Budding question: a corollary to my Trim question

Hello. Wow... what a bunch of different ideas on how to grow a cannabis plant. It's just a weed that has been given god like status because it get us high. It's a very resilient plant and can take a lot of shit (human mistakes) and still produce a decent harvest. I'm not agreeing with a lot of what they have said. I was taught and have read that "training" will help with making bigger better buds. Yes, there is trimming in training. Example... if you grow SCRoG do you leave all the leaves and sucker branches below the table. No you cut them off, not tuck them in. When you cut off some big fan leaves the plant will grow some more to continue the photosynthesis. The smaller leaves around the buds still take in light for photosynthesis. Ask yourself why do the buds at the end of the branch grow biggest, where there is the most light. What is LST again... Plants respond well to LST. How did most of the advisers "rate" when you looked up their grams per plant on the growers page? Some of them don't even have any grams listed by their name. How can we take these advisers seriously when there is no grams per plant listed for them??? Do a test for yourself... Take 2 of the same clones, taken at the same time, grow them side by side, same light, and same food. But train 1 and leave the other alone, "and tuck those leaves in" and see what the results are. Maybe do a diary on them to show everybody what the difference is and what some training/trimming can do. Good or bad... show us. The proof is in the pudding... Not just tell us what you think... Show us!!!

No, just like how apples do not only grow on the sunny side of trees, more light directly on buds does not necessarily mean bigger buds. Buds are basically fruits that grow idependantly of light exposure. Genetics and thriving in suitable conditions is the main determination of bud size...basically, healthy plants, healthy fruits. Defoliating in the hope of more light hitting buds so that it will result in bigger buds is misguided. More leaves means more energy being made which means healthier (and bigger) fruits. Energy is finite and plants can not determine where the energy gets used, as in "focussing" it in particular areas...however, apical dominance will determine where the plant "senses" that the energy is required the most, this is why having a flat, even canopy is seen as a desirable goal in indoor cultivation. Leaf removal reduces energy production, so there can be no re-direction or focussing of spare/ extra energy elsewhere. So, in order of importance... Genetics Maximum leaf coverage Light quality/quantity. Nutrition. Also, as an aside, big buds does not always mean quality....quality is entirely related to trichomes, whether those trichomes are on football sized buds or golf ball sized buds, does not matter. Otherwise, 0011 has also provided good reasoning.

As far as greatest ratio of better buds.. don't over-crowd the cnaopy. don't have excessive axillary growth (side branching). That requires a slightly different method for various growth patterns. ---- Buds are sex organs. Leaves absorb light. Cell differentiation matters... Plant organs have specific functions and buds are not there to photosynthesize in any meaningful way. Techinically any green surface probably has 'some' chlorophyl, but the aerial density is 1/100th or 1/1000th of what you find in the top layers of a leaf. You maximize light hitting leaves, not sex organs. Common sense given anatomy / physiology of a plant. Apical dominance is the biggest factor in how buds develop on the plant... those with greater dominance will draw more resources and grow more substantially. I regularly allow leaves to cover buds just out of spite of this urban myth. Yet to see it impact development with hundreds if not thousands of data points - Multiple buds "covered" per plant every grow.. been growing only 7 years but still adds up to a ton of examples showing zero effect.. Assuming basic competency, canopy management is mostly going to improve ratio of good buds, but not necessarily overall yield. The canopy size and DLI provided will be the most strongly correlated factors to resulting yield. It's not about how many budsites as long as there are 'enough' bud sites. When that growth is pruned off also matters... you'll want to do any lollipopping before flowers start forming. doing so afterward is just cutting off yield. Removing leaves does not help the plant 'focus' on anything but want to grow more leaves. Which won't happen if it's well into flower, obviously. Removing lower buds after they start forming isn't going to redistribute that mass elsewhere... if you want to prune to reduce larf and maintain yield, it should be done before buds form. Even that can be a negative if done to an extreme. If not familiar with the plant (lanky vs squat etc), then you have to guess a bit. Some growth patterns are better with a deep canopy that will produce great buds all the way donw.. others may be better pruned to a shallower canopy or else you get too much side growth with larfy buds. Lanky girls and squat girls need to be treated diffrently to maximize results. There's no one-size-fits-all here... i wouldn't strive for the biggest buds possible... that's just going to maximize risk of mold. I'd shoot for the least amount of larf possible.

Most people say to keep autoflowers on 18/6 the whole way through since they need that “rest” period. I’ve tried that, and I’ve also run 20/4, but honestly I haven’t seen much difference in bud size when compared to 12/12

Big debatable topic. My thinking is all about area for photosynthesis. So if a fan leave is taking away light from an area that could actually produce more energy if exposed to light then I will probably remove it. Leaves are the main thing I would want exposed to more light, if the bud doesn't have a similar area of leafage then the leaf I'd be removing then it's probably a waste of time removing it. These are my thoughts on the matter, no scientific backup to my reasoning and no experiments to justify my reasoning. If I had space and clones it would be a good thing to experiment with.

take this with a grain of salt, as it isnt copy pasted from tiktok ai or whatever. lmao the big idea here relative to cultivating is that there is going to be a genetic limit to secondary metabolites. secondary metabolites are the only thing we care about with cannabis. so you need to understand, that even from a botany perspective, everything we are doing and looking for is categorically a secondary/side/auxiliary/non-core-life process for the plant. like your body having a nice oil produced on the surface of your skin to protect it. that isnt critical to you breathing and living. the amount of light is relative to your entire environment, but yes, in general more photons means more energy means and more impetus for protecting plant matter, nearly exclusively through secondary production. math is god here. DLI is the only method of light analysis that makes sense with cannabis. the amount of bud sites is linked to canopy height on average, anything below the average should be removed to raise canopy height. this also reduces your n where n is the number of flowering sites that take from X where X is your maximum secondary metabolites for your strain. getting those big buds are really about hitting the transition from stretch to fruit-set correctly and gently, proper PK vs N ratios on the transition, then really dialing in your air. mess any of those up and your crop is gonna show.

More light = more photosynthesis = bigger buds. Try to think of the plant as a whole unit, a single leaf blocking a bud from direct light may not lead to a smaller bud if the plant is getting enough light as a unit. Try not to defoliate too much, most lights have a deep light penetration and more leaves = better photosynthsis and CO2 intake. Big buds are alot about hormonal distribution and the distribution of phloem resulting from the photosynthetic process and overall plant health.

Hey there! This is one of the most debated topics in growing, but here is the logical breakdown on how to handle late-blüte defoliation: The Golden Rule: Upper fan leaves are your plant's primary solar panels. They produce the energy that pumps up your main, top-shelf colas. Trimming huge amounts of healthy top leaves to light up tiny lower buds is usually a bad trade, because you sacrifice top-weight for a little bit of bottom-weight. Here is how you should handle it: 1 Tuck instead of Pluck: Before cutting anything, try to simply push/tuck the large upper fan leaves under the flowering branches. That way, you open up the light path to lower nodes without losing the leaf's energy. 2 Selective Defoliation: Only cut a leaf if it is directly covering a major bud site below it and cannot be tucked away. Focus mainly on removing inner leaves that block airflow to prevent mold, or leaves that are already fading/yellowing. 3 The 'Popcorn' Reality: Lower buds that are far away from the light source will rarely turn into dense, rock-hard chunks, no matter how much light they get now. The light intensity drops drastically with distance (Inverse Square Law). Recommendation: Keep the upper canopy intact so your main buds can finish strong and heavy. If the lower buds stay airy, just use them for edibles, hash, or rosin after harvest. Good luck with the finish!