Mainlining, between final top and flowering

zen0n

Member
Hey guys, rolling into roughly week 6 of veg on my dwc grow. Mainlined all 8 girls, 7 to 8 tops, 1 to 16. First time mainlining, or really even topping in general (second grow). Right when I was about to create the manifold I got called out of town for a week, so had to chop a bunch of growth to get the manifold started and def lost some time.around wk3.

I'm at the point now where I'm just tying down the mains as they come up to create a decent canopy. Working pretty well so far. A few of the girls I wasn't paying attention to when topping and didnt alternate 90* growth nodes when topping, so they look a little french but work.

Anyhow I'm curious going forward how to maintain these girls. Do I keep knocking off grow tips as they come up and just concentrate on the mains? How often should I be cleaning up the under carriage of fan leaves?

I guess it's all a matter of preference at this point?

Was thinking veg for for another week to finalize canopy and flip. Right now girls are about 13" above the buckets, with 4' from top of the plants to roof of tent. So 12-14" needed for the lights, leaves about 2.5/3' of growth available right now.

Thanks!
 

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worming

Member
I guess it's all a matter of preference at this point?
That's the way I see it. You can sure ask the question but ask ten guys and get eleven answers.

I think it's easy to overthink things here because we tend to have the notion that these are not living individuals but a sort of product that can be wholly understood and thus manipulated exactly as we wish.

But I'm diverging.
If you ask me, the important thing is not which growth to keep or cut but to mainline the growth that appeals to you, since this is was you're trying to do. If you feel something is in the way or too weak or whatnot, cut it. If you think it looks good, see that it keeps the same height as the rest. You're working with the plant, and I think all of you are doing a pretty lit job so far.

Keep us updated.
 

idioddity

Active Member
Hey guys, rolling into roughly week 6 of veg on my dwc grow. Mainlined all 8 girls, 7 to 8 tops, 1 to 16. First time mainlining, or really even topping in general (second grow). Right when I was about to create the manifold I got called out of town for a week, so had to chop a bunch of growth to get the manifold started and def lost some time.around wk3.

I'm at the point now where I'm just tying down the mains as they come up to create a decent canopy. Working pretty well so far. A few of the girls I wasn't paying attention to when topping and didnt alternate 90* growth nodes when topping, so they look a little french but work.

Anyhow I'm curious going forward how to maintain these girls. Do I keep knocking off grow tips as they come up and just concentrate on the mains? How often should I be cleaning up the under carriage of fan leaves?

I guess it's all a matter of preference at this point?

Was thinking veg for for another week to finalize canopy and flip. Right now girls are about 13" above the buckets, with 4' from top of the plants to roof of tent. So 12-14" needed for the lights, leaves about 2.5/3' of growth available right now.

Thanks!
I’ve been looking for specifics on manifold training/pruning for a while. The guides I’ve seen don’t really go into detail past the point of getting to the desired amount of colas.

And like you and worming said, I think it is mostly preference. But it’s nice to have a guide. I’ve done two manifolds and both times I erred on the side of keeping more nodes because I didn’t want to hurt the yield, which meant a much more crowded canopy. It also meant a lot of nice side branches.

Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to this tutorial for quite some time:

“Training Mainlines and Manifolds in Late Vegetation and Flowering (Coming Fall 2022!)”

https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/how-to-mainline-cannabis-plants/

(Mentioned at the bottom of the page)

Hope they get around to it at some point. Sounds like it might answer a lot of specifics.
 

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, rolling into roughly week 6 of veg on my dwc grow. Mainlined all 8 girls, 7 to 8 tops, 1 to 16. First time mainlining, or really even topping in general (second grow). Right when I was about to create the manifold I got called out of town for a week, so had to chop a bunch of growth to get the manifold started and def lost some time.around wk3.

I'm at the point now where I'm just tying down the mains as they come up to create a decent canopy. Working pretty well so far. A few of the girls I wasn't paying attention to when topping and didnt alternate 90* growth nodes when topping, so they look a little french but work.

Anyhow I'm curious going forward how to maintain these girls. Do I keep knocking off grow tips as they come up and just concentrate on the mains? How often should I be cleaning up the under carriage of fan leaves?

I guess it's all a matter of preference at this point?

Was thinking veg for for another week to finalize canopy and flip. Right now girls are about 13" above the buckets, with 4' from top of the plants to roof of tent. So 12-14" needed for the lights, leaves about 2.5/3' of growth available right now.

Thanks!
The original mainlining thread is right here.
 

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
I personally do it similarly to what you mentioned, knocking off dominant tips until I reach my desired size plant, keeping everything level without having to use stakes & ties. It is not the correct way to "mainline" a plant because that involves starting at 2 branches, turning those to 4, then 8, then 12, then 16 and allowing those 16 branches to grow to desired height while maintaining equal canopy without additional topping.

With actual mainline once you achieve the 12-16 tops then you would allow them to grow while adjusting branches so they're all vertical as possible and even like a tabletop, then prune up the bottoms as high as you desire prior to flip. The way we're talking about doing it, is what I like to call a haggard mainline, you start the basic foundation of a mainline then just top them to keep it even vs staking & training everything.
 

Togs

Active Member
Hey guys, rolling into roughly week 6 of veg on my dwc grow. Mainlined all 8 girls, 7 to 8 tops, 1 to 16. First time mainlining, or really even topping in general (second grow). Right when I was about to create the manifold I got called out of town for a week, so had to chop a bunch of growth to get the manifold started and def lost some time.around wk3.

I'm at the point now where I'm just tying down the mains as they come up to create a decent canopy. Working pretty well so far. A few of the girls I wasn't paying attention to when topping and didnt alternate 90* growth nodes when topping, so they look a little french but work.

Anyhow I'm curious going forward how to maintain these girls. Do I keep knocking off grow tips as they come up and just concentrate on the mains? How often should I be cleaning up the under carriage of fan leaves?

I guess it's all a matter of preference at this point?

Was thinking veg for for another week to finalize canopy and flip. Right now girls are about 13" above the buckets, with 4' from top of the plants to roof of tent. So 12-14" needed for the lights, leaves about 2.5/3' of growth available right now.

Thanks!
How did it turn out? My cut girls stretched 18” to 20” after flip.
 
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