Originally Posted by jimiblings
Most strains will reach there genetic potential with very little veg time. Some people skip vegging altogether. The only thing you really wanna accomplish by vegging your plants is to strengthen the stalks to that they can withstand the weight of the mature buds. Unless you're trying to grow a 6ft tall plant for novelty purpose, there is no economic benifit to vegging a plant til it is taller than 12-18 inches....unless you're growing bug bud, lights of jah, or another high yeild strain. Then you gotta make sure the stems are nice and strong before you bud. If you're growing high yeild strains....let it veg longer, but continuously trim the top so that it is still about 12" when you flower it. As far as trimming the bottom branches goes....trim as much as you feel like. If it is too low to get optimal light, you might as well clip it and clone it. Every branch you get rid of frees up more nutrients that the rest can absorb. So if a branch isn't gonna produce a fat bud anyways, there's really no sense leaving it to just waste nutrients. If you don't have a lot of room, you can trim it to look like a mushroom and all the nutrients will go straight to the top giving you a few giant buds. How you trim it is up to you...just make sure you get rid of anything that is blocked from light....branches like that waste nutrients and produce pebble sized buds. If you're still not sure what to trim, you can always flower it for a couple weeks to see what buds look like they aren't getting enough light.