Anybody Want To Double Their Yield?- Desertrat's Top and Prune?

i cannot claim original ownership of this idea - it was in the old growfaq - but since i don't think anyone uses it anymore, i'm gonna jack it for myself. it won't double the yield of someone already using advanced growing techniques but it is an easy way to improve on basic growing techniques.

anyway, here are the basics
1. either top or fim the main branch after the 4th node
2. on the main branch only, prune every other fan leaf in a staircase pattern. this slows the growth of the main stem and for some reason stimulates the growth of secondary branches.

here's what you get after two weeks:

versus this for topping alone:

notice that each topped/pruned plant now has at least 6 growth tips all within a couple of inches of the canopy top. i think this is superior to multiple topping because it causes less overall stress to the plant and can be tailored to keep the growth tips all at the same height.

this is what a mature female looks like after topping/pruning:

versus this for topping alone:

i've tried it with two strains and gotten the same results. doubled yield to 4 ounces per plant from 2 ounces.

Can you explain this stairstepping thing a bit better?

can't tell how your prunning from the pic's

It looks and sounds similar to something I was going to try in my next grow though there was no prunning involved

the stair step pattern simply means to start at the bottom node of the main branch, cut one fan leaf of the pair, then go up to the next node(where fan leaves are at 90 degree angle to the fan leaves in first node), cut one fan leaf, then at the third node you cut the leaf opposite the leaf cut from the first node, then on the fourth node you cut the leaf opposite the second node cut leaf. continue to the top. what you have left is a spiral pattern of fan leaves making their way up the main branch. you end up cutting exactly half of the main branch fan leaves.

i kind of did this by accident with some nute/ph issues. nodes that lost fan leaves have much more developed secondary branches.

makinthemagic said:

i kind of did this by accident with some nute/ph issues. nodes that lost fan leaves have much more developed secondary branches.

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that's kind of interesting, same thing going on with the pruning, obviously. so maybe it's more like the plant tries to repair the wound site by flooding it with nutrients and the secondary branches are the beneficiaries?

desert YOU ARE RIGHT ON my friend!

I did this kind of by accident my first grow, just topped it and pruned a bunch of leaves, and it worked real. Just about every top was level with the rest and all the stems were about the same thickness I was impressed.

what kinda wattage you using?

damn desertrat your picture is scary
i did this once on my first noob grow and trimmed off too much by accident and slowed it down, be careful not to do this lol. beginners mistake

and when did you top them? shortly after they reached their 4th node?

i.NeeD.A.LiGhTeR said:

what kinda wattage you using?

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600 watt mh for veg room and 600 watt hps in flowering room plus four 42 watt and four 26 watt cfl's of each spectrum that i throw in from time to time.

Schotzky said:

damn desertrat your picture is scary
i did this once on my first noob grow and trimmed off too much by accident and slowed it down, be careful not to do this lol. beginners mistake

and when did you top them? shortly after they reached their 4th node?

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i was scared to death the first time i tried it but it was easy. if i remember correctly, i topped at the sixth node.

here's what the female plants look like now:

the middle plant and the one on the right have been topped and pruned, the plant on the left only topped

and here are the plants that were in veg when topped and pruned:View attachment 941105 the plant in the middle of the back row and the plant on the right of the front row and been topped and pruned. the others have been topped only.

When you say you cut the fan leaves. Do you just trim the leaf it self on the fingers of leaf? or do you infact snip off the entire leaf?

Thanks!

From your experience do you think this would work on 12/12 from seed/clone grows?

illtoxic said:

When you say you cut the fan leaves. Do you just trim the leaf it self on the fingers of leaf? or do you infact snip off the entire leaf?

Thanks!

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the leaf plus the stem that holds the leaf

cylee89 said:

From your experience do you think this would work on 12/12 from seed/clone grows?

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the first three plants are 12/12 from seed.

how many weeks into veg. do you top and prune? I do mine around 5 or 6 weeks into veg.

DjAeroFluxxx said:

how many weeks into veg. do you top and prune? I do mine around 5 or 6 weeks into veg.

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i top and prune soon after the 4 th node. this set i did at the sixth node. that's about 3 weeks or so from seed.

Awesome info.
I will be using this method for my 5 gallon buckets.
How long after topping/pruning do you give them to recover until you flower them?

ya man, this info is pretty awesome. good to see pictures to go along with it. +rep.

nice post.

i just came out of the growroom now and ive done a "staircase" prune as you call it on 2 of my 10 plants that has allready been FIM'ed.
will be very interesting to see the difference

Good for seed growers but not so sure about clones.

Since the clones already grow in a staircase pattern I don't think it would work. Unless the offset nodes were very close to each other.