Aeroflo2 60 x LEDs, Trimming vs No Trimming

Hi guys. This is my first Aeroponic grow and so far I've been getting pretty lucky. The veg phase went incredibly well but now I'm starting flowering (day 3) and getting a bit concerned with how bushy my plants are. Aeroflo2 with 60 sites is a very confined space-wise. I have 41 clones, staggered checkers style with 11 clones that did not this setup as much as others and remained small so I just kept them in some open spaces I had. I have a smorgasbord of strains since this is a test grow to see which ones like this kind of environment better. Before the root systems grew to big for the plants to be moved between sites I picked out the 30 best and staggered them to take the best advantage of space. During veg I trimmed pretty often and many would say over-trimmed but they seemed to love it though. Now that I switched to 12/12, I am skeptical about trimming but my 'garden' is turning into a jungle...

This is about a week ago during veg.

It is even thicker now and I will post some newer pics soon as I can. But basically it is so thick right now that you could not drop a Skittle through the canopy. My two 350 Diamond Series XML LED lights have very good penetration so the light seems to be getting through no problem, but still my fingers itch to trim it a little bit. But I read a lot of people saying that would cost me in what I yield. Has anybody encountered this issue before with the Aeroflo2? And is this even an issue or should I just count my blessings that they are growing this well and leave it alone?
Any input is appreciated and thanks in advance.

I haven't done aero before or leds for that matter. With that said the trimming thing really comes down to preferance. A lot of people will tell you its gonna affect your yield and I have done it both ways. When I trimmed I trimmed everything underneath the canopy to where you just have stalks going up to the canopy which gives you a nice and neat grow, which is something I prefer. When I did this I got a great canopy w/ large dense buds, like I said nice and neat all the way around. When I didn't trim I didn't get more of a yield. this is all in the same grow cab under the same conditions with a clone of the same strain. What I did get was fan leaves covering up budsites and the buds above the canopy were smaller and I had a shit ton of popcorn nugs underneath that are very time consuming to trim come harvest time. I mean think about it, if budsites aren't getting light they don't produce well. Its just that simple. Anyways if it were me I would clean it up. The key is just to not take too many at one time. Start on one side and every other day or so go in and clean it up. After a couple weeks into flower around the time the stretch has ended you should be done. Its not like the plant is producing bud during the stretch so no it won't affect your yield. After week four tho you just want to leave it alone. So if it were me again I would act now and clean her up.

Thanks. I think I'm going to do just that. There are 3 or 4 plants that are growing particularly big and they are shading a lot of the other ones and I want to give them an equal opportunity to grow. The one thing that this Aeroflo system lacks is working space - it is extremely difficult to get to the inner plants at this point. But I gotta do what I gotta do. Thanks again.

Couple questions. What size res are you working with to hold water for that many plants? Also how far apart, how many inches apart is each site that you are actually n using? But yeah get after it now while its stretching. Start on one side and work your way over.don't just try and start in the middle. You wanna make it as neat and easy as possible. Go for all the lower stuff first and then get the rest leading up to the canopy. Before you know it you'll have a bunch of bare stalks leading up to a GREAT canopy. Post some pics of progress asbyou go so we and others can see with you. It will help other people, which is what this site is all about.

You'll have somewhat of a sea of green going here. I'll be pretty cool.

It will be pretty cool.

My res is 40 gallons. The sites are located 7 inches apart from center to center - not a lot of room which is why I checker-boarded them to make some. I will work on it tomorrow and post some photos of every step. Thanks for the advice.

Ok, so this is what it looks like now before I do the trimming:
View attachment 2926556View attachment 2926557View attachment 2926558

Holy shit!!!!
You need to hurry bro. You want most all of this to be done by the tine the stretch ends.

Yeah, I started yesterday and now just waiting for the lights to come on so I can finish up. I'm used to soil, where they are easy to work with and grow at a steady pace. Here - it's like a horror film where I can see them grow just looking at them. I used to trim them to where they looked like plucked chickens when they were in veg only to come back the next time the lights come on and see it be right back to being bushy like I never touched them. I guess that's a good thing but makes it high maintenance. I will have it trimmed to what we discussed earlier in a few hours and post new photos. Thanks again.

From what you told me the other day you should only be on day 5 of flower and I'd anticipate two weeks of stretch, so you have 9 or 10 days to do this. Dont do it all at once as that will overstress the plant. Remember you want nothing but stalks leading up to the canopy. Ill send you a pic of what I mean.

Ok, so I got almost half-way through. Figured I'd stop, post some pics and wait til tomorrow to do the rest and see how the first batch reach to the new high and tight haircut. I might have overdone it with a couple of them but hopefully not too much. Here are the pics of the progress:

Did some more trimming today, I think this is about where I wanna be. The ones I trimmed yesterday didn't seem to mind too much, drank a lot of water last night and were nice and happy today so I went ahead and did the rest. A little over 2 pounds of trim by the time I was done with the whole thing. The canopy is still intact so I think this will work fine. Here's what it looks like now:
and the canopy view from the top - ..and a side view (some grow under the canopy I left alone to see if it shoots up to the top in a day or two) -

Dam,nice tops

thank you,

Good job kanaplya! It doesn't even look like they are stressed at all. Thats what I mean if you do it during stretch its fine b/c you aren't affecting flower production contrary to what a lot of ppl say. Your gonna have a blanket of fat buds in the near future my friend. Subbed up and ready for the show!!

Great. I was a little concerned since I trimmed them pretty extensively but this morning they were very happy. They drank 7-8 gallons of nutrient solution overnight though presumably to recover from the bikini wax I gave them. But they look great now. Thanks for the help.

Those look great man! What a great example of why trimming helps. I too run led's and also trim the bottom portion of all my plants.

Great pictures and setup

Kanaplya, how r things going with your grow, still doing well?

You might need to have some kind of support in late flowering, such as a trellis.