Growing Big Plants, How do I Minimize Popcorn Buds?

I've been doing plant at a time under a 400hps. They're vegged around 2 months, topped, bushed, supercropped, lst'd, etc. They're big bushes basically. I'm harvesting my best yield yet but it's ridiculously tedious with all the popcorn buds. Some of them are pretty decent but I'm too busy to trim them all so I'm just concentrating on the bigger colas.

How do I minimize this next round? Lower trimming before i start flowering? The leafs are so tight and bushy that light can't get that far down. These plants leaves are very densely bunched, but tons of cola spots everywhere on top and throughout the bottom.

Basically looking for tips to maximize my yield on big plants and minimize popcorn buds.

Thanks!!!!! : )

Not sure, but I feel like your best bet would A) Add lights to the sides. Or B) Trim a good portion of the top/ fan leaves to get that light lower. Usually LSTing is how you prevent popcorn buds by allowing all of the shoots to grow proportionally with each other.

i ScrOG and cut out any sign of a flower under the screen. I never get popcorn buds. Cut out the shit you know won't produce and push the growth into the bigger colas. hope this helps.

Yeah those were my thoughts too, lights on the sides or prune the heck out of the bottom so it can all be 'surface' leaves.

Do i lose yield by pruning the bottom?

yes and no. you may have fewer buds but you will also have bigger buds. i personally don't like fucking with the baby buds so i prune anything out that won't be at least a couple grams dried. don't be shy prune those fuckers up, they can take it, they will amaze you.

Oh i know they can take it! They survived all my grows so far and i've messed up plenty of times lol. I just don't want to cut off productive leaves ... mainly b/c i read uncle ben's thread when i first starting when he stated to never trim anything but i'm seeing unproductive growth down there and i don't make hash yet so i'm not efficient with making use of all the leftovers non nugs

you can cut out the flowers and leave the fan leaves. thats what i do until its obvious the leaf isn't helping anymore.

YOu mean like constantly top the lower branches? seems like it would keep using energy to re-bud at that point

they won't try to grow again. cut the whole branch of the flower off at the base where the fan leave also comes out of the main branch. here you can see an example of one i cut a few days ago and one that needs to be cut. As you can see i left the fan leaf so that it can still produce energy for the top colas.

I see. Thanks Robert! I think i'm just going to prune the bottom whole branches off and I'm sure after 3 more batches I'll get the hang of it. THis is my 3rd batch so that's a while away but : )

If you prune the bottom branches to have a canopy that is about a foot or two deep. Light will not penetrate much further than 2 feet, especially with a thick canopy. When you prune those, it keeps the plant's energy going into making the top flowers as big as possible. And makes trimming that much more fun. I think if you prune a week or so before you put them into flower, you will only increase your yields, as long as you do a good job of it.

Good luck, man. Hope I was not repeating too much from the other posters here. Seeya!

i had this same problem as well growing with a 400 hps. one way which i was able to stop this from happening is growing smaller plants but more of them. since the best buds grow in the top 18-24 inches of the canopy, then only grow your plants that tall. this will also help you cut down on veg time and harvest more often or use less resources if you grow perpetual.