best way to keep plants short and bushy?

I read somewhere on here that I should keeps the leaves pruned from the very beginning to keep the plants short and bushy. how early should this take place, and I was wondering if they meant to FIM them? or something different? any ideas anyone? thanks!

First of all, buy indica strains....then "top" em...

indica dom strain, topped and lst'd should keep the bitch short...

SLB

Yeah, I grabbed some bag seeds for my first grow.. Asked around and people suggested topping, and tying down some branches to promote outwards and downwards growth.. Haven't tied anything down yet cuz my plants are only about 4 weeks old and about 4 inches. But I did top a couple of days ago, thought it may be too early but she seems to be doing fine. It's been about 48 hrs now and it looks to be regrowing. Hope this helps

The strain and the individual plant really determines the height. I have two white widows that started the same time as a blackberry and the blackberry is twice the height. I have it "trained" down instead of pruning.

Don't confuse topping with leaf pruning. Leave the leaves on the stem until they turn yellow and are ready to fall off. Topping for shape and increased branch production is done by removing the tip and first or second node on the plant. This relocates the auxins that cause cell elongation and division to the lower nodes that are left on the plant, causing an increase in growth on the lower nodes.

I top my plants at node 7 or 8 and cut them back to 5 or 6 nodes. When the side shoots are 8 nodes long I reduce them again to 5 or 6. This causes the plant to fill out and become bushy. You can easily get 50 to 75 branches this way.

keep lights close.

I use bushmaster to keep the nodes tight and promote flowering, great for use before topping once and then again after. That's what I like

kricket53 said:

keep lights close.

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Not a real good answer.

+rep to points west for the best answer

SmokesLikeBob said:

indica dom strain, topped and lst'd should keep the bitch short...

SLB

Click to expand...

agreed...and close lights

I have 2 "homemade" strains that are mostly sativa.
I FIM'ed and LST'd, the result blew my mind!
My "bushes":

Before starting with pruning and topping, get familiar with the strain by having a couple grow in your hands. Pruning won't work if all other conditions are not present. As an indoor experiment, I did some topping and pruning on white widows, I had a nice bush but at the end my yield was inferior from untopped plants even though I had 2 and 4 colas. Outdoor and since the veg period is slower, same strain, yield was superior.

thanks everyone for the feedback! It's just some bagseed from some avg. commercial stuff that I got. Trying to get my feet wet before ordering some good seeds. I've topped all my plants around week 4 of veg. growth. I have one that is shorter and fuller, I hope it's a female so I can use it as a mother. appreciate the help!

Which part of the Midwest are you in, I'm in mn and its hard for any sativas so if yourre outdoors keep it to indicate dominant strains.autoflowering is great too but not a high yielder.but with bagseed its a crapshoot so good luck my friend.

I top early and then LST them, It really helps on the yield also man... good luck

what is LST? I'm growing indoors, so weather isn't an issue for me. how early do you guys top?

You can use techniques like FIM, simply topping, a foliar like GH Chi, or Bush Master/emerald triangle. Also you can pull/train branches down with weights, or ropes/twine etc.

The Good Doctor said:

Also you can pull/train branches down with weights, or ropes/twine etc.

Click to expand...

This is LST (Low Stress Training)...

SLB