pinching?

[Ace977]

im new to growing and what does it mean to "Pinch" your plants?

[StanDarsh]

It means that instead of cutting or topping your plant you instead take the top stalk and pinch it hard between your thumb & forefinger. You can bend it as well 90 degrees. I have done this with the result being the lower branches fill out while you reatin the top cola. I have done this after having topped - I pinch the two branches that result from the topping, giving me fuller lower branches with more bud sites and two colas. It's an art, not a science. You can't pinch so hard you break the stem; you just want to debilitate it a bit so the plant sends energy to other areas of the plant.

[stinkyattic]

Stan that's something a bit different.
Plain ol' pinching is removing the growing tip, about the top inch of the plant, or each branch, if you continue on with it.
It differs from FIM-ing in that pinching essentially makes a cut through an internodal region, while FIM if done properly cuts DIRECTLY through the tissue at the active node at the top of the plant, and may take a bit longer to recover and resume side growht than a straigh pinch, but results in multiple new tops rather than the 2 that a pinch gives.
As an aside, the bending thing I did by mistake on a few plants recently and ended up with a bunch of vigorous growth from the LOWEST nodes.. ?? No complaining here though~