Why Mid-Summer Trimming Can Save Your Outdoor Crop

Trimming the Under-story of Your Cannabis Plants

When your outdoor cannabis plants are in the middle of their summer vegetative growth, they can turn into absolute beasts. While a massive, bushy plant looks impressive, leaving it completely wild during the hottest months of the year can actually invite trouble. A little mid-summer trimming and pruning is essential for a healthy harvest.

In the dead of summer, air circulation is everything. If your plant is too dense in the middle, hot air gets trapped inside the canopy, creating a stagnant, humid microclimate. This is the perfect breeding ground for pests like spider mites and diseases like powdery mildew. By clearing out some of the inner foliage and the small, spindly branches near the bottom of the plant, you open up the airflow. You also have little to lose as these inter branches will not support any worthwhile flowers.

Pruning also helps your plant manage its water and nutrient usage. Every single leaf on your plant is constantly transpiring, which means it is releasing water into the air. During a heatwave, a massive amount of foliage puts a heavy demand on the root system to keep up with water uptake. Removing the shaded, unproductive leaves at the bottom of the plant reduces this water demand, letting the plant focus its resources on the top canopy where the sun actually hits, and those monster buds are forming!

Go ahead and clear out the “lollipop” zone—the bottom third of the plant that doesn’t get direct light anyway. Strip away those weak inner shoots that will only ever produce tiny leaf buds. Your plant will redirect all that energy into the main cola sites, and the improved airflow will keep her cool and dry all summer long.

Here are a few other articles covering other manipulations of cannabis plants…

SCROG Technique for Cannabis Plants: Mastering Screen of Green for Massive Yields

Manifolding Cannabis Plants: Where, When, and How to Create a Yield-Boosting Structure

FIMming Cannabis Plants: How, Where, and When for Bushier Growth and Bigger Yields