GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - "Pinching" buds to promote further growth

15-10-2004, 12:56 PM

(Max Caviar) wrote in message . com...
How precisely, is this done? I keep reading about this, but not sure
I understand what is being suggested. Are you to just pinch new buds
once, multiple times, ...? How hard are you to pinch these things
anyway? Enough to slightly crush them, or less?

Well you gotta start somewhere.
The term "Green Thumb" comes from pinching buds and foliage between
thumbnail and forefinger to remove them.
What you do are doing is breaking apical dominance, a mouthfull that
means the bud you remove was keeping the buds below it from fully
developing. That's why pinching back makes the plant fuller, those
lower buds wake up and grow.
If you have hoochie nails or some reason not to have sap stained
fingers use shears.