Indoor cannabis! Growing what you want and getting rid of Larf!

photo credit: https://www.420magazine.com/forums/frequently-asked-questions/141815-triming-lower-fan-leaves-50-increases-growth-rate-2.html

Aloha Steemians!

I would like to talk about the essential act of pruning our cannabis plants in order to maximize production and do away with undesirable/hard to trim larf. What the hell is larf you ask? It is that immature bud on the bottom of plants that never receives any light and therefore never really fills out into a flower.

Ok, I know everyone knows what larf is but I thought I better throw it in there. I have also heard it called squaffle as well as shit bud. All great names...

So why do we need names like this? Well because there are still growers out there who simply refuse to cut perfectly good branches off of a mother... I know, I used to be one of them.

Now days I have a better understanding of how to prune and train the plant. I am going to go over this real quick and hope that someone finds some good in it.

Depending on how much head space an indoor grower has will regulate the size that said grower will allow for in vegetation. I always recommend topping the plant at least 2 times. If a person controls their plants correctly you should be able to achieve a flat-top or canopy. This will allow for a uniform flowering across the top of the plant resulting in single branch colas all approximately the same height/size. The photo below is a nice example of well trained plant with proper pruning.

photo credit: http://www.thenug.com/galleries/topping-marijuana-plants-properly

As you can tell from both pictures there are no small branches left on the bottoms of the plants. The top picture is a single cola plant that has never been topped but was properly pruned (lollypopped). The second picture was topped several times and a trellis was used in order to help maintain a uniform canopy. This is a preferred growing method for those lacking head space. What you will also notice is that it too has no bottom branches left.

Regardless of whether you top your plants or not, pruning is essential for good solid colas.

So when do you prune? Well I will skip veg pruning for now and talk about the initial flower pruning. This is a personal way of doing this and I am sure will vary from grower to grower. I like to do an initial prune about 3 days before I intend on moving into flower. At this point I evaluate all lower branches that I may still have on the plant. In order to remain on the plant as a viable branch it must have at least 3 node spots and the top of the branch must reach 40% of the entire height. At this point I would then remove all lower node points and leave nothing but the top set of nodes and leaves. As I work my way up the plant I remove any and all fan leaves that may have a red stem. These are usually the oldest and biggest leaves. At this point I also evaluate what I believe will make a good cola. This will vary on the strain. If you are growing a kush dominate strain I always recommend thinning a little more that usual. Kushs' tend to have a lot of sugar leaf and grow in dense bushier form. (indica in general). By clearing out the obvious before the switch to flower will allow for more energy to the ones we want.

Once the switch to 12/12 is underway I usually let all growth take place for around 21 days before I again do a final pruning. At this point in the flower cycle you will be able to fully tell what is going to make a flower and what is going to be larf. Don't save the "what ifs" or the "maybe". You will be far happier with your end result if you simply remove that which you all ready no will never get there. Usually at the 21 day prune I am removing mostly big fan leaves that are shadowing out any lower colas. Once this is done I do not really mess with them again until about time to trim. At that point I clean off the biggest leaves as they are usually yellowing out a little. After that you know what to do!!

I hope someone finds this post useful. If you like my content please feel free to follow, comment, upvote and resteemit!

Peace,
The Last Sage