Control and Management
Pruning and training are techniques used to control and manage the size and shape of plants. Pruning involves actually cutting plants in some way while training just involves bending or tying them to encourage them to grow in a particular way. While control of growth is not always necessary plants and growers will often benefit from careful application of some techniques.

Growth Patterns
There are several distinct species of Cannabis but the two main ones used in commercial cannabis strains are Indica and Sativa. Many of the popular strains of cannabis are blends of the two Species. Knowing the likely growth patterns of a strain or crossbreed you want to grow can help you with planning your grow space, plant supports and pruning strategies. It will also give you an idea of harvest times and potential yields.

Indica Growth Patterns
Indica strains are characteristically short, finishing 4 - 8 ft high in the wild. They are also quick growing and bush like in appearance. They usually have broad leaves with 'fat fingers' and take around 7 - 10 weeks of a flowering light cycle to finish properly. Indica`s produce heavy, solid, resinous buds that give a sedative effect. Due to their short nature and quick finishing mainly Indica plants are the best choice for indoor growers and beginners.

Sativa Growth Patterns
Sativa strains are characteristically taller than Indica strains with less branching from the main stems, in the wild they finish at 8 - 20 ft high. They usually have leaves with long 'thin finger' and take around 12 - 16 weeks of a flowing light cycle to finish properly. Sativa`s usually produce smaller less compact buds than Indica`s but they give a long lasting soaring head high. Mainly Sativa varieties may continue to grow substantially throughout flowering and may need to be flowered a lot shorter than Indica`s to keep them manageable. If you have a Sativa strain that gets too large for its own good try using cuttings and flower them as soon as they have rooted. (An exception to all this is Durban poison, a Sativa that grows like an Indica.)

Size of Plants Indoors
Indoor grown plants are best kept short as even powerful HID lamps can only produce about 30 - 90 cm of usable light. When shading by the plants themselves is also taken into account you are looking at only 30 - 60 cm of lush growth. Generally speaking, apart from heavy Sativa crosses, most commercial varieties of cannabis will grow to around 2 or 3 times the size they were when first put under a flowering light cycle. Plants flowered at 30 cm tall will finish around 60 - 90 cm tall. Therefore to make sure your plants don`t get too big put them on a flowering light cycle before they get above 30 cm tall.

What to Prune With
A sharp sterile blade can be used but will leave an open wound on the plant causing stress and inviting infection. Instead use a clean thumbnail or pair of scissors as they will draw the edges of the wound together and speed up the healing process. Thick main stems can be bent over for a day or so before removal. This way the plants begins to seal the wound before the stem is even removed.

Pruning Young Pants
Plants need to get going a bit before you start pruning them. When they have 3 or 4 sets of true leaves (don`t include the first set that grow out the seed) the very top main growing tip can be removed if required. This encourages plants to grow two or more main stems instead of one. If plants have grown larger they can have their main stems trimmed further down just above the bottom branches. These branches will then become main stems in their own right. Whatever you do try and make sure any major pruning is completed at least a week or so before flowering to allow the plant time to recover from the stress.

Pruning Flowering Plants
While cannabis is in the growing stage (vegetative) it can recover from even very dramatic pruning surprisingly quickly. Once it goes into the flowering stage however removed growth will stop being replaced as the plant has turned its attention from stem and leaf growth to flower growth. Whilst flowering limit pruning to removal of weak stems, lower branches that do not receive much light and any damaged or dying leaves. If a flowering plant is getting too tall for its grow space try training or bending the branches horizontally rather than removing the growth.

Pruning Leaves
Don`t remove healthy leaves thinking it will help the plant. Not only are the leaves the plants power source they are also the part of the plant that actually trigger its flowering response. Even leaves at the bottom of the plant are important as they also help power root growth.

Pruning a Plant to Yield More
Most un-pruned commercial plants grow into the classic Christmas tree shape with one main stem and one top bud. Removing a plants main growing tip or punning the main stem lower down will make the plant grow 2 or more main stems. Continued careful pruning to outward facing growing tips will encourage the plant to grow into a goblet shape. This opens up the centre of the plant helping to increase air and light penetration. On indoor plants aim for no more than about 6 -8 main growing tips per plant. Too many tips on one plant can result in an overall drop in its potency and a lot of small fiddly buds that are hard to deal with. Pruning your Plants

Bending and Training
Plants can also be bent or trained to increase yield and control height. Bending and training have the same effect as pruning in that they will encourage more growth lower down but because they are less traumatic to the plant they can be carried out even in full flower. Branches are simply bent over and secured at an acceptable height or trained to grow horizontally along strings. Bear in mind these techniques may increase the overall flowering time by a week or two. Bending your Plants

Repairing "Kinks" in Stems
Sometimes when training and bending mistakes can happen. Stems can kink wounding the plant and restricting nutrient and water uptake above the kink. These kinks can be repaired by using a splint. Straighten the kink and wrap a piece of rolled up cardboard around it, make it long enough to support the wound and tape it on loosely. After about a week the stem should have self repaired.

Plant Supports
Many indoor plants become so top heavy with buds that they require support of some kind to stop the stems snapping and to keep the plants upright. Canes work well for pots, put them in at the same time as the plants to avoid root damage and tie loosely to the plant as it grows. Simply tying branches to string hung from the ceiling is another method. A good all-round solution is to use large hole pea netting stretched across the growing area. Place it at a height around 1/2 to 2/3 the height you want the plants to finish and allow plants to grow through it.

Sea of Green
This technique basically involves keeping plants very short and growing them close together. Instead of growing 1 big plant in a space you grow 4 small ones (or more) instead. This means you get 4 top buds with 4 main stems feeding them, not one stem trying to supply a large plant by itself. As plants are kept short they spend less energy moving nutrients and water around and will often finish flowering a bit earlier than larger plants. Cuttings are a must if you want to successfully use this technique as plants need to be flowered at around 5 - 10 cm and all need to grow uniformly.

Screen of Green (scrog)
Similar to the sea of green method but the plants are not so crammed together (only 1 or 2 per sq. ft) and are grown a little larger. A net or mesh is stretched across the growing area about 45 cm or so above the top of the growing medium. Plants grow through the net and any that get too tall are bent back under it to promote a flat hedge like growing area. The net also acts as a support and ties are not usually needed allowing easy movement and re-bending of growing shoots as and when needed. Large hole green pea netting available from garden centres is ideal for this. Scrog Growroom Plan

Regenerating
This technique is used to get more than one harvest from a plant. Once the plant has matured remove all the flowers and cut it right down leaving at least one growing shoot and as many leaves as possible. Change the light back to a vegetative cycle and the plant will gradually revert back from flowering to growing again over the next few weeks. Once it has grown to an acceptable size you simply flower it again. Yield and potency do drop on regenerated plants however so it`s better to start with new plants or cuttings every time if you can.