by Nebula Haze
If you are looking for a free, easy, and simple way to increase your cannabis yields, you need to understand marijuana pruning.
Pruning is key to growing lots of huge cannabis buds in a small space.
First, what makes big buds in nature? In the wild, cannabis plants are wind-pollinated. So wild cannabis plants tend to develop buds at the top of the plant getting light and wind.
Top buds that get light and some wind tend to grow biggest and densest.
Indoors, strategic pruning is the best way to mimic those conditions on many buds, maximizing cannabis yields in a limited space.
What makes big yields indoors? Many main bud sites. The more big, long buds, the bigger your yields on average.
A big main bud is sometimes called a “cola” which means “tail” in Spanish.
Why prune your cannabis plants? Pruning cannabis creates lots of colas in a tight space.
Big indoor yields come from many well-spaced colas under the grow light.
If you’re willing to spend a few minutes a week on pruning, you can easily achieve double or even triple the yields versus not pruning at all.
Today I’m gonna share the 3 most important techniques, so you turn the natural tendencies of cannabis plants to your advantage.
3 Steps to Prune Cannabis for Bigger Yields Indoors
Here are the 3 steps, in order of importance for indoor cannabis growers.
1.) Split main cola into two (“topping”)
Cut off top tip of plant when it’s got about 6 sets of leaves (typically a few weeks from germination).
Cut off the top of your young plant. So simple. So effective.
Topping should only ever be done when the plant is still in the vegetative stage. It should never be done after buds have already started forming.
- Photoperiod – A home grower should almost always use the topping technique with photoperiod plants that are still in the vegetative stage. Since photoperiod growers can control when the plant starts flowering with the proper light schedule, you can make sure the plant is already growing fast and healthy with its newly split top (completely recovered) before initiating bud formation.
- Autoflowers – Topping should be used with caution. Since autoflowers automatically make buds, only use topping if your autoflower already has six sets of leaves by week 3 and hasn’t started flowering yet. If an autoflower is older than 3 weeks or has started making buds, skip topping and use just the next two techniques. Learn more about topping autoflowers.
Topping may be the most important plant pruning technique to increase yields, whether you’re growing indoors or outdoors.Why? Topping takes a few seconds and can make a big difference to yields. Even if you don’t do anything else but let the plant get big enough before making buds.
Topping is the base of almost every further plant pruning technique, so if you’re going to do just one thing, do this.
What to Do:
Wait until young plant has 6+ sets of leaves, the cut the top off above the 5th set of leaves.
Cut off top above the 5th set of leaves. (This plant is at day 22)
This breaks the “apical dominance” and plants naturally start growing more bushy.
Cannabis naturally grows more wide and bushy after topping. (1 week later)
Even if you did nothing else, this step increases the average number of main bud sites per plant.
Now it’s time to magnify your results.
2.) Create tabletop formation (low stress training)
Low stress training (LST) is a fancy way to say “use bending and tying down”. You do this as plants grow with the goal of creating a flat, table-top shape in the vegetative stage.
If you did the topping step, you’re already well set up. That’s because topping when plants are young make this part a lot easier. As a result of hormonal changes that happen in the plant after topping, plants naturally grow more wide with lots of branches, even if you don’t do anything else.
But here’s how to take that to the next level.
What to Do:
Simply to look at your plants as they’re growing and bend over the tallest branches to help prevent any part of the plant getting taller than the others.
A flat wide shape is key to creating several rows of buds (a sea of weed) that fill your entire grow space.
Bend tall branches down and away from the middle. (Day 36)
4 days later (day 40), plants are wide and bushy. Perfect.
As plants grow, gently bend tall stems to spread out the branches.
Plants are ready to start flowering when the grow tent is filled almost end to end with bud sites.
Fill tent with bud sites before 12/12 (look like stars from above)
Once you create a flat tabletop shape that fills your entire grow space, you can start to achieve those types of yields that make other growers jealous, even experienced ones.
Initiate the flowering stage by giving plants a 12/12 light schedule once they’ve reached about half the final desired height. Plants about double in size after you initiate flowering.
Initiate 12/12 when plants are half the desired size.
Try to continue bending tall branches for the first few weeks after 12/12, while stems are still flexible.
8 days after 12/12 plants are already significantly taller.
The flowering stretch causes plants to double in size on average. Check out these plants below to see how big they got!
3.) Define your top colas (strategic defoliation)
Around the time buds start forming, you’ve already done most of the work. Mother Nature is going to take over once the plant is fully in budding mode. But here’s how to prepare and care for your buds in the flowering stage to maximize yields at harvest time.
What Buds Need:
- light – strong, direct light on top buds
- space – empty area around each bud
- breeze – air moves around each bud
You accomplish by giving every top branch direct access to light and a few inches (5-10 cm) of air around each bud.
For many plants (though not all), you may need to remove some of the leaves strategically in order to ensure that buds are getting full light. Get this step right and you can dramatically increase not just yields but also bud quality and density.
Not defined (too many leaves)
If you’re growing healthy, fast-growing cannabis plants indoors, typically plants explode with leaves after initiating 12/12. Many plants have so many leaves that you can’t actually see the bud sites.
Too bushy example – These cannabis colas aren’t defined enough to get light and air. Remove some of the biggest leaves that are covering up but sites.
Strategically removing yields “defines’ your colas.
Bud exposed to light and air = Good
Plants need plenty of healthy, green leaves, but remove any big leaves that are putting buds in shadow.
Get step-by-step instructions for strategic defoliation in the flowering stage.
Defined buds – plenty of leaves left, but every bud gets light and air
For some plants, you don’t have to do anything. Some strains just naturally grow the optimal number of leaves, especially strains that stretch a lot in the flowering stage. Don’t defoliate a plant that doesn’t need it.
About halfway through the flowering stage, you should still see tons of green leaves, but all the buds should be exposed.
As a result of taking these 3 steps, almost every inch of the tent filled with buds. I was able to harvest over a pound out of this 4×4 grow tent with 5 plants.
Max yields in a small space comes from growing lots of long, beautiful “colas”. As long as you start with high-yielding genetics, you can consistently produce huge buds just by topping, bending, and defining your colas.
White Rhino is a naturally high-yielding strain.
Fill your grow tent with weed by following today’s tips.
Learn how to harvest to increase potency, density, and smokability.
Those are the basics, and just those 3 techniques (topping, bending, strategic leaf removal) can dramatically increase your yields even if you don’t do anything else. But if you want to dig deeper…
Learn other free techniques you can use to increase your yields even further.
