Many growers prune their hemp plants to influence their growth, maximize the harvest and maintain the health of the plants. In our blog post, we explain the advantages of pruning hemp, when and how you should prune hemp and which techniques you can use.
The good news right at the beginning: if you grow your cannabis in a Bonsanto grow box, you have the advantage of not having to prune your hemp!
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Why prune hemp?
Most growers choose to prune their cannabis plants because it has several advantages. By pruning your cannabis plant, you can increase your yield or harvest. This is because pruning allows the plant to focus its energy on producing buds, making them bigger and giving you a higher-yielding harvest.
Pruning the plant is also beneficial for maintaining the health of your plant. Remove the parts of the cannabis plant that are affected by diseases. This minimizes the risk of disease and pest infestation. If you are interested in the topic of cannabis diseases, take a look at our blog post “Hemp diseases”.
If you are growing indoors and have limited space available, pruning hemp allows you to control the growth of your plant and its size. Pruning also allows the lower leaves of your plant to receive more light, which in turn improves the overall production of your plant.
When to prune hemp?
When you should prune your hemp depends on the growth phase of your plant. As a general rule, you should avoid pruning too early or too late so as not to harm your cannabis plant.
Pruning is most effective during the vegetative phase of your cannabis plant, as the plant can recover from pruning during this phase. We advise you to start pruning when your plant has reached a height of around 30 cm and has formed around seven pairs of leaves. At this point, the plant is large enough and able to recover from pruning.
When your plant enters the flowering phase, it makes sense to stop pruning. Pruning causes stress for your plant, which affects the quality of your harvest. You should only prune your cannabis in this phase if you discover diseased parts of the plant and want to remove them.
How to prune hemp?
It is not only important when you prune your cannabis, but also how. Don’t use your hands for pruning, but get yourself a sharp knife or sharp scissors. This will enable you to make clean cuts without harming your plant.
Before you start pruning, take a look at your plant and think about how you want to prune it and what exactly your goal is. If you primarily want to maintain the health of your plant, you should remove diseased areas of the plant with the severity. If you want to promote growth and achieve a better harvest, you should focus on the densely overgrown areas and remove leaves there so that the plant is better supplied with light and can put its energy into producing buds.
When pruning, make sure you make clean cuts. To promote the growth of new branches, you can make the cut above the nodes. If you want to accelerate growth, you should water the plant immediately after pruning. Pay attention to how the plant reacts after you have pruned it so that you can counteract any stress or diseases that may occur.
Techniques for cutting cannabis
If you want to prune your cannabis plant, there are various techniques to choose from.
What is cannabis topping?
Let’s start with the popular topping method, in which the top of the plant is cut off. The upper part of the plant is called the meristem and is removed during topping so that two new branches can grow from this point during the growth phase. The aim of topping is to obtain a bushy plant that produces more flowers. If you top your cannabis plant, it will grow in width instead of height. Topping can be used for both indoor and outdoor growing. To give your plant enough time to recover, you should apply the topping around five to 10 days before the start of the flowering phase.
What is hemp fimming?
Fimming works in a similar way to topping, but the cannabis plant is pruned directly at the shoots, creating four new branches. If you want an even bushier plant and do not have a large cultivation area available, it makes sense to use the fimming technique.
What is cannabis lollipopping?
If you grow indoors, lollipopping may also be of interest to you. As the plant is usually only supplied with light from above when growing indoors, the lower leaves and branches of the plant hardly get any light. Lollipopping therefore involves cutting off the lower branches so that the plant can put its energy into growing the upper parts of the plant. This allows the upper buds to grow and become larger. Start by removing the lower parts of the plant that do not receive any light. You can then cut off leaves in the upper part of the plant that are also covered. Lollipopping, like the other pruning methods, should be completed before flowering begins.
What mistakes to avoid when pruning hemp?
There are a few mistakes that many growers make from time to time when pruning cannabis. You should avoid these at all costs so that your plant stays healthy and you achieve your pruning goal.
As already mentioned, it is important that you do not prune your plant too early or too late so that your plant is not exposed to stress and does not suffer any injuries.
Although pruning has many advantages, you should also be careful not to prune your plant too much. Because even then you are stressing it, which can have a negative impact on your harvest. So only remove the parts that really need to be removed.
Don’t ignore hemp diseases or pest infestations. You should regularly check your plant for diseases so that you can remove any affected areas at an early stage. To prevent diseases and pests, always use clean scissors or knives and make sure the cuts are clear.
Can all hemp varieties be trimmed?
In principle, all cannabis strains can be pruned. However, sativa strains are best suited for pruning, as they are particularly adaptable and have more branches than indica plants.
Autoflowers can also be pruned. However, this is less useful as they need a lot of time to recover from pruning. If you have an autoflower and want to promote growth in width, you should use fimming or topping.
Pruning hemp in the Bonsanto grow box
As mentioned at the beginning, if you have a Bonsanto grow box, you don’t need to prune your hemp! This saves you a lot of time and effort! The Bonsanto components are coordinated in such a way that your plant makes optimum use of the space in the grow box and you can achieve a high-yielding harvest even without pruning.
