Trimming?

[Daisy1]

Thank you for your excellent recommendations and forums! I’ve improved on quantity since joining. My question seems so embarrassing but I’m just an idiot I guess, anyway here’s my question, information read says try not to trim off the top but also says to trim near bud sites, I’m so confused 😐. I included a couple photos, can anyone make this clear to me? I’m so grateful to you all!

[Bluey]

I remove all branches that won't get buds into the light so focus can be on the ones in the light. I probably leave too many.

I also remove all leaves below the canopy that cannot get light and that helps heaps with air flow and a bit lower RH. Key to removing these is timing and a major defoliate and trim could be done a week before the flip to allow for it to recover then focus growth to the bud sites. I also trim after stretch but no more than 3 weeks after then I just do minor stuff, leaves that are wet, dying leaves on buds and lower, leaves covering bud sites, etc.

This grow I removed quite a bit a bit late. This seems to have slowed bud growth a bit to a lot..but I've also got a bit of N toxicity going on which really knocks back bud development...can stop flower growth entirely, but not in my case.

[Daisy1]

Thank you for your help. I was using too much nitrogen and then too much trimming, after posting the question I began an experiment while waiting . Trimming as I normally would, placing I plastic ring on branches, no trimming on them. I definitely see bigger buds on the branches marked no trim! From now on I’m following what I’ve learned here, “Less is More” just like in my days as a pro photographer! Maybe a life lesson!😆

[Rootsruler]

You're already in flower so the only thing I would recommend is to trim back whatever water leaves are blocking light or air flow. Trimming away less than productive plant material, as Bluey mentioned, is also good practice to concentrate the plant energy to the flower sites.

One thing I've learned is timing is everything with these plants in regard to using techniques to improve harvest. I've tried all kinds of defoliation suggestions but the one I noticed helped me improve my yields the most was to not defoliate unless absolutely necessary during veg but to do a hard defoliation and lollipop(removing unproductive branches as mentioned by Bluey, the same day you flip your light schedule if you are growing photos. I'm realizing that defoliating will stress your plant out and slow down growth for a second. Reducing the amount of stress your plant receives will improve your yields. There are times you may want to introduce stress to your plant to improve some aspect of the grow but stress reduction overall will improve your yields.

I'm guessing the same day defol improving my yields comes from isolating the stress period to just that time kept them in growth mode and reduced the recovery mode time.

[Daisy1]

Thank you and yes I normally grow photos. I appreciate your suggestion of doing all trimming at the flip.