buds that don’t get light never fatten up.

The less light received by a bud, the smaller it usually is at harvest. With indoor grow lights, the light is usually only coming from above and has much less penetration, and so buds lower on the plant (and any buds in the middle that don’t receive light) stay small and airy.

Buds that don’t get light stay smaller, so with indoor plants the lower buds stay smaller.

This tall cannabis plant shows how the buds that don't get light just never fatten up

It’s even worse if the plant is very leafy like the one below. Notice how tiny the lower and middle buds are. You can also see a few tiny buds peaking through their leaf cover at the very bottom middle. These “buds” are little more than a few hairs.

Leafy plant - small lower buds because they aren't getting access to the light.

This is the type of bud that grows at the bottom and middle of the plant grown indoors without access to light. These buds are often called “popcorn buds” or “larfy buds” and they don’t really have any use beside being thrown in with the trim.

Larfy "popcorn" nug found in the bottom/middle part of the plant - it never developed because it didn't receive light.

So for the best results, indoor growers must try to keep all the buds near the grow lights, so they all develop and get as big as possible.

That’s why many indoor growers try to grow flat plants (shaped like a table) with lots of bud sites at the top – you get bigger yields when many buds get great access to light. In fact there are many plant training techniques besides defoliation for indoor cannabis growers, and the goal of nearly all plant training techniques is to create a flat even canopy directly under the grow lights. Defoliation is just one of the most advanced technique that builds on all the others.

Let’s show you some examples of what defoliated buds look like in the flowering stage. I hope these pictures and videos show what I cannot express in words!

This plant was grown in coco coir after being defoliated throughout its life. Despite the tiny low-wattage lights, this plant ended up rewarding the grower with solid yields.

Big buds on a small plant - grown under CFLs with defoliation

Getting more light to more of your buds is the whole purpose of the ScrOG technique (using a screen so you end up with just tops under the grow lights). ScrOG relies on removing unwanted leaves and underbrush in order to focus all energy on the top buds.

Scrog in Action - this pic shows the power of keeping all your buds close to the light

As you can see, this plant was defoliated just enough to expose all the buds, and no more. This is the ideal way to defoliate for beginners, since there’s less room for error.

An example of huge buds growing thanks to being exposed to direct light

Thick buds on this defoliated cannabis plant

This plant was under 2 feet tall at harvest, but still pulled in 6 ounces of premium bud after grower exposed buds with defoliation throughout the flowering stage.

This Aurora Indica plant pulled in 6 ounces after being heavily defoliated throughout the flowering stage

I think it’s difficult to find examples of indoor cannabis plants that grow huge buds like these without some sort of defoliation or a massive amount of light. Whether it happens naturally or manually, I believe this type of indoor result is difficult to achieve without exposing the buds to direct light from the grow lights in the flowering stage, but I would love to be proven wrong!

These cannabis buds are huge since they were exposed to the light by defoliation

Send us pics of your defoliated cannabis plants!

Vegetative Stage – How to Defoliate

Why defoliate in the Vegetative Stage?

  • Prevent Mold – With a leafy plant, the inside can get very humid and even produce water droplets on the leaves. Defoliation can help prevent mold from growing on a leafy plant.

  • Faster growth in the parts of the plant you want – you’re getting rid of unwanted parts of the plant, and the rest of the plant will start growing faster in response (since it doesn’t have to spread its energy, it can focus just on growing the parts of the plant you want).

  • Better structure to take advantage of grow lights – Defoliation can help you create a better structure to start flowering by allowing you to create several main colas (prime bud sites), and get rid of colas that are unlikely to produce any significant amount of bud.

  • Training is easier – Removing leaves can make it easier to train plant with LST (Low Stress Training), and defoliation is absolutely necessary for advanced growing techniques like ScrOG and manifolding.

When to defoliate in Veg (checklist)

  • Plant has several nodes (is no longer a seedling or young plant)

  • Plant is healthy and fast growing

  • Hardy strain

  • Plant is so leafy that leaves are laying on top of each other, especially if it’s leafy in the middle of the plant

  • Leaves are preventing light and air circulation from getting to the inside of the plant (see picture below for an example of a great candidate for defoliation)

These vegetative plants are so bushy the bottom of the plants are in complete shadow. These plants should be defoliated for the best growth and to prevent possible mold or other problems from occurring in the middle of the plant

When you can't see light reaching the bottom of the plant (if it is in shadow) then it's a good candidate for defoliation

When NOT to Defoliate in Vegetative Stage

  • Plant is unhealthy or slow growing

  • Strain is known to be finicky and tough to grow

  • Plant is not very leafy

  • First-time or new grower

You can see through this plant and light easily reaches the bottom. That lets you know this cannabis plant doesn’t need to be defoliated.
You can see through the plant, and light easily reaches the bottom, so this cannabis plant doesn't need to be defoliated.

Which Leaves to Defoliate in Vegetative Stage

When defoliating in the vegetative stage, you should start by taking off troublesome fan leaves (big leaves with many “fingers”). You’re looking to remove leaves that are laying on top of each other (which can create wet spots, leading to mold). When possible, try to take leaves lower down on the plant, and in the middle of the plant.

Try to stick to removing fan leaves that are on the larger side

When defoliating cannabis, only remove fan leaves (leaves that have "fingers")

Try to avoid plucking the outer and uppermost leaves – they already should be getting plenty of light and don’t need to be removed. You want a plant with leaves around the outside, and fewer leaves in the middle or bottom getting bunched up and touching each other.

When defoliating, take 20% of the leaves at most in one session. If you’re inexperienced with defoliation, it’s recommended you take far less, and do your defoliation over a couple of weeks. Leave at least a week between defoliation sessions. Taking too many leaves in a short period of time can seriously stunt your cannabis plants.

While defoliating, you should work on creating the right structure for your plant. Indoor growers generally want many colas (bud sites) to increase yields, and defoliation can help you create a desirable structure.

How to create more colas in the vegetative stage during defoliation

A long Sour Diesel cola - this plant was also defoliated to expose buds to the grow lights

Indoor cannabis growers usually want many colas on their plants to get the most bud out of their grow lights. But in order to achieve the biggest main colas, the competition on the plant needs to be weeded out. That means you need to remove the growth tips/leaves that make up unwanted colas.

Note: Removing growth tips is not technically defoliation since you’re removing tips in addition to leaves, but this technique works so well with defoliation (and does involve removing leaves) that I think it’s important to include this here.

A nice general rule for indoor growers is to try to create 4-8 main colas right under the light. For smaller plants you may want fewer main colas, for bigger plants you may want to create more colas.

In order to create main colas that get fat and dense, you want to remove smaller bud sites so they don’t steal the energy from your main buds. To do this, you should remove undeveloped colas/growth tips that are not going to help you.

This starts by looking at your plant and studying its structure to see which colas seem to have the most dominant branching. You’re looking for colas with a thick connection at the base with lots of nodes at the top of the stem – these nodes are where buds form, so you want your main colas to have a lot of them right under the light.

Buds only form at the nodes on a stem (where fan leaves come out), so if you have a lot of space between nodes, you’ll end up with less bud. This is why it’s important to get rid of these slim, gangly stems and choose to promote main colas that have closely spaced nodes.

Lot of space between cannabis nodes - no buds can form on the spaces, so try to choose main colas that have lots of closely spaced nodes

The growth tips you choose to leave alone will become your main colas/bud sites. Once you’ve figured out which main colas you want, it’s time to start de-leafing!

If your plant starts getting so bushy that no light is making it down to the floor through the plant, it’s time to “clean” the bottom of the plant. First start by removing any tiny growth tips on the lower part of stems that will never be able to reach the light anyway. These will only create wispy buds at best, and you don’t want these tiny buds to steal from your main buds.

Remove small growth tips from the bottom of the plant that are in shadow

Cannabis Defoliation Technique - remove the parts of the plant that are in complete shadow

Next, remove long stringy stems with big spaces between nodes – these will never become good colas since they can only make buds at the few nodes it has, and generally should be removed.

Remove stems with few nodes, especially if the stem hasn’t made it to the top of the plant where the light is

This stem is low on the cannabis plant with few nodes, so it should be removed. The defoliation technique helps your plant put all it's resources into the buds at the top of the plant will get the biggest
This plant was over-defoliated (grower took too many leaves) but I wanted to show it to you because it really shows the structure of the plant underneath.

Now take a look at your plant and study its structure. Determine which stems you want to save to become your main colas. You want at least 4 main colas when growing indoors. Check to see if you need to remove any parts of the plant that may be in competition for light and space with those colas.

What happens after defoliation in the vegetative stage

If you follow all the instructions above, the remaining parts of your plants will grow faster and immediately start “re-leafing” themselves on the colas you have left behind. This faster growth lets you start flowering sooner, and with a better structure to take advantage of your grow lights. The side growth will increase so the plant starts growing more wide and less tall than before, while the bottom growth won’t steal energy from the top buds.

“I stripped many of the fan leaves, not knowing there was a name for it. My girls were at day 20 of growth and fan leaves were huge, so I got rid of them.The plants almost seemed to gather themselves in a tight ball for a few days and then just exploded with sideways growth. A week later not much vertical growth, all sideways.”

– Tose

 

Flowering Stage – How to Defoliate

Cannabis plants seem to spend the most energy on buds which are exposed to light, and those are the buds that grow the biggest and the most dense. I believe that’s why buds hidden from view and in the middle or bottom of the plant never seem to fatten up – they don’t get enough exposure to light and air.

Why Defoliate in the Flowering Stage?

  • Helps prevent mold and bud rot on indoor plants by reducing humidity inside the plants, on the leaves and in your grow tent

  • Bigger yields – buds that are exposed to light and air fatten quickly and produce bigger yields than buds hidden from the light and air.

Who Should Defoliate in the Flowering Stage?

  • Growing indoors with bright grow lights

  • Your plants are healthy and fast growing

  • Your plants have been hardy their whole lives, without problems

  • Your plants are so leafy that leaves are laying on top of each other, OR

  • Some buds are hidden from the light by large fan leaves (example below)

An example of a good candidate for defoliation - this cannabis plant in the vegetative stage is so bushy that light isn't making it down into the plant to fatten up the buds under the main canopy

Who Should NOT Defoliate in the Flowering Stage?

  • Your plants are unhealthy or slow growing

  • Your plants have given you problems during your grow (they may be too sensitive to respond well to defoliation)

  • Your plants are not leafy – if you can see through the plant to the other side, and/or if light is making it to the floor under your plants, then you probably don’t need to defoliate

  • Buds are already exposed to light and air (buds are not hidden by fan leaves)

Don’t defoliate this plant!

This is an example of a marijuana plant that shouldn't be defoliated - you can see through the plant

When to defoliate in the flowering stage

There are a few schools of thought as to when to defoliate in the flowering stage. I’ll share some common ones:

  • Nebula’s defoliation tutorial – Defoliate the plant right before switching to the flowering stage, then defoliate once again at week 3 of the flowering stage. This is what I do with photoperiod plants and I’ve gotten good results with it. I suggest you start with this if you’re not sure what to do.
  • Week 3 & 6 defoliation – I’ve heard some grower like to move everything down 3 weeks, and avoid defoliation right at the beginning of the flowering stage. In this case the first defoliation would happen at the end of week 3 of the flowering stage, then a second defoliation end of week 6. I’ve never tried this method, and I typically avoid defoliating that late in flower but some growers swear by it. Let us know if you’ve tried this method and share your results!
  • Many growers don’t have a specific schedule, and instead defoliate throughout the flowering stage by pulling leaves whenever the plant seems leafy, or if they notice leaves laying on top of each other or covering bud sites. Basically they go more “by feel” as far as when the plant looks like it needs to be plucked.

Which leaves to defoliate in the flowering stage

Your main goal with defoliation in the flowering stage is to expose all your main buds to light and air. Exposed buds simply grow faster and fatten up faster than buds that have been hidden by leaves.

Try to focus on removing the bigger fan leaves

Try to focus on removing the bigger fan leaves

As in veg, you should still be removing any leaves that are laying on top of each other, and focus on removing those lower leaves (only bigger fan leaves) on the plant if possible. This defoliation will decrease the chances of mold and help release energy to be put into the colas.

You especially want to remove any big fan leaves near the top that are hiding buds from the light. If a fan leaf is yellow, it doesn’t really have anything left to offer the plant, so it’s also important to take these fan leaves at the top of the plant if they’re blocking any buds.

The defoliating tool 🙂

The defoliating tool (my thumb)

As always, never take so many leaves that you can fully see through the plant. Plants later in the flowering stage don’t really grow more leaves, so all the leaves you take are gone forever and the plant won’t replace them! Taking too many leaves in the flowering stage, especially during the last few weeks, can seriously hurt your yields, and no one wants that!

Defoliation Example in the Flowering Stage

Before – notice how leafy these plants are; no light can get down past the top canopy and the floor is in shadow. Way-too-bushy plants like this are perfect for defoliation in the flowering stage. You may notice this one was defoliated less than some of the other exampless. If your plant is really bushy but you’re worried about taking too many leaves, you can take just a few leaves and it can still help!

Defoliation: before

A view from above

Cannabis plants before defoliation - a view from above

Here’s the same two plants about an hour later, after a defoliation session. Bigger fan leaves were the target, and small fan leaves were left alone. Notice how all the bud sites are now exposed and the light can get to buds deep down in the plant. Several small stems and leaves around the bottom of the plant were also removed, since the tiny lowest buds on spindly stems will likely never amount to anything. But there’s still enough leaves left that you can’t easily see through the plant.

Defoliation: after

Quick video: immediately after defoliation

Here’s the resulting pile of leaves and stems. Some of the stems with growth tips had little buds forming, but we had to remove them because they were thin and too far from the light to ever fatten up properly. We want to allow the plant to focus only on buds that are in the right conditions to get big.

Defoliation: after - pile of leaves and stems

What happens after defoliation in the flowering stage

If you follow all the instructions above, your newly exposed buds will explode with growth and start fattening up noticeably. You should easily be able to see the difference after a week. If you’re not sure if defoliation is right for you, try defoliating just half your plant so you can really see the difference 🙂

Here are those same plants only 6 days later

Same cannabis plants 6 days after defoliation - side view

And a view from above

Cannabis plants 6 days after an intense defoliation session - all the buds have grown significantly!

Watch a time-lapse video showing the first 7 days after defoliation for the above plants

“I have been trying defoliation for a month or so of flowering. It works. It always made sense to me but I was too apprehensive to try removing plant parts. After I worked at a commercial nursery growing everything from Catnip to Brugmansia I learned plants can take a beating and defoliation is where it’s at!!!”

– DrRosko

This huge bud was grown on a Sour Diesel plant that was heavily defoliated throughout its life.

The post Cannabis Defoliation Tutorial: How to Increase Yields by Removing Leaves appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> Bigger Buds with Nebula’s Easy Manifold (Cannabis Main-Lining Tutorial) https://www.growweedeasy.com/manifold?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=manifold Mon, 21 Jul 2014 22:39:14 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/newsletter_issue/nebulas-manifold-cannabis-main-lining/ by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

Intro: What is Main-Lining Cannabis?

Ultra-Quick Guide to Building a Manifold

The post Bigger Buds with Nebula’s Easy Manifold (Cannabis Main-Lining Tutorial) appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

Intro: What is “Main-Lining” Cannabis?

Ultra-Quick Guide to Building a Manifold

Tips & Hints for an Easy Manifold

What is “Main-Lining” Cannabis?

The cannabis “main-lining” grow technique is the process of building a “manifold” on a cannabis seedling to form bigger buds and increase yields in the flowering stage. It was originally described by a talented marijuana grower named Nugbuckets who gave it the name main-lining. Nugbuckets generously gave us permission to share his easy manifolding weed growing technique on GrowWeedEasy.com.

A “manifold” means all branches come from a single point at the base of the plant. This happens when the plant’s one main stem is turned into two main stems at a young age (full instructions below).

A cannabis plant with a manifold - this tutorial about main-lining your marijuana will teach you how to make your own manifold to increase yields indoors

This results is an orderly plant with multiple thick, long buds in the flowering stage. Today’s easy manifold tutorial will show you how to copy these results in your cannabis garden.

Example of a trained (manifolded) marijuana plant that has many colas

Here’s that cannabis plant at harvest with arm-sized buds.

You can barely see my hand under there.

Main-lining vs Manifolding – They are exactly the same thing, just two words for building a cannabis manifold. I call it manifolding, but many growers use the word “main-lining” since that is what Nugbuckets originally called this training technique. However, the term main-lining can mean something unsavory, so I personally choose to use the term “manifolding” when describing the technique of making a manifold.

Original example of marijuana manifolding / mainlining by Nugbuckets.

8-headed cannabis plant from side was created by building a manifold - This marijuana manifold picture was taken by Nugbuckets

No matter what you call it, we experimented with his technique for growing cannabis indoors for several years. Over time, we slightly altered the original manifolding process by Nugbuckets. This modification increases yields and saves time (you get to harvest sooner), but at its core the idea is the same.

Example of Nebula’s Marijuana Manifold in Action by Bud (with 16 colas per plant)

Example of Nebula's marijuana manifold in action - trophy pic by bud with 16 colas per plant

A cannabis “manifold” is simply a plant where the main stem was split evenly in two when the plant was young by cutting off the top of the plant. The grower then does a few more cuts in a specific order as the young plant grows. There is nothing magical about this technique. It’s just a way to train the plant to grow, and it works well for simultaneously breaking apical dominance (tendency to grow just one main stem) while creating many big colas/bud sites without much effort.

To form the base of a “manifold,” the main stem of a young cannabis plant is split in two by cutting off the top of the plant and removing all side stems except two main ones.

Young vegging cannabis plant with 2 main colas after being LST'ed with plant twisty tie

When the plant is split this way, it completely destroys the “apical dominance” or the tendency of the plant to focus mostly on its one main stem. With your plant’s apical dominance broken, it tends to make many long and thick buds sites (colas), instead of just one big central bud.

After the base of the manifold has been created, the grower uses it to create several bud sites on each side. As the cannabis plant grows out, this structure results in several evenly sized main “colas” (or main stems where buds form). This is opposed to a naturally grown marijuana plant, which will usually produce just one main cola indoors.

Cannabis plants branch out heavily after being manifolded, making many main bud sites.

These two manifolded marijuana plants have been main-lined to produce many main colas

Indoors, the manifold technique can be used to increase your yields by giving you a “canopy” of fat buds. You will get the greatest increase in yields if you’ve had trouble in the past as far as filling your grow space with many buds. Below you can see the above plants with a cannabis manifold grown out – there are many huge buds under the grow lights instead of just one or two like with a standard cannabis plant.

When manifolded cannabis plants are allowed to get tall, they create very long thick colas

In the Nebula manifold method, we keep ALL the colas that will produce big buds. These plants still have several weeks until harvest to fatten up further.

These two main-lined cannabis plants have grown long thick buds

Unlike with Nugbuckets’ original method, we keep all the big bud sites (“colas”) that reach the top of the plant. This results in bigger overall yields than just keeping the original 8 colas recommended by Nugbuckets. Another difference is that you do one less cut, which saved recovery time without lowering yields in our experiments.

The Nebula manifold method also saves you 1-2 weeks of training in the vegetative stage compared to the original technique, so you get to harvest sooner!

Because of the shorter training process, these plants made it to harvest just 4 months from seed, yielding about 11 ounces in total!

The Nebula Manifold tutorial keeps more "tops" or colas than the original tutorial by Nugbuckets. This results in bigger overall yields!

Does manifolding work on short plants? Since the Nebula manifold saves you an extra week or two in the vegetative stage, it is suitable for shorter/smaller plants than the original Nugbuckets main-lining method. If you follow the instructions in this tutorial, a cannabis plant can be effectively manifolded as long as it has room to grow at least 2 feet tall.

I trained this plant according to this tutorial and was able to harvest 6.2 ounces on a single 2 foot tall plant!

Follow this cannabis manifold tutorial to increase your marijuana yields indoors. This is done by creating many huge buds, like this in this picture.

Manifolding needs to create long colas to be effective, and very short plants can’t do that. If the final plant is shorter than 2 feet, the manifold technique won’t be as good at increasing yields since you’re not playing on its strengths.

Along the same lines, a manifolded plant also needs to be grown under a powerful grow light like modern LEDs, MH/HPS bulbs or an LEC (also known as a CMH). More powerful lights means that the buds will get filled out all the way down, instead of just at the tops. Because of that, unfortunately manifolding doesn’t work well for growing short plants growing under fluorescent grow lights, but that’s what topping is made for!

This manifold tutorial gives you step-by-step instructions on the process of manifolding cannabis the Nebula way to get more buds and bigger yields. If you follow the steps and instructions exactly as written, it’s almost impossible to mess up. Think of it like a recipe, but it’s a recipe for plant training.

 

Why build a manifold when growing cannabis indoors?

  • Big Yields – The main reason I use main-lining to build a cannabis manifold is because this training technique results in big yields from any indoor grow setup. By building a manifold in the early vegetative stage, you can get an extra 40% or more yields compared to not training your plants. I’ve used several other types of cannabis plant training techniques, and main-lining cannabis is a consistent way to get great yields every time. It takes some of the best elements of all the other techniques, and combines them into one step-by-step process that’s hard to mess up if you follow the instructions. No more guesswork.
  • Simpler than Other Training Methods – Because you can follow each step word-for-word, without having to make any judgment calls of your own, it’s difficult to mess up. In this manifold tutorial, the basic idea of main-lining cannabis is to simply cut the plant a few times in a certain way, over the course of a few weeks. Then you just arrange the buds where you want using twisty tie. Each of the colas tends to grow about the same height as each other, which makes it straightforward to get a “sea of colas” that are each thick and dense, without a lot of popcorn or larfy buds. There’s nothing you have to do to make this technique work for you, or customize it to your setup.
  • Less Time Spent Training – Since you just top the plant a few times and place buds, it really doesn’t take much time to get marijuana plants to become a desirable shape with lots of colas indoors. Some training methods can create similar shapes and canopies, such as ScrOG (using a net), but training plants to weave through a net can take up to an hour a night during the intense process of filling the net in the late vegetative stage. Conversely, manifolding only takes a few minutes for the first few weeks of the vegetative stage, then basically no more training is needed besides holding up heavy colas late in the flowering stage.
  • Training is Over Early in the Plant’s Life – Since all the training happens in the first few weeks of the plant’s life, you’re pretty much done with training early on. Once I’ve finished my manifold, I know I’m past the “hard part” of training, and can spend the rest of my time focusing on caring for my plants, instead of getting frustrated about trying to control their shape and size.
  • Less Likely to Get Bud Rot or Mold – Manifolding cannabis builds a support structure for many colas that are thick and uniform, but not overly fat. This reduces the chance of getting bud rot or other types of mold. When a cannabis plant grows naturally with one main cola/bud under very powerful grow lights, the cola can get too thick and increase the risk of developing bud rot (when the inside of the buds simply start rotting away) or developing mold during the drying and curing process. While the manifolding method produces many big thick colas, the plant spreads the energy more evenly between them so none of the colas will get to the point where the grower simply can’t maintain them properly.
  • Less Time Spent Trimming – Cannabis buds need to be trimmed before they’re ready to smoke. With only long, dense colas and no airy small cannabis buds to trim, the process of trimming your buds after harvest goes by much faster than working on lots more smaller nugs. Your hands will thank you 🙂
  • Buds Dry More Evenly – Since all the buds are a similar width and density, drying is a lot more straightforward. All the buds tend to be done drying at the same time.
  • Impressive Bud Appearance – While big and small buds are essentially the same when it comes to potency, many growers prefer the appearance of large dense buds, which is what you’ll produce on a manifolded plant.

Manifolded cannabis buds tend to be beefy

 

 

What’s the Difference Between the “Old” Way and the “New” Way?

You can build a cannabis manifold the “old way” (the way Nugbuckets did it) and split everything completely evenly like this:

Manifold of a main-lined cannabis plant

In the original technique, each main stem is the same number of “steps” from the base of the plant, which helps the plant deliver resources more easily. But in order to achieve this perfectly symmetrical shape a grower needs to cut and prune the plant 3 times, waiting a week or more in between each pruning session. That can add several weeks to the cannabis vegetative stage because each time you prune, you’re losing a lot of the growth built up by your plant.

Or… You can skip all that wasted time and build a marijuana manifold the way Nebula does it in this manifold tutorial! The Nebula manifold doesn’t look quite as even and symmetrical but will get you identical results in less time, with less wasted growth. This process is not fundamentally different in any way; it is basically the same principle but modified slightly for improved results.

In our experiments, the results are the same with a “modified” manifold, but you save time.

An example of a cannabis plant with a "Nebula" manifold. This manifold tutorial will teach you how to grow marijuana just like this!

Even when the plant isn’t centered, the Nebula manifold technique works perfectly, it works great in most setups and with just about any plant.

This cannabis has been manifolded using Nebula's technique, which takes out an extra step compared to the main-lining tutorial by Nugbuckets

Note: There are four times when it is not a good idea to manifold your cannabis:

When NOT to Manifold Your Cannabis 

  1. Auto-Flowering Strains – It’s difficult to manifold auto-flowering plants because they only give you a few weeks before they start making buds. Stick to standard/photoperiod cannabis strains for the best results with manifolding.
  2. Weak Grow Lights – For this technique, you want an MH/HPS, LEC, or 150W+ LED grow light. Manifolding doesn’t work well for increasing yields on plants under small grow lights with poor penetration, like fluorescent lights or small LEDs. Plants grown under smaller lights won’t get good results with manifolding, and you may even hurt their yields with all the chopping and removal of leaves and growth. Smaller grow lights don’t have the penetration to take advantage of the manifolding structure. For smaller lights, standard topping is a much more suitable technique that produces similar results.
  3. Short Grow Space  – Manifolded plants need to be allowed to grow to at least two feet tall for the best results since manifolding makes long dense colas. If you don’t have that much height available for your plant to spread out in your grow space, you might consider other cannabis training methods instead, since these techniques are more suited to shorter grow spaces.
  4. Unhealthy Plant – Never start main-lining a cannabis plant that isn’t already healthy and growing fast. For an unhealthy cannabis plant, the main-lining process will slow growth even more and may stunt the plant.

Nebula’s “modified” manifold technique saves an extra step (saving you 1-2 weeks of growth in the vegetative stage) compared to the manifold technique by Nugbuckets, and in our experiments the results are identical.

Here is a video of what main-lining and building a manifold can do for you.

Two main-lined cannabis plants just before harvest

This technique of building a manifold at the base of cannabis plants has been adopted by many marijuana growers in dozens of different grow setups, and it’s not always done the same way. The following steps do not describe the process exactly how Nugbuckets does it, but I’ve had identical results with main-lining cannabis this way and it saves time compared to his original steps. Many growers have asked me for a quick, concise manifolding tutorial, so here it is!

This is the super condensed version for main-lining cannabis indoors, exactly as I do it now (after some trial and error). The complete tutorial with pictures and notes is below!

Ultra Quick Guide to Building a Manifold

What You Need to Start Main-Lining Cannabis

  • Healthy, fast-growing cannabis seedling
  • Sharp scissors
  • Plant ties (and possibly Soft Wire Ties)
  • Plant yo-yos (or “yoyo supports”) – although you won’t need these to start, you’re probably going to need these to hold up all your tall, heavy colas when they start falling over from their own weight in the flowering stage!

To secure plants, we use a mix of plant ties, soft wire ties, and yo-yo supports

Plant Ties – young plants
Plant ties are made of thin wire with a plastic coating on the outside. They tend to be more flimsy and don’t have a lot of strength. They are very gentle on young plants.

Soft Wire Ties – to anchor stronger stems
Soft wire ties are made of a thicker wire, with a very soft coating. These are much stronger than regular plant ties, but they will not give way to a strong stem yet will still never cut into the plant. These can be used in situations where strength is needed to hold down a thick unruly cola that wants to grow in the wrong direction. They can also be used as sturdy anchors, with the plant ties above used as “string.”

Plant Yo-Yos – when colas start fattening so much they fall over
In the flowering stage, it’s common for your buds to start falling over from their own weight. Plant yo-yos can be hung conveniently from the top of your grow tent or grow space, and the special hooks at the bottom are ideal to hold onto thick colas without causing any damage to your buds.

 

 

Main-Lining Cannabis Indoors
Nebula’s Step-By-Step Tutorial for a Wide-Based Indoor Cannabis Plant

Quick Reference Picture – Main-Lining Cannabis Diagram

How to build a cannabis manifold diagram - This main-lining cannabis step-by-step tutorial teaches you how to manifold your marijuana plants!

 

1.) Create “Base”

  • Let young plant grow 6 nodes
  • Top to 3rd node and clean all extra growth except top 2 growth tips and their fan leaves
  • Now you have 2 main colas – these form the “base” of your cannabis manifold

2.) Create 8 main colas

  • Let each side grow 4 nodes
  • Top to 3rd node on each side
  • Instead of cleaning all other growth like in the last step, just remove all the growth from the 2nd node on each side, leaving growth from node 1 & 3 on each side
  • Now you have 8 colas!

Note: You can top each of the 8 colas one more time for a total of 16 colas per plant. However, only do this if you’re going to grow big cannabis plants in a 5-gallon container or larger. For a small-to-regular sized cannabis plant, 8 colas is the perfect amount to give you the biggest buds and yields without spreading out the plant’s energy too much.

3.) Vegetative Stage

  • In addition to regular plant care, specifically check plants at least twice a week to make sure everything is growing flat like a table. Older stems start getting hard and woody and are more difficult to train, so if you check plants at least twice a week you’ll be able to bend stems while they’re still young and flexible. Getting used to checking on your plants regularly is a great habit that will serve you well in your cannabis growing adventures!
  • Try to fill every “space” under the grow light with colas that are a few inches away from each other, and all the same height. If at any point you can see a cola is growing taller than the others, gently bend it down and away from other colas.
  • Use twisty tie to secure stems so everything stays in place, otherwise your stems will turn back up overnight!
  • Keeping up with  this process throughout the vegetative stage gives you a flat, even canopy with many evenly spaced bud sites.

4.) Flowering Stage

  • Switch to the flowering stage when the plant has reached half the final desired height.
  • Continue to arrange colas to fill up your space under the light for first 2-3 weeks after the flip to 12/12.
  • If any colas are growing much taller than the others, make sure to bend them down and away during the first few weeks, securing them just like before. This is especially important for colas growing directly under the grow light since they are most likely to grow too close to the light and get burned!
  • That’s pretty much it!

Now you just wait for big fat colas to form under your grow lights! 

These fat, even colas are the result of main-lining - Tutorial by Nugbuckets

What if you want to make more than 8 main colas? You can top each side one more time in the manifold-building stage to create 16 colas per cannabis plant, like Bud did here:

Example of Nebula's marijuana manifold in action - trophy pic by bud with 16 colas per plant

16 cola manifold per your tutorial. Day 40 flower. Back 2 Durban Poison. Middle 2 Jack Herer. Front one Bruce Banner. It is trained so cola’s start 6″ off soil. Plant 42″ across. No support. Indoor growers can really take advantage of manifolding. ~Bud

 

Important & Helpful Definitions

  • Node – A node is a place where a fan leaf attaches to the stem. With seedlings, it’s almost always a pair of leaves, though with clones you may see just one leaf at the node. In this manifold tutorial we’re only dealing with seedlings, so when talking about the “3rd node” for example, it means the 3rd pair of leaves from the base. A fan leaf has serrated edges, so don’t count the first two round cotyledon leaves when counting nodes.

What is a "node" on a marijuana plant? It's where a fan leaf meets the stem. It's a place growth tips, almost always nestled in the elbow of 2 fan leaves. You will be using nodes to help you manifold your cannabis plant in this tutorial.

  • Growth tip – a part of the plant that is growing new stems and leaves. When a growth tip is exposed to light and air, it will start growing. If the growth tip grows tall enough to reach the top of the plant, it’s often called a “cola” or “top”

Growth tips (known officially as axillary buds) are where new stems are forms, each growth tip can be grown into a cola of its own!

  • Cola – sometimes called a “top” a cola is basically a stem with VIP status. Essentially, a cola is a main stem with a growth tip that has reached the top of the plant. The reason they get a special name is because in the flowering stage, it’s the colas that grow the biggest buds. The goal of main-lining is to end up with many evenly spaced colas on your plant, so you get to harvest many big buds!

Definition of cannabis "cola" - A cola is basically a growth tip that has reached the top of the plant. The reason they have a special name is because colas form the biggest buds!

  • Topping – To “top” a cannabis plant means to cut off a growth tip. You can cut near the end of a stem, or further down. In this article, you top plants right above certain nodes.

The definition of "topping" is the act of cutting of the top of a stem on a cannabis plant. Topping is an important part of building a cannabis manifold!

How to Build a Cannabis Manifold – Step-By-Step Tutorial

 

1.) Create “Base” – Wait until the plant grows 5-6 nodes, top down to the 3rd, then clean all extra growth

Wait until your plant has grown 5-6 nodes, looks healthy, and is growing vigorously.

Why wait? If you start main-lining too early, you can stunt growth and your plant might take longer to recover through the whole process. A plant that has 6 nodes recovers incredibly quickly from topping, while a plant with less nodes than that can be stunted for weeks from a single topping.

Although it’s optimal to start the manifolding cannabis process when the plant has 5-6 nodes, it’s possible to start a little later. However, the later you start the more time you’ll have wasted in the vegetative stage (and wasted time means wasted money), so you don’t want to start late if you can!

Wait until a marijuana plant has grown 5-6 nodes (pairs of leaves) before you begin the manifold process

The first step to manifold cannabis is to wait until the plant has grown 5-6 nodes (pairs of leaves) like this young cannabis plant in the vegetative stage

Top down to the 3rd node and clean extra growth below it. Basically, you’re just cutting off the tip of the plant, right above the 3rd pair of real (serrated) leaves.

How to top to 3rd node of a marijuana plant - this is the next step to main-lining cannabis to build a manifold

After cutting to the 3rd node, clean off all the vegetation below it. At this point, you only have 2 main stems. You now have created the “base” of your manifold!

This plant immediate after being topped to the 3rd node, with all the extra growth cut away, leaving just the two growth tips on the 3rd node and the adjoining leaves

This plant was topped to the 3rd node, and all the extra growth was cut away. The two growth tips on the 3rd node and the adjoining leaves are the only thing that was left.

 

2.) Create 8 Colas

  • Wait Until Each Side Has Grown 4 Nodes
  • Top to 3rd Node on Each Side
  • Remove All Growth From the 2nd Node, Leaving Just Nodes 1 & 3

In this step, we’re going to wait until the new tops/colas have recovered and look like they’re growing fast. Once each side has grown 4 sets of leaves, you’re ready to go to the next step.

Wait until your marijuana plant has grown 4 nodes (pairs of leaves) on each side.

There are now 4 nodes (pairs of leaves) on each side of the cannabis manifold

In this step, we’re going to wait until the new tops/colas have recovered and look like they’re growing fast. Then we’ll top all the new colas to the 3rd node again. This time instead of cleaning the whole stem below, we will only remove the growth from the 2nd node. This leaves you with the 1st and 3rd node on each side so after this step, you will have 8 main colas.

I think most indoor growers will be happy with 8 colas and the offshoots that grow from them, but if you do want more colas, keep the 2nd node in this step, or continue to top plants and repeat the steps again. For most growers, you want to follow the tutorial exactly, so let’s walk through this together.

Top to the 3rd node on each side (remove tip above 3rd pair of leaves). Be careful to avoid damaging the growth tips while topping the plant!

This moving gif shows how your cannabis plant will look like after it's been topped to the third node. This is the second step in the cannabis manifold tutorial.

There are now 3 nodes on each “branch.” Instead of cleaning everything like the first time, you want to remove the 2nd node on each side, leaving just the 1st and 3rd nodes. You’re almost done!

Same cannabis plant - view from above

Now you have just the 1st and 3rd nodes left. This leaves 4 total nodes on the plant, or 8 total growth tips/tops/colas!

At this point in the cannabis manifold process, you've finally got 8 main colas / stems. The hard part is over!

Why keep node 1 and 3 on each side? The odd-numbered nodes all face the same way, and it’s easier if your 8 colas are all faced in the same direction. That being said, it doesn’t really make much difference which nodes you leave as long as you have 8 growth tips at the end, since you will be training your plant anyway. But if you keep nodes 1 and 3 in this step as the tutorial says, your manifold will look prettier and be just a little easier to train 🙂

 

3.) Vegetative Stage Care

As your manifolded cannabis plant is growing in the vegetative stage, watch to make sure your canopy is staying flat, like a table. Check on plants at least twice a week; it’s really easy to train cannabis plants if you’re checking on them regularly (takes just seconds) but it can be frustrating to try to train plants after their stems have already become hard and woody.

Whenever you’re checking your plants, if any stems appear taller than the others, gently bend them down and away from the center of the plant. Use a bit of twisty tie to secure stems in place so everything stays the same height. Keeping up with this process throughout the vegetative stage gives you a flat, even canopy with many bud sites.

Some of these stems have grown taller than others.

The "skeleton" of this almost fully trained cannabis plant is revealed after the lower growth is removed

Bend taller stems down and away from the center of the plant, securing stems down so they’re all about the same height as each other.

This cannabis plant was lollipopped and the colas were tied down with LST, all in preparation of the switch to the flowering stage. Time for some buds!!!

Notice how all the stems have been bent down so they’re about the same height and spread out.

Side view of that LST'ed plant - all those leaves will be turning up again in just a few hours!

The goal is to arrange most colas around the edges of the plant, with a few colas in the middle so it makes a flat table.

Every time you bend your cannabis plants down, they will turn back up within a day or two, like this.

The Original Amnesia cannabis plant showing off it's 8 colas

Just started the flowering stage - this cannabis plant has a great canopy to support 8 main colas

Not long before the switch to flowering!

Note: To avoid a hydro plant tipping in the net pot like in the above pics (which doesn’t really affect anything as far as growing but doesn’t look pretty), make sure the base of your manifold goes parallel with the length of your tub, instead of perpendicular like the above plant.

 

4.) Switch to the flowering stage

Once your manifolded cannabis plant has reached half the final desired height, it’s time to initiate the flowering/budding stage. You do this by switching the lights to a 12/12 schedule (12 hours light, 12 hours dark each day). Your plant may double in height during the first 3-4 weeks of the flowering stage (known as the flowering stretch) so it’s important to flip to flower while you still have plenty of room left.

For this marijuana manifold tutorial - wait until the plant has reached half the final desired height before switching to the flowering stage

Right before the switch to flowering, give your plant a minimal last cleanup by taking off the big fan leaves, especially in the middle and bottom of the plant. You also want to tuck or remove any really large fan leaves blocking bud sites. Be careful not to damage any growth tips at the base of each leaf.

How many leaves to take off? When in doubt, take fewer leaves than you think you should since you can always come back later!

Give your cannabis plant one last minimal cleanup before the switch to flowering; especially remove large fan leaves.

When you manifold cannabis, you want to give it a last cleaning before the switch to flowering stage. You do this by removing the biggest fan leaves, especially the ones on the bottom and middle of plant

The manifold you created will power the growth of each of your colas through the first few weeks of flowering.

Two main-lined cannabis plants showing off their manifold

By the time it’s 3 weeks after the switch to 12/12, plenty of new buds should be forming.

3 weeks after switching to 12/12

3 week old bud - this growing cannabis plant is in the middle of the defoliation/manifolding process

If the plant is getting bushy, defoliate the plant again around week 3 by removing the bigger fan leaves, and all the lower stuff that’s in major shadow. In general, if you’re unsure defoliate lightly during the flowering stage since you can always take more away but you can’t put leaves back. The plant will stop making new leaves altogether around week 5-6 after the switch to 12/12.

Your cannabis plant is probably bushy and buds have started forming 3-4 weeks after switching to 12/12. At this point, you may want to do another defoliation session by removing most of the biggest fan leaves. Learn more about cannabis defoliation in the flowering stage.

3 weeks after the switch to the cannabis flowering stage, it's time for more more defoliation session if your plant is getting bushy again

These are those cannabis plants after a light defoliation session. I removed big fan leaves, bottom leaves, and any leaves that were covering bud sites (to expose the newly growing buds to direct light).

After a pretty mild defoliation session in week 3 after the initiation of the marijuana flowering stage - part of the manifold process if plants are getting bushy

Learn more about using defoliation for bigger yields

Any buds in shadow won’t fatten up properly, so make sure to keep the lower part of the plant clean so all energy is focused on the top main buds. Remove everything near the bottom of the plant that will never make it to the top canopy, including leaves and “suckers” (small stems and growth tips).

Remove leaves and small stems below the line in this diagram.

Remove all leaves and suckers below the line - pruning your cannabis plant strategically in the flowering stage will increase your yields!

Plants will slow down in vegetative growth around week 3 or 4 into the flowering stage, and by week 6 they will have stopped growing new leaves altogether, and just be focusing on fattening buds. You need to make sure to leave enough healthy leaves to last until harvest time!

Example of a different manifolded plant

3 weeks after switch to 12/12 – Before Defoliation

Example of a cannabis plant 3 weeks into the flowering stage - before defoliation

3 weeks after switch to 12/12 – After Defoliation

Example of a marijuana plant 3 weeks into the flowering stage - after defoliation

39 days into flowering (2.5 weeks later)

This is what that same marijuana plant looks like 39 days into the flowering stage

As the cannabis flowering stage progresses, you may still prune away any small growth underneath that doesn’t get light, as well as big fan leaves that block bud sites and can’t be tucked away. Although defoliation (removing leaves) helps with better light penetration on bushy plants in the flowering stage, it’s important to remember that you can always take more but you can’t put leaves back. After 5-6 weeks of 12/12 your plant won’t really grow any more leaves at all! Be careful of going overboard.

Notice how the bottom of the plant has been cleared of leaves, and most big fan leaves have been removed.

Example of a manifolded marijuana plant - side view. Notice how the bottom has been cleared of stems and leaves. Most fan leaves have been removed.

Just before harvest.

Example of a marijuana plant that has been defoliated - just before harvest time

How much of the manifolded cannabis plant do you keep clean?

All big fan leaves should be removed, but how long you leave each cola depends on the side of your grow light. Bigger grow lights can support longer colas. You want to remove the parts of the plant that will never get access to light, but leave the parts that can take advantage of all the light that does make it down into the plant.

The above plant is under a 250W HPS, which can’t “reach” as far down into the plant as a bigger light. The colas are only about 12″ long because everything below that point was removed because it was in shadow.

The two plants below are under a 600W grow light, which can penetrate two feet into the plant. That is why much more was left on each cola. The parts of the plant that were in shadow were all removed but the remaining buds are still almost 2 feet long. Because the 600W light reaches that far into the plant, these buds will fatten up all the way down.

Basically, clean off parts of the plant that won’t ever get light. Leave the parts of the plant that get direct light.

No more major defoliation after 6 weeks into 12/12. Plant growth slows down around week 4-6 and most strains stop making leaves altogether after week 6-7. You need to make sure to keep enough healthy leaves to last until harvest.

With your well-maintained cannabis plant under a nice grow light, you will be rewarded with long, dense thick colas with huge nuggets of buds! You also get some very chunky buds wherever side stems are exposed to light and air.

Two main-lined cannabis plants just before harvest

Another shot of those two main-lined cannabis plants

Harvest (this is just one of the plants from above!)

Cannabis buds on a stove - immediately after harvest - the marijuana manifold tutorial powered the size of these monsters!

 

Training Tutorial: Get Extra Help Building a Manifold

 

Cannabis Main-Lining: Tips & Hints 

Strain Choice is Important

Matching Cannabis Strains

If you plan to grow more than one strain at a time, it’s a good idea to spend a little extra time thinking about matching genetics that “play well” with each other and that will benefit from having a manifold. When main-lining, it helps to choose strains that are well-matched. Main-lining doesn’t change the nature of the strain and it can be a pain in the butt if you mix a strain that stays short with a strain that tends to grow tall. If you have a strain that tends to stay short, main-lining will help spread out the plant, but it won’t cause the plant to grow the long colas if the strain doesn’t tend to make long colas. Main-lined cannabis plants will grow with the same patterns as normal, just with a manifold. Main-lining won’t force a plant to stay short or grow tall. Their height is determined by you choosing well-matched strains and keeping up with training/bending your cannabis plants.

Works Best with Medium-to-Tall Strains

When growing cannabis indoors, the best benefits from main-lining come from growing strains that are considered “medium” or “tall” in height. These plants will have a bigger “flowering stretch” and may double or even triple in height after the switch to the flowering stage. This stretch is what creates the long colas of a main-lined plant. With a short plant that doesn’t have much of a flowering stretch, you aren’t going to get those long colas, and may not going to get the most from main-lining, especially compared to the time put in during the vegetative stage building the manifold. For shorter strains, or when growing short plants, other types of plant training like Topping might be better at increasing yields and will take less time in the vegetative stage.

Not the Best Choice for Auto-Flowering Strains of Cannabis

It is difficult to form a full manifold if you try to main-line auto-flowering strains. They do not have much time to recover from any plant training technique that involves cutting the plant. If you want to try out main-lining, it is highly recommended to do so with a photoperiod strain (it is unlikely you’ll ever run into an auto-flowering strain unless you order an autoflowering seed from a seedbank – learn more about autos here – https://www.growweedeasy.com/autoflowering-vs-photoperiod).

Start from Seed if Possible

The main-lining cannabis process is much simpler with plants grown from seed since they usually have symmetrical nodes, unlike clones. If you decide to start main-lining clones, just be aware of the overall structure of the manifold you’re trying to create. Don’t follow these step-by-step instructions for clones since this tutorial was designed for main-lining cannabis grown from seed, but use your judgment to try to create a plant with as similar a structure as possible.

Cannabis strain choice is crucially important for main-lining

Growing Environment

Use Penetrating Grow Lights

Indoor cannabis main-lining seems to get the best results under powerful lights that have deep penetration. With main-lining, you grow long thick colas, and you need a powerful light to fill those colas up with bud. Because lights like CFLs & fluorescent grow lights don’t have much penetration, they aren’t recommended for main-lining. Main-lining performs best with MH/HPS grow lights, CMH/LEC grow lights, or LED grow lights of 150W size or greater. These lights have deep enough penetration to fill the long colas with bud, so they work well with manifolding. With small LEDs, CFLs, or fluorescent grow lights, standard training like topping will be more effective than manifolding at increasing yields and will take less vegetative time.

Maintain the right environment to make sure cannabis plants make the best manifold possible

 

Cannabis Plant Training Tutorial – LST and Topping Technique!

 

Topping Technique

When topping, leave a little part of the old stem above the topping point. This helps reinforce the manifold and prevent any main stems from splitting as they are thickened through the manifold process.

I know this may be hard for those who want to make everything completely even and neat. But leaving a little extra stem will help prevent your “elbows” from splitting.

After the colas are well formed and you have a thick stem and manifold, you’ll be able to see the little mini stems (they won’t have grown at all, while the colas would have thickened coniderably). If they bug you, you can cut them off then. I just leave them on until the end.

Main-lining topping technique diagram

Combine Main-Lining with LST

Main-lining works very well when mixed with LST (low stress training – gentle bending) to hold down plants in the spaces you want. Just remember that after you tie down a part of the plant, it will immediately start turning up and towards the light.

Split Stems

If cannabis plants ever get an open wound or split any part of their stems, make sure to reinforce the injury (if needed) and immediately wrap with electrical tape, duct tape, or even scotch tape. The leaves on the damaged stem may wilt, but if you secure the injury fast enough, life will come back to the leaves. When using this technique, always make sure you check on the injury regularly to make sure the tape isn’t choking the stem.

Use tape as a splint or cast for injured stems

 

How to Secure Cannabis Plants While Main-Lining 

You will need to use a few different tools to secure down your plants at various phases of the manifolding process. These are the tools that have worked best for us. You can use whatever you’d like, but I do warn you not to use anything sharp (like string or thread) as it can start cutting into your plants once they start getting bigger and fighting back. The tools listed below will never run into that problem since they were explicitly made for training plants.

Securing your new colas/tops down

Where to Tie… You can tie your new tops down to anything handy – the sides of your container, net pots, etc. Just make sure that you’re tying your colas to something that moves with the plant. You don’t want to tie to a nearby object, use weights on the ground, etc.

When you move the plant for whatever reason, you want the ties to move with the plant. This prevents accidental cola breakage. Growers almost always end up needing to move their plants for one reason or another during a grow, and it’s just a good practice to make sure the plant and container are self-contained and can be moved without disturbing the LST you are doing.

Avoid Using String

It will work well at first, but it can start digging into the “skin” of your plant as it gets bigger unless you cut them off first. When building a manifold, the stems and stalks will end up getting big, and you want something that will

What Are the Best Ties to Use?

I like using a mix of “plant ties” and “soft wire ties” which are both made for gardening and are more gentle on the plant than string. I recommend using both. The plant ties are good for young plants, and soft wire ties are better for larger plants with strong stems.

Now that you’ve got an idea of what tools you can use to secure your plants in the shape you want, let me walk you through everything.

This plant was secured with plant ties, which were hooked to the edges of the container.

Building a cannabis manifold - gently tie colas down after topping

In the beginning, I use plant ties. The plant ties are very gentle on young stems & they can be easily molded into any shape, allowing you to create hooks to gently move young cannabis stems where you want them. Once you build your manifold, you won’t need these first ties, and they’ll naturally fall off.

1 day later, growth tips have already turned up - manifolding tutorial

Same cannabis plant, but viewed from above

When the plant is responding to training by growing up at the tips, that’s a sign that the main-lining is going well.

The growth tips of a healthy plant grow upwards and towards the light.

At this point, you may start noticing that the base of your two main colas are starting to “beef up” as the plant sends ALL its resources to just those two stems.

The connections between stems start bulging after being topped

The plant is strengthening the connections between the main stem and the new colas, which causes bulging at the base of the colas.

 

More info on…

Plant Ties – young plants

Plant ties are made of thin wire with a plastic coating on the outside. This material usually comes in a long spool so you can cut off as much as you need at a time. The container usually has a built-in cutter so you can quickly get a piece without any other equipment. They tend to be more flimsy than some of the other methods to secure plants – they don’t have a lot of strength. But this is part of what makes them so great – they are very gentle on young plants.

Soft Wire Ties – to anchor stronger stems

When plant ties aren’t strong enough, you can use soft wire ties to hook around colas or anchors, and use plant ties as the “string”. Soft wire ties are made of a thicker wire, with a very soft coating. These are much stronger than the palnt ties, but they will give way to a strong stem and will never cut into the plant. These can be used in situations where strength is needed to hold down a thick unruly cola which wants to grow in the wrong direction. They can also be used as sturdy anchors, with the plant ties above used as “string.”

Plant Yo-Yos – when colas start fattening so much they fall over

These can be hung conveniently from the top of your grow tent, and the special hooks at the bottom are ideal to hold onto thick colas without causing any damage to your buds. When colas start getting too big to hold themselves up, plant yoyos will help you greatly. With this technique, the plant will produce these long dense colas that start falling over under their own weight and are hard to secure with other methods. Plant yo-yos are perfect for gently stringing up colas where you want without damaging buds. In order to use plant yo-yos, you need something to attach to at the top of the grow space (easy with a grow tent, but may need some creativity in other grow spaces).

Ready to start training your plant?

After topping your plant, you use LST (low stress training) to hold the new colas down to make a relatively straight line. LST basically means gently bending your plants to do what you want. Bending the new colas down will keep the manifold short without much effort, and helps with the whole process of getting the plant to produce a great manifold.

Basically, you’re just bending the colas down and away from the center of the plant, and then securing them so they grow in that position.

You got this!

 

 

Jump to…

Nugbuckets’ Main-Lining Tutorial

More Cannabis Plant Training Techniques

Growing Problems & Symptoms

10-Step Quick Start Guide to Growing Cannabis

 

 

—

This cannabis main-lining tutorial is a work in progress! I (Nebula) did not create “main-lining” and am not the first grower to try main-lining cannabis. Several marijuana growers asked me to put together a main-lining tutorial based on what I’ve learned so far in my setup, so I am sharing my experiences and personal technique for making a cannabis manifold. I hope this information helps other growers!

Main-Lining – Building a Cannabis Manifold
Create a Marijuana Plant with 8+ Big Colas Using a Simple Topping Technique

The technique of “main-lining” or manifolding cannabis was first described and named by a talented grower known as Nugbuckets. Main-Lining (building a manifold) for growing cannabis is a relatively new technique on the grow scene. At least, it’s only recently that cannabis growers have been talking about it by the name “main-lining” or “manifolding.” Chances are growers have been using similar techniques for decades, but only now has it come to be described by this name.

The idea of main-lining using Nugbuckets’ original technique is to build a “manifold” at the base of your cannabis plant to efficiently deliver resources to all colas. During Nugbuckets’ process of building a manifold, the grower chooses to create a plant with usually 8 or 16 colas (8 is most common, 16 for ScrOG setups, and 32 is rarely an efficient use of plant resources). Here’s an example of a Nugbuckets manifold:

Short explanation of cannabis main-lining (building a manifold)

In Nebula’s cannabis manifold tutorial above, she does things just a little bit differently to save time in the vegetative stage, yet while being able to still accomplish the same results as far as increasing bud size and yields!

 

The post Bigger Buds with Nebula’s Easy Manifold (Cannabis Main-Lining Tutorial) appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> Kodiak’s Complete Guide to Topping, Training and Pruning Marijuana Plants https://www.growweedeasy.com/kodiak-marijuana-training-guide?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kodiak-marijuana-training-guide Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:16:47 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/faq/a-complete-guide-to-topping-training-and-pruning-marijuana-plants/ by Kodiak

How To Improve Your Marijuana Harvest

Table of Contents

The post Kodiak’s Complete Guide to Topping, Training and Pruning Marijuana Plants appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> by Kodiak

This Tutorial Teaches you How To Improve Your Marijuana Harvest

Table of Contents

I got some requests for pointers on how to train your plants for a maximized crop, so I put this guide together. I will cover the basic idea behind the various techniques and how to apply them, sometimes in combination, for the best results. All of the techniques mentioned in this guide can be used both indoors and outdoors with equal results.

Introduction

At first glance plants seem simple but when we take a closer look at how they work we soon realize that they are in fact very complex. They rely on many different mechanisms of development and survival and are quite versatile when it comes to adaptation. Plants orientate themselves according to sunlight by a mechanism that is called phototropism. This means that the plant will always try to find the best way to capture the light by changing its shape and redirecting its leaves. Branches elongate, shoots twist and curl around obstacles in order to reach the light. The roots in turn orientate themselves according to gravity, which is called gravitropism. This means that if you tilt a potted plant on its side, it will grow into an s-shaped curve, shoots towards the sky and roots towards the earth. We are however only interested in phototropism as we can utilize this natural response in order to shape the plant as we see fit.

It sometimes helps to think of the plant as a factory, where the leaves are the solar panels that provide the energy needed for production. That in turn is directly dependant on the availability of raw materials (including CO2 and water), something that you have to provide for the plant. Some of the raw materials are absorbed through the roots, so they are just as important as the leaves. The production can be divided into growth (expansion) and upkeep or maintenance. Maintenance has higher priority, although the plant will also relocate energy from less productive areas to areas that are more efficient. You can assist the plant by pushing the production towards the top of the plant, where there is more light but more on this later. There are many other things that you need to factor in but assume that the plant is always trying to make the most out of what is available to it. Plants may appear to be static but they are in fact in a state of constant flux, where the energy equilibrium is always shifting and readjusting.

Cannabis plants grow in the triangular shape of a Christmas tree in the wild. This shape is the most efficient when a plant is part of a densely packed community. Seeds usually fall close to the mother plant and tight clusters of plants are formed. Outdoors the sun rises and sets and moves across the sky during the day, so every part of the plant receives some light at one point or the other. This is not the case indoors, where the light source is stationary. The light always comes from the same angle, usually from above. This means that the natural shape of the plant is perhaps no longer the most energy efficient and most of the time the light does not reach the lower parts of the plant. Our artificial lights simply do not carry the same strength as the sun and parts of the plant are left in the shade or at least receive less light that the top shoots. Height is also an issue indoors as we have limited space for the plants to grow in and cannabis plants can grow very tall.

That is why a number of techniques have been developed in order for us to gain more control over the plants but also in order to maximize their indoor potential. There are several ways to approach this problem and each technique provides a slightly different solution. Some of the techniques work well together and I will present them here so that you can decide which path to chose.

Topping

Topping the plant means that you remove the main shoot located on the central stem. By doing so you will encourage the plant to grow into a bush with a lot of shoots instead of one big main shoot that you get on the untopped Christmas tree. You will effectively invert the triangular shape of the plant from a pyramid to a cocktail glass.

Topping the plant enables you to make the most out the the relatively limited light source that you have at your disposal in the indoor environment.

The reason why the plant behaves this way when it is topped is because the centre of growth control is located in the apical meristem or main shoot. The main shoot sends suppressive hormones down to the lower or axillary shoots which stops them from growing rapidly. This is called apical dominance. This mechanism does not stop the lower branches from growing but as long as the main shoot is intact it will be largely favored as the plant increases in height. By removing the main shoot, the branches beneath it become free to grow at full rate in order to take its place. Please note that when the top shot is removed, the plant will no longer continue to grow in that location, so you have to make sure that there are enough secondary shoots to make up for the loss.

The main shoot also has other functions. It communicates with photosensitive pigments located in the leaves. The information that these pigments receive dictates the behavior of the plant. Shoots on branches that are in the shade will be supplied with growth hormones in order to elongate and catch up with the rest and this might waste precious energy. I will explain more on this topic later on.

Flowering in plants is triggered by two things. The first part of the system is called the Circadian Rhythm, which is basically an internal biological clock. This biological clock is an evolutionary response to light and darkness and is tightly linked with hormonal functions in the plant. Certain things are supposed to trigger at certain times of the day but also at certain times of the year. The second part involves hormone signaling mechanisms, messenger molecules and specifically encoded proteins that tell the plant to start budding based on the information that it receives from the environment.

The plant knows when to trigger flowering because the sensory pigments in the leaves keep track of the photoperiod or the hours of daylight and relay this information to plant. The spectrum of the sunlight also changes with the seasons, which provides the plant with the information that it needs to trigger flowering.

The sensory pigments also inform the plant of how much sunlight a certain part of the plant receives, which enables it to relocate energy and growth hormones to where they are needed. Shoots that are stuck in the shade will elongate and that means building more stem. This energy could have been spent on other things, like bud nodes, which is why we try to help the plant to become more productive by topping and training it.

There are several types of hormones that regulate growth and behaviour. One of the most important growth hormones is called auxin. It originates in the main shoot and is part of a mechanism called the auxin transport system. This hormone plays a big part in the internal signaling and growth control mechanisms of the plant. It also regulates the formation and behavior of other growth hormones that are responsible for everything from root growth to the formation of flowers.

By removing the main shoot, the communication between the leaves and the main shoot ends, effectively canceling out the apical dominance. The result is that the plant assigns the next shoots in line to the job. This means that the smaller shoots on the branches beneath the cut start growing faster and gain size. Since there is no more apical dominance, the plant will grow into a bush because the newly appointed main shoots all have equal priority. These shoots usually grow very slowly when the plant is left untopped. The new main shoots will in turn suppress the shoots that are located further down on the main stem, so sometimes it is best to top the plant several times in order for it to fan out properly. Some say that it is best to top the plant at night when most of the hormones have been sent to the roots. This means that there is a smaller chance of the plant being stunted after the main shoot has been removed.

There will be a short period of time when the plant is in something that could be called a state of confusion. It will stop all activity until it can figure out what is going on. It will resume vegetative growth as soon as the hormonal functions are up and running again and the dominant shoots have been appointed. It should take no more than a few days for this to happen, a week at the most.

Most of the time this transition is quite fast but some plants that respond poorly to topping might display stunted growth for a while. It is possible to top a plant many times, each time the number of dominant shoots will double. Give your plants some time to grow before you top them. If they are topped too early they might get stunted for a while, mainly due to the loss of photosynthetic tissue. I do top them quite early sometimes as you can probably tell from the pictures that I have included. Go by your feelings, once the plants look strong enough you can start topping and training them. Look for secondary growth at the lower nodes, that usually means that it is safe to top the plant. When the plant has formed the fifth pair of leaves, it should be ok for you to remove the main shoot.

This is a good way of training the plant if one wants to make the most out of the space available. Topping is also a good way of slowing down plants that tend to stretch a lot as each time the plant is topped it will redirect energy to a greater number of dominant shoots. The new shoots will never grow as large as the untopped main shoot will but they will most likely yield more in total.

There is also a technique called FIM (Fuck I Missed) topping. By leaving a small portion of the growth on the main shoot intact, the plant will for some reason assume that four shoots, instead of two, are the dominant shoots and they will grow evenly in height. The success of this method is usually up to the luck of the draw but you should make the cut circular so that the remaining tissue forms a cup. Similar results can however be achieved by topping the plant twice.

Here are some plants in various stages of training.

Super Cropping

There is also a technique called super cropping, which involves the crushing of the soft inner tissue of the stem. This technique will allow you to gain some control over the plant, but it is mainly used to increase health, potency and yields. This soft inner tissue is made up of cellulose and forms a network of vascular tissue that can be divided into two groups; namely the xylem and phloem. These two are responsible for the transport of water and nutrients along the stem.

Breaking the plant’s inner walls will cause it to rebuild. The plant will rebuild the tissue stronger than before and this is why this technique can increase the harvest. While rebuilding the tissue the plant expands on the cellulose network, which is why the stem grows thicker than before at the point where it was crushed. This allows for a greater transport of water and nutrients, which will directly affect the yield.

Think of it this way; instead of having a two way street for water and nutrient transport, you now have a multi-laned super highway.

If you pinch the main stem it will grow very thick, which will benefit the entire plant. Pinching the side branches will allow you to have more control over how she takes shape. Thanks to the bend on the newly crushed branch you can now redirect it in any way that you see fit. This will also allow more light to reach the lower buds. Since the branch will grow stronger at the breaking point, it will also be able to support more weight. The branches that are closest to the breaking point will also grow stronger in order to compensate for the injury.

Here we can see how the stem has grown stronger where the vascular tissue was damaged and then repaired.

The idea here is to gain some control over the shape of the plant while improving on health and increasing her yield. Pinched plants usually grow into very healthy bushes with thick stems and branches. Super cropping is also a good way of getting several main colas. The pinched branches will eventually grow so thick that the plant will treat them as if they were dominant shoots instead of secondary branches.

Super cropping should be carried out during the second or third week of vegetative growth. Take a branch between your forefinger and thumb and proceed to pinch and twist at the same time until you feel the insides start to collapse under the pressure of your fingers. Slowly squeeze and bend the stem without snapping it. Just squeeze lightly until you feel the branch give, then let go. The branch might droop for a while but that’s ok as it will heal over time.

Keep in mind that sometimes you will have to keep the plant in a vegetative state slightly longer than usual as it takes the plant some time to repair the broken tissue and redirect energy. Plants are quite good at repairing these kinds of injuries, so there is no need to worry. In the end the plant will grow very strong and healthy. You might have to provide the pinched branches with some kind of support until they heal or the angle might become too extreme. Regular string will work just fine.

Topping and super cropping both serve the same purpose, the difference being that when you super crop a plant, you don’t actually remove anything from it, you just bend it out of the way. The plant will however behave in a similar way because the main shoot is now located lower down than the secondary shoots. The result is that the plant sends up the secondary shoots as if the main shoot was actually removed. The secondary shoots can in turn be pinched and the effect is shifted towards shoots that are located further down on the stem. You will end up with a relatively even canopy which is good because then all the shoots will receive an equal amount of light.

Topping and super cropping should be considered mutually exclusive but a number of the other techniques can be used to further improve on the yield.

If this technique is applied correctly and with patience, the outcome will most likely be a stronger, bushier plant and a greater number of main shoots. The procedure can be repeated several times during the vegetative stage for even better results. I would like to point out that the vegetative stage is not set within a certain time frame. You can extend it as far as you like in order to have more time to shape the plant. Most plants won’t start flowering until they are put under a 12/12 light schedule. I usually wait at least until I see preflowers before I put the plants into flowering stage, this also gives me enough time to work with the plants.

Low Stress Training (LST)

Topping the plant or Super Cropping it can be considered High Stress Training (HST), which might upset the plant to some degree. There is however another option called LST or Low Stress Training.

Topping and low stress training work quite well together but it’s not necessary to top the plant in order to start the training. Some people prefer to leave the plant untopped and tie down the main shoot at ground level instead. This will have the same effect as topping it because once again, the centre for growth control located in the main shoot will dictate how the plant takes shape. When the main shoot is tied down, all shoots above it will grow more rapidly as the plant now assumes that the main shoot is gone.

These diagrams, originally posted by big_buddha, illustrate what I am talking about. These are excellent diagrams so many thanks to the creator.

It is possible to keep tying down each new branch as it pops up, which will result in a plant that grows into a dense bush with an even canopy. LST training combined with topping can be a very effective way of creating a plant that makes use of all the available space. If there is enough time for it, top the plant several times and keep the internodes as short as possible by bringing the light in closer. More nodes means more bud and less stem means less energy wasted. Training the plant in this manner takes some time and there is no way to reach good results by being in a hurry. As you can see, the plant in this picture has been both extensively topped and trained. If you look closely you can see where the branches have been tied to the pot. Tying down the branches in a circular fashion will help the plant to take on the desired shape.

There are many ways to train a plant and each plant requires a slightly different treatment. The goal is however to get a plant that looks like the one in the picture above. Once that plant goes into flowering it will have numerous shoots with many nodes. You can probably see what I mean. Once the bush gains size and starts to stretch, you will have to start pruning it carefully and wisely.

Just to demonstrate how many different ways a plant can be trained, here are some pictures of plants in early training. All of them were topped first. By training a plant you can also slow down the stretch, especially in pure or sativa dominant plants that tend to stretch more than indicas.

This Oldtimer’s Haze was stretching a lot and had quite long internodes so I topped it and trained it to grow around itself and eventually it grew into a sphere.

This Kali Mist plant was stretching for the light but did not like to be topped so I tried to slow it down by tying down the branches horizontally. In the end this plant preferred a few main colas so I stopped the training shortly after. Some plants will resist any attempts of training and respond poorly when you try. These plants will probably yield more when left untopped.

Here is an example of Ingemar’s Punch that went through some serious LST training. This plant resembles a creeper vine more than a bush. Here the goal was to keep the plant as low as possible but usually the plant is allowed to grow in size and height so that it produces a larger crop. This example however illustrates the possibilities when it comes to training. Remember that even if your grow room is limited in height, you are not restricted to growing solely Lowryders or other strains that stay low and small, as any plant can be trained to grow in any manner or shape. This opens up possibilities for stealthy cab and pc grows. You just have to reserve some time for the training during veg and perhaps you will have to continue the training during flowering as well, like in the example above. Anything is possible.

Topping and training is also a good way to keep mother plants from growing too large. There are several good threads on how to keep bonsai moms on this forum so I will not venture further into that topic.

 

Scrogging Cannabis

 

Scrogging, or Screen of Green means that you suspend a net over the plants and allow them to grow through it. This makes it easier to separate the growing branches so that they eventually cover the entire area of the grow room. The Scrog net also provides support as the buds can often become so heavy that that the branches cannot support them anymore and break under the weight. Thereby the Scrog net also removes the need for noisy fans, used to make the stems stronger through the waving effect. Personally never use fans due to limited space. If you can keep the temps within optimal levels, you don’t really need them. The added support from the scrog net usually becomes necessary at this stage because the branches can be quite thin compared to the bud that they are packing.

I usually train the plants for up to two months before flipping the switch, which means that they are thick stemmed and quite large in size. If you can arrange for a separate vegging and flowering area, you can start training plants in one room while the others happily flower away in the other. Although plants can be kept very low with training, my aim is to grow large and busy plants that produce the maximum amount of bud. Due to the long vegetative period, the plants are strong and healthy with an abundance of bud sites. Keep in mind that the plant also stores up energy in the leaves. This energy will then be used during the flowering stage to produce bud. Naturally, the plant continues to feed on the nutrients in the soil but the energy reserves ensure that your plant will maximize its yield.

I try to keep the canopy even by topping the plants that stretch more but sometimes that’s impossible, especially when growing both indicas and sativas at the same time. One has to make adjustments according to the needs of the plants and direct longer branches to the corners of the grow room. Different plant require different training. Sometimes the only option is to bend down and tie the branches horizontally so that they are resting on the Scrog net. This can be a strange sight as the flowers keep growing vertically out of the side of the bud.

You can scrog almost any plant so keep that in mind. It makes no difference whether you topped them or super cropped them. The scrog net is just a tool that gives you more control in the grow room.

 

The basic idea is that the training should be complete by the time the plants start flowering and grow through the net. Sometimes a second Scrog net or string is necessary higher up if the plants need further support.

There are also different methods when it comes to Scrogging, some people tilt the net so that one side is higher than the other, as this provides a greater surface area for the buds. There is also vertical scrogging, which is a unique method of growing, where the light is hung vertically in the centre of the room and the plants are trained to grow around it. This is perhaps the most efficient way to make the most out of indoor lighting. Look it up if you are interested, there are some very good guides here on the forum.

 

Sea of Green

 

Sea of green or SOG is the method of growing where a multitude of smaller plants are grown instead of few large ones. These smaller plants will mature faster and in less time than larger plants and one crop can be started while another is maturing. This saves the grower a lot of time and money as less time is required between crops. This method is also good for those wanting to make the most out of their smaller grow area.

Twice as many plants grown half as big will fill the grow space twice as fast, so harvests take place almost twice as often.

Although SOG is more of a style of growing than an actual technique that can be applied in order to increase the harvest. I still wanted to mention it here as this method of growing will under the right conditions actually increase the harvest. As opposed to growing a few larger plants in the same area, that is. Since you want the buds to cover as much of the grow area as possible, 1-4 plants per sq. ft. is a good rule of thumb for SOG. More light in the grow room also allows for more plants.

Plants should naturally not be topped when using this method as the idea is to harvest the main cola from a whole bunch of smaller plants and topping them defeats that purpose. Plants that favour the main cola make excellent SoG plants. The light can be kept closer to the plants and it reaches all the way down since the plants will be a lot smaller and shorter than in a normal grow. Perhaps this picture will illustrate my point.

The SOG plants do not require any training as that will only slow them down and delay the harvest. It is probably better to just grow more plants instead and fill out the entire surface area with as many plants as possible. In case the smaller plants do not fill up the entire area of the grow room, some minor LST training might be needed in order for them to branch out a bit more.

The SOG grow can also be Scrogged for further control over the plants. In order for this method to be truly effective, all the new plants would have to be clones from the same mother. That means that all the little plants will grow at the same rate, which is important for keeping an even canopy.

Although no topping and training is needed when growing SOG, the trimming of branches and fan leaves, especially lower ones, becomes a must because every little bit of space counts towards the harvest. By removing excess fan leaves that would otherwise block bud sites, the SOG grower improves on his yield. Since SOG grows usually contain a great number of plants in a relatively small area, the need for trimming fan leaves becomes apparent. After all, what we are after is a bountiful harvest and different methods apply to different styles of growing.

Monster Cropping

Monster Cropping or Flowering Clones is another method of growing that was brought to my attention by one of our members; JWP, who also was kind enough to provide the pictures for this part of the guide. This method involves taking clones of flowering plants and then forcing them to root and re-veg, which eventually leads to very bushy plants with a great number of branches and nodes. I named this technique Monster Cropping because that is what you will get, real monster plants, but also because this method was introduced to the scene by a grower named greenmonster714. He in turn credits a grower named Feral for discovering this technique.

Taking clones from flowering plants goes against all that has been said about cloning cannabis and might therefore seem a bit confusing at first but the science behind the technique is sound and the results speak for themselves.

You start by taking clones of a plant that is about 21 days into flowering. This seems to be the best time to do it but you can also take clones at a later stage with similar results. The lower branches make better clones as they have not yet become rigid and will also root faster and more easily than say the top cola. Move the new cutting into a glass of water and let it sit for a while in order to make sure that no air gets into the vascular system during handling, as this can be fatal to your new plant. You should make the cut so that it runs along the stem as this will increase the surface area for water and possibly nutrient uptake, depending on what method of cloning you use. Personally, I have found that using a small hydroponic setup or a propagation bubbler to be by far the best way to clone cannabis plants. I will not expand on the subject of cloning here, if you need more information on how to clone your plants, have a look at the official cloning thread by JJScorpio

In the picture below, you can see how the clone from a flowering plant been has placed in a propagation bubbler for rooting and re-vegging. This also means that you will have to put the clone back under a veg light schedule of 20/4 or even 24/0. Any less and the clone might just continue flowering. Clones do not need strong light so a small CFL will do. You can remove some of the buds and leaves at this stage in order to encourage the plant to revert back into its vegetative cycle but leave the topmost shoot alone.

It will take several weeks for the clone to root, some never do, so it is best that you take a great number of clones at the same time in order to ensure that at least one makes it on to the next stage. It might be a good idea to place the clones inside a humidity dome, which can be bought at gardening stores or custom built for your specific needs. The high humidity inside the dome will make sure that the plants do not dry out and die. Ventilate the dome every day just to make sure that the plants don’t get attacked by mold.

Keep in mind however that the most important thing when it comes to cloning is to provide the fresh cuttings with plenty of oxygen and that is why the propagation bubbler is so effective compared to other methods.

The clones might be a sad sight at first but as soon as they root, they will also revert back into the vegetative stage and start growing again. Once the clones have rooted properly and started growing again, they will put out single unserrated leaves at first but the normal leaves are soon to follow. It might be a good idea to apply some training at this stage, tying down some of the tops will encourage even more branching. You can also provide some heat underneath the clones as this will speed up the rooting process considerably.

When the plant starts growing again, the incredible branching power of the flowering clone becomes apparent.

As you can see, this plant has grown into a real monster, and all this without ever topping the plant. That’s the beauty of this technique; you can forget all about topping and FIM’ing since the flowering clone will sprout all these new branches all by itself.

This plant is now perfectly suited for a SCROG or perhaps even a SOG grow. This one plant can easily fill up an entire Scrog net in no time. Several of these plants grown in SOG will definitely give you a grand harvest.

There are other benefits from using this technique; it also removes the need for keeping mother plants. When the newly re-vegged plant is flowered, it can also provide more clones for a perpetual harvest. Recycling at its best. This might be of interest to those who need to keep down their number of plants.

Needless to say, this method is highly effective thanks to the heavy branching that occurs after a flowering clone is re-vegged. With further training and some patience, you will get some real monster plants and thereby also a monster harvest.

Pruning Cannabis Plants

When the plant is left to grow as it chooses, it usually has more branches than it has the energy to support. This means that a lot of energy is wasted on smaller branches, especially the lower ones. The energy need is spread out over so much growth, that in extreme cases flowering takes a very long time as the plant tries to supply energy evenly to every location. By removing some of the less important and weaker branches, you can ensure that the larger branches produce a greater amount of high quality bud. As some of the branches are removed, more energy becomes available to the plant. The bud on the lower branches that receive less light usually end up as single “pop corn” buds that never truly mature, so it is best to remove them at an early stage. These branches also have a tendency to stretch for the light and that results in fewer buds because a lot of energy is wasted on building stems.

You become the investment planner for you plants. Observe the growth and remove any branch that has long internodes (the space between the nodes) and any branch that stays significantly lower than the main shoots. These branches will get very little light and they will also have a hard time finding their way up to the well lit area. Most of the time I end up removing almost all the growth underneath the Scrog net, I only leave the fan leaves intact until the plant drops them by itself after the energy has been recovered. Leaves will go yellow naturally during the grow, when the energy is needed elsewhere. This starts at the bottom and moves its way up during flowering. There is no need for concern unless the top leaves are yellowing first or lose vigour too early.

When it comes to removing leaf material opinions vary, some remove leaves and others, like myself, chose not to. I have tried both methods and can honestly say that there is no positive effect really from removing leaves. Some say that defoliation gives you more bud but I have observed thicker, heavier and healthier buds when I leave the “solar panels” alone. Keep in mind that fan leaves are the primary location for photosynthesis and that the plant also stores surplus energy in them. By removing the leaves you do double harm; you handicap the plants ability to produce vital energy and you also remove the energy that has already been stored for future use. Furthermore, although it cannot be observed with the naked eye, some light actually passes through the leaves and that is why some of the lower growth stays green throughout the entire grow. It is better to tuck or tie the leaves under the canopy so that light reaches more bud sites, or alternatively cut the leaves in half.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is a hormonal response in plants to being wounded. This includes a growth inhibitor called jasmonic acid. It tells the plant to favor defense over growth. The more you remove at any given time, the greater the response. This translates into stunted growth in extreme cases. It is therefore wise to trim the plants gradually throughout flowering, instead of removing all the growth at once. This hormone also plays a part in regulating the formation of trichomes, and that is probably why a little bit of stress is thought to increase potency. There is however a difference between stress and torture, a healthy plant will always produce more bud than a plant that has been severely handicapped.

Since most of the photosynthetic activity takes place in the leaves, the buds themselves do not need light. The primary function of the floral structures is to produce seeds, not photosynthesize. The smaller leaves on the bud provide them with energy locally but for the most part it’s the larger fan leaves that supply the plant with energy, especially the roots. The larger fan leaves have the greatest surface area and also the greatest concentration of chloroplasts, which are small cell structures that contain chlorophyll, and we all know that plants use chlorophyll to capture sunlight. It is however important that the lower shoots receive some light or the plant will start to elongate the branches, which results in fewer nodes and longer internodes. This is counterproductive since we want as much bud as possible. This is where a Scrog net comes in handy, you can redirect the branches and tie down the leaves without removing them and thereby allow more light to reach the lower buds while no energy is lost.

By pushing the production towards the top of the plant, you ensure that you will get many large shoots that are located in the well lite area.

Sometimes you do not have a choice and must remove some of the growth in order to ensure that you get a good harvest. It all depends, some plants respond well to rigorous pruning but in general I would advice that you keep it to a minimum since there are optional methods to removing the leaves altogether. The rules of pruning are a bit different when it comes to SOG grows as you might have to remove some of the fan leaves because the plants are packed so close together, shading each other.

I think that the best advice is to watch your plants closely and adapt your technique and grow style according to the needs of the plant.

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to growing weed.

All grow rooms are different and so is each strain of cannabis. In fact, every plant is different from the next so you will have to try out what works best for you and your plants. I hope that this guide at least gave you a general idea of what the methods are and how they can be applied for a greater harvest. Try out different things and keep an open mind.

Happy growing,
Kodiak

 

Jump to…

How to grow short, bushy plants – several techniques

Defoliation: Controversial Technique to Increase Yields

Supercropping: Simple Secret for Total Plant Control

Low Stress Training (LST) Guide

 

 

 

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]]> “Main-Lining” Tutorial by Nugbuckets: Train Marijuana Plants for Bigger Yields & Flat Canopies https://www.growweedeasy.com/mainlining-nugbuckets?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mainlining-nugbuckets Tue, 25 Jun 2013 01:52:46 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/faq/main-lining-tutorial-by-nugbuckets-train-marijuana-plants-for-bigger-yields-flat-canopies/ by Nugbuckets (creator of the mainlining cannabis technique) – This cannabis mainlining tutorial was compiled and edited by Nebula Haze with permission from Nugbuckets. Read Nebula’s Manifold Tutorial: https://www.growweedeasy.com/manifold Table of Contents Intro to Main-Lining Benefits of Main-Lining Theory Behind Main-Lining & Nugbuckets’ Discovery Step-By-Step Tutorial – Main-Lining Technique (mainlining when starting from seed) Clone-Modified...

The post “Main-Lining” Tutorial by Nugbuckets: Train Marijuana Plants for Bigger Yields & Flat Canopies appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> by Nugbuckets (creator of the mainlining cannabis technique) – This cannabis mainlining tutorial was compiled and edited by Nebula Haze with permission from Nugbuckets.

Read Nebula’s Manifold Tutorial: https://www.growweedeasy.com/manifold

Table of Contents

What is “Main-Lining”?

Main-lining is the act of training a cannabis plant to form a “hub” or “manifold” off a single node, creating a center for equal energy distribution from the roots to each cola.

An example of main-lining: Notice how nugbuckets has created a "hub" or "manifold" for even energy distributionExample of a flowering marijuana plant grown with main-lining

See that main-lined marijuana plant at harvest…. Nothing but huge, dense buds!

That same main-lined marijuana plant grown out - NugbucketsTrimmed, main-lined marijuana plant at harvest - Nugbuckets

Hub: A place or thing that forms the effective center of an activity, region, or network.

Manifold: A pipe or chamber branching into several openings, “the pipeline manifold”

The difference between main-lining and traditional marijuana growing methods explained in picture format - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

The result of main-lining marijuana is an even canopy and bigger yields with little extra effort.

No more larfy popcorn buds stealing energy away from the main colas!

Here’s a few more marijuana main-lining pictures so you can see what I mean about the effortlessly even canopy. Main-lining is effective for increasing yields both indoors and outdoors.

Outdoors – Greater stealth & control

Main-lined marijuana plant outdoors - Nugbuckets

Indoors – Easy flat canopies & bigger yields with the same grow lights

Main-lining produces an effortlessly flat canopy when growing indoors - making good use of your grow lights

Forward by Nebula Haze: Nugbuckets is a talented marijuana grower and photographer who pioneered the term “main-lining” to describe his technique for marijuana training.

You can view his original set of posts about main-lining in their entirety here on Rollitup.org. You also don’t want to miss his Nugbuckets’ Lab thread where he posts additional pics and info about the main-lining technique as well as growing marijuana in organic soil.

In the original Nugbuckets main-lining threads, you must scroll through hundreds of pages to access all the information he generously put out there for the growing community. I have taken his work on main-lining marijuana and condensed it into one easy-to-navigate single-page article. Please note that Nugbuckets is the owner of ALL his photos!

I hope you enjoy this article and I encourage you to visit his original main-lining thread to offer your own support to Nugbuckets and let him know we are all interested in future growing information and pictures from him!

Benefits of Main-Lining

  • Bigger Yields – With the exact same setup
  • Set It and Forget It – After the initial training done during the very beginning of the plant’s life, you don’t need to do much else to get the benefits of main-lining
  • Effortless Canopy Management – Colas tend to naturally grow to the same height
  • Fatter Colas – Each cola grows to a similar size and weight, simplifying the drying/curing process and producing fat, even colas
  • No More Larfy Buds – No small, leafy “popcorn” buds to drain energy away from the main colas
  • No More Uncontrollable Stretching – Because energy is distributed evenly among all colas, main-lining reduces the undesirable “stretch” of just some colas when plants first switch to the flowering stage – this stretch often causes height/space problems for indoor growers
  • Indoors – More From Your Grow Lights – Get bigger yields from the same grow lights and setup
  • Outdoors – Increased Control and Stealth – Gain greater control over the dimensions of your final plant (for better stealth and reduced chance of mold) and produce a more desirable and consistent final product

Here is a picture of Nugbuckets showing off the fat, evenly shaped colas he produced from one plant using the main-lining technique

Picture of Nugbuckets showing off his fat, even colas from main-lining

(click pic for close up)

Main-Lining is just a concept about building a plant off a single node. You don’t have to get everything perfect to reap huge benefits. Many growers do main-lining their own way, and still get the rewards as long as they build their hub / manifold off a single node.

Main-Lining is an incredibly powerful way to gain complete control over your plants in small spaces, and also gives outdoor growers the power to control the size and shape of their plants for more consistent yields.

One of the best things about main-lining is that it’s a “front-loaded” process. Most of the work happens right at the beginning of the plant’s life, during the first few weeks. After that you mostly get to lay back and reap the benefits.

Set Up Your Hub / Manifold In the Early Vegetative Stage
(take a few weeks at most, when starting from seed)
Example of radical main-lining a marijuana plant - Nugbuckets

Then just sit back and allow plants to grow into this naturally efficient shape
Radical main-lining plant grown out - by Nugbuckets

Bonus: The main-lining technique can be adapted to produce plants that fit in almost any space.

As you’re growing out young plants, simply pay attention to building thick stems from a single node on the trunk, (aim for a high VCSA – vascular cambium surface area) to evenly deliver nutrients from the roots to each of your colas.

That’s it.

It doesn’t matter how a grower achieves this. This tutorial and all the examples should get you started, and I encourage you to adapt this technique to suit your own setup and growing style.

The Theory Behind Main-Lining

Note: “Main-lining” is a name that was first coined by Nugbuckets. Nugbuckets says he is sure main-lining has been done before and it probably even has a name, but he just naturally started calling it main-lining and the name has stuck for growers around the world.

Main-lining is a form of plant training to help cannabis plants grow evenly, with only fat colas and no tiny “popcorn” buds that many growers just throw away.

These tiny buds take away energy from the big colas. Many growers choose to “lollipop” their plants by trimming away all the lower growth, yet main-lining takes lollipopping to a new level, with better results and less wasted energy.

What’s the Difference Between Plain Lollipopping and Main-Lining?

With main-lining, you create a plant where every cola is exactly the same number of “steps” away from the roots. All colas originate from the exact same part of the marijuana plant, which naturally causes each cola to receive an even amount of nutrients and energy.

As a result, plants grow with an even, flat canopy, which produces the best yields for indoor growers using grow lights. Many different training techniques can be used to produce an even canopy, yet main-lining seems to be one of the most effective technique for small-scale marijuana growers.

With main-lining marijuana plants, the purpose is to build a “hub” off of a single node, creating a manifold for equal energy distribution from the root mass to the growing tops.

This pic shows what i mean by “manifold” really well…….my little V-8!

Example of a main-lining "manifold" by Nugbuckets

Notice how there is a main “hub” (manifold) to distribute energy evenly to all colas

First You Create A Hub So Each Cola Gets Equal Access to the Roots

With main-lining, all the branches/colas on a marijuana plant come off of the same node on the trunk. Each cola then gets an even amount of hormones and nutrients (growing supplies) from the root mass.

Basically you are building a “hub” from the roots, make sense?

This hub or “manifold” allows your plant to evenly distribute energy to all of the colas, so your canopy naturally grows flat, even and orderly.

Main-lining allows you to grow flat indoor plants, to take the best advantage of your indoor grow lights

All you have to do is follow the steps of creating a hub in the vegetative stage, and your young marijuana plants will naturally and automatically grow into this efficient shape, without much, if any, further work needed from you.

Therefore one of the big benefits of main-lining is it takes a lot of the hard work out of canopy management.

I am all about creating an even canopy of similarly sized stems and colas, like green lady soldiers lined up ready to kick ass and take names. No weak colas, no runts, no spindly branches. I love that with main-lining you pre-build your canopy so everything grows even and consistant.

Anyone who has grown indoors knows how hard it can be to produce an even canopy. Especially when you’re growing in a small space, you’ve got to be able to keep your plant as short and wide as possible to take advantage of your indoor grow lights.

If you don’t train your plants properly, it reduces your overall yields because some colas get bigger and taller than others, and then they block other bud sites from getting light.

With main-lining, you want all your colas to come off the main stem, like spokes on a wheel, so each of them is almost exactly the same as each other.

Take a look at this hub / manifold from a main-lined plant that had 16 main colas at harvest –
Notice how the growth is symmetrical on each side of the main split

Manifold ("hub") from marijuana plant that was main-lined for 16 colas - Nugbuckets

This means that each cola gets to share nutrient pathways with all your other colas. This allows your plant to form just a small number of very efficient pathways, instead of spreading energy by making uneven pathways to many different nodes on the main trunk.

Main-lining is easy to accomplish when a marijuana plant is grown from seed since seedlings grow symmetrically. It’s more difficult to main-line marijuana plants grown from clones since they usually do not grow symmetrically, but it’s still possible.

I’ll cover both methods in this article. Jump directly down to the…

How Nugbuckets Discovered Main-Lining

When I first started growing marijuana, I would top the main cola, and leave two nodes coming off the main trunk. This is structurally similar to what growers do when they FIM the plant. I’d begin to build my bonzai-type structure while trying to manage the canopy as well as I could.

Yet no matter what I tried, I still noticed a huge difference in the energy output of the colas originating from the upper and lower node, even when they were separated by mere inches on the trunk. They grew similarly, but colas still varied quite a bit.

Then it hit me, even a single inch on the trunk separating the two nodes was the key to these differences.

Even a single inch of space separating two nodes coming off a main trunk, like the plant in this picture below, will cause the colas to grow differently from each other

This is the result of FIM, not main-lining

I wondered what would happen if I created a single manifold to distribute all the energy evenly from the main trunk.

In my next grow, I decided to build the entire structure off of a single node to create my manifold….

"Underskirt" view of the single node manifold / hub - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

The results spoke for themselves… Creating a manifold off a single node caused the plants to naturally grow with more orderly canopies and long, dense colas. This technique also revealed a variety of other unexpected benefits.

Main-lining was born!

Main-lined Ace of Spades - by Nugbuckets

Disclaimer!!! Some strains are better suited than others for the main-lining method. The best strains for main-lining display “single cola dominance,” which means that it tends to grow in the class “Christmas tree” shape of Indicas, Afghani strains, Kushes, etc.

Sativa dominant strains often do not grow in this shape, and tend to have lots of secondary branches naturally spring up. Clones also tend not display the same level of single cola dominance as plants grown directly from seeds. With that being said, main-lining can be used with all strains and even clones to optimize the nutrient distribution from the roots and create more balanced plants.

I’ve included several specific examples of main-lining below so you can see how the main-lining technique differs for different strains and growing styles.

Back up to the Main-Lining Table of Contents

Overview of the Basics:
How to Use The Original Main-Lining Technique
(Starting from Seed)

Table of Contents

What You Need To Start Main-Lining

The simple canopy rings I use are made from a heavy duty tomato or peony cage commonly found in garden stores. I cut and bend the bottom to spect. You should modify your canopy ring as needed for your setup.

Modifed heavy duty peony cage for main-lining - Nugbuckets

When combined with soft ties, the hoop allows the grower to instantly modify the footprint of the plant simply by sliding the stems along the perimeter of the ring. This can come in very handy, when “puzzle piecing” plants into a defined space!

Nebula’s Main-Lining Strain Pick: BlackJack

Nirvana's famous medical BlackJack strain is perfect for main-liningA BlackJack marijuana harvest
Why Did Nebula Pick Blackjack? This highly medical strain by Nirvana is easy to grow, responds like a champ to main-lining, and produces a Jack Herer / Haze style buzz

Notice how the peony cage is "wrapped around" the plant, giving it a circular shape

Step 1: Wait until marijuana plant has 5-6 total nodes

Learn how to germinate marijuana seeds

I believethe optimal time to start main-lining a healthy marijuana seedling is when she has 5-6 total nodes. Wait a little longer if you feel the plant is not growing fast and healthy.

Note: a node is a pair of growth tips that are directly across from each other.
Each growth tip has the ability to become a new main cola.
What is a "node" on a marijuana plant? It's a set of growth tips, almost always nestled in the elbow of 2 fan leaves

This BlackJack seedling is ready to start main-lining!
This BlackJack marijuana seedling is ready to start main-lining!

This seedling is also ready
This marijuana seedling is ready for main-lining - Nugbuckets

You can still use this technique if your plant is bigger and has already grown more nodes, but please note that this technique involves cutting off the top of your plant down to the 3rd node. So the bigger your plant is when you start main-lining, the more this technique will set you back, timewise.

So if you start with a bigger plant, you will be losing more of the time and effort your plants already put into their growth.

However, other than the time lost, there’s no reason you can’t start main-lining an older/bigger plant.

Just make sure the plant is still in the vegetative stage! Never start main-lining a plant that has already starting flowering (making buds).

You could start with a much bigger plant if you want – this older plant can still be main-lined
(you’ll just lose the time spent growing past the 5th or 6th node)

This older marijuana plant can still be main-lined - you'll just lose the time it spent making the extra growth you're cutting off

In our experiments, we’ve found that main-lining when the plant has 5-6 nodes in total seems to get the best results with the least amount of extra vegetative time. With a plant this size, you get all the benefits of main-lining, without really adding much more time onto your grow.

I do not recommend cutting small plants with less than 5-6 total nodes. Especially young clones! (Note: This step-by-step tutorial is specifically for plants grown from seed, though you can jump down to the speficic process about main-lining clones) It is important that your plant has had time to establish a healthy root mass and be growing vigorously. When this technique is applied to younger plants, it tends to really slow down plant growth for quite a while.

Step 2: Top plant down to 3rd node (cut stem above 3rd set of leaves)

How to top a marijuana plant down to the 3rd node - Main-Lining Step 2

Cutting off the top of your plant is a technique known as “topping.” So a common way you’ll hear marijuana growers give these instructions is to say to “top your plant down to the 3rd node.”

Why Top Instead of Fim?

You can throw the top part of the plant away or you can replant this top and use it to create a new plant which is an exact copy (clone) of your original plant.

Learn more about using cuttings to produce new marijuana clones

After this step, your original plant should have just 3 nodes in total.

Step 2b: Remove all growth below the 3rd node

Remove all the growth, including cotyledons and fan leaves, below the 3rd node.

This third node will become the center of your main-lining manifold, and by removing all other growth, you are telling the plant to send all energy and effort to developing just that node.

Therefor the purpose of this step is to leave just the two stems/growth tips coming from the 3rd node, so that the roots only have to bring energy to this one hub / manifold. This will allow you plant to distribute energy evenly to all parts of the plant.

Remove all growth below the main node - Mainlining

Another example of topped plant, showing where to cut so you remove all growth below the 3rd node

The 3rd node is going to become your manifold / hub, so with this step, you “tell” the plant to put energy only into the two growth tips on the 3rd node. Once the other growth tips are removed, the plant will divert all energy into the one node that’s remaining.

Your plant should look something like this after this step

Main-lining - topped the 3rd node and cleaned - Nugbuckets

Or this…

This plant has been topped to the 3rd node, and all growth below the 3rd node was removed - Main-lining tutorial

Are you worried about taking off too much?

You may want to leave extra fan leaves on the plant for now, including the ones which are directly attached to the 3rd node.

What’s most important in this step is removing extra growth tips below the 3rd node.

Leaving extra fan leaves is a big time-saving tactic, especially if your new main node hasn’t grown out much, such as in this example below.

This plant only has two growth tips left. The fan leaves powering this node are left on.
This plant was a bit too young to start being main-lined . She definitely needed the extra power from a few extra fan leaves to provide energy to the two tiny growth tips, so they grow out quickly.

With any plant, leaving a few extra fan leaves temporarily can help power the growth of nearby nodes.

Step 2c: Secure 2 new mains at right angles from the ground

Tie down your two new mains gently, so they form a right angle from the ground (or as close as you can).

If you waited until your 5th or 6th node to start-main-lining, you’ll probably be able to do this step right away. However, if your 2 mains are too small to tied down, give your plant a couple of days so the new mains can grow out. Once you have enough growth on your mains to safely bend, it’s time to start this part of Step 2c.

Each strain grows differently in each setup. Some plants need extra time to grow out new mains. Other plants will already have long enough stems already that you can tie them down directly after the last step.

Some strains respond well to bending and training, others don’t. Listen to your intuition. If you do happen to snap/break one of your stems, just tape it back up with duck tape and the plant may be able to heal herself.

I tend to really be a tad rough with my marijuana plants because I’m so familiar with how they grow, and I know when I’m pushing them too hard. If you’re ever worried that you’re moving too fast, then give plants a day or two between each step so you can see how they will react.

Slow, gentle movements will prevent injusty, while being one of the best ways to learn what your plants like and don’t like.

In a stressful environment (such as very hot temperatures, if the plant is young, or if the plant is suffering from a problem/deficiency), it’s always better to err on the side of waiting a little bit too long between steps, just to give your plant time to adjust and make sure she will be able to handle the bonding / pruning / training.

This is how Nugbuckets bonds his mains down – to the extreme with thick bendy wire
(these stems will turn back up towards the light in just a day or two)

Nugbuckets - how to bond 2 mains for main-lining

Secure mains down without cutting into them. This is important!

You can use almost anything to tie down your plant, as long as it isn’t thin enough to cut into the “skin” of the plant. Softt gardening wire, coat hangers, or anything relatively thick and bendy will do the job. Avoid string as it will cut into your plant!

This hydroponics plant was secured down with garden ties that were curved into hooks so they wouldn’t directly cut into the plant – the other sides were hooked to the reservoir

Secure your 2 mains down gently, so they form right angles with the ground (as best you can)

Tying down your two mains coming out of the hub will keep your final plant much shorter overall, and this will give your main trunk the signature “main-lined” appearance.

Nugbuckets originally perfected main-lining in a 3′ tall cabinet, so every inch of vertical height was crucial. If growing indoors in a small space where lack of vertical space is an issue, definitely don’t skip this step!

Quick Summary of Step 2

This one full plant in the middle shows the “before”. The rest of the plants illustrate the “after” of what your plants should pretty much look like at the end of Step 2

Step 2 "before" and "after"

Step 3: Allow plant to start growing vigorously again, then top all main colas symmetrically to double the number of mains

Watch the new colas (mains) you created in the last step.

Wait until plant has started growing fast and healthy. You will know it’s time to take Step 3 when you notice your main colas are stretching upwards and growing heathfully.

Some growers wait for each main to grow out a few nodes, while other growers (including Nugbuckets) will often cut the plant after seeing just the growth tips fully formed.

These plants are green, healthy, and growing fast – they’re ready to be topped again

This marijuana plant stretching upwards, and is ready to be topped again

This main-lined marijuana plant is growing fast, and ready to be topped / pruned again - Nugbuckets

Look along the length of your mains for nodes to become your new mains – nodes should be located in the same place on each side of the hub / manifold

On each main, choose a node. The nodes you choose will form the basis of new mains after topping the plant.

The most important aspect of this step is to make sure you choose nodes in the same place on both sides of the plant. This is very important to the efficiency of your hub / manifold.

Try to choose nodes that have symmetrical growth when possible, yet don’t worry if you can’t – main-lining will work as long as you choose nodes in the same place on both sides of the manifold.

Try to choose symmetrical nodes to top, when possible

Once you’ve chosen your nodes, top to that node (cut stem directly above the node).

Cut stems directly above your chosen nodes

Top to your chosen node, being careful not to damage the growth tips

Make sure you do this in the same place on every main, so every node you cut exactly matches one you’re cutting on the other side of the manifold.

Be careful not to damage the growth tips coming out of the node as each one will soon become a new main.

For now, leave the fan leaves directly attached to the new mains. These will power their growth.

After
All your old mains should now look something like this – notice the two growth tips at the end, which will become new mains.

After cutting above your chosen node / topping to your chosen node

Each time you top all the mains on a plant, you will double the total number of main colas, so after this step, you will have twice as many mains as you had before.

Step 3b: Remove extra growth tips below your new mains

Nugbuckets will usually do this step directly after the last step. Some growers, especially beginner main-liners, may choose to wait a few days to make sure the plant has responded well to being topped, before removing the other growth tips. There’s more room for error that way.

You can choose to leave or remove the fan leaves, Nugbuckets tends to remove all fan leaves except the ones directly attached to the remaining mains.

What is most important is that you remove all growth tips besides your new mains. You want your plant to be putting all her new growing energy into your chosen mains. Every other growth tip just steals energy away from the manifold you are creating.

Before

Remove all growth tips besides your new mains - Main-lining tutorial

After

Just your chosen mains are left (all other growth tips have been removed)

Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until you have the desired number of colas (keep topping plants until you have 8, 16, or 32 mains)

As Nugbuckets mentioned, each time you top the plant, it doubles the total number of colas. This is because you’re essentially splitting a main cola in two with every topping.

So you top a plant once for 2 main colas, top a second time for 4 mains, top a third time for 8 mains, etc.

This chart should help you figure out how many times you want to top your plant in total, and how many colas will be produced. There’s more information below the chart about why.

Chart showing how many times to top your plant in total for your setup

Growing Indoors: Top 3 times for 8 colas

As a general rule, when growing indoors under grow lights it’s best to have 8 total nodes. This means you will top the plant a total of 3 times, including the first time.

Growing Outdoors or in Greenhouse: Top 3-4 or more times for 8-16+ colas

When growing outdoors it’s best to have 8-16 total nodes or more to take advantage of the light of the sun and allow your plants to grow into huge bushy monsters. This means you will top the plant a total of 3-4+ times.

Growing Scrog Style: Top 5 times for 32 colas

When growing using the Scrog technique, I prefer to produce 32 total nodes to get the most out of each plant under the Scrog net. This means you will top the plant a total of 5 times.

I only use the Scrog technique when growing a Sativa dominant strain (as these tend to make lots more secondary branching and “fill out” more than Indica-dominant straains). I always allow the plant to have some time to stretch and really fill out under the net before I initiate flowering.

What does main-lining look like with a ScrOG setup?

Picture Example – Marijuana plant topped for 8 final mains

Before – 4 mains

This plant currently has 4 main colas - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Before – Side view

4 Main Colas Sideview - Main-lining tutorial by Nugbuckets

After

Same plant after being pruned for 8 mains (and secured to the sides of the pot)

After being pruned for 8 mains - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Just a few days later, her 8 new mains are already pointed up and facing the sun

8 mains - Faces have turned up just a few days later - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Picture Example – Plant topped for 16 mains

After waiting for the 8 mains to grow out a bit, you can prune / top again for 16 mains, like this plant

Pruned for 16 main colas - Picture by Nugbuckets

And so on, until you have the total desired number of mains.

Remember! More main colas is not necessarily better. For most setups, I’ve found that 8 or 16 main colas is the optimal number. Unless you’re growing in a ScrOG setup, more mains usually won’t result in bigger yields, but those plants do take longer in the vegetative stage.

Step 5: Attach plant to tomatoe ring for easy control over all colas (optional)

Tomato ring or peony ring is the perfect tool to attach your mains toYou have done all the work of building your manifold, and now you are just guiding your plant into your desired shape.

Some growers choose to secure their mains in other ways, for example using gardening wire to attach colas to your growing pot / hydroponics reservoir, or installing a ScrOG net.

I personally prefer to attach the plant to a cheap and simple tomato ring, as this provides a great scaffolding.

These rings (sold as heavy duty tomato rings or peony rings) usually come much too tall, so I cut them down to spec.The exact size you want depends on your setup. I generally cut them so the hoop rests about 14″ above the soil. You would want to go taller for bigger plants with more colas.

You will be able to secure your colas to the hoop as they grow (I use soft ties, so I can slide the colas around as I “piece the plant together.”

Soft ties are a great way to secure mains to the ring

Use soft ties to secure your colas to the ring, and you'll be able to "slide" your colas around until you find the optmal configuration

These tomato hoops will givs you an easy way to produce the flat, even canopy that most growers want.

If growing indoors where vertical height it limited, I will lightly supercrop plants to keep them ultra short and even, especially if I notice any colas growing taller than the rest.

You can either attach all your colas to the edges of the rings, or you can leave a few colas unattached so they take up the middle part. So for 8 colas, you would have 6 of the colas attached to the hoop, and 2 of the colas would be free to grow in the middle.

Step 6: Remove any clips or wires once the plant shape and manifold are fully formed

Remember that any clips or wires you use to hold down your plant are only for temporary bondage.

Pay attention to how tightly and how long they are wrapped around a specific branch or trunk.

Once the manifold and plant structure is formed, you can and should remove your bonds. If left on for too long, your wires can girdle and eventually damage / stunt the plant.

Step 7: You’re pretty much finished! Now you mostly just sit back and let main-lining do the rest of the work for you

At this point, you’re pretty much done!

Allow plants to continue to grow vegetatively until the tops of the mains have reaches about 6″ above the top of the ring (or about 20″ from the base of the roots). At this point, switch to the flowering stage and then you just let your plant do her thing!

Unlike most other forms of marijuana training, main-lining is a front-loaded process. Once you’ve reached Step 7, there’s very little you need to do besides keep your plant alive and happy until it’s time to harvest.

Learn the basics of caring for your marijuana plant

If you notice any mains getting taller than the others, you can gently slide that cola around the tomato ring until it’s a more even height, or if you haven’t used a tomato ring, simple pull that main out and away from the center of the plant and secure it down.

You can also use light supercropping to bend mains to an even height with your other colas while she’s still in the vegetative stage.

Remember, you can use the soft ties and canopy ring to gently manipulate your plant as needed to fit into pretty much any sized space. I originally perfected this technique in a 3′ tall cab!

Other than some light bending, your plant should naturally grow into a shape like this, producing huge, fat and dense colas that get the most out of your light!

Main-lined marijuana plants naturally grow into a flat, wide shape like this - by Nugbuckets

Starting From Clone: Main-Lining Picture Tutorial by Nugbuckets

The main-lining clone tutorial has been moved to its own page for easy access.

View the full tutorial for main-lining clones by Nugbuckets

Main-lined hub of a marijuana clone

Starting From Seed: Nugbuckets Grow Journal – 8 Colas

This plant is from the strain “Ace of Spades” and was grown from seed.

I will build a foundation to support 8 fat, long and equal colas, coming from a central manifold, so none of the colas will be discriminated against by the roots.

I have already topped this marijuana seedling down to the third node. I removed the first node. You’ll see that I left the 2nd node below the main hub for now. I am leaving these two growth tips so they can grow out and be cut off to produce 2 perfect clones.

If I wasn’t saving the extra growth tips for clones, I would have removed all the growth below the 3rd node.

This plant was topped to the 3rd node, then allowed to grow out 2 nodes. The bottom growth tips will be removed and turned into clones.

In the following picture, you can better see how the top node has been perfectly prepped to produce 4 new mains. Each side of the top node has two perfectly symmetrical growth tips.

Marijuana seedling has been prepped for 4 mains - Main-lining tutorial by Nugbuckets

After the extra node (the two growth tips on bottom) are removed to create clones, I will prune the rest of the plant so there’s just the 4 mains, and adjoining fan leaves. Everything else is removed.

Pruned the 2 mains for 4

Now I will bond the 4 new mains down to the trunk.

Nugbuckets - how to bond 2 mains for main-lining

It only takes a day or two before the seedling gets her stride back and those faces are turned up again.

Marijuana seedlings gets stride back - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

This quick recovery is due to the fact that we allowed this seedling to grow out quite a bit initially, and build up a strong healthy root mass. Here’s what she looks like from the top.

That seedling from the top / side - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

After the marijuana seedling recovers from her initial bonding and pruning, she is pruned a third time for 8.

Before – 4 mains

This plant currently has 4 main colas - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Side view – 4 mains

4 Main Colas Sideview - Main-lining tutorial by Nugbuckets

I choose a matching node on each of my 4 mains, and top / prune them so there are two matching growth tips left at the end of each one. I remove any other growth tips besides my chosen 8.

I remove the initial ties, and bond the 8 new mains down. This time I’ve bonded the mains to the sides of the pot.

You can bond to anything that is convenient, though it’s usually easier to bond to the plant itself or the pot instead of something on the floor. This allows you to easily pick her up and move her around without messing up the bonding.

After

Marijuana seedling pruned for 8 and bonded to pot - Nugbuckets

After being pruned for 8 mains - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Closeup of bonds
(I use garden soft tie, which is thick bendy wire that can be cut to any size)

Close-up of marijuana main-lining bonding - Nugbuckets

She quickly will turn all her new mains upwards, like little faces peaking up at the sun.

After just a few days, that same plant now looks like this.

8 mains - Faces have turned up just a few days later - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

After the plant has fully recovered, and appears to be growing fast and healthy, I transfer her into her bigger flowering pot. I use organic supersoil without added nutrients, so it’s essential to transfer marijuana plants so they have enough nutrients in the soil to last all the way to harvest.

I add a canopy ring for future bending/training, and allow the young plant to veg for about two weeks.

Marijuana plant is transferred to bigger pot with canopy ring - Nugbuckets

You may choose to top all the nodes again for a total of 16 mains. Yep, you can go to 16, or even to 32 if you desire! Perhaps you may even go to 64, if it strikes your fancy, though I think 64 spreads the energy out too much unless you were doing some sort of serious ScrOG setup with a very long vegetative period.

Two weeks later…

2 weeks later, her vegetative growth has reached the ring - Nugbuckets

The vegetative growth has reached the top of the hoop!

Tomato ring or peony ring is the perfect tool to attach your mains to

Sometime 1 or 2 mains will get a bit taller than the others. When this happens, some simple supercropping can come in handy. It’s usually the center mains that do this, if any.

Now the plant is set up similar to a ScrOG setup. She has all these mains that are exactly as tall as the tomato ring, kinda like how you want all your mains to fill up the area below the ScrOG screen before you allow any of them to start growing above.

Unlike ScrOG, main-lining takes way less time. It should only take a few light pinch/bends to keep all your mains orderly if you’ve main-lined properly to this point. With ScrOG, you can spend hours grooming your plant and trying to keep everything even and under the ScrOG screen.

Now that everything is even at the tomato canopy ring, it’s time to allow the mains to grow out 3-6 inches before the plant is put into the flowering stage, or allowed to enter flowering.

Allow mains to grow to 3-6″ above the ring, or about 16″-20″ above soil-line

Allow the mains to grow a few inches above the ring - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial (from seed)

Notice how I’ve trained 6 mains around the outside of the ring, with two mains in the middle
(you can see younger plants being main-lined on the sides)

Main-lined marijuana plant with 8 main colas - Nugbuckets tutorial

Initiate Flowering

At this point, when your plant is 16-20″ above the soil line, it is time to let her enter the flowering stage.

In the following pic, you can see our main Ace plant at the top, plus another Ace plant I main-lined which was topped an extra time for a total of 16 mains.

8 main colas vs 16 main colas with main-lining - Tutorial and Picture by Nugbuckets

After about 2 weeks of receiving a flowering light schedule (at least 12 hours of dark each night), you’ll notice that 50-75% of the flowering stretch is already complete.

Use Soft-Ties To Bond The Mains To Canopy Ring

At this point, the understory can be pruned (lollipopped) if you desire, and her giant “re-bar-like” stems can be softly tied to the ring as needed

Soft ties gently bond mains to the ring:

Use soft ties to secure your colas to the ring, and you'll be able to "slide" your colas around until you find the optmal configuration

On an 8-headed plant, I usually leave 2 mains in the center and tie the other 6 around the edges of the perimeter.

I also have run all 8 mains around the outside. This can be a really great choice, especially for outdoor growers who suffer from mold, or growers who live in a high-humidity area. It really helps get air moving through all parts of the plant when the center is completely opened up, and this combats high humidity and susceptability to mold.

Underskirt view of main-lining cannabis - Nugbuckets

View of the main-lined manifold - Tutorial by Nugbuckets

Full underneath view of main-lined marijuana plant - by Nugbuckets

"Underskirt" view of the single node manifold / hub - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

Here is the same plant after 3-4 weeks of flowering. At this point, I don’t really have any work to do. I just allow the manifold to produce even, fat & incredible colas for me. Main-lining does all the work for you at this point!

These fat, even colas are the result of main-lining - Tutorial by Nugbuckets

….things are getting really exciting now!….. You can also see pics of the 16 headed main-lined Ace, which has been allowed to continue growing out vegetatively this whole time.

8-headed cannabis plant is starting to fade as buds thicken and harvest approached - Nugbuckets

8-headed cannabis plant from side - Nugbuckets

8 Cola plant and 16 cola plant started at the same time, but the 16-headed plant needed much more time in the vegetative stage - Nugbuckets

Harvest Time!!!!…….eight perfect donkey dicks!….not that a donkey’s dick is perfect by any means…..you know what i mean!….

Example of a flowering marijuana plant grown with main-lining

That same main-lined marijuana plant grown out - NugbucketsTrimmed, main-lined marijuana plant at harvest - Nugbuckets

Main-lined marijuana plant at harvest after being trimmed - NugbucketsSee how the main cola is resting on the tomato ring - Nugbuckets main-lining tutorial

An example of main-lining: Notice how nugbuckets has created a "hub" or "manifold" for even energy distribution

Huge, dense, cannabis flowers at harvest! - Nugbuckets showing off his harvest

Nugbuckets shows off his main-lining harvest bowl!

A question about how you main-lined these plants grown from seed…

Question: First off a huge thanks to Nugbuckets for sharing this with us. This is a fantastic walk thru of the main-lining method and I’d like to give it a try very soon.

However, after seeing this picture tutorial, I have a couple questions.

Do you begin by topping just above the second true node? You later remove the first nodes for clones leaving the second topped node as the working “main”? (To become the hub / manifold)

Then after some growth you top a second time and begin the bondage of the remaing four “mains”?

I’ve posted images below of your pictures with illustrations of what I’m asking. Am I on the right track?

Thanks for any answers!

A question about the seedling in the Nugbuckets seed main-lining tutorial

Are these the 4 new mains?

Are these the 4 new mains?

Nugbuckets: where you have it marked “topped again” is the four mains…… one is hidden, but on the other side you can see the 2 growth tips coming out of the old main.

You can clearly see in the first pic that we are working the second and third true nodes on the trunk….the cody leaves are still attached, then the first true node (which was removed before any pictures were taken), then the clone node, then the hub.

Question about Nugbuckets seed main-lining tutorial

Nugbuckets: Yeah bro, you got it….. Hope that clears things up for you!

Picture Gallery – 16 Colas

….these mainlined Ace’s went into their sun pots yesterday….they are pruned for 16, and have a good four weeks of heavy veg in front of them to build a good root mass, and fill out nicely….note….velcro did not work on these large tan smarties, so i went with the coated wire……..just temporary until i get the mains soft-tied to the canopy ring….

These main-lined Aces each went into their sun pot yesterday - Nugbuckets

I’m using coated wired to temporarily hold these girls in place, until they reach the canopy ring and I can use soft ties

Main-lined marijuana plant pruned for 16 colas - Nugbuckets

Here’s more pictures of that 16-headed main-lined Ace from before

16 colas on this cannabis plant - view of the manifold - by Nugbuckets16 cola Cannabis Plant - view from above - by Nugbuckets

…gallery of a different 16 headed main-lined Ace of Spaces….pheno #2

16 Headed Ace of Space cannabis plant - by Nugbuckets

16 headed Aced of Spacdes cannabis plant - side view - by Nugbuckets

At harvest after being trimmed

16 cola Ace of Spades cannabis plant at harvest - trimmed - by Nugbuckets

Here’s what those beautiful nugs look like up close!

Beautiful main-lined nugs at harvest! - by Nugbuckets

A view of the manifold for that 16-headed girl

Picture of a main-lined marijuana manifold / hub - by Nugbuckets

Harvest Weights – 8 Mains vs 16 Mains?

……so after all the bud is gone…..and there was a lot of it!……”8 heads” yielded 6.67 zips with zero larf on a 32 inch plant, “16 heads” yielded 7.31 zips with zero larf on a 27 inch plant!!!!……

……..the main-lined plant still continues to give, and is a humble reminder of what can be accomplished when we quiet the noise in our heads enough to hear the secrets this plant unselfishly gives….much love and peace to all of you…….nugbuckets

Continue below for additional questions and answers about main-lining by Nugbuckets!

About Nugbuckets

“I really believe it is just a matter of time before a whole lot of growers world wide will be main-lining….it is a fucking game-changer!”

Nugbuckets showing off his huge main-lined marijuana colas….I started growing in a closet. It was a 32″ x 32″ x 48″ (tall). I was determined not to outgrow my space…..

I would grow 4 plants in 3 gal. nursery pots under a single 400 watt HPS……I learned very quickly that if I wanted to end up with something smokable, I had to learn bonzai techniques in a hurry to manage my plant heights……

I started in with LST (low stress training), and managed a very, very modest harvest my first few attempts…….as each run progressed, I would find myself getting really anal about properly managing my 32″ x32″ canopy where i would jam up to 48 colas in my tiny space, and strive to make the canopy as flat as possible……

……… i began to reap some pretty respectable harvests…….of course i would be topping the main, and spreading out the footprint of each plant, but my finished colas were not very consistant overall as far as size and weight were concerned…..and i would still end up with a fair amount of “larfy” popcorn bud from the understory, which was undesirable for me because i, and my newly found patients, were primarily flower smokers……..so i dug deeper……..and soon found myself in a slighty larger grow space, in a completely legal situation, allowing me to openly work on my developing theories………

……..my next grow i topped the main, and left two nodes off the main trunk, built my bonzai type structure, managed my canopy really well, but still noticed a huge difference in the energy output of the colas originating from the upper and lower node, even though they were separated by a mere inch on the trunk…..they were similar, but still varied quite a bit…….i did however end up with a decent canopy, and harvest…..i was getting closer……

…..then it hit me, that single inch on the trunk separating the two nodes was the key…..so my next grow, i decided to build the entire structure off of a single node….

….Main-Lining was born…..

100% Medically Compliant
Striving to grow the most beneficial medicine possible…

A view of Nugbuckets wearing a very special t-shirt and showing off his muscles

Get Answers to Your Main-Lining Questions!

Why top the plants instead of FIM?

Question: With FIMing, you get 4 colas from one, instead of only 2 like with topping… It seems like it would be more efficient to just FIM the plants, right?

Answer by Nugbuckets

When you FIM the plant, you do get 4 main colas, but these come from 2 different nodes on the plant.

(What is FIMing?)

The point of main-lining is to get all colas to originate from ONE node, and FIMing can’t accomplish this.

Even when the nodes are less than an inch away from each other, it seems to make a difference as far as how even the colas grow.

Result of FIM:

This is the result of FIM, not main-lining

Result of Main-Lining:

Picture of a main-lined marijuana manifold / hub - by Nugbuckets

Notice how in the main-lining example, all the colas originate from a single node on the trunk, like the trunk was split directly in two. This is the result of topping. This even split is one of the central principles of main-lining.

When you top the plant, you create 2 colas from 1 (you double the amount of colas), and each new cola will start at the same node. This is one the most important parts of main-lining; getting all the colas to originate off one node on the main trunk.

When you FIM the plant, you are still training your marijuana plants, and you may be making the energy distribution more efficient, but you are NOT main-lining.

I encourage growers to experiment and find out what works best for them. However, if you want to try main-lining, you must commit to topping your plants a few times, and you must avoid FIMing!

What is the difference between main-lining from seed or from clone?

Question: You say that main-lining is best done on seedlings which keep their symmetry, but could it be done on clones? I know the fact that the main arms are coming off of a central hub is nice, but will it work when they start alternating (as clones tend to do)?

The second question is, since you are doing it from seed, what happens if they happen to be males? I normally watch the nodes looking for sex, but this seems like it would make it hard. Are you waiting until flowering to see sex?

I plan on doing a trial run on some fems I’m gonna pop. Ones that I don’t necessarily mind botching if I screw up, lol. Not that I don’t trust you perse… Mainly because I don’t trust me, lol. And I would hate to botch some seeds I care about because I’m a bonehead, lol.

Thanks again for sharing your invaluable information with us boneheads. MI power!

Answer by Nugbuckets:

It just makes things easier when the plant is symetrical, but it certainly can be done with clones…. check out the sub-tutorial i wrote about clones………i force early sex when the little plants are about 8 inches tall, before pruning for 2…….

Followup question: When you say force early sex, you mean you will flip your seedlings to 12/12 and then flip them back to 18/6?

Nugbuckets: Pretty much. I just switch to 12/12 around day 21 from when seeds first sprouted, when they are about 8 inches tall… it takes about 5 days to weed out the males…..then i immediately top them, switch back to 20/4 and start my mainlining gig….

Can you use main-lining in a hydroponics setup?

Question: Is it possible to run this type of grow in 2 gal buckets in a hydroponic setup and still see considerable yields?

Answer by Nugbuckets:

i am not the guy to ask anything about hydro…..but main-lining has little to do with medium, it is a way to evenly distribute energy to the colas from the medium….will work with any medium…..hope that helps some, again, hydro just is not my field…..nugs

What does main-lining look like in a ScrOG Setup?

Answer by Nugbuckets:

Here’s a 32 headed Vortex modular scrog/light dep/10 gal smartie/super soil…… She yielded over 10 ounces at harvest! She was just 23 inches tall from the soil line

Main-lining Scrog - 32 Colas on this marijuana plant - by Nugbuckets

Side view

Scrog main-lining setup - Vortex cannabis plant - by Nugbuckets

How early can I start main-lining a young marijuana plant?

Question: Why can’t I just top a young marijuana seedling right away and start main-lining from there?

Here’s an example of a very young plant that I just started main-lining – what’s wrong with starting this way?

A marijuana seedling which has been main-lined

Answer by Nugbuckets:

I know it can be tempting to get the ball rolling on the girls when they are really small, but experience is showing that if we wait a little longer for the root mass to build up a bit, the plants respond to pruning/training almost twice as fast.

The above ground growth can only thrive if it has enough root mass below it.

Also, be aware that the string you’re using is too thin and might cut into your plant.

How much can I expect to yield per each plant with main-lining?

Answer by Nugbuckets:

This method is a killer……if done right, you should get anywhere from 3.5-5 ounces per plant, but as you know, there is a whole lot more that goes into a high yielding grow than mainlining alone….

i can say this…..if you had identical grows side by side, and one was mainlined…and this was the only variable…you would see a 50-100% increase in yield overall….

i went from yielding consistantly just over 20 zips in my space, to pushing 40 every run…..(on average)……we just yielded 10.76 zips on a single Vortex plant in a 10 gal. smartie…

How long do I wait until I top the first time? What type of timeframe should I be looking for?

Answer by Nugbuckets:

Just wait until your plant is about 8-10 inches tall, and has grown the sixth node or so.

As far as timeframes, it is hard to give a clear answer because every strain and setup produces plants that grow differently. That’s the main reason why I haven’t put together a day-by-day guide.

Some strains respond well to training, some hate it. Each unique strain and setup will produce plants that have varying degrees of vigor.

I’ve had growers send in pics who have successfully main-lined strains I didn’t think would respond well to main-lining, such as tall, lanky equator Sativas or bagseed… and the pics show they still get amazing results!

Clones are another story because they really know their own personality as far as growth patterns are concerned. By the time you have a plant that is growing from clone, it has already developed “genetic memory” on how to grow. Plants from seed also have genetic memory, but their behavior can be worked with and altered to a certain degree. Think of it like “Teaching an old dog new tricks”….dig?

How long does main-lining take?

How much extra time does main-lining take compared to letting the plant grow naturally?

Answer by Nugbuckets:

There has been some confusion as to building a manifold, and how much time it takes, i have found that building a proper manifold only adds an average of 10-21 days on to the total veg cycle, but i average about 14 days……

the more you Main-Line, the more you will learn exactly when the plant is ready to be pruned and bonded….one must watch the plant very closely for her to tell you when she is ready to be pushed….

newbie growers don’t really have this down yet, and it translates into added veg time…….also, clones take longer period…..

i highly recommend beginners starting out main-lining with a seedling, they are geneticly programmed to build a strong root mass out of the gate, (which is critical when it comes to how quickly the young plant will recover from pruning/bonding), as they are putting on early vegatative growth….a clone is a bit more tempermental…..

What’s the Difference Between Lollipopping and Main-Lining?

Lollipopping A Marijuana Plant

Lollipopping means removing the lower growth of the plant that doesn’t get good access to indoor grow lights. This lower growth would only produce “popcorn buds” if anything at all, but still uses a lot of resources from the plant.

I still use some amount of lollipopping (clearing extra larf from the bottom of the plant), but lollipopping is often used to make up for bad planning in the early stages of a plant’s life.

Look at the picture below of a plant which was grown naturally then lollipopped:

Example of lollipopping a marijuana plant so you can see the difference between this and main-lining

Notice how much growth gets wasted when a plant grown naturally is lollipopped. This grower reports they let the plant get too big and then cut off nearly a 1.5 month’s worth of growth from the bottom to try to make sure the plant would put that energy into producing dense buds on the colas closest to his indoor grow lights. That means 1.5 month’s worth of electricity and money was wasted compared to if the grower had trained the plant properly from seed.

The removal of the lower growth allows the plant to put her energy into the top growth when producing buds (since the top is closer to the grow lights), but the plant still has the undesirable “Christmas Tree” shape that does not allows the entire plant to get good access to light. Only one or two colas will end up being fat and dense. The lower parts of the plant will produce tiny buds that many growers throw away.

Main-Lining Is Much More Effective Than Lollipopping For Producing Fat, Dense Colas In A Short Amount of Time

Set Up Your Hub / Manifold In the Early Vegetative Stage
(take a few weeks at most, when starting from seed)
Example of radical main-lining a marijuana plant - Nugbuckets

Then just sit back and allow plants to naturally grow into this shape
Radical main-lining plant grown out - by Nugbuckets

More answers to your questions by Nugbuckets coming soon!

Jump to…

Supercropping: Simple Secret to Bigger Yields

Check These 7Things & Cure 99% of Marijuana Growing Problems

When Do I Harvest?

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The post “Main-Lining” Tutorial by Nugbuckets: Train Marijuana Plants for Bigger Yields & Flat Canopies appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> Complete Guide to Cannabis Plant Training https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-plant-training?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cannabis-plant-training Sat, 08 May 2010 19:03:11 +0000 https://www.growweedeasy.com/newsletter_issue/complete-guide-to-cannabis-plant-training/ by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

Introduction to Plant Training: Indoor Training Tactics for Bigger Yields!

Three Main Types of Plant Training

1.) Bending & Securing Parts of the Plant

The post Complete Guide to Cannabis Plant Training appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

]]> by Nebula Haze

Table of Contents

Introduction to Plant Training: Indoor Training Tactics for Bigger Yields!

Three Main Types of Plant Training

1.) Bending & Securing Parts of the Plant

2.) Damaging or Removing Parts of the Plant (in a Strategic Way)

3.) Manipulating Timelines to Get Faster Yields

Why Does Plant Training Increase Yields?

Introduction: How to Train Indoor Plants for Bigger Yields

Are you interested in increasing your yields when growing indoors? If so, you’re in the right place! Plant training is one of the easiest ways to increase your cannabis yields without having to upgrade your light or setup. It can be used to increase your yields up to 40% compared to not training, and it’s free!

First off, what is plant training?

“Plant training” means physically manipulating the plant so it grows more bud sites, resulting in increased yields indoors

Example of an untrained cannabis plant vs a trained cannabis plant. The au naturel plant only has one long, thick cola, while the trained plant has many.

Why not let cannabis plants grow naturally? Cannabis naturally grows in a “Christmas Tree” shape that is optimized for sunlight, not grow lights. Unlike the sun, cannabis grow lights do not rise and set every day, providing light from the sides. Furthermore, indoor grow lights have almost no penetration when compared against the sun; the light from a 300W LED grow light is usable for a few feet while light from the sun is usable to plants after traveling 93 million miles!

Even outdoors, lower buds tend to grow smaller than the top ones (cannabis is a wind-pollinated plant and favors buds that are higher up). But the lack of growth in lower buds becomes more pronounced indoors. With grow lights, the vast majority of the light produced is aimed straight down over the top of the plant, and in most setups the sides don’t get much light at all. Because of these reasons, the Christmas Tree shape can be really inefficient indoors, causing your plant to have just one big, top bud and many smaller ones that don’t weigh nearly as much.

The main idea of cannabis plant training is to create several top colas to take the best advantage of indoor grow lights so less light is lost and yields are higher overall.

Make many cannabis colas instead of just one!

This cannabis plant was topped and then bent with low stress training (LST) to grow multiple colas, increasing yields dramatically!

Three main types of marijuana plant training

  1. Bending and securing parts of the plant while causing little-to-no physical damage to the plant
  2. Damaging or removing parts of the plant in a strategic way to get it to grow in a more desirable shape
  3. Manipulating timelines to get faster or bigger yields

Usually, growers will use more than one of these types of training because they can complement each other, but it’s also possible to use just one and not any others. For example, when growing auto-flowering strains you can’t manipulate timelines and it’s generally advised not to damage the plant since they have such a short life and that could result in stunting. So for auto-flowering plants, the main option is just bending and securing.

Next: a breakdown of each plant training technique so your garden has tons of colas!

Cannabis colas - although these plants aren't ready for harvest yet, the colas are huge, and there's TONS of them! Maximizing the amount of colas you grow will increase your yields!

Bending & Securing Parts of the Plant

Bending and securing parts of your plant is usually referred to as “Low Stress Training” (LST).

General Low Stress Training (LST) – LST is the process of bending stems and securing them in place. The general idea is to bend tall stems down and away from the middle of the plant as it grows so the plant takes on a more flat and wide shape. This should be started when the plant is still a seedling since its young stems will be flexible, while the stems of older plants become rigid and woody. Some growers use the term “LST” as an umbrella term to cover all types of plant training, while others use it to refer only to bending.

Plant Twisty Ties are commonly used to secure stems in place after bending them over, but lots of growers get creative (pipe cleaners, soft coated wire, etc). Just don’t use anything “sharp” like chicken wire because it cuts into the plant as it grows.

After bending/LST use something like plant twisty ties to secure stems in place (or they'll soon grow right back up to where they were!)

This grower consistently bent the tallest stems down as the plants grew, resulting in a flat, table-top shape

Example of a grower tending to his cannabis garden by bending over the tallest stems down and away from the center of the plant so that it grows flat like a table

When the plant starts making buds, this flat, wide shape results in multiple colas that are all around the same distance from the light

Example of two manifolded cannabis plants with many colas - training makes a huge difference to yields!

Read the complete article on Low Stress Training.

No-Technique Plant Training – This is cannabis plant training in its most basic form. If it’s your first grow and you want to keep things simple, or if you  don’t have much time and want to do the bare minimum to get results, this is for you!

The main stem was bent over 90° when the plant was very young, so all the lower branches were able to grow up and become main colas. Bending the main stem was the only training done to this plant, no fancy techniques!

Example of untopped plant that has been trained purely with LST - the arrow points at the main stem, which has been bents completely over

Read the complete article on No-Technique Plant Training.

Supercropping – this technique is a more “extreme” kind of bending, and is used for stems that are too tall but have become woody and difficult to bend. With supercropping you “soften up” the stem first before bending it at an extreme angle. Supercropping can be incredibly helpful towards wrangling an out-of-control plant, and it has a few other benefits too because it can stress the plant in a “good” way.

Supercropping involves extreme bending, but without hurting the “skin” of your plant

Extreme LST - This example of super cropping shows extreme bending.

Read the complete article on Supercropping.

Screen of Green (ScrOG) is a technique where growers use a screen over their plants and weave stems through the screen as they grow. When the plant starts making buds it’s already in a flat, table-top shape with lots of well-spaced bud sites under the grow lights. The screen also provides support for heavy buds.

Example of Screen of Green (ScrOG)

ScrOG - example of marijuana plants in a "Screen of Green" setup

Read the complete article on Screen of Green.

 

Damaging or Removing Parts of the Plant

These training techniques all involve pruning the plant in some way to improve growth and increase yields indoors.
Topping & FIMing are ways of damaging the plant at a very young age to lead to plants growing m0re bud sites.

In this next picture, notice how the plant sort of “splits” at one point near the base of the plant. That split is where the plant was topped or FIMed and the apical dominance was broken. As a result, the plant turned many stems into main colas instead of only growing big buds on one main stem

Topping or FIMing your cannabis plant gives you a result like this - many colas emerging from the plant at one main spot

Read the complete article on Topping & FIMing

Topping – The idea is to completely remove the top of the plant’s main stem as a seedling. This breaks its apical dominance, or tendency to grow one main cola, and immediately splits the plant into two main stems. As a result of being topped at a young age, the plant will naturally grow multiple colas even if you don’t do anything else.

Definition of "topping" cannabis - Topping means to cut off the top of a stem. It can refer to the main stem, but also other stems can also be topped.

Example of topping a plant - topping instantly splits one stem into two new main stems

FIMing – A very closely related technique to topping. The idea of FIMing is to damage or “shave” the top of the plant instead of removing it completely. This can accomplish many of the same goals as topping, but has less of a chance of stressing the plant. The downside is it’s more likely to fail at actually breaking apical dominance (plant may still tend to grow one main cola).

Topping vs FIMing a cannabis plant

Learn more about topping vs FIMing.

Manifolding – This describes a sequence of topping the plant two times in a specific way so that it forms a wide “manifold” at the base of the plant. This is an easy way to achieve a lot of training without much time on your part. A benefit of training the plant with manifolding is buds tend to grow bigger, longer and more uniform than they would with some other training methods. The downside is topping your plant twice can add a week or two onto your grow.

Example of a trained (manifolded) marijuana plant that has many colas

Read the complete article on manifolding.

Defoliation – Defoliation means removing leaves on your plant, usually only the biggest fan leaves. This might be done in the vegetative stage for various reasons, but the main “technique” is using defoliation in a certain way during the first month of the flowering stage in order to encourage buds to grow bigger. With this technique, the cannabis plant is defoliated right before the switch to the flowering stage, then another time or two during the first few weeks while the plant is in the midst of the explosion of growth known as the flowering stretch.

Defoliation involves removing fan leaves in a strategic way in the first part of the flowering stage

Defoliation involves removing fan leaves in a specific way. It can be used in the early flowering stage to help increase yields

This strategic defoliation exposes all the newly forming buds to light and air right when they’re at their most crucial stage of development. Because of how cannabis (a wind-pollinated plant) buds reacts to light and air, this dramatically increase the size and density of the buds as long as you take off the right amount of leaves at the right time (overdoing this or doing it too late in the flowering stage can do more harm than good!). It’s also very important to note that defoliation should only be done to indoor-grown plants, and even then only plants that are healthy!

Notice how few fan leaves this plant has? That’s because it was strategically defoliated during the first few weeks after the switch to 12/12. In response, the buds grew long, fat and dense.

Example of a cannabis plant that has been defoliated in order to increase the yields

 Read the complete article on defoliation

Manipulate Timelines

These aren’t necessarily “training” techniques per se, but they are techniques that growers use to increase yields for free, and the main principle is the same – more buds directly under the grow light!

12-12 From Seed is the technique of trying to make seedlings start flowering (making buds) as soon as possible by giving them a “12-12” light schedule from seed. The idea is to get a harvest as quick as possible.

12-12 from Seed results in a quick harvest, but tends to cause stunted plants

This cannabis plant was given a light schedule of 12/12 from seed - although it looked pretty cool, it didn't end up yielding very much

Read the complete article on 12-12 From Seed.

Sea of Green is a related technique to 12-12 From Seed. The idea with Sea of Green is to grow many small plants instead of a few big plants. This allows a grower to make a sea of buds without having to do any plant training and can result in big yields that take less time. The main idea is to let seedlings grow for only 4-5 weeks before immediately switching them to the flowering stage. Since each plant doesn’t have to get very big, the time needed before flowering is reduced by several weeks. Many growers will also “top” their seedlings by removing the tips of seedlings when they have about 4-6 pairs of leaves.

For SoG, initiate the flowering stage when plants are this size or bigger

Switch to 12/12 when plants are around this side in order to start a SoG (sea of green) style cannabis grow

Sea of Green in Action

Amazing example of well-trained cannabis plants - training your plants this way can increase your yields by up to 40%

Read full article about Sea of Green

 

 

Why Should Growers Train Cannabis Plants to Grow Flat? 

How Does Plant Training Increase Yields?

Indoor cannabis growers train their plants to grow with lots of thick bud sites because that shape produces the best yields under the limited power of grow lights.

High yielding plants with lots of buds used training techniques such as topping, fiming, supercropping, LST and more to achieve this shape and size

As a grower, you can control a lot of the final size and shape of your plant by using proper cannabis training and growing techniques while the plant is young, such as topping, FIMing, LST, main-lining, supercropping, defoliation, SoG, ScrOG and more, as described in this page. This page explains everything else you can do to get your cannabis to grow the way you want, whether it’s small or big, so you get the best yields possible.

However, no matter how well you train your plants during the vegetative stage, some growth patterns (and many of aspects of your buds like appearance, smell and potency) are going to be determined by your plant’s genes, especially in the flowering stage. If you don’t have access to cannabis seeds or clones where you live, you can control the genetics by growing a strain from a trustworthy breeder and ordering seeds online.

Light is Like “Food” for Cannabis Plants

Many indoor and outdoor cannabis growers prefer to keep their plants relatively short, growing bushy and wide instead of tall and thin. Keeping small plants helps make sure each plant gets plenty of light – light is like “food” for your plants, and providing the right amount of light will give cannabis plants the energy to grow.

The spring/summer sun is all the light an outdoor cannabis plant needs to survive (as long as it’s getting direct light for the majority of the day). It can help with stealth to keep plants shorter than nearby fences or camouflage plants, and training is effective at that, but training isn’t really that effective at increasing yields outdoors.

Outdoors, the natural shape of a cannabis plant is already very well suited to using the light from the sun as it moves in the sky. The best way to get bigger yields outdoors is to grow a bigger cannabis plant with more bud sites. Ultimately, the most important thing you can do for outdoor cannabis plants is put them in an open space that gets as much direct sunlight as possible.

Notice how the plants that get the most direct sunlight grow the biggest

Bushy cannabis plant produces more yields outdoors, but must be kept short for stealth

Why do indoor cannabis growers want short or wide plants? 

For indoor growers, plants tend to yield more if a lot of the plant is kept just the right distance from the grow lights. This means trying to maintain a flat cannabis canopy under the grow lights and almost always using growth training methods like topping, FIMing, main-lining, ScrOG, etc. These training methods help make sure all the buds get as much light as possible, so you get bigger yields from the same grow lights.

Get bigger yields indoors by keeping a flat cannabis cannopy under grow lights

Why do cannabis plants need to be close to the grow lights? It is because indoor grow lights are heavily affected by the inverse square law of light. Unlike indoor grow lights, the sun is so far away that the inverse square law of light doesn’t make a difference – your plant will get about the same amount of light whether it’s on the ground or 10 feet in the air.

Inverse Square Law of Light Intensity diagramSince indoor grow lights are so close and are so much weaker than the sun, the distance between the light and the plant has a huge effect on how much light the plant will receive.

Keeping grow lights closer will deliver more light to the plants!

But… keeping them too close can severely hurt your plant!

This is a huge part of why it’s important to understand how far away your lights need to be, depending on what type of light you have.

Learn how far away to keep your cannabis grow lights

Powerful Grow Lights – Some grow lights are very bright and powerful (like MH/HPS grow lights or bigger LEDs). More powerful grow lights can cover a wider area with more plants, but the more powerful the light, generally the further it needs to be kept from your plants. Keeping grow lights too close causes light burn, which bleaches your upper leaves and buds, and can possibly cause seeds to form (plants may “herm” as a result of stress which causes seedy buds). Light burn can also possibly affect the potency of the buds.

Vegetative and early flowering plants are harder to light burn, but it’s much easier to do it in the second half of the flowering stage when the plant is no longer making any new leaves, especially with higher wattage lights.

Less Powerful Grow Lights – Grow lights like CFLs and fluorescent lights have a “sweet spot” that is only a few inches away. The further you get, the less light your plants get. These types of lights can grow cannabis plants, and may be a good choice for some growers, but with less powerful lights, it becomes even more important that you learn how to train your plants to grow short and wide with many colas. Little weed plants are the best way to take advantage of CFL grow lights! Luckily the methods on this page like topping, FIMing, SoG, ScrOG, main-lining and more will give you the tools you need to get the most from your grow lights. By using plant training techniques, it becomes possible to harvest ounces of bud even from relatively small grow lights.

Complete Article on How Far Away to Keep Your Grow Lights

In the diagram below, you can see that the natural plant (left – completely untrained) has less parts of the plant in the area with the best light level. As a result, this plant only has one main cola, and the rest of the colas are much smaller because they are further from the grow lights.

Leaves in the “Sweet Spot” of Your Indoor Grow Light Make the Most Energy, Producing Faster Growth and Bigger Buds

Natural vs LST - Understanding the Grow Light Sweet Spot Diagram

Why settle with just one big cola when you could have many big colas?

The trained plant (right – which has been topped and trained with LST) has many colas that are directly in the sweet spot. In fact, almost the whole plant is getting bathed in just the right amount of light from the grow lights. This means the plant has many big colas and none of them are getting burned by the lights.

Generally, the top of the grow light sweet spot is where the biggest buds form. Cannabis plants love a lot of light, much more than your average house plant. As long as you stay away from the “too bright” zone for your particular indoor grow light (which can cause light burn, even if air is cool), you want to get as many colas in the top of the sweet spot as possible.

Colas in the Top of the Sweet Spot Grow Biggest, So Maximize Yields by Training Cannabis Plants To Grow Many Colas On the Same Level!

It doesn’t matter what type of grow light you use. Each type of grow light has a sweet spot, and whenever grow lights are positioned above the plants, there are likely benefits to training your cannabis plants to grow short and wide. By having more of your plant at the best distance from your grow light, your cannabis leaves and buds will be exposed to more light and give your plant more energy to grow.

When your grow lights are positioned above your cannabis plants….

Plants with a flat canopy will produce more energy than tall & thin plants. As an indoor cannabis grower, you don’t have to just accept the way cannabis grows naturally. You actually have a lot of control over how your cannabis plants grow. So train your plants to efficiently fill up your grow space, giving you the best yields possible with your grow lights.

Don’t Grow This Plant!

This Marijuana Plant was allowed to grow tall and untrained - notice how only one cola has grow thick, because it was the closest to the grow lights

Grow a Trained Plant With A Cluster of Colas!

This Marijuana plant was growing using topping, main-lining (manifolding) and LST plant training techniques

This article on plant training shares several ways to train your plant to achieve this shape!

Learn how to get set up for the most effective plant training!

 

Now that you have mastered the art of cannabis plant training, what do you want to learn how to improve next?

Bonus: What Determines Yields?

 

 

Learn How to Create the Perfect Growing Environment (plus the following sub-articles)

 

 

Jump to…

10-Step Quick Start Grow Guide

Should I get a regular or autoflowering strain if I want short plants?

Supercropping: the simple secret

Picture gallery of common marijuana growing problems

 

 

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