Quote Originally Posted by biggmac4
...i call it not waisting my time on the shit underneath that isnt worth a dam...
The plant calls it stealing portions of it's nutrient storehouse, and will likley call it an injury that will need more energy to heal. It will also call this stressful, depending on how much you trim, and when. Stress causes a myriad of issues including but not limited to, stunting.
I've heard the argument over and over. "trimming the undergrowth diverts the nutrients and energy to the other parts of the plant..." Ok...but you just cut-off the storehouse that would provide that energy and removed those (already processed) nutrients necessary to heal and resume 'normal' growth. So please provide a biological foundation or principle concerning annuals on how is this helpful...?

I do a lot of topping and re-vegging, and can gurantee I add extra time for the ladies to heal. If you push the ladies too hard, they push back.

Any "Screen of Green" gardeners out there wish to add anything...?
(a goal-specific technique often cited in these debates)