Quote Originally Posted by bashmans
hi guys. just wondering if anybody has heard of this technique which somebody i know uses. iv never heard or read about anything like it. he calls it 'cutting back' and he does this the day before he switches lights into 12/12.

after vegging the plant to around four foot high and making sure its really bushy, he cuts off i would say, atleast 90 percent of the branches and leaves. he leaves the top few inches of growth on and maybe 2-3 branches around half way and towards the bottom. its basically a stick thin plant... i couldnt believe my eyes when i seen it. now my logic is sayin this surely causes too much stress and would surely put flowering a week or two behind while she recovers, however they come back amazingly strong and he can pull atleast 8 ounce per plant and thats at a minimum.

anyone ever heard of such a thing? iv heard of removing lower branches but not this. seems like hes doing something correct though.
The reason this technique works is because the main shoot dominates the growth of the whole plant leading it upwards towards the sunlight to be able to get more light for photosynthesis.

Scientists found that it is because the main shoot was simply the 1st shoot, rather than the fact that it is at the top of the plant, which gives it the power to direct growth upwards by inhibiting growth of lower branches. The molecules that inhibit growth are known as plant hormones, the most "amous is called auxin.

Auxin must travel in the stem down to the lower branches and that this can occur from any tip but if the stem already has lots of auxin, the lower branches cannot pour their auxin into the stem they were beaten to it by the first tip the one at the top. So a kind of competition is set up where the different branches are trying to pour their auxin into the stem first to reduce the growth in the others.

Cutting the top branch, or indeed any other of the branches of the plant will give lower branches a chance to pour their auxin into the stem and the plant becomes bushy as they grow in a few weeks like OPs friend is doing meanining you should have a new bushy plant just like he has said pruning and tying to stakes so that it grows sticks of buds is a great technique.