Can one plant have more than one cola? It's been Prove many times that it can be done. It's actually very easy and straightforward. By pruning the plant the right way and the right time you can get up to 4 big colas.
So, what is a cola, anyway? A cola is the long thick bud that some plants produce. It's called a cola after the Spanish word for tail. Not every plant gets a big cola as a result of strain and growing techniques and some get really big ones. If you're growing for fun you should try for big coals because it will impress people.
The biggest colas probably come from single cola plants. Still, if you want more yields then multiple colas will probably deliver. You can do it by training the plant or by trimming it. We'll talk trimming here.
By trimming I mean pinching off the central stem near the top of the plant. This is a time honored gardening technique. It's a very common practice. If you've ever grown fuchsias, for example, you know that if you pinch off the growing tips while the plant is young you'll get way more flowers. This technique also works with plants that you want to develop more branches. You can keep a plant that would normally grow tall small and bushy.
With this kind of plant you can use a few pinching techniques. Each will give different results. Each has its fans and detractors. You can experiment a bit and find which one you prefer.
You should let the plant grow until it has5 or 6 sets of branches. The place where these branches leave the main stem are called nodes. They occur on the main stem, and the plant keeps growing up the center by popping out a shoot between the nodes, going upwards.
If you cut this growing tip off the plant will react by replacing it with two new ones on each side of the pinched off stem. They will take over as the two dominant stems. They will continue to shoot off branches and leaves as the plant grows.
You can do this different ways. If you like, you can just keep pinching off any central shoot that you see. You'll get lots of little buds, but no huge colas. Or, you can pinch less. One way will create 2 big colas, and the other will create 4. Either way, you should get some big ones.
The first method requires you to wait until the plant has developed five or six nodes. You cut off the main stem leaving two nice healthy nodes below. You'll get new stems from where you cut the stem as well as from the node below that. Two sets of new stems means 4 colas. The second way is to pinch the plant off one node lower. That will only leave one good inter node to sprout. Two sprouts equal two colas.
Can you wait until the plant is bigger and pinch it off higher? Will that create 6,8, or 10 colas? Not really. It will cause more sprouting, but the stems come from growth hormone that goes to the top of the plant. That hormone has less effect lower down. Also, more colas means smaller colas, and small colas are not really colas at all. They'll still work for the intended purpose, but they'll be small.That's because the growth hormone will be spread to widely. No big fat colas to make your buddies smile.
That's basically it. Growers argue about which technique will produce more bud, but it's very hard to get a true answer on this. There are too many other inputs that can vary. Remember, light also plays a huge role. If you have all the light coming from above it won't reach lower parts of the plant as well as it reaches higher parts. The lower buds will suffer as a result. Two or four buds will tend to get a balanced amount of light and do well. As they start growing they'll also tend to spread apart and let light into the center of the plant (and as a result get lower into the plant, letting more of it get light energy). Besides, the goal is good production and fun, not absolute maximum possible yield. Have fun with it, and don't forget - you can root the cutting that you pinch off and have another plant for more experimentation!
So, what is a cola, anyway? A cola is the long thick bud that some plants produce. It's called a cola after the Spanish word for tail. Not every plant gets a big cola as a result of strain and growing techniques and some get really big ones. If you're growing for fun you should try for big coals because it will impress people.
The biggest colas probably come from single cola plants. Still, if you want more yields then multiple colas will probably deliver. You can do it by training the plant or by trimming it. We'll talk trimming here.
By trimming I mean pinching off the central stem near the top of the plant. This is a time honored gardening technique. It's a very common practice. If you've ever grown fuchsias, for example, you know that if you pinch off the growing tips while the plant is young you'll get way more flowers. This technique also works with plants that you want to develop more branches. You can keep a plant that would normally grow tall small and bushy.
With this kind of plant you can use a few pinching techniques. Each will give different results. Each has its fans and detractors. You can experiment a bit and find which one you prefer.
You should let the plant grow until it has5 or 6 sets of branches. The place where these branches leave the main stem are called nodes. They occur on the main stem, and the plant keeps growing up the center by popping out a shoot between the nodes, going upwards.
If you cut this growing tip off the plant will react by replacing it with two new ones on each side of the pinched off stem. They will take over as the two dominant stems. They will continue to shoot off branches and leaves as the plant grows.
You can do this different ways. If you like, you can just keep pinching off any central shoot that you see. You'll get lots of little buds, but no huge colas. Or, you can pinch less. One way will create 2 big colas, and the other will create 4. Either way, you should get some big ones.
The first method requires you to wait until the plant has developed five or six nodes. You cut off the main stem leaving two nice healthy nodes below. You'll get new stems from where you cut the stem as well as from the node below that. Two sets of new stems means 4 colas. The second way is to pinch the plant off one node lower. That will only leave one good inter node to sprout. Two sprouts equal two colas.
Can you wait until the plant is bigger and pinch it off higher? Will that create 6,8, or 10 colas? Not really. It will cause more sprouting, but the stems come from growth hormone that goes to the top of the plant. That hormone has less effect lower down. Also, more colas means smaller colas, and small colas are not really colas at all. They'll still work for the intended purpose, but they'll be small.That's because the growth hormone will be spread to widely. No big fat colas to make your buddies smile.
That's basically it. Growers argue about which technique will produce more bud, but it's very hard to get a true answer on this. There are too many other inputs that can vary. Remember, light also plays a huge role. If you have all the light coming from above it won't reach lower parts of the plant as well as it reaches higher parts. The lower buds will suffer as a result. Two or four buds will tend to get a balanced amount of light and do well. As they start growing they'll also tend to spread apart and let light into the center of the plant (and as a result get lower into the plant, letting more of it get light energy). Besides, the goal is good production and fun, not absolute maximum possible yield. Have fun with it, and don't forget - you can root the cutting that you pinch off and have another plant for more experimentation!
About the Author:
Learn about ways to grow marijuana? Castulo Zane knows all about it. If you want to talk marijuana seeds, or other topics, google www.growyourownstone.com.. This article, More Colas by Trimming is released under a creative commons attribution license.
No comments:
Post a Comment