Pruning marijuana plants can be an excellent way to boost yields, especially when you’re doing everything else right. Pruning can be simple or complex, depending on which type you choose to do. Regardless, it’s crucial that you know what you’re doing before pruning. Otherwise, pruning could do more harm than good.
Basic Pruning
At its most basic, pruning is simply the process of chopping off parts of your plant. Doing it willy-nilly will have no positive effects, but doing it strategically can be extremely helpful. Leaves at the bottom that are turning yellow can be pruned, for example, so that your plant doesn’t waste its resources on those leaves.
Topping
Topping marijuana plants involves chopping off the main shoot from the very top. This causes multiple shoots and branches to grow from the place where the single one was. That makes for a bushier plant, which means more foliage and greater sun exposure (and therefore more resources to grow faster and produce more buds).
Topping should be done after the fifth pair of leaves has sprouted – it definitely should not be earlier than that. At that point, cut off the main shoot (but only the…